External hard drive clicking sounds

Hi, I have a Western Digital Passport external hard drive, working fine until today when it started making clicking noises all of a sudden while connected. I found that Windows was no longer recognizing it. I pulled out the USB cable, put it back in, and it's working fine again.

I'm just concerned that maybe there's a problem with the physical drive that I should be aware of. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Karen

 

Usually, clicking is a symptom of a HD that is about to fail. Try downloading and running the WD diagnostic software http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=201&sid=3&lang=en to evaluate the drive. Run the short test to see if the S.M.A.R.T. status is good or bad. If bad then run the extended/long test as this will attempt to repair any bad sectors.

I, personally, would backup any important data to a different device. Any fix that the software is capable of performing is probably temporary. Once drives begin to go the problems increase rapidly. I wouldn't trust the drive unless the SMART status was initially good on the Short test.
****
Failing HD will often work one time and not the next until they eventually stop working completely. Don't let this fool you. Run the tests now while you can.

 

Thanks! The SMART test passed. I'm still not going to take any chances.. am looking around for a new drive.

I'm looking for 160 or 250G, USB, under $80, short cord is okay for my laptop. The Western Digital gets a lot of good reviews but some very poor ones - pretty much the same with Toshiba and many others. Any good advice on shopping for a HD that has a resonably good chance of lasting at least a few years?

It just doesn't make sense to back up files to a device that isn't reasonably reliable. Many of the reviews are from people who just bought the drive recently, so it's hard to know how they perform over time.

I do periodic backups to DVD, but I also need a drive that I can write to more often.

Thanks,
Karen

 

Hi Karen,

If those clicks were comming at intervals of about 1-2 seconds it is an indication that the drive is having problem reading. It's the head re-calibrating and retrying. The noise is the head swinging from home to the read area. It trys many times but usually eventually gives up. There may have been a problem with the USB cable connectors making good connections and you may have fixed it by unplugging and replugging them. Test it often until you are sure it is not reoccuring.

Good Luck, Jim

Good Luck, Jim

 

Thanks, sach2 and Jim. If it's the USB cable, I guess it would make sense to replace that? And since the SMART test was ok, maybe the drive itself is okay.. I'm still not feeling very confident about this drive.. hard to know how much money to put into backup drives, and when it's overkill!