Hard drives are usually noise free, so when your hard drive starts making noise, you have to consider how to fix a noisy hard drive. When your hard drive starts to make sounds like clicking, squealing or grinding, it is a sign that it is going to fail or crash soon.

Identifying the Abnormal Noises

Even though the hard drives manufactured today are silent, they sometimes tend to make noise when dust accumulates on the system ventilation fans. The type and amount of noise made varies depending on the function the hard drive is performing. The noises that are considered abnormal include high pitched droning sounds, vibrating noises due to hardware mounting issues, frequent beeps and so on.

Steps to Fix a Noisy Hard Drive

Step 1: Backup your data

Before you start to fix a noisy hard drive, the first step is to make a backup of your data. If you have the habit of making a backup regularly, then you are in the safe zone. But if you do not have that habit, then there is a huge risk. Most of the time, when your hard drive starts making noise, it is a sign that something is wrong with the hard drive and trying to make a backup at that time may not work correctly. But still, you should try to make backups of at least the most important files.

Step 2: Figure out the problem

The second step to fix a noisy hard drive is to try to figure out what the issue with your hard drive is. If you are hearing continuous clicking noise, then the chances of your hard drive being broken is high. So, go to the next step.

Step 3: Troubleshoot your connections

The next step is to fix a noisy hard drive is to check the hardware connections. If you are able to figure out that the problem is with the hardware connection, then it is easy to fix it. A few things that you can check here is whether the connection or cable is broken and whether the power is coming in correctly. Make sure all the cables to your hard drive are firmly connected and there is no damage.

Step 4: Check your PC board

In some cases, it will be the fault of the PC board causing problems to your hard drive. Check if your PC board is damaged. If it is damaged, replace the PC board with a new one. Once you install the new PC board and reconnect the hard drive it may work fine and fix a noisy hard drive. But, after replacing the PC board, if it does not resolve the problem, then you can confirm that problem is not with your PC Board.

Step 5: Verify if your hard drive is detected

The next step is to check if your hard drive is recognized by your PC. If it is not recognizing, then it is possible that your hard drive is faulty.

Step 6: Replace your old hard drive

If your hard drive is old or faulty, and none of the above steps didn’t solve the problem, then the only option would be to replace it with a new hard drive and that should fix a noisy hard drive.

Any of the above steps should help you to fix a noisy hard drive successfully.