How to Repair a Hard Drive Making Noise - Try These 4 Methods

The hard drive is one of the essential components of your computer. Having a healthy hard drive guarantees the safety and reliability of your data. However, when your hard drive constantly makes noise, there's a reason to get worried. In this article from EaseUS, we'll show you how to repair a hard drive making noise.

First, we'll evaluate the main causes of the "hard drive making noise" problem. Next, we'll help you differentiate between normal and abnormal noises from your computer's hard drive. After that, we'll discuss 4 ways you can fix your hard drive if it keeps making noise.

Why Is My Hard Drive Making a Noise

When you hear the clicking, grinding, or scratching noise from your hard drive, it indicates an underlying problem. These noises could occur due to several reasons, and they affect all hard drive types, whether small or large. Here are the common causes:

1. Physical Damage

A major cause of the hard drive clicking noise is if it got exposed to physical damage. Such could range from dropping it on the floor, exposing it to heat/cold, or blunt force trauma. Physical damage could affect the hard drive's head assembly, causing grinding, scratching, or clicking noises.

2. Damaged Read/Write Heads

The read-write heads are the core parts of your hard drive. If these parts are not functioning correctly (maybe following physical damage), they will cause the clicking noise. A read/write head damage would always cause some form of misalignment, hence preventing your drive from working correctly.

3. Disk Platter Damage

If your hard drive has a damaged disk platter, this will stop the actuator arm from functioning correctly. As a result, the read/write heads connecting the hard drive will also fail to work. You'll hear some noises since the actuator arm will swing repeatedly, attempting to find the damaged disk platters.

📖You may be interested: Hard Drive Making Clicking Noise Every Few Seconds - Why & What to Do

4. Wear and Tear

Since the hard drive and its moving parts weren't meant to last forever, they get worn out with time. You may hear a clicking sound from your old hard drive because the actuator arm malfunctioned following wear and tear. 

5. Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Issues

The PCB is a critical section of your hard drive since it connects the electronic components for efficient drive operations. If the PCB gets damaged following a power surge or electrical failure, your hard drive will malfunction.

6. Electrical Issues

Sometimes, your hard drive may start malfunctioning following an interrupted power supply. This could damage the hard drive's internal components, hence the clicking or grinding noise.

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What To Do When Your Hard Drive Is Making Noise

If your hard drive is constantly making noises, it's best to fix it promptly to avoid escalating the problem or causing data loss. Luckily, there exist many effective ways to fix a noisy hard drive. In this article, we'll discuss 4 ways as follows. Please come along as we discuss each fix in detail.

Fix 1. Verify the Hard Drive Is the Source of the Noise

If you hear some noises inside your computer, the issue could not necessarily be your hard drive. There are many other components in your computer, such as internal speakers, fans, power supply, etc, that could make noises.

To confirm your doubts, you can try opening your computer's casing and check where the noise comes from. If it's true that the hard drive is making the noise, you can proceed to Fix 2 below.

Fix 2. Run CHKDSK or Disk Diagnostics Software

CHKDSK is a Windows command that can help you identify and troubleshoot problems affecting your connected drives. Follow the steps below to run this command:

Step 1. Go to the Search box and type "command prompt." Once the Command Prompt is displayed in the search results, click "Run as administrator."

Step 2. In the next window, paste the following command and hit Enter (replace "C" with the correct drive letter):

chkdsk C: /f/r/ x

Step 3. The above command will scan your noisy hard drive for any possible errors and then fix them.

The disk diagnostic software scans your hard drive for possible errors causing the noises. Such software will display the status of your disk and mark out any bad sectors so that your computer can't store data in them.

When using diagnostic software to repair your hard drive, it's important to terminate all other running programs to achieve the best results. Some free hard drive diagnostic software you can try include Seagate SeaTools, HDDScan, GSmartControl, DiskCheckup, etc.

Fix 3. Use Disk Management Tool

Disk Management is a Windows built-in tool that can also help repair your disc drive if it has malfunctioned. You'll need to launch this tool and select the suspected drive to scan for errors. Follow the steps below:

Step 1. Hit Windows+R on your keyboard and type "diskmgmt.msc" on the popup screen. Next, click OK.

