What does it mean when my external hard drive is clicking?

The printed circuit board in your hard drive connects electronic components. Sometimes, that board or the head stack assembly is damaged by a power surge or surges. When either of these are damaged, the hard drive cannot function properly, and the result is a hard drive noise that sounds like a click or tick.

Why is my WD Passport clicking?

When a hard drive’s read/write heads fail, though, they produce an altogether nastier clicking noise. As the failed read/write heads blindly sweep over the platters and return to their starting position over and over again, they produce a rhythmic and repetitive clicking noise.

What causes clicking noise in hard drive?

While there are many possible causes, a hard drive clicking noise often results from the defective movement of the disk’s read-write actuator. During regular use, a disk head moves smoothly to track data on a disk. In older hard drives, the clicking noise is usually related to a problem with the disk head.

How do I stop my hard drive from clicking?

There are a few different ways that you can fix a clicking hard drive, but they are temporary fixes.

1. Reboot your system to see if the clicking problem was related to a running process.
2. Schedule the Check Disk utility to run on the drive in question.
3. Schedule defragmentation for your drive.

Is it normal for hard drives to make noise?

Most drives do not make noise that is audible to most people, but there are a few exceptions. It is also normal for the drive to make sort of a “chattering” or “clicking” sound while it is reading and writing data.

What does a hard drive head crash sound like?

The initial burst of noise from the heads should last no more than a few seconds and then the drive should quieten down. At this point the sounds from a healthy drive will be a steady hum from the platter rotation and the occasional ticking/scratching sound from the heads at irregular intervals.