Hard Disk Making Clicking Noises and Inaccessible, How Do I Recover My Files?

Written By Oliver Powell
Approved By Rohit Arora
Updated on 23 Feb, 2023
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Nowadays, with the increasing development of technology; hard drives are also improving, including their storage capacity, speed, compact size, etc. However, due to the higher frequency of usage, these storage drives show issues at times and clicking noise is included as one of those major issues.

Normally, these computer storage drives are quiet and steady, but in case of any physical damages or logical corruption, they can begin to make noise.

There are a number of different hard drive clicking sounds with different reasons. Usually, the older hard drives (whether they are external or internal) have the tendency to create clicking sounds, but when it comes to a new hard drive there could be different causes.

Some type of clicking noise are due to software or driver issues, some of them due to hardware issues, and sometimes due to mechanical faults of the hard drive. The users must be able to differentiate normal noises from detrimental or abnormal noises.

In case your hard drive is making noises, you should identify it immediately and try to recover data from this clicking hard drive. Usually, when a hard drive starts making a clicking noise and there is a logical reason behind it, and subsequently it will not be recognized by the operating system after system restart. At this time you should check whether your hard drive is in working state or dead due to any physical damages.

If there is any logical reason then it can surely be recovered with the help of a data recovery software.

Most of the times there are four probable causes for clicking noise of a hard drive:

The insufficient power supply is a very common cause of noise in the hard drive. It mostly happens when you have connected multiple devices (including the HDD) to a single port.
Physical depreciation of the hard drive which results from either simple issues or damage such as a physical shock or trauma.
A hard drive may be failed due to the faulty data cables, or incorrect drivers installed.
A crashed hard drive.

Subsequent fixes people have used to recover data from clicking hard drive

Check whether the hard drive is getting enough power or not. You can do it by plugging the power adapter directly into the power supply. In case it is engaged with multiple devices plugged into it, then you can connect the drive to a different power outlet.
Replace the data cable with the new one and turn on the drive. Now, if it does not make any noise, then the data cable might be faulty.
In case the drive still makes noises, then there is a high possibility the drive is failing and needs to be replaced.

If your hard drive is not dead and is recognized by the BIOS, but still inaccessible, then you should surely consider a reliable data recovery tool in order to recover your complete data.

There are plenty of data recovery software available which are capable to recover from noisy hard drives. However, all data recovery tools are not compatible with every type of hard drive, therefore you should be sure about the tool, else you can end up losing all of the data stored on your hard drive.

Here, we have mentioned about a reliable data recovery software that will surely work and retrieve your hard drive’s data. Stellar Data Recovery Professional is a proficient utility in order to restore lost, deleted or formatted hard drive data in few clicks. This professional recovery software is capable of recovering inaccessible data from any type of external or internal storage media.

Detailed steps to recover data from noisy hard drive using Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows

Run the software on the Windows based system and connect the problem hard drive (you can use the second slot of the PC to connect internal hard drive).

Check the box for required data from the software interface and click Next.

You’ll reach to the Recover From interface where you can choose a location, from where, data can be retrieved.
Press Scan.

On the completion of the scanning progress, the resultant file/folders will appear in the software interface.

Note: You can switch the Preview tab ON/OFF.

Select a required file you want to recover and click on the Recover Tab at the right bottom of the software interface.

A pop-up window will appear asking you for selecting a location for saving your recovered files.

Choose your destination location and enjoy your recovered data.

This tool has the capability to provide you 100% recovery of your lost, inaccessible and deleted files. If your hard disk is making clicking noises but showing in BIOS, then this software could be your best choice to recover the stored data.

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About The Author

Oliver Powell

Oliver Powell is a Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. He is a passionate technology blogger & content creator, He explores new applications and has deep understanding of data recovery. He has experience in Windows & Mac data recovery domain.

