Is it normal for a HDD to tap during defrag?

[aimeeandbeatles]

I have defrag running, and the HDD seems to be tapping. (Of course, it could be making the regular "grinding" noise very short.) It stops when I pause the defrag. Is this normal?

p.s. It's not freezing.

 

[Speedo]

Defrags will have a drive running at basically 100% capacity. You'll hear most of them make some noises that they don't make during average operation. It's really only a problem if it's a sharp clicking or grinding sound.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thank you. I wasn't sure -- it didn't sound like the tapping sounds I found on the failing HDD sounds page, but I was worried. And when I googled it, it kept saying things about tapping the F8 key.

EDIT: Googled with different terms and found this --
http://www.click-now.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t814.html

My old OEM Maxtor drive made normal clicking noises.. usually when doing heavy defragging/encoding or copying files. Nothing to worry about.

I also have a Maxtor.

ANOTHER EDIT: It's now at the "Compressing Files" stage and it shut up (it's grinding but not tapping). So I guess it's nothing to worry about.

 

[lndm]

I think I know the noise you mean. It's like a sharp tap that's been muffled and damped like light steel against cast aluminium in an enclosed space (if that helps).

This is the heads returning to their home position. It is most often heard when a drive suffers a read error, or when defragging due to the multiple atypical file operations.

I find it hard to listen to yet I haven't been able to directly correlate it to drive failure. If it were me I'd probably look around for a more elegant defrag programme but I hardly ever defrag these days.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

The only reason I did defrag is because my hard drive was noisier than usal. Turns out there were fragmented files everywhere. It's been a bit quieter since I defragged.

 

[lndm]

The only reason I did defrag is because my hard drive was noisier than usal. Turns out there were fragmented files everywhere. It's been a bit quieter since I defragged.

Fair enough, for sure.

It's a little ironic though

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today in school, in the tech course at break, the teacher showed me a hard drive that was taken apart for students to look at. (I assume there was nothing worth saving on it.)

It was dead, the click of death. You can actually see where the head scraped across the platter, not very pretty at all.

He also says it's an smaller hard drive as it only has one platter/head, while bigger ones have multiple platters.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

That is one of the ways an HDD can die, yes. The heads crash into the platters, irreversibly damaging those areas and killing the HDD. I've seen it happen to my HDD's as well, not pretty.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I think there's also stuck spindles and stuff where the platter can get transplanted (very carefully) into another HDD of the same model. That's as far as I understand it, I'm not a data recovery expert.

 

[lndm]

He also says it's an smaller hard drive as it only has one platter/head, while bigger ones have multiple platters.

True when comparing different drives from the same brand and series.


Heads can burn out (electrically open), actuators (head motors) can do the same. Integrated drive electronics (IDE) can fail.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I know in some Maxtor drives, they sound like a cool futuristic cell phone thingy when the spindles get stuck. If I had a cell phone, I'd use the sound clip.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I got out at bed at 3 am because I thought my hard drive was dying. Turns out the clunky noise was part of the song I was listening to.