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Clicking at startup. Is the HDD dying? Is it normal?

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Despotes

Member
Joined
May 24, 2001
Location
Maine, USA
I have a Maxtor D740X that's about 3 weeks old. It makes a rapid clicking noise only when booting up. It's not really loud, but noticeable. A bit louder than normal accessing. Wouldn't a HDD make this clicking noise every time it was reading or writing if it was dying, not just at start up?
Thanks
 
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I had an old 200MB HD that did that.

*Goes to dig in closet*

Yeah, this it. A Seagate Model ST3120A. Old-old-skool. :p

Anyway, it used to do the exact same thing. Now it doesn't. It's a good drive, I use it sometimes to back-up data before a full system re-format.

There's nothing wrong with my drive. I think it's normal.
 
Could sound like a dying HDD.

When you first got the HDD, did it do this? Call up Maxtor and ask if its normal, or do they have any diagnostic programs.
 
The drive has always done this. I have some diagnostic utilities I'm going to run. Will a diagnostic program pick up this type of problem or will this clicking eventually cause bad sectors or other errors that will be picked up later?
 
my D740X comes in in a couple days. i'll tell ya if mine
does the same thing, it could be normal. is your
the ball bearing or liquid version?
 
All HD's make that clicking sound when first powered up, it's the drive going through it's self diagnostics, some drives you can hear it loud, some you have to put your ear right near them to hear it, doesn't mean your drive is going bad...Now if it does it for longer than approx. 3 to 4 seconds, thats when to worry, other then that, i doubt its a problem.....
 
My D740X came in just this week, and it's sort of ticking sometimes when it's really pumping data like during bootup indeed. However I can assure you it's NOTHING like the click of death cuz I received this new drive as a replacement for a Diamondmax Plus40 I RMA'd. This drive really had the click-of death and it was a totally different hollow sound like an old clock, and it happened a few times a minute. No errors though but the drive (thus my system) got slower and slower...
 
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