Hard Disk Making Clicking Noises and Inaccessible, How Do I Recover My Files?
Nowadays, with the increasing development of technology; hard drives are also improving, including their storage capacity, speed, compact size, etc. However, due to the higher frequency of usage, these storage drives show issues at times and clicking noise is included as one of those major issues.
Normally, these computer storage drives are quiet and steady, but in case of any physical damages or logical corruption, they can begin to make noise.
There are a number of different hard drive clicking sounds with different reasons. Usually, the older hard drives (whether they are external or internal) have the tendency to create clicking sounds, but when it comes to a new hard drive there could be different causes.
Some type of clicking noise are due to software or driver issues, some of them due to hardware issues, and sometimes due to mechanical faults of the hard drive. The users must be able to differentiate normal noises from detrimental or abnormal noises.
In case your hard drive is making noises, you should identify it immediately and try to recover data from this clicking hard drive. Usually, when a hard drive starts making a clicking noise and there is a logical reason behind it, and subsequently it will not be recognized by the operating system after system restart. At this time you should check whether your hard drive is in working state or dead due to any physical damages.
If there is any logical reason then it can surely be recovered with the help of a data recovery software.
Most of the times there are four probable causes for clicking noise of a hard drive:
- The insufficient power supply is a very common cause of noise in the hard drive. It mostly happens when you have connected multiple devices (including the HDD) to a single port.
- Physical depreciation of the hard drive which results from either simple issues or damage such as a physical shock or trauma.
- A hard drive may be failed due to the faulty data cables, or incorrect drivers installed.
- A crashed hard drive.
Subsequent fixes people have used to recover data from clicking hard drive
- Check whether the hard drive is getting enough power or not. You can do it by plugging the power adapter directly into the power supply. In case it is engaged with multiple devices plugged into it, then you can connect the drive to a different power outlet.
- Replace the data cable with the new one and turn on the drive. Now, if it does not make any noise, then the data cable might be faulty.
- In case the drive still makes noises, then there is a high possibility the drive is failing and needs to be replaced.
If your hard drive is not dead and is recognized by the BIOS, but still inaccessible, then you should surely consider a reliable data recovery tool in order to recover your complete data.
There are plenty of data recovery software available which are capable to recover from noisy hard drives. However, all data recovery tools are not compatible with every type of hard drive, therefore you should be sure about the tool, else you can end up losing all of the data stored on your hard drive.
Here, we have mentioned about a reliable data recovery software that will surely work and retrieve your hard drive’s data. Stellar Data Recovery Professional is a proficient utility in order to restore lost, deleted or formatted hard drive data in few clicks. This professional recovery software is capable of recovering inaccessible data from any type of external or internal storage media.
Detailed steps to recover data from noisy hard drive using Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows
- Run the software on the Windows based system and connect the problem hard drive (you can use the second slot of the PC to connect internal hard drive).
- Check the box for required data from the software interface and click Next.
- You’ll reach to the Select Location interface where you can choose a location, from which, data can be retrieved.
- Press Scan.
- On the completion of the scanning progress, the resultant file/folders will appear in the software interface.
Note: You can switch the Preview tab ON/OFF.
- Select a required file you want to recover and click on the Recover Tab at the right bottom of the software interface.
- A pop-up window will appear asking you for selecting a location for saving your recovered files.
- Choose your destination location and enjoy your recovered data.
This tool has the capability to provide you 100% recovery of your lost, inaccessible and deleted files. If your hard disk is making clicking noises but showing in BIOS, then this software could be your best choice to recover the stored data.
About The Author
Oliver Powell
Oliver Powell is a Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. He is a passionate technology blogger & content creator, He explores new applications and has deep understanding of data recovery. He has experience in Windows & Mac data recovery domain.
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Do this software also provide bootable CD in case of unbootable files recovery from Windows 10 PC?
Hello Carroll,
Unfortunately, the software doesn’t come up with the bootable CD currently. In case we are providing any time in the near future we will let you know.
