Laptop HDD Clank?

DanishDevil · Apr 10, 2009

I'm trying to figure out if this is Windows 7's doing, or if my HDD is going bad. I hear the clank about every 40 seconds to a minute when it's idle. It's been serving as a wireless router for me (WiFi to Laptop, ICS with desktop through Ethernet).

It's a Dell D820, and it has a Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100 (or was it 120)GB in it. I know drives start to clank when they're about to go bad, but I wasn't sure how frequent the clanks were that were indicative of impending drive doom.

I've got everything backed up anyway. Just need to know if I should call up Dell and ask for a new HDD.

h3llb3nd4 · Apr 10, 2009

call dell and get a new HDD...It's not a software problem though, it's the drive getting old...

kenkickr · Apr 10, 2009

Grab UBCD, http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1814, burn the iso, boot from disc, and run a HD test. More than likely it's either a Hitachi/Toshiba(DFT test) or Seagate(Seatools). I prefer seatools cause it will tell you how many errors are on the drive.

alucasa · Apr 10, 2009

Though when a HDD starts to making noises..., it's time to swap. Backup your important info in case of total failure.

BroBQ · Apr 10, 2009

back up your data ... its just a matter of time before that fails completely

bubba_000 · Apr 10, 2009

Is it only making that sound when idle? If yes, that's normal. Alot of laptop drives do that. Basically, the drives parks the heads so that they don't damage the platters in case of shock and to preserve power.

Mine did that too, but i now have hd tune running in the background(it acceses the drive every few seconds ) and the sound is gone.

DanishDevil · Apr 10, 2009

It only does that when idle.

As I have stated, my info is all backed up. I still think I'm going to give Dell a call eventually.

SparkyJJO · Apr 10, 2009

What you might be hearing is some laptop drives automatically park the heads after being idle for a bit (to prevent damage in case the laptop is dropped for example), so it clicks when parking. Then windows wants something so it checks for it, then parks the heads again.

I would test the drive though, just to be safe. Especially if it never used to do that.

DanishDevil · Apr 10, 2009

I can't recall it doing it. SeaTools, UBCD, what other programs should I run?

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Laptop HDD Clank?

DanishDevil

h3llb3nd4

New Member

kenkickr

alucasa

BroBQ

bubba_000

New Member

DanishDevil

SparkyJJO

New Member

DanishDevil

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