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25 February 2019  John Weaver  Senior Program Developer
 

Summary
Suddenly heard a clicking noise from the hard drive? Is that something wrong with it? Get to know more about the possible reasons and methods to fix the hard drive clicking noise.



Sometimes, noise could be sound in the PC. But we need to find where the sound from. Because there are lost of components could make sound in the computer like the fans inside the case. Users need to identify the sound carefully.
Here, we provide some examples of noise created by hard drive:
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:
Example 4:
Example 5:
If you confirm the clicking noise is from the hard disk, please keep going.

Reasons Lead to Hard Drive Clicking Noise

In most cases, hard drive clicking noise are caused by the disk component aging or bad sectors. If there is bad sector in the disk, the head will try to locate the sector repeatedly and lead to the mechanical part fail to work normally. As a result, the hard disk will create noise.

We can make tentative diagnosis of the disk status with S.M.A.R.T information.

What is S.M.A.R.T?

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology is often written as S.M.A.R.T. It can monitor disk, detect and report disk health status after comparing the record information of platter, head, motor, etc with that from the manufacturers. Once S.M.A.R.T detects error, it will attempt to repair the error and alarm the users at the same time. Most disks we could purchase now are equipped with S.M.A.R.T..

How to Check the S.M.A.R.T information?

We can check it in freeware CrystalDiskInfo.

Click to download the freeware: http://www.drfreeware.org/CrystalDiskInfo7_6_1.exe

You can check information of the disk like temperature, power on hours, power on count, number of bad sectors in CrystalDiskInfo.
S.M.A.R.T Information of Healthy Hard Disk
normal disk in crystaldiskinfo
Generally, hard disk encounters bad sector easily once its power on hours reach over 10000 hours. Of course, crash, abrupt shutdown will increase the chance of getting bad sectors.
S.M.A.R.T Information of Unhealthy Hard Disk
unhealthy disk status in crystaldiskinfo
As we can find in the image, the disk has 98 bad sectors. If the disk gets hundreds of bad sectors, it will become unstable. And the first problem users may encounter is the clicking noise. Then users will encounter data lost or RAW disk. Disk fails to be recognized is the worst situation.

Of course, if bad sectors happen in important place like the 0 cylinder, the starting and ending sector of the partition , disk will make clicking noise as well.

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How to Fix Hard Drive Clicking Noise

Generally, once the hard drive create clicking noise, the lifespan of the disk will come to the end sooner or later. At this moment, we should backup or transfer data to another disk as soon as possible.
Here, we recommend you to try the freeware – Renee Becca.

download button win

A few clicks is enough to clone all data in disk with bad sectors to a new one.
select hard disk clone function
more settings for hdd clone

Other functions of Free Disk Clone Software - Renee Becca

New version supports to clone entire HDD to smaller SSD. (Including all data and system inside the original HDD.)

Support to create automatic backup plans. And more advanced backup settings are provided.

Support migrate/clone disk in MBR and GPT format.

New disk could be used to boot the computer once clone finish.

Support to clone entire system from HDD to SSD.

Compatible withWindows 10 / 8.1 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP/2008/2012 (32bit/64bit) / server 2008

Download Now Free License
people have downloaded and used Renee Becca!
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If you still want to make use of the old hard disk and fix it, 2 solutions are provided here:

Method 1: Fix the disk with built-in disk check software

This solution suits for disk with not so many bad sectors (less than 1000). This function will mark the hard bad sectors so they won’t be used again.
Advantage: Reserve data in the disk without damage. No need to transfer data inside beforehand.
Disadvantage: Just isolate the bad sector from data reading/writing in instead o fix the bad sector.

Step 1: Press Win + R button and type “diskmgmt.msc” in the pop-up window. Click “OK”.

enter diskmgmt.msc in run

Step 2: Right click the target partition in the disk and select “Properties” in the menu.

properties of disk

Step 3: Click “Check now” button in “Tools” tab.

run check to find erros in storage device

Step 4: Remember to check the item “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” in the pop up window if you are using Windows 7/8.

check disk
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Method 2: Fix the Disk which Create Clicking Noise with Low Level Format Tool

Low level format will erase all information in the disk and factory reset whole disk. Low level format will skip some areas which is unstable or can not save data. As a result, Windows or HDD-Scan will not be able to save data or access to these areas.
Advantage: Fix parts of bad error of the hard disk and prevent further influence from bad sectors.

Disadvantage: Low level format will erase all information in the hard disk. Users need to transfer all data in the disk to another disk before hand. Besides, low level format will have negative influence to the life span of the hard drive.

Attention: If the power on hours of the hard disk has reached 20000 hours, please think twice before using this function. Low level format the hard disk with lots of bad sectors may lead to the disk fail to work.
We recommend you to make the low level format with HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool. Download link of the software: http://www.drfreeware.org/HDDLLF.4.40.exe
how to format sd card with HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool
format disk with HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool
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