Brief Click Sound from Seagate 8TB Backup Plus

[twilightID]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forums. This looks like a place loaded with knowledge and understanding of hard drives, so I'm hoping that someone might be able to lend me some advice with a small concern.

I recently purchased a 'Seagate 8TB Backup Plus' hard drive. I have it hooked up to an AC adapter-powered USB Hub (3.0) and it's mostly quiet, but it does occasionally click from time to time. Right out of the box, I noticed, while sitting at a distance from the counter I have my external hard drives on, that a brief click would emit from the drive.

I know hard drives make noise when they're being accessed, woken up, etc, but none of my drives (including other Seagates) make this sound. After the drive was installed on Windows 7, it happened a few times over the initial few minutes of the drive's first power-on. Then, it would be, maybe, every hour or so that I'd hear a click out of it. It's louder than any of the access 'clicks' that emit from any of my other external hard drives. Not ear-piercing, but it is a click, and I'd say it's on par when you have a drive that is failing, but instead of tons of clicks, it's just one single click every hour.

I have lost over 5TB of expensive and valuable data due to a power surge when my computer froze one time -- causing magnetic destruction on the platters of the drive in question. Sending the drive off for expensive recovery completely failed and I had to rebuild my entire life, so-to-speak. I was devastated and very distraught over that experience and it was hard to move on and find ways to cope with losing that precious data. I know it's just a click, but none of my drives act like this (and again, I have other Seagates) and I just want to see if I could get some advice on what to do.

I messaged Seagate support, and they said that I could try another power supply. I think this power supply is just fine, as the drive stays perfectly connected to the computer without any disconnects from Windows 7. I've had drives with failing power supplies and I don't suspect it with this particular drive. Considering that the click sound is very brief and infrequent, I could just be overthinking things. This drive will be a backup drive for another 8TB drive... but again, if the backup is going to just die on me, what's the use of going through with it all?

I have a data recovery plan purchased for the drive and I'm within the return period from Amazon, so if it would be wise to return it and try out another one, please, let me know your thoughts and honest advice.

I ran a 1.5 day scan on the drive through 'SeaTools for Windows' and it passed the Long-Generic Test. It also passed the Short-Generic Test, as well.

...and there it goes again, I just heard another 'click'... and with every time I hear that click, my brain semi-melts on the inside, because I'm incredibly anxious about whether or not I've got a lemon.

Are there any other tools out there that I could use to check for any kind of damage?

Thanks again for the suggestions and sorry for the wall-of-text!

[twilightID]

I found a youtube video with a recording that sounds similar to what I'm hearing every now and then from the drive. Apparently, it could be the 'head parking sound'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3jk-DuHuHw

[jermy]

so I'm hoping that someone might be able to lend me some advice.

first i need to know when you gonna give it back i need an exact date and time signed on 3 copies

I have lost over 5TB of expensive and valuable data...

sorry for your loss

I messaged Seagate support, and they said that I could try another power supply.

can be, but not likely to get that symptoms just from 1 HDD

I think this power supply is just fine

how did you come to that conclusion, have you took some measurements of the voltage amp Etc. ?

I've had drives with failing power supplies and I don't suspect it with this particular drive...

not good enough, only a multimeter can decide whether or not the problem is with the PSU

I have a data recovery plan purchased for the drive and I'm within the return period from Amazon

so.... get rid of it

so if it would be wise to return it and try out another one

of course

please, let me know your thoughts and honest advice.

never buy a seagate

I ran a 1.5 day scan on the drive through 'SeaTools for Windows' and it passed the Long-Generic Test. It also passed the Short-Generic Test, as well.

maybe the terminal log or SMART can shed some light

...and there it goes again, I just heard another 'click'... and with every time I hear that click, my brain semi-melts on the inside, because I'm incredibly anxious about whether or not I've got a lemon.

again... why suffer get rid of it

Are there any other tools out there that I could use to check for any kind of damage?

already mentioned above maybe the terminal log or SMART can shed some light

[ddrecovery]

As jermy says - Get rid of it, Seagates are bad news. This sound is more than likely normal, however why put yourself through it all again.

Second piece of advice - get a NAS set up as a RAID 1 or RAID 5 (or even RAID 6). One drive can fail and you still have all your data.

Third piece of advice - Use a backup. Yes, even backups need a backup. Use an online service such as Carbonite. Having your data in three places is best.

Fourth - Backup

Fifth - Backup......

[Keatah]

...and there it goes again, I just heard another 'click'... and with every time I hear that click, my brain semi-melts on the inside, because I'm incredibly anxious about whether or not I've got a lemon.

If your stuff is properly backed up then there is no need to worry. With backups your anxiety level should be zero. Don't worry about this one disk. Your two other copies will carry you through while you get it sorted out.

I'm surprised no one advised running a S.M.A.R.T. check?? And it does sound like the heads going off-surface and onto the ramp.

[day1data]

and with every time I hear that click, my brain semi-melts on the inside, because I'm incredibly anxious about whether or not I've got a lemon.

You said it yourself. Even if it passes every test you throw at it you will still be waiting for the day it fails.
Just get a Toshiba or a WD. I personally wouldn't buy anything Seagate at the moment because of there high failure rates.

If only i had a dollar for every customer we have saying they will never buy Seagate again!!

[kaxi]

>due to a power surge when my computer froze one time -- causing magnetic destruction on the platters

twilightID, what do you mean? Is this a diagnosis you where given? A power surge can do a lot to a drive, but "magnetic destruction" is not one of them, unless I'm missing something.

