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Dell N5110 Inspiron HDD clicking sound
I have an N5110 Inspiron. I bought it around 6 years ago. It had a faulty HDD so I had it replaced about 5.5 years ago. It has been working fine since then.
However, it has been making a weird clicking sound from the beginning. It usually occurs when the HDD is idle (the HDD led isn't on). Sometimes it doesn't happen for minutes whereas other times it happens a couple of seconds apart. I was wondering what could this be?
My laptop is getting quite old and currently, I cannot replace it so I want to keep it functional as long as possible. Could this clicking reduce the life-expectancy of my HDD, is it a sign of something faulty? If yes, what can I do to prevent an HDD failure and losing all my files?
speedstep
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February 3rd, 2017 10:00
They don't call it click death for nothing. The drive is trying to recalibrate track zero and isnt finding it. So the drive is likely to die very soon and lose everything. Drives die, this isn't a fault anymore than the brakes on your car or other mechanical things like tires wearing out from use.
Gabor92
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February 3rd, 2017 11:00
It has been doing this for 5.5 years. If this is the click of death it wouldn't it have given up a long time ago? Every diagnostic says nothing is wrong with it.
ejn63
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February 3rd, 2017 14:00
I would agree the clicking noise likely means the drive is giving you a warning of impending failure -- that said, while a drive is inexpensive, this system requires an almost complete tear-down to replace the drive -- see the video link below. You're likely to find it would cost $100-150 to have a shop change the drive because of the labor cost.
www.youtube.com/watch