Of course, it depends on your requirements, your collection size, etc. You should only care about the sound of the drive if you’re basically at your computer. I have a very quiet 16TB RAID that contains my approximately 12,000 FLAC files (320GB wo. The Best External Hard Drive Capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 5TB Drive Type: HDD Transfer Protocol: USB 3.2 Gen1 (USB 3.0) Sequential Reads: 120MBps Warranty: 3 Years $119.99.
Summary :
Is your internal or external hard drive beeping or clicking abnormally, for example, Seagate hard drive? Take it easy now! Here we will help you troubleshoot a beeping/clicking Seagate hard drive while providing you with two effective methods to ensure data security.
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Hard Drive Making Clicking Noise or Beeping Sound
'I have a Seagate hard drive that I've used for maybe a year and it started beeping. I turned on my Xbox and the stuff on it doesn't show up on the console. 'Reddit
The hard drive is usually nearly silent, but sometimes it emits a muted clicking sound when it is being accessed or turned off. This is totally normal.
However, if you start hearing noises occasionally or sound that you haven't heard before like clicking, beeping, vibration or grinding, there might be something wrong. Some of you have complained about hard drives are making noises during operations such as connecting to your computers, transferring files, etc.
Reportedly, hard drive noise issue often happens on the Seagate external hard drive. Additionally, hard disk noise can also occur if you are using other brands of external hard drives like HGST, My Passport, Transcend, etc. An internal hard drive could also be beeping sometimes.
If your hard drive is making abnormal noises, the next thing to do is to determine if the hard drive is really faulty. If it is, continue reading to follow the instructions below to protect your disk data.
Where Is My External Hard Drive
Simply Fix Seagate Hard Drive Beeping/Clicking
When your hard drive is making clicking or beeping noise, you can try the following five ways to troubleshoot this issue. Just follow the clear instructions below.
Way 1: Clear the Dust
Photoshop cs6 torrent mac. Sometimes, the Seagate hard drive beeps if its port is dusty. Follow the guide below on how to clear the dust.
Step 1: Disconnect your external hard drive from the computer.
Step 2: Unplug the cable from your disk.
Step 3: Blow into the ports of your computer, hard drive, and cable.
Step 4: Reconnect the hard drive to the PC via the same cable and check whether the hard drive beeping issue still happens.
Way 2: Use Another Cable
Best Portable External Hard Drive
Sometimes the hard drive clicking or beeping noise disappears when the power cable is plugged in but returns when you attach the data cable to the hard disk. In this case, perhaps the problem is caused by a damaged data cable.
You can try using a different cable to connect your external hard drive to the computer. After that, see if the beeping or clicking sound is gone.
Way 3: Plug Your Disk to Another Port
Another cause of your Seagate hard drive beeping may be a faulty port. So try connecting it to a different USB port, then see if hard drive noise is gone afterward.
Way 4: Use a USB Y-cable or Plug to a USB Hub
Your Seagate external hard drive might beep when there isn't enough power to support it. Therefore, you can try using a USB Y-cable - a cable with two connectors - to get rid of beeping sound. You should make sure the two connectors are plugged to your computer tightly.
Alternatively, you can use a USB hub to connect your hard drive to your PC instead of connecting it directly. Now see if the hard drive is still making the same beeping noise.
Way 5: Connect Your External Hard Drive to Another Computer
The hard drive beeping/clicking sound may still exist even after trying the methods above. In this case, you can try connecting the target hard drive to another computer.
Unfortunately, it is very common for the methods above to not be sufficient to help you out. If the beeping sound or clicking noise persists, perhaps the hard drive has failed. So what should you do? Let's go to the next section to find the solution.
Check Your Disk in Case of Hard Drive Beeping or Clicking
To check your Seagate hard drive, you can use the Windows CHKDSK command line tool. Please make sure the disk can be recognized by your PC, then follow the steps below: (we use Windows 10 as an example):
Step 1: Connect the target disk to your computer.
Step 2: Type CMD in the search box, and then right-click this tool to run Command Prompt as administrator.
Step 3: Type the following command and press the Enter key:
chkdsk g: /r
Note: G refers to the drive letter of the partition on your external hard drive. If there is more than one partition, please replace the drive letter and repeat step 3.
Additionally, you can also use a professional hard drive testing software to check the external hard drive when your disk beeps. Here, we recommend using MiniTool Partition Wizard; its Surface Test feature can be used to check whether there are bad sectors on the drive.
After launching MiniTool Partition Wizard, choose your Seagate external hard drive, click Surface Test and then click Start Now. If bad blocks exist, this tool will mark them in red.
