On the other hand, if you start hearing noises only occasionally or noises that you’ve never heard before—like clicking, grinding, vibrations, or squealing—your hard drive may be failing. Datacent offers some sample sounds of failing hard drives that might sound like what you’re hearing. The steps below will help you determine if it’s really the hard drive that’s at fault and if it is, what to do next before all of your precious data is gone for good.
What to Do When Your Hard Drive Is Making Noise
More Help Troubleshooting Hard Drive Noise
Since there’s no good way to repair a failing hard drive, protecting your data by performing regular backups is essential. With an up-to-date backup, recovering from a hard drive failure is as simple as installing a new drive and restoring your data. Try every scenario to really pinpoint the source. If the noise is gone when the power cable is plugged in but returns when you attach the data cable to the hard drive, then you probably need to replace the data cable. When running diagnostics software, it’s best to close down all other programs and unplug any other drives or devices that you aren’t testing so that the results won’t be skewed. The permanent solution is to complete a backup of your system and replace the hard drive. However, on rare occasions when a hard drive is noisy only when you access certain data on your drive, it could be those specific sectors that are at fault—a problem that some diagnostics software can repair. The best way to back up your data is with an online backup service because your files are kept in the cloud and less susceptible to being lost or destroyed. However, a faster method is to use a free backup program—some of these programs can even clone the files from the failing hard drive and put them on a new, working hard drive. Solid-state drives (SSDs) don’t have moving parts like a magnetic hard drive, so you won’t hear one failing like you can with a spinning hard drive. External hard drives make noises, too. These noises arise when the drive connects to the computer because of a power- or cable-connection problem. Try fixing noises from an external hard drive by plugging the power adapter directly into the wall instead of a power strip, using a shorter USB cable, using USB 2.0+ ports, or connecting the hard drive to a USB port on the back of the computer instead of the front. A fragmented hard drive generates additional drive activity. Use a free defragmenting program to help extend the life of your hard drive, but it probably won’t fix the problem in most noisy hard drives. Although it isn’t common, it is possible that a hard drive noise is due to a faulty device driver. See How to Update Drivers in Windows to learn how to update a hard drive driver.
Other Noises a Computer Can Make
The hard drive isn’t the only component in a computer. You also have a power supply, fan, disc drive, and other things that might be making noise. It’s important to recognize where the noise is coming from so that you can understand what needs to be looked at. For example, if your computer is working in overdrive for a specific task, like a memory-hogging video game, it’s normal to hear the fan running faster to keep the hardware cool. There might instead be something stuck in the blades of the fan that’s causing a strange noise—like, for example, animal hair. See How to Fix a Computer Fan That’s Loud or Making Noise if you think the true source of the strange sounds is actually one of your computer’s fans. When you open a certain program or window on your computer, you might hear a noise increasingly becoming louder—one that’s easy to mistake for a hard drive noise. This most likely means there’s a disc in the disc drive that’s spinning faster than it previously was so that the computer can read data from it, which is normal. Popping or static noises from the speakers might also be mistaken for hard drive noises (the cable might not be firmly attached to the computer plug), as might some BIOS beep codes and high-pitched whines.
