Identifying and troubleshooting Western Digital hard drive noise issues There can be several reasons why a WD drive may be making a clicking noise: The drive is not getting enough power to fully spin up; The drive has failed; Occasional clicks during data access; Hard clicks during a head park operation (shutdown or sleep mode);…
Identifying and troubleshooting Seagate hard drive noise issues Today’s seagate hard drives are very quiet and usually the system fan noise covers the drive. When the system ventilation fans get dirty or out of balance they can begin to make noise. Sometimes the hard drive is suspected of making these new noises. Older hard drives…
Now discuss the Causes & Solutions of Two Main types of Noise which is occurred in WD HDDs (Especially Related To L-shape PCBs).
Clicking Noise and Continuous Noise:
1- The Clicking Noise
when you power on the hard drive u will hear a noise like (click,click….click,click…click,click)
this noise may be related to the head stack or PCB, the first thing you have to do is to check the PCB By The following steps:
1)- first you have to clean the Whole PCB With a Solvent & Toothbrush then wipe it with a piece of smooth handkerchief to remove the dust & dirt from it.
Caution: Cleaning of the PCB must be done carefully to avoid removal of any small electronic components.
2)- Check the Resistor (R120), [the right value of this Resistor is (0.12 Ohm)], you may adjust your multimeter to Resistor Measuring Mode to determine its Value, if its damaged you have to replace it. but before that, you have to check Transistor Q3 , it’s a 6 pins transistor , for measuring this transistor you may adjust your multimeter to Diode Mode,[ the right Value will be: (first two pins = 0.000 , second two pins =0.000 , Third two pins = nearly over 600)]
if Q3 is Damaged it will burn ur R120 after u replace it , so be sure that Q3 is ok before replacing R120 & u may also Check Transistor Q6 by the previous method to be completely sure it’s safe to replace R120.
Note: ( to be sure of The right values of these electronic components u may compare the values u have measured with the values of a working PCB’s Components)
3)- Check The Coils (such as L2 & L7) – adjust your multimeter to diode mode then the right value must be ( 0.000 ) for any coil as u all know.
4) – inspect the whole PCB for any removed component (such as small capacitors or Resistors) … the removal of these small components may occurred while forced cleaning of the PCB…. so be careful while cleaning it.
5) – in rare cases the firmware microchip may be damaged.
First of all you need to find out what is the real problem with your drive. You have to be 100% sure that you diagnosed the hard drive correctly. And serial port (so-called “Terminal”) is the only “proper” way to diagnose the hard drive. Forget about swapping heads until you are absolutely sure they are the problem. There is no room for mistake.
There are lots of reasons why a hard drive can make clicking noise, and yes, the most common reason is malfunctioning head stack (either a head itself or the preamplifier chip that is located on the head stack). But there are chances that the problem is not the head stack. You need to find that out via hard drive’s serial port.
Again, never open a drive unless you are 100% sure that the problem is inside. This applies to everyone, including all data recovery people out there.
Now, speaking about heads, it is possible to change the head stack without damaging platters. Cool guys somehow manage to swap 14+ heads head stacks without it being something very special to them. You just need some good experience. I believe it’s been told hundreds of times, but it is worth repeating: good data recovery people spent years to gain the knowledge and experience needed to perform something that is slightly more than just swapping PCBs and using Winhex.
Hope this will give you some better understanding of the situation.
Have you ever heared a clicking noise from your hard drive? Do you want to know how to diagnose and recover your hard drive from this noise? Recently i found a professional recovery company (DataCent.com) which is good at recoverying data from thses hard drive clicks such as bellows:
Western Digital
1. Western Digital desktop drive with bad heads clunking.
2. Western Digital 500GB desktop drive with bad heads slowly clicks a few times and spins down.
3. Western Digital 250GB desktop drive with head crash clicks a few times, then spins down.
4. Western Digital 250GB desktop drive with stuck spindle can’t spin up, chatters.
5. Western Digital laptop drive with bad heads making clicking sound.
6. Western Digital 200GB desktop drive with bad preamplifier chip (located on the headstack) clicks a few times, spins down.
7. Western Digital desktop drive with unstable heads clicks a few times and stops spinning.
8. Western Digital laptop hard drive with stuck spindle trying to spin up with siren.
9. Western Digital 500GB desktop hard drive with bad bearings can’t gain full rotational spee
Seagate
1. Seagate desktop drive with degrading heads making thrashing, then clicking sound.
2. Seagate desktop drive with bad heads slowly clicks and beeps on spin up.
3. Seagate laptop drive with bad heads making clicking/knocking sound.
4. Seagate desktop drive with seized spindle trying to spin up.
5. Seagate Momentus laptop drive with bad heads making nasty drilling noise.
Maxtor
1. Maxtor desktop drive with bad heads making clicking/knocking/beeping noise.
2. Maxtor drive with bad heads making steady clicking/knocking sound.
3. Maxtor desktop drive with stuck spindle playing futuristic cell phone melody.
4. Maxtor drive with stuck spindle and musical siren again.
Samsung
1. Samsung 80GB desktop hard drive with bad heads making fast clicking sound.
2. Samsung desktop hard drive with bad heads clicks, then spins down.
3. Samsung 40GB desktop hard drive with bad head knocks a few times.
4. Samsung desktop drive with degrading media making scratching sound when hitting bad sectors.
Hitachi/IBM
1. Hitachi laptop drive with bad heads clicks once on spin up, then beeps.
2. IBM desktop drive with degrading media making scratching sound when hitting area with bad sectors.
3. Hitachi/IBM laptop drive with bad heads making clicking sound.
4. IBM 40GB desktop hard drive with degrading media/heads rattles and squeals on spin up.
5. Hitachi 60GB laptop drive with stuck spindle can’t spin up, makes humming/buzzing noise.
Toshiba
1. Toshiba laptop hard drive with stuck spindle trying to spin up(heard if taken close to your ear).
2. Toshiba laptop drive with degrading bearings making grinding sound.
3. Toshiba laptop drive with bad bearings making loud grinding sound.
4. Toshiba laptop drive with bad bearings making nasty drilling/screaming sound.
5. Toshiba laptop drive with bad heads making clicking/sweeping sound on boot up.
Fujitsu
1. Fujitsu laptop drive with bad heads making clicking/knocking noise.
2. Fujitsu laptop hard drive with bad heads making sweeping sound.
3. Fujitsu 40gb desktop drive with bad media making scratching noise.
Quantum
1. Quantum desktop drive with bad heads making clunking sound.
