HDD making odd noise

[ik9000]

HDD starting sounding "gratey" recently. Odd thing is it's doing it when I'm not using the HDD. I run everything off SSD. The only thing on HDD is storage and it is independent of the OS, programme and user files etc. Is there a way to log what is using the HDD and when? The system usually spins down the HDD as evidenced by the spin-up time required when I do need to access them. The noise I'm hearing sounds like the old floppy drives writing something, and happens once maybe twice a minute every five minutes or so.

Is it worth checking the SMART data or whatever that HDD info thing is?

edit: the noise has stopped for the last hour and a half now. weird.

[mikeo01]

You may take a look at the SMART data, Crystal DiskInfo or whatever it is called can read it

"Ticking" is sometimes the headers tapping the spindle or sides of the HDD. "Grinding" can sometimes be that or the header grinding the platters.


You should be able to see what data is being written to it. Hard Disk Sentinel or Microsoft's own Process Explorer or HD Tune.


Though if this is a new issue you are experiencing the drive is probably developing some sort of hard fault. Odd it happens at idle, could be hitting the platters when it is running at a slower RPM.

[ik9000]

Odd it happens at idle, could be hitting the platters when it is running at a slower RPM.

yes I thought it was odd, but there's nothing else in there that has moving parts, apart from the optical drive but that is empty.... resource monitor suggests something is accessing the HDD, but I can't think what or why

Samsung Magician will also access SMART data and I have that installed

[stevie lee]

what about disk indexing? that randomly accesses stuff for no apparent reason.
anti virus/malware scanners as well.

weirdly enough, my hard drives make a clunky accessing type noise after about an hour whilst watching movies.
no idea what causes it, and it only seems to happen after an hour into a movie. SMART shows nothing out of the ordinary.
i'm putting it down to either the disc indexing or windows moving files around the hard drive because they're commonly used. (does it do that, I seem to remember reading it somewhere )

[Bonebreaker777]

HDD Scan or HD Tune can both access S.M.A.R.T. and give extensive information about the health & state of the HDD.

Recently I had a Toshiba HDD was making similar periodic sounds, turned out to be a DOA (new HDD, you expect it to be working, connect to the machine, format it, start to copy to it, trough eSATA 3Gbps the transfer speed is around 350KBps, seems odd, look at the S.M.A.R.T., three lines yellow, do a surface test, not even past 1% and hit 115 bad sectors...).

Check the S.M.A.R.T. and do a surface test if necessary.

[Taniniver]

One thing I'm surprised nobody has mentioned yet - back up your data!

If you have anything at all where your only copy of it is on this drive, get a copy of it off there now whilst the drive is still functioning and able to read it, just in case.

From personal experience and also from trying to assist friends/family with recovery, when a hard drive is going to fail it will often exhibit unusual behaviour in advance of the failure. The critical thing is to get the data whilst you still can - it may be too late once it fails fully.

[BradIey]

You can check what is doing it yes windows resource monitor should work fine after you hear the noise start up check what is accessing it. Automatic defrag or antivirus scans are the typical culprits, however if you're using windows 8.1 then the only thing I know that helps is a reinstall with all but the ssd unplugged.

[Bane2087]

Yeah whenever I've noticed a hard drive has started making those kinda sounds it's been on the verge of mechanical failure or failed already. I had a drive like that with a stuck head making a horrible grinding sound. Fortunately I was able to unstick it by heating it up on a radiator long enough to get the data off it before I chucked it away and got a replacement. Backup now as Taniniver says.

[OneIT]

If your on Windows 7 or 8 you can use Resource Monitor to look at whats using your disk.