Hard Disk Making Clicking Noises and Inaccessible, How Do I Recover My Files?

Written By Oliver Powell
Approved By Rohit Arora
Updated on 23 Feb, 2023
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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 Recover From interface where you can choose a location, from where, 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.

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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.

66 comments

Ben Hall says:

February 14, 2017 at 10:22 am

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!!!

Reply
Joseph Thomson says:

January 25, 2017 at 5:46 am

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.

Reply
Cameron Mills says:

January 23, 2017 at 9:44 am

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.

Reply
Paul Martin says:

December 29, 2016 at 10:22 am

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.

Reply
Jeff Jones says:

December 23, 2016 at 9:26 am

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.

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Jose Clark says:

December 15, 2016 at 8:20 am

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.

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Kelly Reed says:

December 12, 2016 at 10:42 am

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!!!

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Kevin says:

October 5, 2016 at 9:28 pm

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

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1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  October 7, 2016 at 8:23 am
  
  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
  
  Reply
  1. Kevin says:
    
    October 7, 2016 at 4:59 pm
    
    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
  2. Jyoti Prakash says:
    
    October 17, 2016 at 6:33 am
    
    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.
Basil Lawrence says:

September 26, 2016 at 9:18 am

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.

Reply
Ford Lyn says:

September 15, 2016 at 10:53 am

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?

Reply