PC Hangs when I hear a ticking sound

[FewFlyBy]

One reallocated sector is okay. You run into problems when that number starts growing quickly. Anything over 10 in my book is a cause for concern, but 1 isn't anything to worry about. Occasionally drives will simply have a bad block that can't be used. It happens.

I do notice that the start-stop counter exceeds the power-on time. You should try disabling HDD power saving so the drives don't spin down. If they're spinning up and down often, you may fry the motor and if they're spun down and you need to access something, it needs to spin back up again before anything can happen. A great example are my WD Blacks. They can take as long as 8 or 9 seconds to fully spin up to speed, so it only makes sense to keep them spinning as opposed to having to wait almost 10 seconds just to access the drives.

Where can I disable that HDD power saving? Thank you

 

[Aquinus]

Where can I disable that HDD power saving? Thank you

 

[FewFlyBy]

View attachment 63851

I checked it and it is "Never" by default

 

[Aquinus]

I checked it and it is "Never" by default

Does your computer go to sleep often? The drives will spin down if the computer goes to sleep. That count just seems really high for a drive that's constantly running.

 

[FewFlyBy]

Does your computer go to sleep often? The drives will spin down if the computer goes to sleep. That count just seems really high for a drive that's constantly running.

So I should choose Never in Turn Off the Display

 

[Aquinus]

So I should choose Never in Turn Off the Display

No, you want the computer to never go to sleep, or at least not so often that you're always waking it up. The monitors don't matter.

 

[jsfitz54]

From post #26: Why does drive show 144 Celsius as temp? Is the program running correctly? Did not see conversion to F.

Hitachi is now part of WD? Use Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, this: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=613&lang=en

 

[Aquinus]

From post #26: Why does drive show 144 Celsius as temp? Is the program running correctly? Did not see conversion to F.

You're looking at the wrong column.

 

[FewFlyBy]

From post #26: Why does drive show 144 Celsius as temp? Is the program running correctly? Did not see conversion to F.

What should it be then?

 

[jsfitz54]

Temp fine. Thanks Aquinus.

HGST page: http://www.hgst.com/support/downloads

See also possible firmware update for drive: http://www.hgst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/pages/main?OpenDocument

Edit: I think this is correct page and it looks like no updates:
http://www.hgst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/products/Travelstar_5K500.B

Everyone suspects HD as sound culprit but have you looked at fans as well?

What does health tab in HDTune say, post #9?

As a new member, please fill out "system Specs" in your user profile, it helps others to help you.

 

[Cartel]

You could run this, it may find more bad sectors.
http://www.partitionwizard.com/help/disk-test-surface.html
http://www.minitool.com/C3883AF0-D8F8-4CAB-83D8-DA6497F1C8CC/pwfree9.iso

Personally, I would just buy another drive and transfer the data, 1TB is $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

 

[kn00tcn]

nobody mention head parking yet? that's what load cycle is, that's what ticking is, that's why the OS cant read anything on the drive while the heads are changing states

the firmware may even have itself spin down the drive if there is little to no activity (this would happen if you're reading a long article for example, drive could think it's idling)

we need to confirm if this is the (minor) issue or if there is a bigger problem happening

 

[dorsetknob]

nobody mention head parking yet

Head Parking is part of the power saving settings
This was covered in earlier posts like post no 26 to 30

 

[kn00tcn]

Head Parking is part of the power saving settings
This was covered in earlier posts like post no 26 to 30

head parking is most certainly not part of windows power settings (windows can merely spin down the drive in its entirety)

WD drives for example, the wdidle tool changes a value stored in the firmware that controls the length of time in seconds of no activity until parking, this is low level outside of the OS

if OP's windows settings have always been set to never, then why would the load cycle count be many times higher than power cycle count?

 

[dorsetknob]

Western Digital started parking the heads after a period of inactivity in order to save power.

so Head Parking is part of the power saving settings and while this may be a firmware issue
Telling windows not to power down the drive would stop the drive parking its heads

 

[twicksisted]

Um.... why is the link to the sound file from the original post removed by moderator?

 

[dorsetknob]

as far as i know the file was hosted on a dubious site