Hard drive clicks then computer crashes

abhi63abhi63 UK, Leeds
edited December 2009 in Hardware
Hi,

It began a few weeks ago. I wanted to play a new game. When i got ingame, a few minutes later, i hear a clicking sound from my hard drive. A few seconds later i see the HD-light lighting up and everything freezes. I tried a lot of stuff like scandisk/defrag and at the end i just formatted the hard drive.

My HDD is NTFS formatted.

But that didn't help solve the problem. And it began to start happening in other games too.

One time it was like my HD kept switching on and off and the game freezed, unfreezed, freezed etc...

The weird thing is that it only happens in games. In windows i have not experienced any problems.

System:

Athlon XP 3200
Windows XP PRO SP1
120GB Western Digital 8MB Cache HDD
ASUS A7N8X 2.0 Deluxe
BBA ATi Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB samsung memory
512MB DDR

Is this a hard drive failure?

Please help.

Comments

  • OverLoadOverLoad
    edited February 2004
    i dont have a solution to your problem- but i had the same thing happen when i would play a game the for some odd reason it just stopped.
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    when your hard drive starts making noises like clicks and other noises, and then randomly starts to shut itself off, it's dying. You need to backup your important stuff right away, ASAP, and then RMA that drive. if you don't you'll be sorry. this drive is a lost cause and there is nothing you can do for it. you can format it a million times, it wont help. hard drives are not supposed to make noises like that. it's almost dead. back up your important stuff now, and then RMA it.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    That certainly can't be a good thing. I would back up the important stuff then run the WD diagnostic program on the drive. Clicking noises, even if just in games, are not good sounds for a HD.

    EDIT: Damn, kanez beat me to it. :D
  • abhi63abhi63 UK, Leeds
    edited February 2004
    Hi,

    Thanks for the quick responses. I have run all the WD diagnostic programs, and it shows no errors.

    Thanks in advance.
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    trust me, it's on its way to hard drive heaven.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited February 2004
    My daughter has the exact same WD drive. I should say "had", because it's sitting next to me waiting for an RMA.

    Her drive did just what you described. I drove 100 miles to her house to pick it up. It was dead when I checked it out there. I brought it back home to get it fixed and wouldn't you know it, it fired up and ran just fine. I was even able to ghost her partitions over to another drive.

    I ran the Data LifeGuard software about 20 times before it finally gave me "Error 0210" (couldn't finish test in expected amount of time).

    Send it back and get another one - the problem is only going to keep coming back, and will eventually drive you nuts. :rant:
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Startup click (qty exactly one, quiet type) is OK, normally. WDs unpark themselves. Park position is positive latched. Click in use, OCASSIONALLY, is drive malfing and parking, sometimes because it has not been accessed for along time, and will lead to drive failure eventually. Stick a drive on a PSU that is overloaded or starting to malf badly\die, you will get errors, but they should not be repeatable on another box or a better PSU.

    If you have more than one drive die in one box, get PSU voltages and amperages checked or check them yourself, a logging VOM\Multimeter\Portable Oscilloscope with logging is nice for this, gives you voltage drops versus load if doen right and you track load also and compare for same time. Fluke has very good DMM and "Digital" Scope+DMM type VOMs and they can send data to fluke software and software can log the data.

    John D-- keeping it "short."
  • SpaceVikingSpaceViking
    edited June 2006
    I have been experiencing a similar problem, although it has been occuring more than just during game play. Usually I will have a "click and crash" experience during gameplay, file searches, or while running diganostic tools such as ATItools.

    Also, as furhter information, the problem began occuring a little over 1 month ago, and I had not made any significant changes to my software environment and have not changed my hardware configuration in more than 4 months.

    First, since I found the problem occuring mostly during gaming, I replaced my video card. This did not help, so my next suspicion was that it was pending hard drive failure.

    I backed up the suspected hard drive, and then replaced it with a freshly reformatted different drive with a clean Windows XP install on it.

    I am still experiencing the same "click and crash", primarily when gaming, but still under the above mentioned circumstances.

    Replacing the video card and hard drive rule out either of those as a possibility, and having a fresh install of Windows XP (fully updated, with fully updated drivers and the lot) rules out software environment problems.

    I'm leaning towards either the PSU, IDE controller on the motherboard, or possibly RAM as the few remaining variables where the problem may be coming from.

    To attempt to rule out PSU overload problems, I disconnected everything except for the main OS drive, video card, sound card, and CPU heatsink fan, and this did not seem to prevent the click and crash.

    I've checked the thermals on my CPU, internal case temp, and vid card, and all seem acceptable.

