I have a WD external hard drive that I’ve been using for several years. Recently, I noticed an occasional faint “clicking” sound upon startup, and the mechanical operating noise is noticeably louder than before when reading or writing files.
The drive is still recognized by my computer, and file operations are currently working fine, but these unusual sounds make me worry that it might be a sign of aging or an impending failure.
Yes, unfortunately, those noises are major warning signs that your drive is failing. You should back up your data immediately.
I had a hard drive do the exact same thing a while back—it started with a faint click on startup and just got louder over time. Everything seemed to work fine initially, so I didn’t rush to back it up. Not long after, the drive completely died out of nowhere, and I lost a lot of data.
Mechanical hard drives degrade quickly once they start clicking. The faint click is usually the drive head struggling to align properly, and the louder operating noise means the internal bearings or motor are wearing out.
My advice is to stop using the drive for heavy tasks right now. Manually copy your absolute most important, irreplaceable files first (don’t try to transfer the whole drive at once to avoid overheating it). Once your data is safe, you can run Western Digital Dashboard to check the SMART health status, but definitely don’t trust this drive with your only copy of important data anymore!
Good luck, and get those files backed up as soon as possible!
Okay, thank you very much for the detailed advice. I will manually back up important data first, and then check the disk’s health status.
That change in sound is worth taking seriously even if the drive still works normally. One thing people often miss is to check the drive with a different USB cable and power source because unstable power can sometimes cause odd startup noises. After that check the drive’s SMART health with WD’s diagnostic tool or CrystalDiskInfo. Most importantly copy anything important to another drive now and avoid stress tests or repeated scans until the backup is complete. If the clicking becomes frequent or the drive starts disconnecting or slowing down stop using it because those are stronger signs of a mechanical problem.
Thanks for the detailed advice! I’ll start by trying a different USB cable and power supply to see if that helps. Afterward, I’ll use WD’s diagnostic tools or CrystalDiskInfo to check the drive’s SMART health status.
Also, I’d like to ask what software you usually use for data backups. I’ve been looking for a reliable backup tool recently and happened to see MiniTool ShadowMaker mentioned on Google. Have you ever used it?
It could be a warning sign, especially if the clicking is new and the drive has become noticeably louder. Mechanical drives can fail without much warning, so I’d back up anything important immediately and check the SMART data with something like CrystalDiskInfo. I wouldn’t wait for it to stop working.
You can use Windows 11 File History or simply copy your important files to another healthy drive first. Please avoid creating a full disk image with MiniTool ShadowMaker while the drive is making unusual clicking sounds since that can put extra load on it. Once your data is safely backed up and the drive proves stable, you can consider ShadowMaker for regular automated backups.
