I just bought a WD My Book HD about a month ago and every time I access it it makes a pretty loud clicking noise and then when I stop doing copy procedures or something of that sort the clicking stops. I think with a failing HD. I am just wondering if this is normal or if my external is failing already. It works fine and I have had no problems with it. Any help is appreciated, thanks.
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WD My Book HD Clicking a lot.
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She's on her way out. All the hard drives I've had die exhibited an audible clicking sound before they went belly up.
Mine is also very noisy during access, always has been. I haven't experienced any problems though. Apparently their drives are just noisy. I have heard other reports of this without any problems, so your drive is not definitely on it's way out.
Ok thanks, it's just very weird. The 500gb WD My Passport I have is whisper quiet. It must have something to do with the 1TB HD's in the My Book's.
I have had drives with the click of death and it is not the same sound, so don't worry. But always keep backups of anything important just to be on the safe side.
To add:
- All hard drives will fail at some point. Be sure to back up your data.
- New HDs can fail. Although rarely, it does happen.
- Some drives are more noisy than others.
- All drives will make some clicking noise. That is due to the head movement.
- If a hard drive is failing due to a head issue, generally, you will hear something that sounds like a bunch of bolts being shaken inside an empty coffee can.
- If you have bad data on a hard drive, or data that is hard to read, you will hear more head movement as the HD is having to reposition the heads over the same spot to try and read the data.
- SpinRite is the only program that I know that will condition your hard drive and decrease the clicking sounds. I've used it numerous times to fix a hard drive that is having data issues. You will need a PC that you can connect your HD to in order to run SpinRite.
- All hard drives will fail at some point. Be sure to back up your data.
- New HDs can fail. Although rarely, it does happen.
- Some drives are more noisy than others.
- All drives will make some clicking noise. That is due to the head movement.
- If a hard drive is failing due to a head issue, generally, you will hear something that sounds like a bunch of bolts being shaken inside an empty coffee can.
- If you have bad data on a hard drive, or data that is hard to read, you will hear more head movement as the HD is having to reposition the heads over the same spot to try and read the data.
- SpinRite is the only program that I know that will condition your hard drive and decrease the clicking sounds. I've used it numerous times to fix a hard drive that is having data issues. You will need a PC that you can connect your HD to in order to run SpinRite.
I've gone through 4 western digital HDs, the premium edition last generation, not the nice snazzy ones that are out now. I had a 320, a 500, and a 250. All of them exhibited noises of click-e-ness when beginning to fail. So i would be prepared for that, i lost quite a sizable amount of movies and series episodes when i lost my various hard drives, cos i didnt have any other hard drive space to back up my shiz lol.. was really annoying!!
PTP
PTP
Incidents like this make me wonder - where does backup ever end? I mean, if you have an external HD, I guess it's good practice to back that up somewhere in case that dies. But then where do you back up the backup to your external HD? And then the backup to THAT?? Where does it end?
its going to be death, death I say! Be prudent, power down the drive get a back up, power up and make a full back up
Sounds like a Western Digital all right! *looks at the pile of dead mybooks in his office*.
If its just one click followed by a "scrape" type sound then the drive spins thats ok.
If its a "click click click click" sound its dying and you need to backup what you have now.
If its just one click followed by a "scrape" type sound then the drive spins thats ok.
If its a "click click click click" sound its dying and you need to backup what you have now.
Back in the my mainframe days, we would use three backups; A, B, and C.
Backups were done daily:
A --> Today
B --> Yesterday
C --> Two days ago
When tomorrow comes, then:
A --> B
B --> C
C --> A
A was kept off site a long ways away.
B was kept off site a short ways away.
C was kept on site.
The backups rotated in that manner. So you always had three days backup at any given time. The offsite was used for safety in case the building collapsed, flooded, etc.
Today, I use this system:
- I alternatively clone to an external HD on a weekly basis.
- I use Carbonite to backup real time if you will.
Many photographers burn a CD/DVD of their shoot. Just like developing film, you have the negatives. With digital you have the CD/DVDs.
The problem with having your backups at the same location is that they can be stolen or destroyed, then you have nothing. By doing your own offsite or using a commercial service, provides a good redundant backup.
Yes, all drives make noise of some sort. Some are louder than others as well.
I attached an audio (MP3) clip in my post above if you want to hear a Mac start up and have a mechanical HD failure. I figured since it went, I should record it.
Yeah, my drive definitely isn't making the same sound as the one you attached. And the My Book is my backup drive. I also have movies and other stuff on a separate partition but I use Automator to sync all that stuff with my other external hd, so it's backed up.
This brings up something that I forgot to mention above.
If I have an internal HD that is 500GB I backup to alternating 500GB HDs instead of backing up to a 1TB HD that has been partitioned into 500GB partitions.
With 2 external HDs, if one fails, you still have the other one as a backup. However, if you have an external HD that has been partitioned, and the drive fails, you loose both backups.
I have two drives with the same data on them for miscellaneous backups. So if one fails I'll still have the other, and then use that one for my mac backup as well until I can get a new drive.
Better safe than sorry - as everyone else mentioned - go with your gut.
Every hard drive I had that failed always started showing signs. These signs might include sluggish performance or audible sounds. Most users wouldn't know any different, but those that are in tune with their equipment notice.
Wow, that post doesn't sound right.
Every hard drive I had that failed always started showing signs. These signs might include sluggish performance or audible sounds. Most users wouldn't know any different, but those that are in tune with their equipment notice.
Wow, that post doesn't sound right.