If your hard drive gives out a repeated clicking sound,stop using it immediately,avoid opening itandabsolutelyrefrain from freezing it.
Conspicuous clicks(metal against metal), usually indicatesevere physical damage. Attempting to recover its contents or open it without specialized tools may result in further damage and make the drive even more unrecoverable.
So, if the drive contains essential data, it’s best totake it to reputable recovery professionalstoretrieve the contents.
Why is My Hard Drive Clicking?
Hard drives mainly include the following components:
After connecting the drive to a computer, the drive uses its actuator to slide the heads over the rotating platters to access the data.
Theclicking soundcomes from theactuator arm moving to and frowhen it can’t find a proper destination as itrepeatedly resets its position.
This issue can happen due to many reasons, such as:
Bad Read/Write Heads or Misaligned Actuator Arm
One of the most common reasons for this problem is abad read/write headormisalignment in the actuator arm. These issues can occur due togradual wear and tear of the components or physical damage.
When these components get damaged, thehead can’t get to the proper disk sectors and read the data. So the actuator will keep resetting and cause the clicking noise.
To fix these issues, the process is toreplace the actuator arm and the read/write heads from a compatible donor drive.
It needs to be carried out in aclean location with precise and skilled hands. Even a little scratch or misalignment can severely hamper the chances of data recovery. However, skilled data recovery experts can almost always recover data from such hard drives.
Firmware (Service Area) Corruption
A hard disk drive contains a special location called theservice area or system area which stores the firmware. This piece of software is responsible for all the functionalities of the disk.
After connecting a hard drive, the PC first reads all thenecessary information on the firmwareto initialize anddetect the drive. If this area becomes corrupt, the read/write head can’t receive the proper info. So the actuator searches for the service area and then resets repeatedly, causing the clicks.
Each drive manufacturer uses their own proprietary firmware for the drives, so recovering them is a very difficult endeavor. Itmay be possible to recover minor corruptionwith specialized tools and software, but it’s not guaranteed.
Circuit Board Issues
The hard drive’s PCB can get damaged due topower/electrical issues or physical damage. Such damage can cause different types of issues, including the hard drive clicking.
If the hard drive isnot able to operate the actuator properly, this component will reset every time and cause the clicks. It can also cause a beeping noise if the actuator doesn’t move, but that’s another issue.
For a hard drive clicking due to PCB issue, the general recovery procedure is toswap the PCBwith a another from a compatible donor drive.
The technician will also have toremove the original circuit board’s ROM chip and connect it to the new oneas it contains unique instructions to operate the drive.
Damaged Platters
Physical damage to the platterslike scratches (due to read/write heads) or wears and tears can corrupt the disk sectors and consequently their data. If thesectors with the service area get damaged, the actuator can’t detect this area, resulting in the clicking issue.
This is the worst case scenario and evenhighly experienced recovery experts may not be able to recover the datainside.
How to Fix Hard Drive Clicking?
After reading the causes for this issue and the general process to recover data for each cause, you may already have an idea of what to do. In short, the way to fix the drive or even recover the data is very delicate and requires professional knowledge, tools and experience.
So if your hard drive starts clicking,disconnect it as soon as possible to prevent further damage. Then, take it to areliable recovery company or expert to retrieve its contents.
Check theircertification and user reviewsto verify their reliability. If possible, choose professionals that only takeservice charge after a successful recovery.
As far as repairing the drive, even if the repair succeeds, it’s likely to crash or fail again. So it’s better to start using a new one altogether.
