Hard Drive clicking like a clock

Question

Level 1

0 points

Hard Drive clicking like a clock

My Mac Pro's hard drive is making a clicking noise (not very loud, just the small crackling sound normally heard when the drive is accessing something) about every half-second. It literally sounds like the 'tick-tock' of a clock's second hand. It's been doing this for months now (maybe as much as a year) and I can't find any similar cases or relevant help by searching online. Most people say it's the hard drive failing, but again, it's not a loud click like the drive-head would make if it came into physical contact with the platter or something.

I usually work with music or a podcast going... but when it's dead quiet in the room, this noise drives me nuts. What is it/what can I do to stop it?

Here's a link to the .mp3 of the sound (pardon the background noise).
http://www.southerngamer.net/storage/harddrive_ticktock.mp3

Any help would be much appreciated.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 27, 2010 12:04 AM

Reply

Answer 1

mooblie

Level 4

1,954 points

Oct 27, 2010 3:51 AM in response to Scadmania

I'd backup and replace it (and be thankful I dodged that bullet, as I had a warning while I could still read the disc).

If an erase and re-format doesn't stop the noise (which it probably won't), then I'd use the ticking drive as a secondary scratch drive, or an external, for nothing too critical.

Reply

Answer 2

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Oct 27, 2010 4:16 AM in response to mooblie

A corrupt directory can cause the "click of death" sound.

Full pass of zero all might be what you want to do. But that is not a guarantee of mapping out bad sectors.

Burn a CD from the drive vendor and recertify all the drive sectors and see if it passes.

What is on the drive? E

nergy Saver - never let drives sleep?

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 27, 2010 6:08 AM in response to The hatter

The sound you provided is more of a "recalibrate" or long seek sound than the Hardware sound of a drive on the verge of death.

But 1 TB WD Blacks cost under US$100. Replace that drive before it gives you worse problems.

Then, at your leisure, re-initialize with Zero all Data to be sure the noises are not caused by uncorrected Bad Blocks. If it passes, you may be good for another 6 months or more. If it fails to initialize, you have already moved it out of service before it took out your data.

Reply