Weird noise from external hard drive... Is this normal?

[WhyJay]

Right now, I'm reformatting my external hard drive to exFAT (taking forever; 1TB).

I went to move the drive and it made this clicking noise. I thought it was weird so I tried to get it to do it again. It turns out, whenever I move it in a way that it's rotating clockwise (as in, I'm pushing with torque, causing it to move away from me, and turn clockwise at the same time), it makes the same click noise.

I'm assuming it's because the drive inside is spinning and creating force in the opposite direction that it's spinning... Is this normal? Does this happen to any other drives?

 

[skorpien]

It may be parking the head if it has any form of anti-shock protection. If it starts making the noise regularly, while you're not moving it at all, then I'd start worrying.

 

[WhyJay]

It may be parking the head if it has any form of anti-shock protection. If it starts making the noise regularly, while you're not moving it at all, then I'd start worrying.

Well, the model is ADATA HD710 and it's supposed to be military-grade shock resistant... It only happens when it turn it clockwise though, not counter-clockwise.