Solved HDD click sounds


I looked up your hard drive. It is a shingled magnetic recording (SMR) write tecnlogy drive. I would expect them to make a lot of noise during operation as they fill. Are either partions over half full?
 

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I looked up your hard drive. It is a shingled magnetic recording (SMR) write tecnlogy drive. I would expect them to make a lot of noise during operation as they fill. Are either partions over half full?
it doesn't make a difference
I have 4 partitions:
D (250GB)
E (250GB)
F (250GB)
G (180GB)
When I use G partition it makes some noises.

even when D~F Drives are full are wiped, G drive makes noise.

I created a different partiton scheme:
D (300GB)
E (300GB)
F (330GB)

When F drive goes beyound 130 GB it makes noises even in boot.

I can't change this HDD as I mentioned it's not my own laptop. it's for our office. I have an external SSD which I backup important files on it daily, but I want to get rid of this sound. it's bothering me even no one can hear it. having strong ears is a problem. I can hear my adapter noise as well :)
 

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SMR drives are complicated in writing or overwriting data. I don't know how western digital manages the SMR space. It could be doing some consolidation of data in the background ( sort of like defragmentation). IDK. Is it always when you have lots of data in the last partions and not others?
 

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SMR drives are complicated in writing or overwriting data. I don't know how western digital manages the SMR space. It could be doing some consolidation of data in the background ( sort of like defragmentation). IDK. Is it always when you have lots of data in the last partions and not others?
as soon as I write 1 Byte on last partition, it starts noising. I think when head goes beyond a particular radius, it starts noising till it goes to park state.
 

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as soon as I write 1 Byte on last partition, it starts noising. I think when head goes beyond a particular radius, it starts noising till it goes to park state.

Wow. It could be the SMR thinking the drive is nearly full. This is my guess. I could be wrong though because if that is the case, it is pretty lame.
 

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Gotta go been up sick most of night
 

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I can't change this HDD as I mentioned it's not my own laptop. it's for our office. I have an external SSD which I backup important files on it daily, but I want to get rid of this sound. it's bothering me even no one can hear it. having strong ears is a problem. I can hear my adapter noise as well :)
Well apart from replacing the HDD there is not much you can do to get rid of the noise.
 

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Wow. It could be the SMR thinking the drive is nearly full. This is my guess. I could be wrong though because if that is the case, it is pretty lame.
Block 0 for a HDD is the outside edge of the disk/disc, and the last block is the inside near the spindle. The clicking is typically from the drive's mechanical actuator arm changing directions rapidly or hitting a stop near the edges.

A few SMR drives I own can be excessively noisy during large writes, so it's not necessarily a sign of impending drive failure. But it's super annoying because you don't know if you should ignore the clicks either.
 

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One last question. Are the partions all formatted ntfs?
 

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One last question. Are the partions all formatted ntfs?
Yes. all partitions are formatted NTFS after windows installation.
I have the noise in PartedMagic too.
PartedMagic (Linux) has a utility to low level format any HDDs. after reaching about ~850GB it starts making noise till the 930GB limit and then it stops noising as the head goes to park state. so, I can tell you this sound is not related to NTFS or any other formats.
 

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Yes. all partitions are formatted NTFS after windows installation.
I have the noise in PartedMagic too.
PartedMagic (Linux) has a utility to low level format any HDDs. after reaching about ~850GB it starts making noise till the 930GB limit and then it stops noising as the head goes to park state. so, I can tell you this sound is not related to NTFS or any other formats.

I was wondering because I believe these drives support TRIM, and you need NTFS for that ( they are managed similar to an SSD).
 

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I was wondering because I believe these drives support TRIM, and you need NTFS for that ( they are managed similar to an SSD).
Yes, Windows runs a trim command after defragmentation and consolidation.
Do you know why?
what's the difference between this HDD and those old ones?
is it better to have 1 partition on this kind of HDDs?
 

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If it only does it at certain area on the disk, then it might be only that area has some problem. However I also recommend to replace it because it might get worse and affect the whole disk. If you know where about the problem is from the start of the disk, you can create a large partition close to that point, then a small partition a few MB past this point, and a large partition for the rest of the disk. Then remove the drive letter from the small partition with the issue and forget about it. Windows should not try to use this small partition with the issue and you should get rid of the clicking sounds, provided there is no other area with problem on the rest of the disk.
 

