Hi!

Got a problem. My harddrive started to click when i played a very cpu-demanding game (TES4:Oblivion). The computer freezed for about 7secs, and then it clicked after a while again. To be specific, it first sounds like a CLICK, and then you can hear the harddrive "spinning down". I also experienced the click when doing other things, and it seemed to get worse and worse. I figured the harddrive must be broke, so i tested with another one. After a while, the same problem shows again! A bit different sound this time, but still the same symptoms.

The first harddrive is a 200gb WD Caviar, the second is a 80gb Seagate. Very different hardrives. Could the problem be some other hardware? Could something else cause the harddrive to function like this?

specs;
AMD +1700
1024mb DDR
Radeon 9800 pro
VIA motherboard
Vortex something soundcard

VERY grateful for ANY help!

well the harddrive in question has gone bad. Shut it down immediately and save all useful information to another drive and that is pretty much it. here is the link to what I saw.

http://losangelescomputerhelp.com/computer_networking_news/hard-drive-clicking.html

http://www.adrdatarecovery.com/hard-drive-crash.htm

Jim R

Thanks for the response!

Yeah, ive started to backup the important stuff. Still, the problem happened with two DIFFERENT drives (WD Caviar, and Seagate)on the same computer, which makes it a bit more complicated.
Also the clicking sound only appears when im running something demanding (like games, movies etc.).
I figure there must be something wrong with some other hardware, causing the harddrive to act like this.

Any suggestions?

Well, my guess would be in succession:

- Check to make sure the cables are plugged in and securly seated. (Yes, it seems obvious, but I've done it myself too many times!)
- Try swapping a different cable if that doesn't work.
- Try checking the drive's integrity. (Right click on My Computer --> Select Manage --> Click on Disk Management.) See if your drives/partitions are healthy.
- You've tried a different hard drive. Could be a coincedence that drive may be flaky. Do you have another drive laying around? Try that.
- If it still does it after all the above, I would suspect the board (IDE controller on board going flaky).

That would be what I would check.

The best thing is:
1) Get another smaller hard drivr to test it on.
2) If the problem comes back on the third one, try replacing cable.
3) If same, replace PSU.
4) If same, change motherboard.
5) If same, disconnect all PCI cards leaving just the PSu, motherboard, agp card and one hard drive. This should solve the problem.
6) If it is still the same, replace the whole thing!

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