Hello. My hard drive is giving a clicking sound and not detected on systems. Not even showing on diskmangement. What do i do.
Thanks for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.
Clicking sound on the hard drive usually connected with the physical error which can be the best deal by data recovery experts (service).
We recommend contacting either Stellar Data Recovery service team or any other experts near to your location.
Hello.
My Toshiba 1TB external hard disk drive started making the click of death sound yesterday after I accidentally dropped heavy material on it. I attempted to connect it several times to my laptop but it only clicks on, never boots up to file explorer. I checked under device manager and disk manager and I can see the device, however it doesn’t respond to any command to run or open. Under disk management, it appears as ‘Not Allocated’. Do I need a software recovery or a specialist to look into this, please?
Hello Ema,
Thanks for contacting Stellar Data Recovery!
Sorry to hear about your external hard disk drive.
The clicking sound is usually related to the physical error in the hard disk drive, for that, we recommend to go to data recovery specialist. You can contact our in-lab support team at support[@]stellarinfo[.]com
Hello,
Like others here, my external hard drive fell & now makes a clicking noise when powered on.
I notice you recommend your recovery software to some people with this problem and recommend a data recovery specialist to others with what seems like the same problem.
I’m a little confused & not sure how to proceed. I don’t want to spend hundreds on a specialist if the software will get my data back. But. I don’t want to risk possibly damaging data buy running software on the drive.
Thanks for your help.
Hello Bob,
Sorry to hear about your external hard drive and we do understand the importance of this data for you.
The method of recovery totally depends on whether it is a physical error or logical error of hard drive. Since it was a case of falling hard drive which produces clicking noise, it was mostly seen that data recovery services have better recovery chances.
I have a WD Elements 1 TB hard drive. I connected it to the laptop recently and it just wouldnt open. Windows 7 recognized it as Local Disk G instead of calling it Elements like it normally does. I have a ton of really important data on it, how can i recover all of it? Also if my laptop doesnt have 1 TB free where do i recover the data?
Hello Faiq,
Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.
Kindly download Stellar Windows Data Recovery Professional from the below mentioned link:
https://cloud.stellarinfo.com/StellarDataRecoveryProfessional-B.exe
Please follow the below mentioned steps to perform the scan on the drive:
1. Run Stellar Windows Data Recovery.
2. From Select What to Recover screen, select the type of data i.e. Everything, Documents, Folders & Emails or Multimedia Files, you want to recover.
3. Click on Next.
4. On Select Location screen, select Can’t Find Drive from Other Locations.
5. Click on ‘Scan’ button.
6. In the Select Drive section all the hard drives connected to the system are listed with their details. From this section, choose a hard drive you want to scan for lost partitions and click Search. A scan for lost or deleted partitions will be performed in the selected disk or drive.
7. Any ‘lost partition’ detected, will be listed in the Partition Found section
8. From the list of partitions found, select any desired partition and click Scan to continue with the recovery process.
Note: If you can’t find your desired partition in the Partition Found section, you can choose Deep Scan option to perform a comprehensive scan of the selected drive for deleted or lost partition.
My laptop’s hdd is not detecting by bios most of the time. I m also getting some clicking noise. But when i boot in with kali linux live persistence then it shows up. Really fraustrated by the issue. Hope to find a permanent solution
Hello Asif,
Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.
As you are getting a clicking noise from the drive so it physically damaged. We recommend that you do not use your drive as it may get further damaged.
We provide data recovery services to recover the data from the physically damaged hard drives. The data will be recovered in our ‘Class 100 Clean Room Lab’. Please write to our support team on support@stellarinfo.com so that they can assist you with Data Recovery Services.
Just ran the “free” Stellar Data Recovery tool and it found 1.56 GB of recoverable data on an almost full 500 GB hard drive, at which point it stopped being “free” and I was told I needed to pay $99 in order to recover the data. An hour of my life wasted – thanks for that.
Hello James,
Can you please share the location from where you downloaded the software?
