USB external hard drive goes 'click click click'

[Daftpanzer]

250 Gig Western Digital My Book something (USB with its own power supply). For a year or so its been 'kinda' working: it mostly spins up, makes 2-3 ticking/clicking noises, then spins down. It repeats this process three times before giving, though the power light remains on. By repeatedly turning it on and off, up to a dozen times (not healthy I guess), it eventually spins up and stays spinning, and is recognised by my PC. From that point on it seems to work fine for that session. I have been using it to backup things occasionally, but needless to say I don't trust it as my only backup.

I've read that it could be a short circuit issue with the power supply, or that the drive is too warm and needs to be put in a freezer for a while (!). I actually think it needs warming up, like something is sticking on the actual drive mechanism when its cold, since it seems to work fine once its heated up a little. I've even considered heating it with an electric bed blanket before use (lol), although I'm a bit concerned that EM from that would be enough to screw the data.

So thanks for reading that, just wondering if anyone has any advise as to what the problem is. It would be great if it was fixable.

 

[Cutlass]

One possibility is that it is dying. Transfer any files you can off it and give up on it. Not worth the risk.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Clicking is a good indicator of the hard drive dying. The freezer trick can work to make a dead drive come alive long enough to pull important data off of it.

If you can still access it, back up your data and go buy a new one.

 

[Methos]

If you can't access it, then purchase spinrite, let it do its thing, and then once its complete remove all of your data and then replace the drive.

 

[kulade]

Mine does that off and on. It's still functional.

 

[Cutlass]

Hard drives are cheap enough these days I wouldn't leave anything on or continue to use any drive I had doubts about.

 

[Furiey]

As others have said it's often a good indication that the drive it dying. It may go on for a while but is it worth the risk of losing all the data. I have had an internal drive go in a similar way. It carried on working for about 2 months after the noise started and I got the data backed up but had not yet installed the new drive before it failed completely. I used it as an opportunity to do a clean windows install.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

I'd definitely do a backup.

 

[Daftpanzer]

Thanks very much.

@Methos, do you work for that company or something?

Hmm, apparently the clicking sound should be fatal, crashed/stuck heads or something. But the drive does work after a bit of patience. Yesterday I double-backed-up everything I wanted from it onto another HD.

I think I'll stay clear of external HD's in future. My backup needs aren't great, so I guess something like a 16 gig stick would do.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thing is, USB sticks aren't exactly designed for backups. Advantages is that most of them are pretty durable (I've had one go through the wash), but yanking it without safely remove might damage it.

If I was you, I'd to buy a reliable internal drive, a reliable external casing, and put the two together.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

USB flash drives can fail too, and spectacularly at that. Ive had a cruzer melt on me before (the controller shorted and just kept getting hotter and hotter)

Just get another external, but make sure it is not your only backup source. Burn the most important files to a dvd, put the dvd in one of those nice cases ( like the ones movies come in, not a regular jewel case) and put it away somewhere safe. Better yet, if its really important info, get it into a safety deposit box.

 

[Souron]

Get a new harddrive. External or internal does not make a difference, it's the harddrive itself that's failing, not the connections or the case. Look at reviews to see if people are saying the drive you find is reliable, but don't be afraid to buy the same brand, or even the same harddrive. All harddries fail sometimes. Usually it's either within a month, or after a few years though.

Transfer your files over or create a mirror and use both. Keep the old one around for at least a month to make sure the new drive does not fail.

Another possibility is to replace the harddisk itself, but keep the external case. That might save on cost.

 

[Methos]

@Methos, do you work for that company or something?

No, I don't work for them. I do listen to his Security Now! podcast that he does every week.