USB Hard disk ticking

[russell2002]

Hi, I have a 250gb external western digital hard disk which sound like its been accessed every few seconds when its not.

I have used filemon to check and no access attempts are been made.

If I open a file the ticking stopes, but starts again a few mins later ?

Any ideas...

 

[arcenite]

back up now!

 

[wallrunnerm15]

your disk is about to kick the can. back it up with something like norton ghost and get a new drive to copy it directly onto

 

[russell2002]

cheers, will do so now. thanks.

 

[imported_Stew]

Originally posted by: wallrunnerm15
your disk is about to kick the can.

lol.

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, Not 100% on this but have read forums lately that claim that some drives do a continuous test while not being accessed. Get the Drive Makers diagnosis an run the tests before you condem the drive. I have two that are doing the same. Good Luck, Jim

Edit: To add - The internal drives I have seen doing this are also flashing the drive activity light. You have to look closely as the falshes are very short. Jim

 

[russell2002]

I have just noticed that my other external drive which actually has a seagate drive inside not WD is now doing the same !!!!!

Anyone else any ideas.

Also I have run scan disk several times and performance tests and all is ok.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: russell2002
I have just noticed that my other external drive which actually has a seagate drive inside not WD is now doing the same !!!!!

Anyone else any ideas.

Also I have run scan disk several times and performance tests and all is ok.

Maybe it always ticked and you are just noticing it. Is it loud? Do you have any powersaving settings in your system? Sometimes HDs, when idle, defrag themselves. Or some souch thing like that.

 

[russell2002]

Its not loud, not as loud as when you open a file. Powersaving has been tried off and on with the same results.

 

[russell2002]

Also I have the same results if the drives are disconnected from the computer but still powered up.

So that rules out a virus accessing them...

 

[jmsnodgr]

Hi Russell,

I wanted to report that I have the same problem you do. I have a Seagate 250GB HD that I bought a month ago to put into an external drive enclosure. As soon as I plugged it in, I noticed the "ticking" (sounds like a drive seek) occurring about every 5-10 seconds, regardless of what kind of activity is going on. I've listened to a lot hard drives over the years, but never heard anything like that so I assumed I must have a bad drive (although it appears to operate fine). Maybe if you and other users are seeing the same thing this is normal(?!?) behavior. If it is normal, it's kind of annoying!

I've turned it off while I try to investigate. If you find any resolution, pleast post here, and I'll do the same. I think my next step is to try to contact Seagate and ask if this is normal or not.

Thanks!!

Jeff

 

[russell2002]

I have now had 3 Seagate drives and they all do the same.

So maybe its normal.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: russell2002
I have now had 3 Seagate drives and they all do the same.

So maybe its normal.

[sarcasm]yeah it's normal for anyone who drops/bumps their drives a lot[/sarcasm]

 

[psychotesis]

Take a look at this.
http://www.adrc.net/data-recovery-faq/did-my-hard-disk-drive-fail.html