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    Asus P8H61 s1155 ATX
    Memory
    2x Kingston Hyper-X Blu 8GB DDR3-1600
    Graphics card(s)
    GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 WINDFORCE OC V2 6GB (GV-N3050WF2OCV2-6GD)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD audio (ALC887)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Sony Bravia KDL-19L4000 19" LCD TV via VGA
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 32-bit 60Hz
    Hard Drives
    WD Blue SA510 2.5 1000GB SSD as system disk, Western Digital Caviar Purple 4TB SATA III (WD40PURZ) as second
    PSU
    Thermaltake Litepower RGB 550W Full Wired
    Case
    SUPERCASE MIDI-TOWER
    Cooling
    Deepcool Gamma Archer CPU cooler, 1x 8cm fan at the back
    Keyboard
    Mitsumi 101-key PS/2
    Mouse
    Sunnyline OptiEye PS/2
    Internet Speed
    100Mbps
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Legacy BIOS (MBR) installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, WDDM 3.0 graphics drivers, WEI score 7.4
If it only does it at certain area on the disk, then it might be only that area has some problem. However I also recommend to replace it because it might get worse and affect the whole disk. If you know where about the problem is from the start of the disk, you can create a large partition close to that point, then a small partition a few MB past this point, and a large partition for the rest of the disk. Then remove the drive letter from the small partition with the issue and forget about it. Windows should not try to use this small partition with the issue and you should get rid of the clicking sounds, provided there is no other area with problem on the rest of the disk.
right know I'm using this trick. created a partition from 850 to the end of drive and didn't format it.
 

My Computers My Computers

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro 25H2Ryzen 5 3500U8GBVega 8
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro 25H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Huawei MateBook D15
    CPU
    Ryzen 5 3500U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Vega 8
    Screen Resolution
    FHD
    Hard Drives
    256GB Samsung SSD + 1TB HDD
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    ESET Smart Security Premium
  • At a glance

    Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 21H2intel core i7 6700HQ16GBNvidia Geforce GTX1060 (6GB)
    Operating System
    Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 21H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    MSI GS73 6RF Stealth Pro
    CPU
    intel core i7 6700HQ
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce GTX1060 (6GB)
    Screen Resolution
    FHD
    Hard Drives
    128GB SSD + 1TB HDD
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
@Scannerman, the drive chatters a lot when booting because it is accessing a bunch of small files the OS needs that are scattered about the drive so the heads move a lot to read them.
I'm well acquainted with drive chatter and agree that this happens with some mechanical hard drives. In the case I refer to the drive actually makes the classic 'click of death' sound. The classic click of death sound is a "click-click" followed by a pause and then a "click-click" and so on. One would not really refer to it as chatter. Drive chatter sounds much like an old coffee peculator running at the end of its cycle. In fact, the drive that I'm referring to used to chatter before it started making the classic click of death sound. This stopped when it was moved into a different USB enclosure and ran for another five years without chatter. It's still running today! We've been waiting for that old Toshiba to die for many years now but as soon as the OS boots the storage drive stops complaining. It's just one of those more rare sorts of phenomena.

At any rate if anyone has a drive that behaves this way they should not use it for anything essential. My daughter uses is as a secondary back up for her older operating systems (Win 7, Win 8, and File History) and feeds it duplicate files for 'just in case'. She runs everything in legacy/MBR and has 5 different OS to choose from. No matter the OS that old drive makes that sound until she is done booting. The drive is definitely defective. Crystal Disk advises replacement.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

WIN 11, WIN 10, WIN 8.1, WIN 7 U, WIN 7 PRO, ...Intel i7 6900K and i9-7960X / AMD 3800X (8 core)128 GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM (B DIE)NVIDIA 1070 and RTX 3070
OS
WIN 11, WIN 10, WIN 8.1, WIN 7 U, WIN 7 PRO, WIN 7 HOME (32 Bit), LINUX MINT
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
DIY, ASUS, and DELL
CPU
Intel i7 6900K and i9-7960X / AMD 3800X (8 core)
Motherboard
ASUS X99E-WS USB 3.1 and ASUS X299 SAGE
Memory
128 GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM (B DIE)
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA 1070 and RTX 3070
Sound Card
Crystal Sound (onboard)
Monitor(s) Displays
single Samsung 30" 4K and 8" aux monitor
Screen Resolution
4K and something equally attrocious. I'll be working on this.
Hard Drives
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W

Ports X, Y, and Z are reserved for USB access and removable drives.

