Strange noises from HDD

mrjack · 03-05-2006, 04:26 PM

I'm getting these strange clicks from my HDD. It has to be the HDD cause when I hear the click and watch a video the video stops for a second and then continues. I recently re-installed Windows XP Pro SP2 and the clicks started a few days ago. Is this serious, should I be worried. The HDD is about 1 or 1 1/2 year old (Maxtor DiamondMax 9+ 80Gb, Ultra ATA/133, 8Mb Cache).

**The_Other_One** · 03-05-2006, 04:36 PM

If things stop for a second when you hear the clicks, that's almost a sure sign of a bad drive... Run their Maxblast software, the long test. If you get an error(which I'm quite sure you will) contact them and tell them the error. If they are anything like when I had all my problems with the drives, they should replace it no problem.

mrjack · 03-06-2006, 06:05 PM

Well, I have been planning on getting a bigger HDD soon with the GF6600GT and PSU. The thing is I don't get these clicks when playing games, just when listening to music or watching some videos and stuff like that. Maybe bad sectors?

**The_Other_One** · 03-06-2006, 06:10 PM

You shouldn't get those clicks and such until you hit the bad sector(s) So...if the games are on clean sectors, it shouldn't give you a problem... But of course, it also depends on how bad the drive is...

fade2green514 · 03-06-2006, 06:11 PM

yea its the hdd... probably because its the only real thing with moving parts inside your computer except for fans. make sure fans are free to move without wires and such getting in the way.
if its not buy a new hard drive and put all your files on it and such... or burn your files to dvd as a backup or something

MIK3daG33K · 03-06-2006, 06:30 PM

Well the harddrive is gonna make clicking noises when it searches or writes something to the drive. . . .

mrjack · 03-06-2006, 06:29 PM

I just downloaded MaxBlast 4 and there were no tests available whatsoever. Do I have to get a previous version?

**The_Other_One** · 03-06-2006, 07:20 PM

Did you get the boot disk? I don't know what they have anymore but there should be a bootable image you just write to a floppy.

As for versions, I probably have a copy somewhere, but who knows where since I cleaned my room out :-/

mrjack · 05-21-2006, 03:14 PM

The clicking noises were gone for a while, that or I just didn't notice them. Now they're back, video or audio isn't stopped but I get the clicking sounds regularly depending on what I do, of course.

E.g. when I download via BitTorrent (Elephants Dream, completely legal, CGI) and watch some music video, I hear clicking noises.

EDIT:
I found this on Maxtor's homepage.

I also read that some newer HDD's have a feature that moves the "head" if it's inactive for a short while (15 seconds or so) to decrease risk of wearout.

Tumbleweed36 · 05-22-2006, 04:16 AM

Hi,

Go to the Maxtor website and see if they still offer the PowerMax utility. That should help you to see if the drive is healthy. I do highly recommend that you instantly back up your data, because you might lose it if the drive is clicking.

PowerMax - http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...&downloadID=22

03-05-2006, 04:26 PM	#1 (permalink)
mrjack VIP Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Finland Age: 18 Posts: 2,595	Strange noises from HDD I'm getting these strange clicks from my HDD. It has to be the HDD cause when I hear the click and watch a video the video stops for a second and then continues. I recently re-installed Windows XP Pro SP2 and the clicks started a few days ago. Is this serious, should I be worried. The HDD is about 1 or 1 1/2 year old (Maxtor DiamondMax 9+ 80Gb, Ultra ATA/133, 8Mb Cache). __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 3.45GHz \| MSI P7N Zilent 2x2048Mb OCZ Titanium 800MHz DDR2 Western Digital Caviar 160Gb SATAII Samsung Spinpoint F1 320Gb SATAII Western Digital Caviar 500Gb SATAII Samsung Spinpoint F1 750Gb SATAII MSI NX8800GT OC 512Mb Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Antec Truepower Trio 550W Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

03-05-2006, 04:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
The_Other_One Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lexington, NC Age: 25 Posts: 13,409	If things stop for a second when you hear the clicks, that's almost a sure sign of a bad drive... Run their Maxblast software, the long test. If you get an error(which I'm quite sure you will) contact them and tell them the error. If they are anything like when I had all my problems with the drives, they should replace it no problem. __________________ Primary- i7 920 \| 6GB RAM \| 9800GT \| 160+160+500GB Secondary- Athlon X2 4200 \| 2GB RAM \| 7600GT \| 80+250GB Netbook - Atom N280 \| 2GB RAM \| GMA945\| 160GB

03-06-2006, 06:05 PM	#3 (permalink)
mrjack VIP Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Finland Age: 18 Posts: 2,595	Well, I have been planning on getting a bigger HDD soon with the GF6600GT and PSU. The thing is I don't get these clicks when playing games, just when listening to music or watching some videos and stuff like that. Maybe bad sectors? __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 3.45GHz \| MSI P7N Zilent 2x2048Mb OCZ Titanium 800MHz DDR2 Western Digital Caviar 160Gb SATAII Samsung Spinpoint F1 320Gb SATAII Western Digital Caviar 500Gb SATAII Samsung Spinpoint F1 750Gb SATAII MSI NX8800GT OC 512Mb Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Antec Truepower Trio 550W Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Last edited by mrjack; 03-06-2006 at 06:08 PM.

