hard drive clicking

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nsuperman86 · #1 Post by **nsuperman86** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:59 am

I have a T42, and lately my hard drive has been making an annoying ticking sound at all times. Very annoying.

Its pretty faint, but it sounds like something is wrong with the spinning. Anyone have any similar problems or any fixes?

Thanks for the help.

rossman · #2 Post by **rossman** » Tue May 03, 2005 5:59 am

In my experience this means the hard drive is starting to fail. If you haven't done so already, back up all your documents ASAP.

cwestwater · #3 Post by **cwestwater** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:27 am

same thing has happened to me with my T22. HDD is on way out - replace it soon!

NaT · #4 Post by **NaT** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:18 pm

If you want to really make sure there is a problem with your HDD, you can download the HDD diagnostic program. Most HDD now is built with S.M.A.R.T support and should there be any hardware problems, it will log and flag the error which can be read by those diagnostic programs.

NaT

IR0NMAN · #5 Post by **IR0NMAN** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:22 pm

Make sure it is not the hard drive accessing files. You can do that by looking at the hard drive icon on your thinkpad (below the LCD). If the hard drive icon is not flashing when you hear the click, then you drive might be starting to fail. Backup now!

andyk · #6 Post by **andyk** » Tue May 03, 2005 3:21 pm

The noise was starting to bother me as well. My T42 was manufactured in 8/04 with a Hitach 40GB. For reference, see:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/Problem_with_h ... e_clicking

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... c&start=30

I did two things, and it's now much better:

1. Updated HD firmware from MG20A5BA to MG20A5HA:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... MIGR-42320

2. Ran "Feature Tool (v1.97)" and enabled Acoustic management to recommended value:

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

combustion · #7 Post by **combustion** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:29 pm

for the firmware update, do you have to make a floppy? my t42 doesnt have a floppy drive.

andyk · #8 Post by **andyk** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:47 pm

I used Virtual Floppy:

http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html

It makes your machine appear to have a floppy. I extracted the update disk to the virtual floppy. Then I used Nero to create a boot CD by specifying the virtual floppy as the source of boot image data.

Good luck!

nsuperman86 · #9 Post by **nsuperman86** » Thu May 12, 2005 2:23 am

i actually noticed that when my thinkpad is docked and on an angle it clicks. when i raise the thinkpad up a lilttle to make it paralell with my desk i dont hear the click anymore.

i backed everything up anyways.

i believe it is a 80GB hitachi on a t42.

thanks for the help so far.

kchung · #10 Post by **kchung** » Thu May 12, 2005 3:31 pm

Also check the Windows Eventviewer and look at the System Log. If you see any atapi or Disk errors listed, you probably have a drive on it's way out. As noted by an another user, run the Hitachi Disk Fitness test (which also works on non-Hitachi drives that IBM installs in ThinkPads). If it comes back with a sector error detected, do NOT repair (I NEVER let it repair), and the software should come back with a error message/code like 0x70 disk error or something like that.

If your system is under warranty, the DFT error code is sufficient to get your drive replaced (at least for corporate users it is).

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