Drive types consist of the following: Various mechanical hard drives bearing the brand names, Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. Various NVMe drives bearing the brand names Kingston, Intel, Silicon Power, Crucial, Western Digital, and Team Group. Various SATA SSDs bearing various different brand names.

RAID arrays included:

LSI RAID 10 (WD Velociraptors) 1115.72 GB
LSI RAID 10 (WD SSDS) 463.80 GB

INTEL RAID 0 (KINGSTON HYPER X) System 447.14 GB
INTEL RAID 1 TOSHIBA ENTERPRIZE class Data 2794.52 GB
INTEL RAID 1 SEAGATE HYBRID 931.51 GB
PSU
SEVERAL. I prefer my Corsair Platinum HX1000i but I also like EVGA power supplies
Case
ThermalTake Level 10 GT (among others)
Cooling
Noctua is my favorite and I use it in my main. I also own various other coolers.
Keyboard
all kinds.
Mouse
all kinds
Internet Speed
360 mbps - 1 gbps (depending)
Browser
FIREFOX
Antivirus
KASPERSKY (no apologies)
Other Info
Gave Dell touch screen with Windows 11 to daughter and got me an OTVOC. Being a PC builder I own many desktop PCs as well. I am a father of five providing PCs, laptops, and tablets for all my family, most of which I have modified, rebuilt, or simply built from scratch. I do not own a cell phone, never have, never will.
Thing is when an HDD starts to fail, you could still have time to recover your data.

When an SSD starts to fail, that's it. It's all or nothing, unless that concept has changed in the last few years and I don't know about it.
 

My Computers My Computers

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro 25H2 build: (26200.7623)32GB
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro 25H2 build: (26200.7623)
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro
    Memory
    32GB
  • At a glance

    Microsoft 25H2 ProIntel Core Ultra 764GBIntel Integrated Graphics
    Operating System
    Microsoft 25H2 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Pro 14 - PC14250
    CPU
    Intel Core Ultra 7
    Memory
    64GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Integrated Graphics
    Hard Drives
    Micron 1TB SSD
I'm well acquainted with drive chatter and agree that this happens with some mechanical hard drives. In the case I refer to the drive actually makes the classic 'click of death' sound. The classic click of death sound is a "click-click" followed by a pause and then a "click-click" and so on. One would not really refer to it as chatter. Drive chatter sounds much like an old coffee peculator running at the end of its cycle. In fact, the drive that I'm referring to used to chatter before it started making the classic click of death sound. This stopped when it was moved into a different USB enclosure and ran for another five years without chatter. It's still running today! We've been waiting for that old Toshiba to die for many years now but as soon as the OS boots the storage drive stops complaining. It's just one of those more rare sorts of phenomena.

At any rate if anyone has a drive that behaves this way they should not use it for anything essential. My daughter uses is as a secondary back up for her older operating systems (Win 7, Win 8, and File History) and feeds it duplicate files for 'just in case'. She runs everything in legacy/MBR and has 5 different OS to choose from. No matter the OS that old drive makes that sound until she is done booting. The drive is definitely defective. Crystal Disk advises replacement.
Find your daughter an old IBM “Deathstar” drive. Those have the best Click of Death.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7
OS
Windows 7
Find your daughter an old IBM “Deathstar” drive. Those have the best Click of Death.
lol I'm familiar with the well-earned "Death Star" label. Replaced many of them back in the day.

 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

WIN 11, WIN 10, WIN 8.1, WIN 7 U, WIN 7 PRO, ...Intel i7 6900K and i9-7960X / AMD 3800X (8 core)128 GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM (B DIE)NVIDIA 1070 and RTX 3070
OS
WIN 11, WIN 10, WIN 8.1, WIN 7 U, WIN 7 PRO, WIN 7 HOME (32 Bit), LINUX MINT
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
DIY, ASUS, and DELL
CPU
Intel i7 6900K and i9-7960X / AMD 3800X (8 core)
Motherboard
ASUS X99E-WS USB 3.1 and ASUS X299 SAGE
Memory
128 GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM (B DIE)
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA 1070 and RTX 3070
Sound Card
Crystal Sound (onboard)
Monitor(s) Displays
single Samsung 30" 4K and 8" aux monitor
Screen Resolution
4K and something equally attrocious. I'll be working on this.
Hard Drives
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W

Ports X, Y, and Z are reserved for USB access and removable drives.

Drive types consist of the following: Various mechanical hard drives bearing the brand names, Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. Various NVMe drives bearing the brand names Kingston, Intel, Silicon Power, Crucial, Western Digital, and Team Group. Various SATA SSDs bearing various different brand names.

