Seagate Barracuda 2tb

[brandonb]

I built a media center pc a few months ago and all seemed fine but now when reading starts/shutdowns I hear a click coming from the computer, I assume from the HD as the heads are being parked, but it's so loud compared to before. Is this a click of death and should I be concerned and get a new hard for fear of losing everything on the computer?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148413

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

could be a couple of things...but if I were you i'd start backing up right now.

As for causes...

1) "click of death", or dying hard drive -- possible 20-40% likely
2) Power, not enough, bad connection -- possible 30-40% likely
3) Random "gremlin" effect, including user error -- possible 20-40% likely

I've noticed this a lot with large systems that have lots of drives. They can overheat causing connections to come apart or move, just enough to short in and out.

First thing to do is backup the system. If it's clicking too bad for that, then check and recheck all the power cables. You might even swap the DVD power to the HDD and leave the others unplugged. Also remove all the USB and assorted peripherals until you figure this out.

If it's not power, then your drive is slowly dying...but by slow I mean it could go at any minute or it could stick around for a few weeks....you never know.

good luck.

 

[brandonb]

Thanks. I doubt it's the power supply, it's a fairly minimal machine (low power graphics card, a lower power CPU) and I believe it's 450-500 watts. And this is the only drive in the machine.

I will order another drive and copy my stuff over to it. If it turns out to be a false alarm, I don't mind the extra HD space, so no big loss. I'm getting pretty low on the drive as is (wow my Star Trek DVD's take up alot of space!)

Thanks for the comments.