What to do if the hard drive makes clicks

A couple of years after the purchase of a computer, the hard disk begins to act up. His condition must be monitored constantly, so that he does not present an unexpected and unpleasant surprise, having broken at the most inopportune moment. One of the disturbing signals in the behavior of the HDD, which has overstepped a two-year period of operation, are strange sounds that resemble a crack in an old phone. Why clicks your hard drive and what to do with it, we will tell further.

Restore hard drive.

Normal and abnormal sounds when operating the device

Sometimes a hard disk can make strange sounds in working mode, and this has nothing to do with a breakdown. Here are some examples:

  1. In the process of diagnosing the hard drive, a special utility detects sectors that do not respond to system requests - that is why the hard disk from time to time clicks, and this is normal.
  2. When the power saving mode is set, and the PC goes to sleep, you can also hear the crackle.
  3. If the laptop battery is weak and does not supply enough current, a squeak and crackling sound appears - plug in the charging and they will disappear.
  4. During a heavy load on the HDD: when you run demanding programs and games, etc., the disk loudly spin up, and then stops. If it does not last long, then everything is in order.

Causes of clicks and squeaks in the hard drive

Now let's talk about the causes of abnormal sounds:

  1. Overheating - a long game, streaming overwriting information, etc., lead to a strong warming up of the hard drive. A faulty cooling system leads to the same result (check if dust has settled there, whether the fan is spinning), unstable connection to the board and power supply, formation of oxide on the contacts. Overheating is accompanied by strange sounds: buzzing and clicking.
  2. Damage to Servo Marking. Each hard disk is “lined” with rays, thanks to which uniform rotation is ensured. The distortion of such a beam reduces the performance of the device. As a result, you may hear a tapping while booting the PC when starting programs.
  3. Damage to the cables or ports through which the hard drive connects to other devices causes the HDD to click during operation. You need to see if the wire is intact and securely attached to the port.
  4. The disk is incorrectly installed and knocks when turned on. Check that it does not lie down and is well secured.
  5. The hard disk is corrupted: received damage as a result of falling, hitting or from the ingress of dust particles, debris.

Self-Troubleshooting

The very first thing to do if a hard disk clicks is to establish the reason for this. Start with the simplest: check the charging of the laptop and the power supply of the PC, the reliability of the connection, the position of the device, the power saving mode, the state of the cooling system. Clean the disc and fans from dust: use for this purpose a soft round brush for painting or makeup, as well as a vacuum cleaner. It is inconvenient to wield a rag: you can accidentally touch important elements or scratch a disk. Do not rush to use the utility to check the status of HDD - they give it a significant load, which in some types of damage can result in a complete breakdown. First, try using the options provided by Windows:

  1. Double-click the “This Computer” icon.
  2. Select the system disk and click on it with the right mouse button.
  3. Stop on the “Information” item and select the “Service” tab.
  4. You will be offered to diagnose and defragment the disk - agree by clicking on the button.
  5. Wait until the end of the process and restart the PC - usually, strange sounds disappear after that.

When you hear noises and knocks the head of the hard disk, install some program that can display the temperature of the hard drive on the monitor and run it. If the mark exceeds 40 degrees, it is necessary to take measures:

  • Move the laptop to a rigid non-fabric plane so that soft material does not clog the ventilation holes. It would be even better if you have a special stand with large fans inside - this will allow you to quickly bring the hard drive to a normal temperature.
  • For a stationary PC, buy or ask someone for an external cooler - this is a small fan that comes as an option and is attached to the grille (as a rule, it has installation instructions). It is possible that your cooling system can not cope with the load.

If you opened the unit with the disk and saw suspicious scratches that violate the markup, then there is no way to cope without special equipment that can correct the situation. Moreover, this is not a program, but a completely physical object - a machine for low-level formatting.

IMPORTANT. If you find software on the Internet that says in its annotation that it can fix a problem with Servo Marking, know that this is not true.

If the disk is hard knocking, and you are afraid, as if it were not disconnected from minute to minute, quickly begin to save all important files. When the hard drive stops working, it will be difficult or expensive to get information from it if you turn to specialists. If you missed the moment, the disk stopped and does not respond, and for some reason it is impossible to visit the service centers (or they refused to restore the data, believing that nothing will work out), the last option would be a dry freeze:

  1. Wrap the disc tightly with cling film and place in a plastic bag. It would be better if you have a bubble film with large segments so that the disk does not touch the surface of the freezer compartment and it does not get fragments of frost on it.
  2. Put the bag in the freezer and leave it overnight. It is best to use the dry freeze function to minimize the risk of moisture.
  3. The next day, get the bundle, make sure the disk is dry (or wait until it dries), put it in place and try to turn on the computer. If the disc is working, then quickly start copying the most important - you have a few minutes until the HDD is warm, and then it turns off again.

Remember that this is the last method, and it does not always work. Only when you are firmly convinced that nothing else can be done, you can try a similar operation.