Hello sir can assist me in don’t know what happened to my drive 4-5 days ago it started making clicking sound during boot up of Oscar after soma time it runs smoothly. so I reckon that sound I removed it now I am using different hard drive and using it it is working smooth but after several days I plug that hard drive thought to backup files but it doesn’t boot it , after that I went to see my hard drive in bios setup it is not recognising at all .so please tell me sir how to recover that dead hard drive. either to connect to present hard drive which I am running Windows 10 pro and solve the issue or I have to use other system.for data recovery.
Dear Mobasshir,
As per your query, there is clicking noise coming from your hard drive. It is highly possible that drive is physically damaged and we recommend you not to connect the drive to the system as it may get further damaged.
You can avail our data recovery services to recover the data from the physically damaged drive. Please write to support[at]stellarinfo.com so that our support team can assist you further.
My laptop fell and now it won’t boot and there is a click or sticking sound every 3 seconds coming from the hard drive. I tried connecting another hard drive and everything else seems to be ok with the computer. It is clear that it experienced shock from falling. Is it possible to recover data from the hard drive?
Hello Daina,
Sorry to hear about your laptop
It seems that your drive is physically damaged and we recommend you not to connect the drive to the system as it may get further damaged.
You can avail our data recovery services to recover the data from the physically damaged drive. Please write to support@stellarinfo.com so that our support team can assist you further.
Hey,
Just wondering if this software is able to recover the system restore partition of a Toshiba laptop hdd that has failed and whether I can then just copy that partition over to a replacement hdd to restore the laptop using the product key stored in the bios? I’ve used the software and it recognizes the partitions so the data is visible I just want ensure that I can actually use the data to carry out a restore of Windows 8 Home on a fresh hdd before I actually purchase the software,
Thanks in advance.
Hello Daniel,
As you have performed the system restore on your drive so chances of recovery are less due to the overwritten activity performed on the drive.
Software recovers the data in the same manner as shown in the preview window. You can preview the files in our software to check the possibility of recovery. Once you are satisfied with the preview shown in the software then you can purchase it to save the recovered files.
Our software can save the recovered files however it cannot perform a restore on your drive.
Best Regards
Team Stellar Data Recovery
Since being a professor of a reputed university in the state. I always take soft copies of my lectures in my WD external hard disk. It was easy for me to share with my students. The disk is very frequently used which makes it more prone to failures. On that particular day, I forgot to take backup of my data and suffered a data inaccessible problem. On the recommendation of one of my student, I give a try to use Stellar Data Recovery software. Recovered all my data back. Cheers!
Hello Christina,
Thank you, Professor, for sharing your experience with us. We really appreciate it.
Regards
Team Stellar Data Recoverey
Exactly what I was looking for, thankyou for posting.
Hello Borvest,
Thank You! You may read our other posts also.
My hard disk produce clicking sound and not detected in pc.
How to fix it. Please help.
Hello Absar,
Feel bad about our hard drive.
I recommend downloading free data recovery software from Stellar. Please run on some other working PC machine/laptop, with the infected hard drive as external media. If still, you aren’t able to access your data, the only option left with you is to take help of data recovery services nearby your location.
My internal hdd make clicking noise and i cant boot in because it asks for windows error recovery when i put in the cd for error recovery it stops on “setup starting up” so should i convert my hdd from internal to external and then use your data recover software.
I hope you will answer.
Hello Hitarth,
As your hard drive is making a clicking noise so recovery through software is not possible. We recommend you not to use the hard and we can provide you data recovery services to recover the data.
I tried the software and it didn’t work since my drive can’t be seen by it. I can find the drive in disk management and device management but I can’t do anything with it there. Disk management says that it needs to be initialized but it is an external that had already been used so that will just make it more difficult to get my files. Any other tips to recovering my data?
Hi Sean,
Please try to create an image of the hard drive from the software and then try to recover from image drive.
