Ever heard the sharp clicks, spins and other sounds emitting out of your hard drive while working on your computer? Most of the times people get accustomed to some kind of hard drive noises. Sometimes it becomes a disturbance, but sometimes the noise means your hard disk needs attention. So what should you do when a hard drive is making noise? Find out the reasons and troubleshoot for the hard drive noise issue.
What are Hard Drive Noises
A silent whining due to spin muted clicking due to power change and clicks as the hard drive works on data is normal most of the time.
The computer technology has improved significantly over the years, and so is the pursuit to make the computer operation as silent and smooth as possible. Thus our modern systems are made as sophisticated as possible. Still, a small noise can drive your attention sometimes. So, in order to analyze the severity of that noise and troubleshoot it, you need to understand the source of the hard disk noise.
There are two different types of sounds the hard drive makes, acknowledging them would be the first step towards troubleshooting the issues. Sometimes your hard drive makes the spinning sound way too high than usual, it might be due to overheating of your machine.
Vibratory sounds, buzzing, high pitch whining are some of the abnormal sounds that your hard drive can make. Some of the other traits of a hard drive problem are sounds like rhythmic tap sounds, beeping etc. should always be taken seriously. This can be an alarm for you to take a backup of your drive or troubleshoot the problems inside.
In the case of external hard drives, there are a number of sounds that show your hard drive is in trouble. While you connect the hard drive to your computer, it might emit sounds of clicking and beeping. This is the fundamental issue that sticks to external hard drives. As soon as you suspect the sound, do go for a troubleshoot.
Troubleshoot Hard Drive Noise
If you want to eliminate the hard drive sound, you have to go to the root of that problem. The problem may vary from time to time, but if you follow a close investigation, you will be able to figure out the root.
Here are a few steps to troubleshoot your hard drive noise problem:
1. Check the hard drive by disconnecting it from your computer. This will allow you to detect if the noise is coming from the hard disk or another component of your system like the fan, data cable issue and so on.
To do this, remove the power cable from your hard drive and connect the drive, see if the noise still persists. Once you are sure that the noise is coming out of the hard drive, try to back up immediately.
2. Once you are sure of the hard drive noise that it’s a fault and a threat to your hard drive data. Run the Hard drive diagnostic tool that your system offers. This will present the health of your hard drive and try to fix the problems associated with the hard drive.
Before running the diagnostic tool, close all the open applications in your system. This will allow the diagnosis tool to offer the best fix.
3. After the hard drive diagnosis, try to get a backup of all the data on your hard drive. And even if the issue is fixed, get a replacement for your hard drive. This may contain bad sectors that will be prevented from use. But the affected area will gradually corrupt all the hard drive sectors.
4. Try to remove the hard drive from the computer after powering off. As you hold the drive, try to reconnect it to the computer and see if the hard drive is behaving properly or not. If the problem persists, you have to make arrangements for the replacement of hard drive.
For external drives, there is a less chance of getting bad sectors, but more chances of a physical anomaly. It can cause great danger to the external drive. If your external drive troubles you with noise. Try to get it fixed with these troubleshooting steps.
1. If the hard drive gradually clicks and gives you spinning noises, it may be due to insufficient or uneven power supply. First of all, try to plug out the hard drive and plug it in the 2.0 or higher USB ports of your computer. If a hard drive is externally powered, use the adapter in a clean and good power socket.
2. Sometimes the fragmented hard drive requires more movement for the operation which might give it trouble. Try to defragment the hard drive before using. A defragmented hard drive needs less demand for the hardware hence eliminating the noise.
You can make a lot of troubleshooting in a very short period of time. Although, you have to be cautious while extracting the hard drive out of the system. Also while changing the cable, and starting the hard drive in your computer externally. Such noises can be eliminated. If they persist they may prove to be a great threat to the health of your system.
To secure your information, you should get a backup as soon as you here threatening noises from your hard drive. It may cost you your important data sometimes. In case you are unable to find your partition for making a backup, it’s possible to easily recover deleted partition on your hard drive. As soon as you have all the data get a backup without thinking about the longevity of your hard drive. The noise can be suppressed but the problem of your hard drive may arise at some point in time. It’s not certain, your hard drive may last too long or too short.