RAID arrays included:

LSI RAID 10 (WD Velociraptors) 1115.72 GB
LSI RAID 10 (WD SSDS) 463.80 GB

INTEL RAID 0 (KINGSTON HYPER X) System 447.14 GB
INTEL RAID 1 TOSHIBA ENTERPRIZE class Data 2794.52 GB
INTEL RAID 1 SEAGATE HYBRID 931.51 GB
PSU
SEVERAL. I prefer my Corsair Platinum HX1000i but I also like EVGA power supplies
Case
ThermalTake Level 10 GT (among others)
Cooling
Noctua is my favorite and I use it in my main. I also own various other coolers.
Keyboard
all kinds.
Mouse
all kinds
Internet Speed
360 mbps - 1 gbps (depending)
Browser
FIREFOX
Antivirus
KASPERSKY (no apologies)
Other Info
Gave Dell touch screen with Windows 11 to daughter and got me an OTVOC. Being a PC builder I own many desktop PCs as well. I am a father of five providing PCs, laptops, and tablets for all my family, most of which I have modified, rebuilt, or simply built from scratch. I do not own a cell phone, never have, never will.
right know I'm using this trick. created a partition from 850 to the end of drive and didn't format it.
How does Crystal Disk report the drive? I'm guessing it's in the "yellow" category.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

WIN 11, WIN 10, WIN 8.1, WIN 7 U, WIN 7 PRO, ...Intel i7 6900K and i9-7960X / AMD 3800X (8 core)128 GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM (B DIE)NVIDIA 1070 and RTX 3070
OS
WIN 11, WIN 10, WIN 8.1, WIN 7 U, WIN 7 PRO, WIN 7 HOME (32 Bit), LINUX MINT
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
DIY, ASUS, and DELL
CPU
Intel i7 6900K and i9-7960X / AMD 3800X (8 core)
Motherboard
ASUS X99E-WS USB 3.1 and ASUS X299 SAGE
Memory
128 GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM (B DIE)
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA 1070 and RTX 3070
Sound Card
Crystal Sound (onboard)
Monitor(s) Displays
single Samsung 30" 4K and 8" aux monitor
Screen Resolution
4K and something equally attrocious. I'll be working on this.
Hard Drives
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W

Ports X, Y, and Z are reserved for USB access and removable drives.

Drive types consist of the following: Various mechanical hard drives bearing the brand names, Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. Various NVMe drives bearing the brand names Kingston, Intel, Silicon Power, Crucial, Western Digital, and Team Group. Various SATA SSDs bearing various different brand names.

RAID arrays included:

LSI RAID 10 (WD Velociraptors) 1115.72 GB
LSI RAID 10 (WD SSDS) 463.80 GB

INTEL RAID 0 (KINGSTON HYPER X) System 447.14 GB
INTEL RAID 1 TOSHIBA ENTERPRIZE class Data 2794.52 GB
INTEL RAID 1 SEAGATE HYBRID 931.51 GB
PSU
SEVERAL. I prefer my Corsair Platinum HX1000i but I also like EVGA power supplies
Case
ThermalTake Level 10 GT (among others)
Cooling
Noctua is my favorite and I use it in my main. I also own various other coolers.
Keyboard
all kinds.
Mouse
all kinds
Internet Speed
360 mbps - 1 gbps (depending)
Browser
FIREFOX
Antivirus
KASPERSKY (no apologies)
Other Info
Gave Dell touch screen with Windows 11 to daughter and got me an OTVOC. Being a PC builder I own many desktop PCs as well. I am a father of five providing PCs, laptops, and tablets for all my family, most of which I have modified, rebuilt, or simply built from scratch. I do not own a cell phone, never have, never will.

My Computers My Computers

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro 25H2Ryzen 5 3500U8GBVega 8
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro 25H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Huawei MateBook D15
    CPU
    Ryzen 5 3500U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Vega 8
    Screen Resolution
    FHD
    Hard Drives
    256GB Samsung SSD + 1TB HDD
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    ESET Smart Security Premium
  • At a glance

    Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 21H2intel core i7 6700HQ16GBNvidia Geforce GTX1060 (6GB)
    Operating System
    Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 21H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    MSI GS73 6RF Stealth Pro
    CPU
    intel core i7 6700HQ
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce GTX1060 (6GB)
    Screen Resolution
    FHD
    Hard Drives
    128GB SSD + 1TB HDD
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
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