Hard Drive Clicking & Odd DATA Dropouts - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2022, 04:12:57 pm
content: Hard Drive Clicking & Odd DATA Dropoutsan external seagate USB 2.0 2GB Hard Drive will go into random hard clicking & video play dropouts.when new video files from a PC have been added to it. for USB 2.0 play back on a home entertainment system.as usual the odd behaviour is only on the first play-through of a new video file. the HDD will click at a random time and drop the video play back.I get a NO USB media message on screen.this will automatically recover the Hard Drive when I re-select the external media input.the problem will disappear on the second or third play-through of the same video file. making this a possible bug or suspicious that this is more malicious?is this part of the Hard Drive ageing process? or is this a malicious bug in the data on the Hard Drive its self?.the external USB 2.0 2GB Hard Drive is frequently swapped between a PC and a home entertainment system for the play back of video files.not used for PC only data or video game files.the problem does not appear to be vibrating from the bass getting in to the dongle USB connectors.as the problem will disappear on the second or third play-through at the same sound level.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2022, 05:06:19 pm
content: Dying drive, if it supports SMART look at it, but get your data off it before it fails if you do actually value it.

author: ConKbot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2022, 06:45:43 pm
content: Yep, disk is already on borrowed time, probably plenty of bad sectors if you run a SMART test. The next time you plug in the disk should be to move data off of it, because there is no guarantees it will keep working.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2022, 11:11:17 pm
content: Assuming it's 2TB (which is still pretty useful) rather than 2GB (too small to be worth bothering with nowadays), back up the data you care about to a good drive and mark the failing one as a scratch drive. For example, you can use it to seed (legal) torrents where reliability is not important since more likely than not, there's already quite a few backups of the files on the network. Although Seagates of that era are infamous for failing, there's a chance it ends up lasting a few more months as opposed to dying in minutes, might as well use it all up as long as you don't leave your only copy of important data on it.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2022, 11:29:48 pm
content: make sure your USB cable is not too long and proper quality. the 5 volts supply to the drive could be borderline. a "click" means it is doing an emergency retract of the heads due to failing power.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2022, 01:48:23 am
content: Though it’s certainly worth ruling out since it’s so easy to do, power problems are not what clicking usually indicates. Hard drives that lose power recover the rotational energy in the platters by using the motor as a generator. The residual energy is then used to flush the caches and park the heads “properly”. The clicking of a failing drive is repetitive, as the head actuator fails to find the correct track and resets.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2022, 01:52:58 am
content: Quote from: jonovid on June 14, 2022, 04:12:57 pmI agree with the others saying to copy off your data NOW. That drive is practically guaranteed to be on the cusp of failure. The clicking is the drive attempting to read the data repeatedly, and the fact that multiple attempts are necessary is a sign the drive is in bad shape. The reason it’s playing OK on the second play through is because the drive is apparently succeeding in recovering the data, and is then remapping it to a different area of the disk. But reallocated sectors are one of the drive health parameters that are highly indicative of imminent failure.

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2022, 04:38:58 am
content: Thankyou, the media is backed up.. I guess this HDD is dying . but I will check the USB cable for voltage drop. bad electrical contacts.