Warning: This software cannot shield bad sectors if it finds any. This post - What to Do If I Find Bad Sectors on Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7 will be helpful to you. After that, you can continue using this disk. But here comes a question: what if the data saved on the hard drive is important to you? Under this circumstance, we recommend protecting your data first and foremost.
Keep Data Safe in Case of Hard Drive Beeping/Clicking due to Disk Failure
If you are certain that your external hard drive is causing the strange noises, it's time for you to protect the data security now. Take it easy, we will show you two useful methods below.
Way 1: Back up External Hard Drive
Note: If you hear the external hard drive beeping but it is still recognizable by the computer, please immediately back up the data on it if possible.
The best way to back up your data is to use a piece of professional and free backup software - MiniTool ShadowMaker. As a reliable and safe backup program, it helps you back up files/folders, Windows operating system, disk or partition in simple clicks.
In addition to disk imaging, it offers other two kinds of backup methods: disk cloning and file syncing. The disk cloning method backs up all the data on the external hard drive. The syncing method quickly synchronizes your important files to other locations; these files can be viewed directly.
Now, download MiniTool ShadowMaker for free from the button below and have a try now for data protection.
Step 1: Run MiniTool ShadowMaker.
Step 2: Go to the Backup page, click the Source module, enter Folders and Files to choose the important files on the external hard drive that you want to back up.
Step 3: Choose the destination path to save the file backup image. Here, you can back up your crucial data to a USB flash drive, or your internal hard drive.
Step 4: After that, you can click Back up Now to start backing up files.
If you don't want to back up files to an image in case of hard drive beeping, you can choose to sync files. To do this, enter the Sync page, choose the source files and target path and start syncing files.
You can also back up the disk data via disk cloning in the event of Seagate hard drive clicking/beeping. MiniTool ShadowMaker offers a feature called Clone Disk that can transfer all information on the external drive to another hard drive.
Note: The target disk needs enough disk space to hold all the data on the external hard drive that keeps beeping.
Go to the Tools page, choose your external hard drive as the source disk, select another hard disk as the target disk and then start cloning.
Tip: In addition to MiniTool ShadowMaker, MiniTool Partition Wizard can also help you clone the external hard drive for data backup. Learn more in this post - How to Clone a Hard Drive to SSD in Windows 10/8/7.
In conclusion, MiniTool ShadowMaker is really useful for backing up your important files in case of hard drive noise. Now, don't hesitate to download it to create a file backup image, sync files or clone disk.
After finishing the backup, you should consider replacing the hard drive. If MiniTool has helped you, you can share this software with your friends.
Way 2: Recover Data from Seagate Hard Drive with Beeping/Clicking Sound
In addition to backing up data using MiniTool ShadowMaker, you might prefer recovering data from the hard drive that keeps beeping. If your disk can still be recognized in the event of hard drive beeping, you can choose to perform a data recovery easily with a third-party program.
To do this operation, we recommend MiniTool Power Data Recovery, one of the best hard drive recovery software. It enables easy and effective recovery of files, pictures, videos, etc. from a damaged hard drive without bringing any damage to the original data.
Additionally, it scans not only deleted or lost files but also existing files on your hard drive. Why not download MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial Edition for free to your Windows 10/8/7 computer and try it now?
Note: MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial can only be used to scan the hard drive but not to restore files. Here, you can use this edition to check whether your needed data is found. If so, upgrade to its full edition.
Step 1: Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial Edition to its main interface, then choose a proper recovery module to continue.
If your Seagate external hard drive has only one partition that is recognized, you can use This PC. If the hard drive has more than one partition or the partitions are not showing up, try using Hard Disk Drive to scan the entire disk. Here, we take the latter as an example.
Then, choose the disk that is beeping clicking, and click the Scan button to start a scan.
Step 2: The entire external hard drive is now being scanned. To get the best recovery, wait patiently until the scan completes.
After that, you can go check whether your needed files are scanned and discovered. Unfold each partition in Path, or take full advantages of these features: Find, Filter or Type to search for files.
Note: If MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial discovered files that you need, you should upgrade to its full edition Personal Deluxe for a full recovery operation. After getting a license, click the Register button to activate this software.
Step 3 (after purchasing the full edition): Check all the files required and then click Save to restore them to a safe location.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is able to recover data after hard drive crash effectively and rapidly; you can try it yourself.
Tip: Maybe your Seagate external hard drive beeps 11 times but not recognized with a flashing light or you meet hard drive beeping and not booting. In this case, the disk is completely damaged an unusable; there is not any way to retrieve the data back. The only option is to contact the disk manufacturer for help.
Bottom Line
Is your Seagate external hard drive beeping or clicking? Try these simple solutions to fix it! If they didn't work and your drive is corrupted, check the disk and try your best to back up or recover important files from the disk.
