HDD "clicking noise"

TVeblen tnx for all that information i will start testing step by step and see what i can do

just so we are clear
the "broken" PC is the PC you saw on the video , the spec writen on my profile are the spec of that PC and it has a working cdrom with burner
i have a lot of options at home since i got 3 laptops ( including the small one with no cdrom ) and another much weaker pc i dont use much
i have 120 gb , 80 gb 250,1TRB hard disks that are external , all are usb connected except the 1TRB i dont use this one since mionet software dont support windows 7

im gonna start now with the suggestions

-double thread-

so i removed the HDD , booted to bios and the boot order was set for CD first then HDD

so now i need to buy a new HDD right and then start from scratch ?
after successful reinstall i try the options to see what can be saved from it ?


i opened the HDD , i plugged it in while the cover lid was off
started pc and saw the magic happen
the pin just moved left , right , left , right and just went back to its previous state and nothing after that happens ..
could it be a problem with the magnets ? or the pin ? tomorrow ill take it to a repair shop to get an opinion from them and if i must ill get a new 500 gb HDD for 50euro and mess arround with the one i have now ( if all options are exausted and its proclaimed DEAD :| )

Yikes! Opening the drive was not a good idea. That is usually done in a clean room with the guys in the space suits! This is because the inside of the drive must be sterile-clean. Any dust or fingerprints will cause read and write errors.

So let us now bow our heads and say goodbye to our good friend the hard drive .
"It's dead, Jim" (Classic Star Trek).

So yes, it's time to buy a new drive and start over. See what the guys at the shop say about getting any data off of the old drive.

Out of curiosity, does it spin? I've never played with one like that. I'm now tempted!
You might try taking a pencil and very gently push on the arm with the eraser end to see if you can get it to move towards the center of the disk. The magnets never "go bad". What happens is the arm gets stuck in the "park" position and will not swing freely. The read heads are only micrometers off the surface of the platters, so you must be very careful touching it or it will scratch the platters and destroy the heads.

ok so .. if that kind of process is done by the man in space suits
HOW my friend has opened so many hard drives in a normal room with normal clothes on with normal tools and the hard drives didnt show any problems ? :)

and yes the disk does spin , like the CD does in an MP3 player :)) it also creates a lot of wind around it
the disk hasnt been touched , no dust can be seen , spots .. nothing . its same as a mirror
and what "arm" ? do u mean the pin arm ? i did push it and it can get to the center , it can do that on its own when i start my pc and windows tries to boot from it

Fascinating. I have just never dared try it. Maybe it is not as we have been told.

So, with the cover off and hooked up to your computer you can see the "pin" moving across the spinning platter (it should "wag" back and forth)? But it still does not boot? Do you still get the "boot device not found" message?

Have you double checked the SATA cable connections? Tried another cable?

EDIT: Does it still click with the cover off?

Frikster said:

HOW my friend has opened so many hard drives in a normal room with normal clothes on with normal tools and the hard drives didnt show any problems ? :)

Wow! Thats risky - he must be very lucky.

yes TVeblem i did all that except changing the sata cable
and yes the pin "wags" and makes the sound
when there is no power and i move the pin on the disk and i flip the device it makes a sound .. a friend ( the one that fixes the HDDs without a space suit ) tells me that shouldnt happen , and if the pin is on normal position ( not on disk ) no sound . and yes i still get the message to insert a boot device
i sent the whole pc in the repair shop and today i get to start from scratch which will suck
after i get all the stuff back ill first make a video of the old device , and how it works :)

edit : dont try it , i did all that because it was time to get a new HDD anyway because this 120 gb one isnt enough even with all the externals i got and since it is malfunctioning experimenting and feeding my curiosity was then a priority

Oh I wouldn't do it on a hard drive in a working computer. But I have a small collection of old hard drives and a special computer in my basement that I use just for testing found components and Frankenstein experiments !

Thank you for the info. It helps in trying to diagnose these things. A lot of times we know that a thing happens, but we don't know why it happens.

We have been told for years that the clicking in a dying drive is caused because the "Actuator Arm" was frozen (would not "wag"). That is obviously not true in your case. I would love to know what makes the actual click sound. Can you determine that?

YouTube - spinn

ok so here is a video i recorded :)
give me your thoughts