Constant clicking noises from my hard drive -- Please Help!

Hi all,

I have 14" T61p with a Hitachi 5400 rpm 120 GB hard drive which literally never shuts up, it is constantly running, making annoying clicking noises (with the LED indicator blinking on and off) even at idle; I was wondering if anyone has experienced this with their hard drive...or perhaps I simply have a faulty one?

 

If the LED is blinking on and off, that means the HDD is in use (so not necessarily idling). You may want to check your process list (sort by CPU usage) to see what is running, as the constant use isn't necessarily great for your hard drive's life span.

 

I checked, ironically it is the "System Idle Process" which has the most CPU usage by far: a whopping 99!

 

That's actually a good thing. That means your computer isn't busy, so the CPU is allotted to background tasks as they arise. Still, that shouldn't keep the hard drive in constant use unless Windows has a LOT of background tasks that need doing.

Have you run full spyware and virus scans?

 

I actually had the same problem on the new pre-installed system I received last week...I thought the problem might get resolved with a clean install, however it is not the case since the same constant HD ticking problem persists. I have no spyware/virus having already run a virus scan, CC scan, spybot scan and adaware scan.

 

What kind of OS do you use? If it's windows vista it's probably doing some maintenance when it notices you aren't doing anything (heavy) yourself, for instance indexing your hdd.

If you open up your task manager and click 'sourcecontrol' (i hope thats the correct english name, i have a dutch windows version myself) under the performance tab this will open a new window. Open up the hdd tab to see exactly what its doing.

 

Ask support for a new drive.

 

Thanks for your reply but I use WinXP Pro. It is quite perplexing why my hard disk seems to be behaving in such a manner, I have never expeienced this phenomenon before on any of the other laptops (including a friend's similiarly configured t61p running the same OS), the clicking does not seem to hamper drive performance though, it is simply VERY annoying.

 

So I actually do have faulty drive? I thought it might have something to do with drive management issues. I'll try calling support.

 

Ok, has this thing suddenly started, or did it make that sound from the beginning? You can check the disk with HD-tune or a similar program to make sure, but if performance is normal and the disk has always made this noise it could just mean you have a very loud hdd. Usually older hdd's or damaged hdd's do make what is mostly described as a clicking noise before they brake down though, so backing up your data might not be a bad idea just in case...

 

a reason the hard drive can be going is windows is indexing the hd for faster hd search. you can turn this off in services.msc or it can also be making restoration points. hope this helps

 

This happened to me just before a series of drive failures. I second Zaz's advice: back up your stuff on a DVD and get a new drive ASAP.

 

I just talked to IBM's customer service...and WOW what great service, a far cry from Lenovo's managing of customers. The guy I talked to was great, he agreed that it was a faulty drive and said I would receive a new replacement hard drive by tomorrow!

 

The drive may be defective, it may be indexing or superfetch if you are running Vista. Intall HD Tune and see what it says.