If you have any suggestion to get rid of hard drive beeping/clicking noise or experience any question when using MiniTool software, please inform of us by sending an email to [email protected] or leaving a comment below.
Summary :
When using a computer, you may find some noises start coming from your hard drive, like buzzing, grinding, scratching, squeaking, clicking, etc. What should you do when your hard drive is making noise? Now, follow these instructions mentioned in this post from MiniTool. As well, some information on a noisy hard drive is also introduced.
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Hard Drive Making Noise
For a hard drive, it has moving parts. When they move, they can create sound. To put it another way, like a car engine, your hard disk can be noisy but still healthy. This situation is normal and normal hard drive sounds that you expect to hear is a low humming or quiet whirring noise when booting up it or accessing data.
Tip: Internal or external hard drives can make some noise but you won’t hear noise from SSDs since they don’t have moving parts like traditional hard drives. Want to learn more information on HDD and SSD? This post - SSD VS HDD: What's the Difference? Which One Should You Use in PC is what you need.
However, some noises indicate that something is seriously wrong, for example, repetitive clicking, very noticeable humming/buzzing, grinding, vibration, screeching, squeaking or scratching.
In the following parts, we will help you determine if the hard drive is really faulty. If yes, what you should do before all the precious data is gone is also introduced here.
Hard Drive Making Noise: What to Do?
Determine If the Noise Really Comes From Your Hard Drive
As mentioned above, it is normal for the hard drive to make some noise. The sound is always low-pitched and relatively unobtrusive. So, the first thing you should do is making sure the actual source of the noise comes from your hard drive rather than a different hardware component.
Just power off your computer, unplug the power and data cables from your hard drive and boot up the computer. If you still hear the noise, it is clear that your hard drive doesn’t have a sound issue. If the noise is gone after plugging in the power cable but returns if you attach the data cable to your disk, it is necessary to replace the data cable.
If this cannot help you know if your hard drive is making noise, try some other scenarios to really pinpoint the source.
Screw Issue
Rattle sound usually comes from some loose screws. If you hear a rattle, shut down your PC and tighten all the screws. If you hear the rattle around inside, it is possible that a screw comes off inside. Just remove the offending screw and use a new one.
Computer Making Buzzing Noise - Fan Issue Sometimes
A computer has other components like a fan, disc drive, or other things that can make noise.
If your PC is working for a specific task like a memory-hogging video game, you can find the fans running faster to keep the hardware cool.
If you hear a strange sound like buzzing, perhaps there is something that obstructs the normal functioning of the fans or the blades hit each other. Just open your computer, clear the dust and check the blades of the fans.
External Hard Drive For Laptop
CD/DVD Is Making Noise
CD-ROM and DVD disc drives can also generate noises when it is accessed. Usually, the disc drive noise should be a soft whirling or spinning sound that is only generated when accessing the disc drive. Just remove the CD/DVD to fix the noise.
Hasbro candyland computer game download. After some checks, if you make sure the noise like loud buzzing, grinding, scratching, squeaking or vibration comes from your hard drive, now follow these tips below.
Something to Do If You Ensure Hard Drive Making Noise
Let’s know the unnormal hard drive noise when reading or idle again:
Hard drive making buzzing noise
Hard drive grinding noise
Hard drive squeaking
Hard drive vibration
Platter scratch noise from hard drive or hard drive scratching noise
If you hear a noise, take action now!
Tip: In addition, you may find the situation - your hard drive beeping or clicking. If yes, refer to this post - [SOLVED] Seagate Hard Drive Beeping? Here Is What You Should Do!
Option 1: Run a Disk Diagnostic Software or CHKDSK
Actually, many pieces of hard drive diagnostic software are available on the Internet. Which one should you use to test your hard disk? You can use one in the top 10 list, for example, HD Tune, Seagate SeaTool, HDDScan, HDD Regenerator, etc.
When running the diagnostic program, you should close down all the other programs and disconnect any other devices so that the result is exact.
Note: Some repair software can show you the disk status and mark the areas of the hard drive that are failing as 'bad' to prevent the computer from using them in the future. But it won’t fix a hard drive that's failing. Then, you can take measures for data protection after clearly knowing the disk health problem.
Or you can use the Windows built-in tool - CHKDSK. In the Command Prompt window, type chkdsk x: /r (x means the drive letter or the bad hard drive) to locate bad sectors and recover readable information.
Have you ever met the issue bad sectors on hard drive? What can you do if your hard drive has a bad block? This post will show you.
