Hard Drive Making Clicking Noise Every Few Seconds - Why & What to Do

If your hard drive making cliking noise every few seconds, it could be due to hardware issues on the computer. Learn how you can fix the issue and save your data from hard drive failure in this post.

The clicking on a hard drive is known as the click of death, due to hardware or software issues. Let us dive right into what causes this and how to fix hard drive making clicking noise every few seconds.

What Does Hard Drive Clicking Mean

Clicking on the hard drive, more often on HDDs, can happen if the read/write heads on the hard drive spinning and clicking every 10 seconds. If this happens so quickly and often, it means that the hard drive is failing and unable to perform. The obvious thing is what causes this problem and how to fix the hard drive making clicking noise every 5 seconds.

If the hard drive is making clicking noises, it's a problem with the hardware, and on failing you cannot read or access data on that drive. 

Why Hard Drive Making Noise Every Few Seconds - Causes

Now, you know that the two heads banging each other makes noises in the hard drive, but what are the reasons for this? For older drives, with time, hardware issues can cause this, but for new drives, it could be a hardware or software issue. These are some significant causes of hard drive making a repeated clicking noise every few seconds.

• 1️⃣Physical Damage: This happens very often. If you have dropped your hard drive, or are exposed to fire or water, the actuator clicking happens indicating a dead hard drive.
• 2️⃣Electrical Shocks: If your hard drive is not receiving enough or abrupt power all of a sudden, it could have ill effects on the drive. It affects the circuit board, resulting in the error.
• 3️⃣Wear and Tear: Electronic devices also have a shelf life. With time, they tend to act out and fail. Most hard drives show such errors after three to five years. 
• 4️⃣Heads Misalignment: You will hear clicking noises if the write/read heads are misaligned due to dropping or physical damage. And while working, you will hear clicking noises.
• 5️⃣Service Area Issue: For hardware to function in a way, the manufacturer writes code. This data is stored in the Service area, and any damage to this will damage the actuator.
• 6️⃣Manufacturer's Defect: In some cases, the error could be entirely due to the manufacturer. If the hard drive itself is of low quality, the hard drive makes noises. 

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What to Do When Hard Drive Clicking Every 5/10 Seconds

If your hard drive making clicking noises, it is a sign of dying of a hard drive. Before any further data loss happens, you should stop using that hard drive and save your data, how do we do this? Backing up the data on the hard drive or making a clone is two ways. So, what's the better way?

Both methods are helpful to save you from data loss, but the efficient one is to make a clone of its data on the new hard drive. After cloning, you have to replace the old drive with the new one and get back to work as usual with zero downtime. 

Easiest Way to Clone the Hard Drive Making Clicking Noises

In simple words, in cloning, we make a bit-by-bit copy of the source drive (failing drive) onto the new one with all its contents, including the operating system. And, you need a reliable and secure disk cloning tool to get the job done safely in time. One such safe and reliable tool is EaseUS Disk Copy.

With award-winning disk cloning solutions, your clone will be ready in just three steps. You can upgrade, transfer, and clone all your contents from one drive to another with a sector-by-sector clone, a replica of the original. With this tool, you can create bootable media to directly boot your computer if the failed drive has your OS files. Try the trial version to clone your hard drive and save your data.

Key Features of EaseUS Disk Copy:

• Clone your hard drive with award-winning solutions.
• Create bootable media to boot your PC without reinstalling the OS.
• Replace failing hard drives for complete data recovery even with bad sectors.
• Migrate and update your HDDs to SSDs with just three steps.

Follow the detailed flow chart below to clone the failing hard drive to a new one with EaseUS Disk Copy:

How to Deal With Broken Hard Drive

Now, that you have cloned your dead hard drive onto the new one, what should you do with the old one? Here are some practical tips you can follow about how to deal with broken hard drives.

Conclusion

If your hard drive makes clicking noises every few seconds, it could be a hardware or software issue. You have to act quickly before there is any data loss. In this post, we will see the reasons for it, and what to do with the hard drive making clicking noise every few seconds. Cloning is the best and most efficient solution to save data on a failing hard drive.

EaseUS Disk Copy is the best disk cloning tool to save your data from the hard drive. It can be your complete backup and recovery solution, along with advanced cloning solutions.

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FAQs on Hard Drive Making Click Noise

1. Why does my hard drive make an intermittent sound?

If your hard drive is making an intermittent sound, it could be due to an insufficient power supply. Make sure the drive is getting enough power to stop these sounds.

2. What is the click of death hard drive?

The hard drive click of death refers to a failing hard drive due to hardware issues. The head actuator will knock the drive continuously to recover from the errors, in turn resulting in clicking sounds.

3. Is clicking sound on HDD bad?

Yes, the clicking sound on the HDD refers to hardware or physical issues due to the banging of the actuator head while reading or writing. If this continues, it results in the hard drive failure, you have to backup data to avoid data loss.

4. What are the signs of HDD damage?

The common signs of a hard drive failure are an overheating computer, strange noises, and the inability to detect or fetch data on a hard drive. The strange noises can be spinning, grinding, clicking, etc. If you hear the sounds often, try to safeguard your data.