HDD Clicking noise

[neoxes]

Hi!

When I use HWInfo sensors my HDD make some clicking noise. Noise frequency is the same of fastest sensor (ex. If I set 1000ms instead of 2000ms on any sensor, clicking noise has the same frequency). If I turn off HWInfo the clicking noise disappears.

Any help? I used to start HWInfo with windows, but now I've to disable it, the noise is annoyng (and maybe dangerous for my HDD).

Thank you!

 

[Martin]

Please try to disable monitoring of the entire disk SMART sensor - right-click on the "S.M.A.R.T." sensor name (under which you see the disk temperature) and select "Disable Monitoring".
If that helps, then the problem is probably in the storage (ATA/SATA) driver and updating this driver might fix this problem.

 

[neoxes]

Please try to disable monitoring of the entire disk SMART sensor - right-click on the "S.M.A.R.T." sensor name (under which you see the disk temperature) and select "Disable Monitoring".
If that helps, then the problem is probably in the storage (ATA/SATA) driver and updating this driver might fix this problem.

Nothing changed, sorry. My SATA driver is the latest one (INTEL).
I've an Asus g74sx laptop with a Corsair Force GT SDD.

 

[Martin]

Please attach a screenshot of your sensors window so I can see all the items there.
And maybe try to disable other sensors one-by-one to find out which one is causing it.

 

[neoxes]

I'll try asap.

---

Found it! It's my secondary HDD (ST9500...) Here:

[attachment=531]

 

[Martin]

Great that you found it Now you can enable the other items back and leave just the ST9500.. SMART disabled until there's a driver update available which fixes this issue.

 

[neoxes]

Great that you found it Now you can enable the other items back and leave just the ST9500.. SMART disabled until there's a driver update available which fixes this issue.

Do you mean Intel controller driver or hdd drive (firmware)?

It seems a mechanic problem.

 

[Martin]

Hard to say what is exactly the cause. Maybe the drive is put into stand-by mode and the query for temperature/SMART data is causing it periodically to wake up. Could be caused by the RST driver or maybe by firmware as well.

 

[neoxes]

Hard to say what is exactly the cause. Maybe the drive is put into stand-by mode and the query for temperature/SMART data is causing it periodically to wake up. Could be caused by the RST driver or maybe by firmware as well.

I think is stand-by, because the secondary hdd is almost never used (backup, large files, etc). Do you think it's safe to use sensor monitoring on it?

 

[Martin]

I'm sorry, I don't know. But if it's not used then you probably don't need to monitor its temperature.
You could also try to perform some operations with the disk (copy files, etc), then immediately launch HWiNFO and monitor the temperature. If it immediately does the clicking noise, then it's not because of stand-by (since the drive probably wasn't idle enough to be put into stand-by). Or try both in parallel - copy file and monitor...

 

[neoxes]

I'm sorry, I don't know. But if it's not used then you probably don't need to monitor its temperature.
You could also try to perform some operations with the disk (copy files, etc), then immediately launch HWiNFO and monitor the temperature. If it immediately does the clicking noise, then it's not because of stand-by (since the drive probably wasn't idle enough to be put into stand-by). Or try both in parallel - copy file and monitor...

Thank you!

 

[Topsy]

I had the same issue, I have been looking for the reason of the noise for a pretty long time. It was a constant cycle of the same noise with the same interval in between. Finally I found out it was the same interval as the refresh rate of HWiNFO and found the solution to fix the noise here (not the solution of the real problem).
Thanks anyway.

edit: it is a TOSHIBA HDWD120. But I just replaced my previous HDD partly because of the noise and because it was an 8 year old Seagate Barracuda I didn't feel comfortable with anymore. So it has something to do with how I set things up, not the HDD itself, my second HDD doesn't make noise at all.

 

[K0N574N71N]

Hi there,

signed up just to tell you, i've got the same problem.

my specs:

HWInfo version: HWiNFO64 v6.35-4315
Ryzen 5 5600X
ASRock B550 Extreme4
HDD: ST16000VN001-2RV103

Disableing the monitoring of that HDD solved my problem.

 

[Aruba64]

Hi, same observation here. Interestingly enough, I have gotten this clue while I was using W10 in safe mode, without anything else running in the background.
I've conducted some tests and I suppose all higher density HDDs have this issue. Now I can't really pinpoint the cause though. Maybe it's something in their internal power management that doesn't play well with HWiNFO.