One of my drive data is not visible in File explorer. Since the importance of data is huge and its recovery is really urgent. I used above mentioned software. It solve all my queries
Hi Mirko,
If you like the software, please share among your friends and colleagues
As far as my experience is concerned for the clicking noise, it is an alarming signal to the failing hard drive. I always take backup of my data once such strange noises start occurring. I thanked Stellar data recovery for highlighting this issue and share their inputs.
Hi Elijah,
Our team is equally delighted to share the common hard drive issues with our users.
My experience with the above-mentioned software was really marvelous. It was the perfect software designed in catering the needs of the user. The interface was crystal clear about what to recover and How to recover. I found no difficulty in recovering my lost images and videos.
I always trust Stellar File Recovery software for maximum recovery of data. This tool works well with my Windows 10. The option to preview deleted files after scanning is a nice option.
I am a great follower of your blog and found that you have been writing about different technology and their strategies for data recovery. This blog also carries a tip of recovering an inaccessible data from a hard disk. Thanks for sharing an informative post with us.
Clicking noise are the most annoying noise from the hard drive. My 2-year-old Samsung hard drive started producing the same type of noise. After checking common causes of noise, I found it was due to one of my faulty cables, which are replaced later on and works smoothly. Please keep on writing these type of material.
It is true clicking noise is a sign of failing hard drive. Immediately disconnect the hard drive and take backup on another healthy drive. Few of the points mention in this post are highly informative as they are rarely discussed in any other platform. Thanks for writing this blog!!!
Clicking noise are the most annoying noise while working on our PC machine. Initially I didn’t take it seriously but one of my close friend informed me about it was dying sign of hard drive. Such type of problems never need to be avoided, it will lead to our data loss. After few hours my data is not visible to me and since there are no backups I take help of above data recovery software. Thanks to stellar for this wonderful tool.
My 2-Year old Seagate 2TB hard drive was recently started producing clicking sounds and suddenly becomes inaccessible. The data in the hard drive is very valuable to me and I need it back at any cost. Contacted my system engineer friend who suggested me to use data recovery software, on his suggestion I tried Stellar Windows product and recovered all my data.
Thanks for writing this post. If the hard drive is not detecting on our PC, the following fixes can be try:
1) Try to interchange connecting wire with some other wire.
2) Checking the port with which hard drive is connected.
3) Hard Drive can be checked on some other working device.
After working on this fixes, if still, hard drive is still inaccessible, you need to try data recovery software.
I too faced a similar situation when my 1.5-year-old hard drive started creating clicking noise. I feel irritated while doing my work. After consulting my friend, he informed me that it was the sign of dying hdd. We all should take immediate backups when faced any such noise in future. Nice Article.
My laptop was also starts creating an unbearable noise due to which, I have to use it on alternate days. It’s such an annoying sound that no one can bear. So, I searched online and landed on this blog to know more about it. I had also used this software to recover my data. Thanks for the software and a blog.
I had faced a similar issue when my 2-year-old hard drive started creating a clicking noise and after half an hour system collapsed. Further to check my critical data, I visited my friend’s house and connected it to his desktop. Unfortunately, it was not detecting, and thus I lost all my data. But, I learned after reading this blog, that preventive measures on time could save us from future losses. Thanks for this informative post!!!
Hello.
I have 2tb Western Digital My Passport External HDD. A few days ago it makes a screeching noise when plugged. I try to fix it using chkdsk command. But it isn’t accessible because after I entered that command My Computer window is not responding although if I open other program its just running fine. If I tried to open it the usual way (double clicking) My Comp window will freezes again. Right now my HDD just making a few clicking noise about a minute and just goes silent. but still can’t be accessed. I already brought my HDD to a specialist and he said it was just a bad sector. But I think it is more than just bad sector. From the disk management system it doesn’t show up, but when I open printers and drivers it shows up but can’t be opened. How can I save my data? Please help me because the data is so important to me
As per my suggestion, first of all, you have to do a cloning of your hard drive and then run our software on it. The software will read the bad sectors and can easily read the save the content required by you.
Kindly share your feedback with us.
