New Hard Drive clicks and bangs and fucks around but doesn't always get recognized
 

A few months ago I got a new drive that was originally meant to replace my internal, but instead I got a USB enclosure and am now using it as an external drive. Recently it's been making clicking and popping noises and randomly I get the 'USB device disconnected' chime. Then I have to jiggle the USB cable at one end for my computer to recognize it again.

I've never in my life had to deal with a faulty hard drive, so I don't know what it's likely to mean if one starts to click like mine is. Most of the time it works, but if I'm transferring data to or from it, the transfer is liable to fail. Anyone know some common reasons for hard drive clickage?

Thanks!

Hard disk is basically a bunch of very thin round platters that spin very fast. Clicks can be caused by a faulty read/write head or maybe there's been some damage to your platters.

At any rate I don't like to hear clicks on my hard disks. Transfer data out, pronto, if you can. I hope your drive is still under warranty so you can get a replacement.

I agree with Zerg. Your HDD sounds like it is failing. Back up, and tryto replace the HDD if it's under warranty.

Ah so this is one of those "SON OF A BITCH" situations that I always hear about. Well if it's really failing, this fucker better function long enough for me to get my data off it.

Thanks a lot for your quick responses, guys.

it could also be a failing USB chipset/bridge. If you can afford the small cost, get a different enclosure and see how the drive performs there. I've run into more than one drive that had an external enclosure chipset crap out while the drive itself was fine.

@ElectricSheep: Malfunctioning USB bridge however doesn't explain the click noises the drive produces.

It's dying, and you better get your data of it as quickly as you can.

If you really wanna know what is happening: Remove the drive from enclosure and hook it up to a internal PATA/SATA interface. Then load up some tool that can query the SMART status from the drive. This should tell you what exactly is going wrong there.

Greets,
liquid

EDIT: Even if you do not want to query SMART you should hook it up internally anyway. Just to avoid USB being a bottleneck. The longer it takes to transfer the files the higher is the possibility of the drive failing completly... and that's what you don't want at all.

Never known one to click unless it was on the last mile. It is one of the most certain indicators that a drive is about to fail that you can get. As Zerg said, it's more often than not a faulty head. It can last for some time after you start to get clicking noises... don't risk it though. If you've only had it for a short amount of time you should be able to get an RMA.

Click of death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's common enough to have become a catchphrase.