Summary: If your Mac startup disk drive or external hard drive makes a bizarre clicking or buzzing sound, then it's not a good sign. Such noise is produced due to the physical damage received on the storage media's delicate components. This blog will try to share some solutions which can prove helpful in recovering data from a clicking Mac hard drive.
Contents
Note: Create Recovery Drive feature is only available in Stellar Data Recovery Version 10 & earlier! The latest version has eliminated the need of any other Mac or external device. User can directly use Stellar Data Recovery through an activated link.
A Few Noted Symptoms
When failing, the storage media might show up a few signs on your Mac along with the notorious clicking sound:
1) Startup disk freezes or Mac may not boot
2) External hard drive may not mount
3) Unable to perform read/write operations
There could be a few more symptoms of the same. So let’s focus on solutions:
Startup Disk Making a Clicking Noise: What to Do?
If your Macintosh HD is producing clicking noise, then perform the below action:
(i) Try to backup – i.e., connect your Time Machine to Mac immediately and let the Mac perform the full backup. If you are new to the Time Machine application, then learn how to use Time Machine easily.
(ii) Recovery Mode – Shut down and press the power button to start your Mac system; immediately press and hold the Command and R keys simultaneously. Release the keys once you are in Recovery Mode.
(iii) Disk Utility – In recovery mode, navigate to the Disk Utility app and connect another external hard drive (must be bigger than your startup disk). Use Disk Utility < Restore feature to image or clone your startup disk to another external device.
(iv) Install macOS – Skip the above method (iii), connect an external hard drive to Mac, restore the Time Machine backup, or reinstall macOS on the external hard drive. Now, boot your Mac with the external hard drive. Later, you can reach out to Apple Care or a data recovery service provider to evaluate your startup disk for recovery.
External Disk Making a Clicking Noise: What to Do?
You can apply the above few solutions if your external hard drive makes a clicking noise and its contained data is at stake.
(i) Copy Data – Connect another storage media and copy all the possible files and folders from the external device to a new healthier device.
(ii) Disk Utility – Boot into recovery mode and restore through the Disk Utility function.
(iii) Change its Enclosure ? This may hardly work since the damage might have occurred internally on the storage medium. Still, you can give it a shot.
Will Mac Data Recovery Software Work?
Apple Care or data recovery services are usually very costly, and they should be considered the last available option (i.e., when nothing works). However, there is no harm in trying to perform data recovery on a clicking hard drive with the help of a professional Mac data recovery tool.
- Install Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac software on your Mac or another Mac. It gives you an option to “Create Recovery Drive” that can be useful in booting up a crashed Mac system. Learn how to create a recovery drive with Stellar.
- In the case of a clicking external hard drive, you can install the software on your Mac and proceed to the data recovery. But before that, please do check that your hard drive is still showing up in the Disk Utility.
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Resources * Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac ? Download from here * Learn how to create a recovery drive with Stellar |
Perform the below steps once Stellar software in installed successfully:
Step 1) Customize your scan using Select What To Recover interface.
Step 2) Choose the affected hard drive from the available list of devices & Click Scan.
Step 3) The software scans the Hard Drive. After the scanning process, the software lists the available recoverable files.
Step 4) Double-click a file to launch the preview and select all desired files for recovery.
Step 5) Click “Recover” and save the files to the defined location. The process is complete!
When the hard drive is severely corrupt or damaged!
Sometimes, the hard drive is severely damaged and it?s beyond the scope of data recovery software to recover files from it. For instance, when the mechanical parts of the hard drive failure or are exposed to high magnetic fields, scratch on the platter surface, head crash, etc., it is difficult for software to recover data. This is when data recovery services come into the picture.
Professional Mac data recovery services safely and securely recover your data when the hard drive is severely corrupt or is physically damaged. Stellar Data Recovery offers the best Mac hard drive data recovery services. It has exceeded the satisfaction of 2 million+ customers and has Class 100 Clean Room Labs to facilitate a safe environment to ensure complete and accurate data recovery. With the best-in-class tools and data recovery professionals, it is your answer to recover data from severely corrupt and damaged hard drives.
The Final Word!
Mac Hard drives are bound to fail and may turn corrupt or get damaged. Irrespective of the reason, it is imperative to back up your data and identify the early warning or Mac hard drive failure symptoms.
If your Mac hard drive is accessible, then back up the data stored on it; otherwise, you can opt for a Mac hard drive recovery software or leverage data recovery services depending upon the severity of the issue. Also, after getting your data back, replace the affected hard drive with a new one!