03-06-2006, 06:10 PM	#4 (permalink)
The_Other_One Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lexington, NC Age: 25 Posts: 13,409	You shouldn't get those clicks and such until you hit the bad sector(s) So...if the games are on clean sectors, it shouldn't give you a problem... But of course, it also depends on how bad the drive is... __________________ Primary- i7 920 \| 6GB RAM \| 9800GT \| 160+160+500GB Secondary- Athlon X2 4200 \| 2GB RAM \| 7600GT \| 80+250GB Netbook - Atom N280 \| 2GB RAM \| GMA945\| 160GB

03-06-2006, 06:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
fade2green514 Diamond Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: buffalo ny Age: 20 Posts: 3,651	yea its the hdd... probably because its the only real thing with moving parts inside your computer except for fans. make sure fans are free to move without wires and such getting in the way. if its not buy a new hard drive and put all your files on it and such... or burn your files to dvd as a backup or something __________________ Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3ghz HD 4850 512mb (750/2350mhz) 2x2gb G.Skill ddr2-835 (5-4-4-10) 2x320gb sata2 in RAID 0 system drive 250gb sata2 storage drive 13,574 - 3dmark06 score

03-06-2006, 06:30 PM	#6 (permalink)
MIK3daG33K Platinum Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Detroit, MI Age: 23 Posts: 564	Well the harddrive is gonna make clicking noises when it searches or writes something to the drive. . . . __________________ Motherboard: Asus P5Q SE2 CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 3.4 Ghz (8 x 425) 1.5 Vcore /w Coolermaster GeminII S RAM: 4 GB (2x2) Patriot Viper Series PC-8500 @ 1066 Mhz (5.5.5.15) 2.1 v Video Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 Core 216 650/1401/1150 Power Supply: Coolmax GreenPower 950W Modular Hard Drive: 160 GB Hitachi 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive Case: Antec 900 Monitor: Acer X223w monitor

03-06-2006, 06:29 PM	#7 (permalink)
mrjack VIP Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Finland Age: 18 Posts: 2,595	I just downloaded MaxBlast 4 and there were no tests available whatsoever. Do I have to get a previous version? __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 3.45GHz \| MSI P7N Zilent 2x2048Mb OCZ Titanium 800MHz DDR2 Western Digital Caviar 160Gb SATAII Samsung Spinpoint F1 320Gb SATAII Western Digital Caviar 500Gb SATAII Samsung Spinpoint F1 750Gb SATAII MSI NX8800GT OC 512Mb Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Antec Truepower Trio 550W Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

03-06-2006, 07:20 PM	#8 (permalink)
The_Other_One Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lexington, NC Age: 25 Posts: 13,409	Did you get the boot disk? I don't know what they have anymore but there should be a bootable image you just write to a floppy. As for versions, I probably have a copy somewhere, but who knows where since I cleaned my room out :-/ __________________ Primary- i7 920 \| 6GB RAM \| 9800GT \| 160+160+500GB Secondary- Athlon X2 4200 \| 2GB RAM \| 7600GT \| 80+250GB Netbook - Atom N280 \| 2GB RAM \| GMA945\| 160GB

05-21-2006, 03:14 PM	#9 (permalink)
mrjack VIP Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Finland Age: 18 Posts: 2,595	The clicking noises were gone for a while, that or I just didn't notice them. Now they're back, video or audio isn't stopped but I get the clicking sounds regularly depending on what I do, of course. E.g. when I download via BitTorrent (Elephants Dream, completely legal, CGI) and watch some music video, I hear clicking noises. EDIT: I found this on Maxtor's homepage. I also read that some newer HDD's have a feature that moves the "head" if it's inactive for a short while (15 seconds or so) to decrease risk of wearout. __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 @ 3.45GHz \| MSI P7N Zilent 2x2048Mb OCZ Titanium 800MHz DDR2 Western Digital Caviar 160Gb SATAII Samsung Spinpoint F1 320Gb SATAII Western Digital Caviar 500Gb SATAII Samsung Spinpoint F1 750Gb SATAII MSI NX8800GT OC 512Mb Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Antec Truepower Trio 550W Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Last edited by mrjack; 05-21-2006 at 03:21 PM.

05-22-2006, 04:16 AM	#10 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 New Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 20	Hi, Go to the Maxtor website and see if they still offer the PowerMax utility. That should help you to see if the drive is healthy. I do highly recommend that you instantly back up your data, because you might lose it if the drive is clicking. PowerMax - http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...&downloadID=22

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