Windows 7 - Hard Drive Clicks on Shutdown

you can try to try those clicking drives on another computer. if it still clicks then its probably the hard drives problem. if not, then something to do with your pc.

I think its a power management thing.
And no i dont know how it windows 7 does it.

Hard disk disappearing? answer/question it's ACPI.

im thinking that the firmware in the hard drive detects the spin down and parks the hard drive when the platters are spinning.
i may not be of much help but i tried =(.

I've run into this issue some days ago.
After changing MB and reinstalling system (Windows 7 Ultimate x32) I've noticed the HDD clicks while shutting down my PC.
Then I changed several different HDDs (WD 320, WD 750, Seagate 1Tb) and it was all the same - clicking while shutdown. All HDDs were brand new.

Assuming that drives were ok, I decided to play with BIOS. And after Disabling AHCI (setting Mode to Native IDE) clicking stopped.
In my case:
if Mode = AHCI then HDD clicks
if Mode = IDE then HDD is silent

So just try to disable ACHI and see what happens.


Regarding many threads on different forums on this issue, I suppose that the problem is somewhere in system/drivers/software but it's not about drives and MBs.

AHCI is advanced controlling system for the SATA HDD which is made by Intel. It boosts performance of the HDD but usually not much. In your case it is caused by either the chipset of the MB which controls AHCI or the driver used to identify the HDD and control it. It is best to write to Intel about this issue with details about the MB and drivers used.

[QUOTE=RhapsodyOfFire;1246615]It's not that simple. Before the issue I had WinXP pro SP3, and that was OK. And only after reinstalling OS I noticed those clicks. And then i began to swap different drives. And finally disabled Ahci.


For now I have no time to reinstall OS back to WinXP and check AHCI there again. Maybe later.
Just decided to share my personal experience on this issue. Maybe someone finds it helpful.

I am the OP. Thank you. That worked.

Thanks for the feedback, interesting problem.

Could be a driver caused issue.

Yes, curious.

If disabling AHCI corrected the issue, then the next question that comes to mind is whether the AHCI driver was the generic Intel driver supplied in Windows 7, or if the driver installed was the one provided by the motherboard manufacturer.

I had some drive issues solved by installing the Asus AHCI driver.