Step 2. Right-click on the drive you suspect has errors, and in the dropdown that displays, select "Properties."

Step 3. In the next window, click the Check Now button under the "Tools" tab.

Step 4. When the "Check disk options" window displays, ensure you tick the boxes for "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors." Next, click on the Start button. The system will then check for errors on your disk and possibly fix the noise problem. 

Fix 4. Replace the Hard Drive with a New One

If you've tried the fixes above, but your hard drive is still making noise, replacing it with a new one is a long-lasting solution. When replacing your hard drive, it would be best to use a disk cloning tool to help you copy data from one hard drive to another without data loss. One of the best software we recommend for data transfer is EaseUS Disk Copy.

EaseUS Disk Copy will allow you to securely move your data from the old to a new hard drive/external drive without losing any files. To help replace your failing hard drive, this disk cloning software allows you to transfer your data from a hard drive to a healthy drive.

To start replacing your hard drive with a new one using EaseUS Disk Copy, ensure you download and install it on your computer to help you replace the laptop hard drive without losing data. Here is how to use it:

Prior Notice:

• The "Sector by sector copy" asks the size of your destination disk to be at least equal to or larger than that of the source disk. Leave this feature unchecked if you wish to clone a larger hard disk to a smaller hard disk.
• All data on the destination disk will be completely erased, so take care.

Step 1. To start copying/cloning an entire disk to another, choose this disk as the source disk under "Disk Mode" and click "Next".

Step 2. Choose the other disk as the destination disk.

Step 3. Check the disk layout of the two disks. You can manage the disk layout of the destination disk by selecting "Autofit the disk", "Copy as the source" or "Edit disk layout". 

• "Autofit the disk" makes some changes by default on the destination disk layout so that it can work at its best status.
• "Copy as the source"does not change anything on destination disk and the layout is the same as source disk.
• "Edit disk layout" allows you to manually resize/move partition layout on this destination disk.

Tick the "Check the option if the target is SSD" option to put your SSD in its best performance.

A message now appears, warning you that data will be lost. Please confirm this message by clicking "OK" and then click "Next".

Step 4. Click "Proceed" to officially execute the task.

Is It Normal for Hard Drive to Make Noise

It depends on what kind of noise your hard drive is making. A hard drive is like a "car engine" to your computer. If it's making humming or whining noises (which are normally not so loud), that's normal. On the other hand, if your hard drive produces clicking, grinding, scratching, or beeping sounds, things aren't normal.

These loud noises indicate that your hard drive has a problem. Just like a car engine, it's possible to fix noisy hard drives.

To Wrap Things Up

Your hard drive may start making noise because of physical damage, damaged read/write heads, disk platter damage, wear and tear, PCB issues, electrical problems, etc. This article has taught you how to repair a hard drive making noise. Among the 4 fixes we've discussed, replacing your old hard drive is the most effective.

When replacing your hard drive with a new one, it's most advised to use a tool like EaseUS Disk Copy to transfer your data safely. Ensure you download EaseUS Disk Copy on your computer today to start using it and avoid drive failure.

FAQs on How to Repair a Hard Drive Making Noise

Below are common questions regarding how to repair a hard drive making noise.

1. What should I do for a noisy disk drive?

If your hard drive is repeatedly making noise, you need to stop everything you're doing and find a way of fixing the issue. The noises from your hard drive mean everything isn't okay; hence, you must address it to avoid further damage.

2. Should my hard drive be making that noise?

You shouldn't be worried if the hard drive makes a low-pitched humming or whining noise since that's normal. However, if the noise intensifies to clicking, beeping, scratching, or grinding, your hard drive has a problem. It therefore needs your attention.

3. How to fix a noisy hard drive?

Once you've determined that your hard drive is the source of the problem, you can try fixing it as follows:

• Run CHKDSK
• Run Disk Diagnostics Software
• Use Disk Management Tool
• Replace the hard drive with a new one

We've discussed these methods in detail in the previous sections of this article.