Sometimes the diagnostic software couldn’t be helpful for the hard drive making noise fix, but sometimes the hard drive noise can be stopped by the program but the case is only temporary since the hard drive may continue to fail until it is useless completely.
To keep your disk data safe, make a full backup and replace the hard drive no matter which situation you encounter.
Option 2: Back up Your PC Data in Case of Hard Drive Making Noise
One of the best ways to back up your data is using an online backup service like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.
Tip: Our previous post - Google Drive VS Dropbox: Which Is Your Best File Storage Choice is helpful for you.
In this way, your files are kept in the cloud and less vulnerable to being destroyed or lost. Information on how to back up data to the cloud can be found from the Internet, so, we won’t describe much.
Additionally, another backup method is to use free backup software. This is a fast method for PC backup. When getting a noisy hard drive, you can try MiniTool ShadowMaker to back up your important files via imaging or sync methods to any external or removable media storage.
Besides, you can use it to clone the failing hard drive to a working hard drive after shielding the bad sectors that are found by CHKDSK.
Right now, download MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition by the following button and install it to your Windows 10/8/7 computer for a 30-day free trial. To use all the features all the time, upgrade it to Pro or an advanced one via MiniTool Store.
Then, let’s see how to back up the disk data via disk cloning.
Step 1: Run MiniTool ShadowMaker.
Step 2: Click Tools in the navigation bar and then choose Clone Disk from some utilities.
Step 3: Select the source disk (the failing hard drive) and target disk (a new hard drive). Then, click OK to start the cloning process.
Tip: 1. The target hard drive should have enough disk space to hold all the contents of the source disk. This post - MiniTool Programs Help to Clone Hard Drive to Smaller SSD is helpful for you. 2. You should not store important data to the destination disk since the cloning process can destroy all the data of that disk.
Step 4: The cloning process will take some time and you can check the box of Shut down the computer when the operation is completed.
Step 5: After finishing the disk cloning, you should ensure the computer is turned off, then remove the failing hard drive and put the cloned disk to the original place. Then, you can reboot your computer from the new disk.
Note: 1. If your PC won’t boot from the cloned hard drive, what should you do? Refer to this post - Cloned Drive Won't Boot | How to Make Cloned Drive Bootable to get solutions! 2. In addition, you can back up only your important files to an external hard drive instead of disk cloning, replace the bad disk and then install a new system to the new hard drive.
MiniTool ShadowMaker can back up your PC data easily when you encounter this situation - hard drive making noise, like buzzing, grinding, scratching, squeaking or vibration. Now, get this backup software to keep data safe. Also, you can share it with your friends on Twitter.
Recover Data from Noisy Hard Drive
In addition to PC data backup, you can also recover data if you encounter these situations – hard drive grinding noise, hard drive making buzzing noise, hard drive scratching noise, hard drive squeaking, etc.
How can you get data from the hard drive that is making noise? MiniTool Power Data Recovery, professional data recovery software for Windows, can be a good assistant.
With it, you can retrieve files from multiple storage devices including SSDs, HDDs, external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, pen drives, CD/DVD discs, etc. During the scan, the existing data and deleted or lost files can be found and recovered.
Now, you can get the Trial Edition of this program on your PC to check if it can find your needed data.
Step 1: Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery and then go to the Hard Disk Drive section.
Step 2: Choose the hard drive that has buzzing, grinding, scratching or other noise and then click Scan for a disk scan.
Tip: Before the scan, you can use Settings to make some advanced settings, for example, only scan specific data types.
Step 3: Then, this recovery software is scanning your hard drive. This will take some time.
Step 4: After the scan, go to check if it finds some files that you need. If yes, the trial edition won’t help you perform the recovery and you need to register it with a license key that you can get via MiniTool Store.
Step 5: Then, check the files you need and click Save to recover them to a local place like an external hard drive.
After getting your important data, now you should replace your hard drive that is making noise.
Bottom Line
Is your hard drive making noise when idle or reading, for example, buzzing, grinding, scratching, squeaking or vibration? After reading this post, you should know what you should do when getting hard drive noise – just keep your disk data safe and replace the bad disk with a new one.
On the other hand, it is best to tell us if you have any questions when using our software or have any suggestions. Here, you can leave your idea in the comment part below or contact us via [email protected].
Hard Drive Making Noise FAQ
Hard drives have moving parts and they can make noise when things move. Usually, the noise is low-pitched.
How do you know when your hard drive is going bad?
There are some signs of impending hard drive failure. To know when your hard drive is going bad, you can refer to this post - Here Are 6 Signs Indicating Hard Drive Failure, Check out Now.
Generally, SSDs are completely silent and don’t make noise since they don’t have moving parts.
Hard drive making clicking noise is caused by many reasons, as shown below: