My hard drive (WDBAAA5000ABK-00), starts when I plug it in the tower. It makes sounds of whirring and clicking for a period of several seconds. It repeats this for 4 cycles and then stops. It is not recognized on my computer when I plug it in. I think It never gets fully operational. It looks like it cannot be opened without destroying it. Any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hi John,
The ‘noise’ heard is due to a feature used to prevent disturbances in media lube due to prolonged dwelling at a single location. This is common for HDD suppliers as a preventive activity for reliability. The normal operation typically forces seek away and the seek noises heard are expected. During moments of idle, there is less activity and the unexpected sound is more noticeable (Approximately every 5 seconds). Directly attaching the drive to a metal chassis can amplify this occurrence to make the hard drive more audible.
Also, there could be a few reasons why the drive is not showing up under Computer. The drive itself could have failed, the partition on the drive may be damaged, the data cable may no longer be good, or the drive may no longer be getting enough power to fully spin up.
