Hard drive won't stop clicking

[Adn4n]

My new laptop hard drive just won't shut the f up. I enabled ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 in system.ini, defragmented my pagefile, and even turned it off to no avail. Is there any way that I can find out what is causing my hard drive to write every few seconds?

EDIT: Oh and I also turned off indexing off on my only partition as well as the indexing service itself.

 

[Paperlantern]

Internal cache might be toast, or another internal working of the drive. It might be a bad drive and not a characteristic of the drive or of the laptop.

 

[JackMDS]

If it is loud clicking, hopefully you have the phone number for the device's support (or RMA).

If it just does not stop/ check the standby settings.

 

[Adn4n]

No it's not loud at all, the title is a little misleading admittedly. It's just normal writing sounds.

 

[xylem]

Windows XP (and probably Vista, too) does automatic disk optimization while the computer is otherwise idle, which is likely the cause of the incessant disk activity. This feature can be disabled by using a tweak program or by manual registry alteration.

 

[Adn4n]

Ok thanks I'll try to find some info on that.

 

[MarcVenice]

Hmz, my HD does CLICK, like a loud, click. I think it's the same when I shut down my PC. It only really happened after I added a second HD, a 500gb sata drive, which I installed Vista on. The other drive has XP on it. and well, Vista shouldn't be accessing that disk, because there is nothing on there that has anything to do with Vista. Could anybody tell me what the clicking is about?

Sorry for hijacking the thread, just seemed like the right place to ask.

 

[Adn4n]

Clicking is usually an indication that your hard drive is dying.

 

[MarcVenice]

Nah, it's to coincidental to be an indication of dying. It also happens when I acces my HD and such and then leave it alone again. Then I hear a click real fast afterwards, as if it goes back to being idle again or something, I dunno.

 

[dyna]

If your HD is SMART compatible, you could download one of the many tools to analyze the problem. Typically clicking is forewarning of imminent HD failure. Do a search on the web for hard drive click of death.

 

[fleabag]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Nah, it's to coincidental to be an indication of dying. It also happens when I acces my HD and such and then leave it alone again. Then I hear a click real fast afterwards, as if it goes back to being idle again or something, I dunno.

LOL

Originally posted by: Adn4n
Clicking is usually an indication that your hard drive is dying.

The only valid post in this thread.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: fleabag

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Nah, it's to coincidental to be an indication of dying. It also happens when I acces my HD and such and then leave it alone again. Then I hear a click real fast afterwards, as if it goes back to being idle again or something, I dunno.

LOL

Originally posted by: Adn4n
Clicking is usually an indication that your hard drive is dying.

The only valid post in this thread.

QFT

If it really just sounds like reading/writing (like some old WD drives), then okay. But anything that can accurately be described as "clicking" means dying hard drive.

Don't waste your time! Back up all your data right now while it still works, and do an RMA on the drive.

If you can't stand to wait for an RMA, buy yourself a new laptop hard drive - they're not that expensive.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: Adn4n
Clicking is usually an indication that your hard drive is dying.

My Seagate 7200.7 has made sporadic clattering/chirping/ticking/clicking noises for the past three years, since the day I got it . Must either be unusually noisy, or dying a very drawn out death.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: Adn4n
Clicking is usually an indication that your hard drive is dying.

My Seagate 7200.7 has made sporadic clattering/chirping/ticking/clicking noises for the past three years, since the day I got it . Must either be unusually noisy, or dying a very drawn out death.

Hope you make backups

Of course you can get lucky, but I don't see any reason to risk it.

 

[0roo0roo]

clicking is death if it is different from the original sound of the drive.
usually accompanied by lousy performance while it kinda stalls during activity.
yea windows likes to play when idle...

 

[MarcVenice]

Hmz, well I've got another 500gb HD, and nothing really important on the old 120gb HD. I bought it "Refurbished" and it only has manufacterers warranty on it. It cost me 50$ back then, coz I was being cheap. It's IDE too, which I hate because of the cabling. The best thing is, this is what I bought: WD 120GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB (WD1200JD) but it's not what I got, coz I'm pretty darn certain it's hooked up with IDE cables lol

Btw, the clicking started like some 2 months ago when I added the new HD. Since then I guess I haven't been using it much, but still. I suppose we'll find out if it is dying sooner or later