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Hitachi hard disk clicking / ticking FIX
Hi everybody,
I'm posting this for 2 reasons
1) for dell for replacing my cliking hard disk so promptly (but alas did not fix the problem)
2) to help keep everybody sain that has ticking hard drives like i did :-)
Like I said, dell replaced my hitachi 60gb hard disk, but the new one ticked just like the old one..... so i went looking for myself. So over to hitachi.com i found a program called feature tool (do a search). This program is a biatch to use, especially if you don't have a floppy drive, it wants to create a bootable floppy. I had to use the ol' desktop to create a floppy. Then i copied the files to a usb drive which the inspiron can read from dos. Now you have to get a hold of a Bootable Dos CD as the program will not run from windows. After booting to dos, run the ftool.exe program. It will allow you to change several of the hitachi's settings. The two we need are "accoustic level" and "Power usage"
Turn "accoustic level" all the way down to quietest, and pump "power usage" all the way up to maximum. BTW the hard disk clicking has something to do with power saving features thats why it doesn't when at maximum power usage. Save, reset computer, fixed!
If anyone can't create a floppy because of a lack of one, i can email just the files you need, except the bootable CD you will have to get urself. I dunno if you can pm me on this forum, but if you can get your email to me i will glady reply.
When people have success with this program, please post here i'm sure it will work for everyone else.
Cheers, Chaney.
Message Edited by Chaney78 on 04-11-2005 03:45 AM
BONE SAW
27 Posts
0
January 12th, 2005 20:00
Chd7
7 Posts
0
January 14th, 2005 18:00
Thank you all for posting this useful information. I had this ticking issue with my new laptop. I am going to try the method you suggested.
I had a USB drive, but how to make my USB drive bootable?
girish_g_rao
2 Posts
0
January 15th, 2005 03:00
Hi,
Can you please mail me those files i can burn them on to a CD boot with that and try.i also get a slight hissing noise when i pull my scroll bar when browsing,I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 with 30 GB HDD
My email id is girish_g_rao@yahoo.com
Thanks
Girish
schaki
128 Posts
0
January 15th, 2005 15:00
Chaney78
3 Posts
0
January 15th, 2005 22:00
Hi Schaki, thanks for the link. Is the power booster you refer to the power consumption level? I turned the power usage all the way up to fix the clicking problem. The reason is newer hitachi drives have a power saving feature that causes the heads to load/unload, causing the clicking. I doubt turning power usage all the way up would affect battery life much, but in my case i think sanity is worth the extra battery usage.
Chd7 > i'm not sure how to make a usb drive bootable, i just use an old dos boot cd i had laying around. If you don't have one do a search for one on the net, i think there is plenty of free image downloads.
This is a difficult fix especially for novice users, Hitachi should make a windows compatible version, that would be much easier for everybody.
Chd7
7 Posts
0
January 16th, 2005 09:00
I finally bought a USB floppy drive so that I could boot my laptop and run this program from the floppy. Unfortunately, it does not work for my cliking / ticking issue.
I also would like to ask that after your fix, will your hard drive indicator light still flash every 2-3 seconds? For my laptop, it seems the laptop hard drive is always working. Even though I am not doing anything, the hard drive indicator light will still flash every 2-3 seconds. This is where the clicking noise come from.
I also checked the CPS usage (ctrl + alt + delete, then choose performace tab). Not surprisely, the CPS usage is never be 0% even though I am not doing anything.
I have done enough with this clicking noise and will call Dell customer service to schedule a return tomorrow.
JersWork
770 Posts
0
January 16th, 2005 16:00
Chd7
7 Posts
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January 16th, 2005 19:00
Could you tell me how to turn off the windows indexing?
Thanks,
CHD7
JersWork
770 Posts
0
January 17th, 2005 19:00
Open "My Computer" and right-button click on the drive. Go down to "Properties" and there is a check box at the bottom to enable/disable indexing.
If you want to force it off for all drives in your system, you can go to the services and disable the "Indexing Service" to diable indexing on all drives.
girish_g_rao
2 Posts
0
January 18th, 2005 00:00
Chd7
7 Posts
0
January 18th, 2005 14:00
Hi Yaboze,
What do you mean "you turn all options off"? Did you do any thing extra other than "turn accoustic level all the way down to quietest, and pump power usage all the way up to maximum"?
Thanks,
Chd7
Yaboze
17 Posts
0
January 18th, 2005 14:00
This fixed the click for me. I never did get constant ticking/clicking just a head parking sound every few minutes.
What a neat little bootdisk. Lots of options.
All of these options were turned off on my drive. I set it as mentioned, no more head parking.
Thanks.
:smileyvery-happy:
Yaboze
17 Posts
0
January 18th, 2005 14:00
What I mean was....the acoustic stuff was turned off on my drive (by default) once I booted the disk. Power was set to battery rather than performance.
I simply changed it to what the original poster mentioned.
Burndawgz
19 Posts
0
January 18th, 2005 23:00
Chaney, your post was a god send. The Feature Tool, coupled with JersWork's tip about Windows Indexing solved all ills. NO MORE TICKING! Thanks also too schaki for the link. Now I can get down to work on this laptop.
J.
Inspiron 9200
Windows® XP Pro
Pentium® M 755
17 UXGA Display
1GB DDR SDRAM @ 333MHz 2 Dimm
Hitachi 60GB/72K Hard Drive - HTS726060M9AT00
128MB ATI Mob. Rad. 9700
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
80 WHr 9-cell Battery
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200
NoobieWan
2 Posts
0
January 19th, 2005 18:00