Is it the click of death?

[FatherDougal]

Hi,

Recently I have been experiencing problems on start up. When I turn my PC on, my CPU fan starts up, the LED on my MB comes on and the HDD LED comes on but that’s were things come to a halt. The HDD starts clicking (I stopped the fan to verify the source) but nothing else happens.

This clicking goes on for anything from a few seconds to 60 or more. Eventually the HDD spins, my CD & DVD drives flash on, my monitor comes alive with all the usual start up jargon, Windows loads up and everything runs ok.

So far it has never failed to start up (eventually) and it doesn’t really have a problem when starting from a recent shut down.

I have been able to back up my data in case the worse happens but I would like to try and fix this problem.
I have been given various suggestions for why this is happening ranging from head alignment to power supply problems (?).

Can anyone help me shed some light on the problem and hopefully suggest a solution? Your advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[shmoes]

S.M.A.R.T can often help detect a failing drive (although not limited to) It might be wise to turn it on if you don't already .. in the bios.

Also, short of scan disking for bad sectors .. but I would suspect your hard drive is on it's last legs. I think the question you want to ask is .. is it a natural death or will you put a new hard drive in and have it happen again.



~Shmoes

 

[Freestone]

How old is the drive in question? The answer may help with the last point of Schmoes' post, "is it a natural death or will you put a new hard drive in and have it happen again.
"

Drives do have a finite lifespan and will eventually fail. A drive clicking usually indicate its heads seeking home position for recalibration purposes.

You can always try downloading and running the drive manufacturer's diagnostics to see if they shed any light on the problem.

 

[kordaff]

I had a clicking in what I thought was my hd in my faster pc. Turns out it was the ps (which went arc, flash, boom) Put the hd in my slower remaining pc and it doesnt click now

Kordaff - had no errors on it under smartd either, 16k hours uptime on that drive.

 

[tuco7]

You have the symptoms of death, you should try to retrive all the data that you need before you cant.

 

[essaress1]

Absolutely,copy off at least what you considertobe valuable and no-replaceable....I had an IBM (40gig)drive a few years back that started doing that "Clicking"at start up and then during read then stopped all together...Ithought it was the selectable "speeds" but that was not the issue,it was just poor quality...I sent it back to IBM and they just replaced with a 60 gig drive rather than give me another 40 that was going to fail... The sixty is still working fine and it does'nt "Click"..