    Any thoughts or suggestions on areas I could tweak to resolve this, or other possibilities as to what may be causing the problem?

    System specs are:

    Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2800+
    Motherboard: Asus A7N8XE-Deluxe
    RAM: 2x Crucial 512MB DDR RAM
    Power Supply: Antec TruePower 430W
    Hard Drive 1 (OS): IBM Deskstar 120 GB (IDE)
    Hard Drive 2 (Data Storage): IBM Deskstar 80 GB (IDE)
    Hard Drive 3 (Backup): WD RE2 WD4000YR 400 GB (SATA on SiI 3112 Raid Controller)
    Floppy Drive: Generic 3.5" Floppy
    Video Card: Sapphire Radeon x800 GTO
    Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer
    DVD Re-writable Drive: Lite-On SOHW-1633S
    Case fans: 3 external case fans, 2 PSU fans, 1 CPU Heatsink fan

    SpaceViking
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Your troubleshooting appears to solid and methodical. But with that said, I've never heard (pardon the pun) of clicks and crashes being due to anything other than hard drive failures, either initial or terminal.

    Very interesting. Please post if you figure out the exact cause.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    If HD is clicking it is like an internal time clock of 100% failure. Get your data that you what while you can. Before she dies... as it is dying. The click is your count down...
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2006
    SpaceViking wrote:

    Hard Drive 1 (OS): IBM Deskstar 120 GB (IDE)
    Hard Drive 2 (Data Storage): IBM Deskstar 80 GB (IDE)

    I've been in your shoes, and the results were not pretty.
    IBM Deskstar hard disk failure - Data recovery information

    Symptoms: IBM Deskstar hard disks are no different from any other drive in so much as they are prone to all the usual problems suffered by hard disks. However, they are notorious for developing serious mechanical faults, the symptoms of which are a regular "scratch-click, scratch-click, scratch-click" noise coming from the hard disk. Once this has happened the drive will frequently not be recognised in the BIOS and it is important to power the drive down immediately and not power it back on again, as continuous use will further compound the problem. This fault is commonly known as the Deskstar 'click of death'.

    Source

    There was even a successful class action lawsuit filed against them. The problem was so widespread that IBM decided to throw in the towel on HD manufacturing and ended up selling that division to Hitachi. Go there, get the diagnostic program, and be prepared for the worst.

    The "good" news is that I'm guessing that this will put your problem to rest. :)
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited June 2006
    I was having the same problem untill I was read this thread. Looks like I was straining the power supply. I have
    2 wd raptors
    1 wd 60 gig hard drive
    90mm heatsink fan
    nvidia 6800 with a zalman cooler
    audigy
    2 dvd RW
    5 fans with 3 uv fan lights
    game controller
    2 usb mice
    1 usb key board

    All running off an antec 400w smart power PSU. I unplugged the lights and guess what no more clicking. So the question is, was it over loaded or is my power supply craping out?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited June 2006
    Komete wrote:
    ...All running off an antec 400w smart power PSU. I unplugged the lights and guess what no more clicking. So the question is, was it over loaded or is my power supply craping out?
    Check the voltages on the 12V+, 5V+, and 3.3V+ rails. They should be within about 5% of their rated value.

    As for the drive clicking thing, I would still recommend giving them a thorough test. Unless you just run drives until they die, you are going to feel a lot better knowing that the drives check out clean. Make sure you keep everything you care about fully backed up, too. :)
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    SpaceViking wrote:
    Hard Drive 1 (OS): IBM Deskstar 120 GB (IDE)
    Hard Drive 2 (Data Storage): IBM Deskstar 80 GB (IDE)


    when I first saw that, I thought it said deathstar.:wow2:
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    If those are the lights made for computer modders, they draw very little power. They shouldn't draw enough power so as to cause excessive demand on the PSU, unless that's the marginal point at where the PSU is maxing out.

    As has been suggested:

    - use the fitness software to test the drive. 80GB IBM Deskstars were/are infamous for premature failure

    - check out the voltage rails on the PSU
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited June 2006
    hi there I downloaded WD lifeguard and ran all the tests on all 3 of my hard drives and I didn't get any errors. Are there any other aps you guys recomend I try?
  • justinlee37justinlee37
    edited December 2009
    I was having a problem exactly like this and you won't believe what the fix was.

    Basically, the computer would run for 10-30 minutes, and then it would click twice (probably a hard drive click) and freeze up, requiring a reboot.

    Replacing the IDE cable between the hard drive and the motherboard resolved the problem. So, if you haven't tried it already, replace the cable. You might be pleasantly surprised. I know I was.
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