66 comments

Prithvi says:

September 8, 2016 at 10:29 am

Earlier, I thought that the clicking noise is just a normal issue with the system. But, when I had gone through your blog, I found it a little serious. We cannot ignore this kind of problem as this may lead to the Data Loss issue. So, spending money for the recovering the data, I think, making the several copies of the backup and keeping them at different locations is valid. If once, the data has been lost, then we have to recover our data by using the software mentioned above. I feel glad after reading this post…

Reply
Heena says:

August 22, 2016 at 8:05 am

I had never imagined that the Unexpected Noise coming from the system becomes the reason of ‘Data Loss’. My system was continuously making clicking noise and I even not bothered on it. At the end, I have lost my data. Being a regular reader of your blogs, I remembered this one. With the help of this, I had recovered my lost data. Thanks Stellar for introducing such a great tool with us and thanks for sharing the post with us.

Reply
Jessica Wilson says:

August 19, 2016 at 10:00 am

It’s not easy to concentrate on your work when you are hearing such an irritating noise produced from your system. Well balanced content and informative too. It enhances the knowledge of every reader who has read this blog or going to read it. Thanks for sharing an informative blog with us.

Reply
Juan Carlos says:

July 20, 2016 at 8:05 am

Few days back, my system starts producing an unexpected clicking noise which makes me so irritating that I further don’t want to continue my work on it. I had checked it yesterday but it’s not even boot up now. What should I do to recover my data as I have my official data in it? Please suggest.

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  July 20, 2016 at 8:15 am
  
  Well don’t worry, this software is fulfilled with the advanced features and comes with the Bootable CD also, which makes your system bootable. You can download the above-mentioned software to recover your data from your system. Thanks for the query.
  
  Reply
James Mathew says:

July 5, 2016 at 9:47 am

I have Western Digital 1TB External Drive. I can’t access data on it anymore. When I plug this drive on my system, the clicking noise continuously produces and stops me to do anything on it… There are heaps of files inside it and unfortunately, I can’t access those… Please suggest me what to do?

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1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  July 5, 2016 at 10:35 am
  
  As per your query, it states that your hard drive is dead or about to die… There are few probability of Clicking noises which are mentioned above in the blog… If you want to recover your data, then have a look to our Data Recovery Software which will help you in recovering your data back…
  
  Reply
Chris Garcia says:

June 28, 2016 at 9:39 am

I have downloaded this software and using it. It’s quite slow in nature. Will you please tell me the reason that why it is so much slow as I need my files very urgently.

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  June 28, 2016 at 9:51 am
  
  Hello Chris,
  
  Well, the above-mentioned software is quite efficient enough to recover your data back. Considering the case of slow speed, it depends on the various factors such as number of Bad Sectors, size of selected drive etc. Have some patience, let the software be to scan the drive. After the completion of scan process, you can recover your data very easily.
  
  Reply
Carl Rapp says:

June 20, 2016 at 8:26 am

‘Clicking Noise’ in the hard drive is one of the major issue in the hard drive… There are several other reasons for the Clicking Noise such as i) The Hard drive may be on non-level surface, ii) The hard drive heads hitting the internal head stop, iii) Highly fragmented hard drives, etc. Thanks for sharing the post with us…

Reply
Charles Balmain says:

June 14, 2016 at 4:53 am

2 years back, I had purchased a Toshiba Hard drive. Few days back, it start producing the clicking noise. At the end, it becomes dead and I had lost all my data as I forgot to take the backup of my important data. Then, after a research, I get to know about your blog and done all the fixes mentioned in it. But, it won’t work for me. So, I decided to download your software and it works so perfectly that I had easily recovery all of my lost data… Thanks for sharing the post with us…

Reply
Handi Priyono says:

December 2, 2015 at 6:28 am

Hi, from few days my hard drive start making noise I don’t know what is the reason behind this but I can access my data. Is there any issue with drive?

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  December 3, 2015 at 3:12 am
  
  Hi Handi,
  
  Yes, there is problem with your hard drive. I have mentioned some possible reasons for this in my article. I suggest you to take backup of your data and replace the hard drive as soon as possible.
  
  Reply
Anthony Rousek says:

November 30, 2015 at 8:10 am

Hi, thank you for suggesting me this data recovery software. I used the software and recovered number of file formats. Thanks once again for such a fast recovery software

Reply