Here are my results and some food for thought: other hardware diagnostic utilities[*], which also utilize S.M.A.R.T., don't cause the HDDs to make any noises outside of the initial poll or not at all.
[*] AIDA64 / CrystalDiskMark / HWMonitor / Open Hardware Monitor / Sidebar Diagnostics / Victoria

CAPACITY	INTERFACE	MODEL	RESULT
80 GB	IDE	Samsung (SP0842N)	Silent
200 GB	IDE	Maxtor (6B200P0)	Silent
320 GB (2x)	IDE	Seagate (ST3320820A)	Silent
360 GB	SATA	Seagate (ST3360832AS)	Silent
1 TB	SATA	Toshiba (HDWD110UZSVA)	Silent
2 TB	SATA	Seagate (ST2000DM001)	Silent
2 TB	SATA	Seagate (ST2000VX000)	Silent
3 TB	SATA	Seagate (ST3000DM001)	Silent
12 TB	SATA	Seagate (ST12000VN0007)	Silent
16 TB	SATA	Toshiba (MG08ACA16TE)	Clicking Noise
18 TB (2x)	SATA	Seagate (ST18000NM000J)	Clicking Noise

I've disable monitoring for these affected drives and the clicking/spinning noises are gone. Not a big loss for me since I don't need to constantly know what these drives are doing but it's still something I'd like to understand.

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the analysis.
Try to disable the "ATA Statistics Support" option in HWiNFO if that will have an effect on the noise. This is an additional (more standardized) feature that can query health data and AFAIK it's not supported by any of the "other" tools, so that might explain why it doesn't happen with them.

 

[Aruba64]

Hey, you were right, that's exactly what causes the clicking. Thanks for the advice!
I'm still somewhat confused what makes the newer drives click and clack non-stop while the older ones remain silent.

 

[Martin]

Most likely it depends on drive firmware, how does it react on a request to provide the ATA Statistics data. In principle it should not have such an effect as such request does not influence drive operation.

 

[_gl]

Just had the same thing happen with 16TB Seagate Exos X16 (ST16000NM001G), so a pretty recent drive. Strange that the firmware does this. BTW I can't find the "ATA Statistics Support" option in the current version anymore, has it been removed? got it.

 

[Jason]

Me too. Sounds like a heartbeat every 2 seconds that I can feel on my PC case.

Been using HWinfo for just 4 days but my worry is this may have damaged my new Seagate IronWolf 4Tb 7200?

 

[KenZed]

Hi, same observation here. Interestingly enough, I have gotten this clue while I was using W10 in safe mode, without anything else running in the background.
I've conducted some tests and I suppose all higher density HDDs have this issue. Now I can't really pinpoint the cause though. Maybe it's something in their internal power management that doesn't play well with HWiNFO.

Here are my results and some food for thought: other hardware diagnostic utilities[*], which also utilize S.M.A.R.T., don't cause the HDDs to make any noises outside of the initial poll or not at all.
[*] AIDA64 / CrystalDiskMark / HWMonitor / Open Hardware Monitor / Sidebar Diagnostics / Victoria

CAPACITY	INTERFACE	MODEL	RESULT
80 GB	IDE	Samsung (SP0842N)	Silent
200 GB	IDE	Maxtor (6B200P0)	Silent
320 GB (2x)	IDE	Seagate (ST3320820A)	Silent
360 GB	SATA	Seagate (ST3360832AS)	Silent
1 TB	SATA	Toshiba (HDWD110UZSVA)	Silent
2 TB	SATA	Seagate (ST2000DM001)	Silent
2 TB	SATA	Seagate (ST2000VX000)	Silent
3 TB	SATA	Seagate (ST3000DM001)	Silent
12 TB	SATA	Seagate (ST12000VN0007)	Silent
16 TB	SATA	Toshiba (MG08ACA16TE)	Clicking Noise
18 TB (2x)	SATA	Seagate (ST18000NM000J)	Clicking Noise

I've disable monitoring for these affected drives and the clicking/spinning noises are gone. Not a big loss for me since I don't need to constantly know what these drives are doing but it's still something I'd like to understand.

I bought 2 MG08ACA16TEs last August, running in raid 0 configuration from then on. The one with firmware v4002 will be clicking or making an spin up sound when there are no read/write operations for a while. But the one with firmware v4303 runs quietly all the time. There is noticable read speed drop if the clicking sound comes out while doing pool srubbing. All smart data seems good so far. But I not sure there is no issuse underneath.
@Aruba64, can you share the firmware version of the MG08ACA16TEs? Thanks!