Thanks
I don’t know how to clone a drive and an update. Another specialist said that looks like the head is jammed in the middle
Hi Kevin,
I think it’s easy for you if you can go through our software and do the cloning of your hard drive with the help of it. After cloning, you can run our software on your cloned hard drive to recover your data back.
If you still face any problem, kindly acknowledge.
Hey, nice write-up. This blog clearly makes us understand that we do not have to avoid the minor issues related to our system and let us know about the fixes for the clickable noise coming from the system. Thanks for the blog.
I have 4.5 years old hard drive which starts making clicking noise from last 3 months. Earlier, it was so slow that I ignored it on a daily basis. But, today, it makes an unbearable noise which I can’t even think. Should it be the symbol of the death of my hard drive?
Earlier, I thought that the clicking noise is just a normal issue with the system. But, when I had gone through your blog, I found it a little serious. We cannot ignore this kind of problem as this may lead to the Data Loss issue. So, spending money for the recovering the data, I think, making the several copies of the backup and keeping them at different locations is valid. If once, the data has been lost, then we have to recover our data by using the software mentioned above. I feel glad after reading this post…
I had never imagined that the Unexpected Noise coming from the system becomes the reason of ‘Data Loss’. My system was continuously making clicking noise and I even not bothered on it. At the end, I have lost my data. Being a regular reader of your blogs, I remembered this one. With the help of this, I had recovered my lost data. Thanks Stellar for introducing such a great tool with us and thanks for sharing the post with us.
It’s not easy to concentrate on your work when you are hearing such an irritating noise produced from your system. Well balanced content and informative too. It enhances the knowledge of every reader who has read this blog or going to read it. Thanks for sharing an informative blog with us.
Few days back, my system starts producing an unexpected clicking noise which makes me so irritating that I further don’t want to continue my work on it. I had checked it yesterday but it’s not even boot up now. What should I do to recover my data as I have my official data in it? Please suggest.
Well don’t worry, this software is fulfilled with the advanced features and comes with the Bootable CD also, which makes your system bootable. You can download the above-mentioned software to recover your data from your system. Thanks for the query.
I have Western Digital 1TB External Drive. I can’t access data on it anymore. When I plug this drive on my system, the clicking noise continuously produces and stops me to do anything on it… There are heaps of files inside it and unfortunately, I can’t access those… Please suggest me what to do?
As per your query, it states that your hard drive is dead or about to die… There are few probability of Clicking noises which are mentioned above in the blog… If you want to recover your data, then have a look to our Data Recovery Software which will help you in recovering your data back…
I have downloaded this software and using it. It’s quite slow in nature. Will you please tell me the reason that why it is so much slow as I need my files very urgently.
Hello Chris,
Well, the above-mentioned software is quite efficient enough to recover your data back. Considering the case of slow speed, it depends on the various factors such as number of Bad Sectors, size of selected drive etc. Have some patience, let the software be to scan the drive. After the completion of scan process, you can recover your data very easily.
‘Clicking Noise’ in the hard drive is one of the major issue in the hard drive… There are several other reasons for the Clicking Noise such as i) The Hard drive may be on non-level surface, ii) The hard drive heads hitting the internal head stop, iii) Highly fragmented hard drives, etc. Thanks for sharing the post with us…
2 years back, I had purchased a Toshiba Hard drive. Few days back, it start producing the clicking noise. At the end, it becomes dead and I had lost all my data as I forgot to take the backup of my important data. Then, after a research, I get to know about your blog and done all the fixes mentioned in it. But, it won’t work for me. So, I decided to download your software and it works so perfectly that I had easily recovery all of my lost data… Thanks for sharing the post with us…
Hi, from few days my hard drive start making noise I don’t know what is the reason behind this but I can access my data. Is there any issue with drive?
Hi Handi,
Yes, there is problem with your hard drive. I have mentioned some possible reasons for this in my article. I suggest you to take backup of your data and replace the hard drive as soon as possible.
Hi, thank you for suggesting me this data recovery software. I used the software and recovered number of file formats. Thanks once again for such a fast recovery software