[twilightID]

Hi all,

Sorry for the delayed reply and many many thanks for the helpful responses.

I have managed to, seemingly, stop the drive clicking sound, which I am relatively sure is the infamous 'head-parking sound', which seems to be frequent with large Seagate external drives (judging by the amount of posts I've been able to search out on the net).

My drive does not have an APM (Advanced Power Management) feature, but I was able to find a way around things. I'm currently giving it the day to make sure that the problem is 'solved', after which I will return and explain my solution. Even after finding this (seemingly) working solution, I am seriously considering just returning the drive to Amazon (along with the associated data recovery plan) and going with Western Digital.

The drive which failed for me in the past (my major loss of about 5TB of deeply precious and expensive data) was actually a Toshiba External Drive. Roughly speaking, I think I purchased it (the failing Toshiba drive) about 2 years ago. This was the final diagnosis I received from the drive recovery service I used:

"Unfortunately after replacing the Read-Write heads and attempting to create a Bit-by-Bit image of the entire drive, the extensive damage created when the Heads received power surge on the deflection coil which protect the platters from the tiny magnets inside the Heads made data recovery not possible.

My fear in these situations is the fact that a hard drive's Read-Write heads are really tiny magnets which use a powered coil to deflect the magnetism. It's easier to deflect magnetism with a coil then to create it with a coil. If the Heads lose power or receive a surge while still gliding over the platters it can leave a devastating streak of magnetic damage over the platters. Hard drives as an emergency, use the power created by the powering down of the spindle motor to keep the coil charged until the Heads are in the park position. It appears that emergency feature failed or was damaged when the power surge occurred. Most likely the shock to the heads damaged the protective coil on one or more of the Heads making the power created by the spindle motor during power down irrelevant. I really wish I could have recovered this very important data for you."

The only other failed hard drive I've had earlier (before the Toshiba death) was a 500GB Western Digital internal SATA drive. I had all of my music on it and it just started with the 'click of death' one day. Once again, I had to rebuild. I currently have 4 Seagates, and I've never had one of them die on me yet, but regardless, I'm taking your opinions and advice very seriously. Really, that was the reason I went with Seagate with the most recent drive. I've had WD drives fail on me and, with Toshiba, I was blasted with a deeply traumatic event about two years ago in terms of losing precious work (and other important data) forever. I did not know that Seagate had such a bad track record.

My paused reflection about where I should go now is not meant to be disrespectful. I just need to collect my thoughts and figure out the wisest course of action from this point onward.

[Keatah]

The wisest course of action is to keep backups and not really worry about the physical drive or its manufacturer.

When you have proper backups, every drive from every manufacturer suddenly becomes 100% reliable 100% of the time. Instantly. .From you your data's point of view assuming it could have such a perspective.. And that's all that matters.

Of course if there are headline-making reports of model X failures, you can choose to avoid it.

[kaxi]

twilightID, do you still have the original 5TB drive? The theory you were given in the diagnosis sounds interesting but not very convincing really. It more sounds like a paraphrase of "I have no idea what is wrong with the drive". Maybe you gave up on it to easily.
I would consider Toshibas and HGSTs the most reliable drives, wouldn't trust WD much, but they all fail, as your Toshiba did. Keatah is right, for peace of mind think about your back-up policy, not HDD brand.

[Leo]

twilightID, did you ever get a second opinion from any other DR professional about your Toshiba drive? To me too, the explanation about "tiny magnets" sounds like some made up fantasy.

Last edited by Leo on January 12th, 2016, 18:17, edited 1 time in total.

[pcimage]

twilightID, did you ever get a second opinion from any other DR professional about your Toshiba drive? For me too, the explanation about "tiny magnets" sounds like some made up fantasy.

Your "BS detector" going off as well??

[twilightID]

Keatah,

Thank you for the wise advice. I am just going to keep the drive, focus on maintaining proper backups of all data and stop sweating it. Focus on the backups, not the drives (at least, not too much!). Still no clicks from the 8TB Seagate, so I think it's solved. I simply set up a program called 'KeepAliveHD' to write and instantly delete a small text file to the drive every 7 seconds. I figured that this would kind of emulate the notion of having Advanced Power Management for the drive. It keeps it going. Granted, I could just let it continue incessantly parking the heads, and I imagine there are various pros and cons to doing one or the other, but I'm in a very quiet room (mostly, when the music isn't playing!), and I cherish rather profound and developed levels of silence.

Kaxi, Leo and PCimage,

I still have the old Toshiba sealed in the return box sent by the data recovery company. I was and am on a limited budget, so I couldn't go with the best of the best in terms of Data Recovery Services. I wouldn't be surprised if you're right and the guy and company were unexperienced...and they just fed me a technological straw man to create some measure of satisfaction that nothing could be done. Unfortunately, the money was spent by that point and I had to make an important decision: feed more money into the recovery by going for a second opinion or start putting all of my effort into rebuilding my life. I made the latter decision and haven't looked back very much (couple of tears here and there, but not too many!)

At this point, it's water under the bridge. I still have the drive, but I'm doing okay and, for all practical purposes, I don't need what's on there anymore. I've evolved past it in terms of necessities.

Of course, we can always discuss things and muse about what might be the actual reality, though!

With that said, this was the final part of the message from the Data Recovery Service:

"We use the finest tools in the industry and we spare no expense on the latest technology so the future is bright for a recovery a year or so down the line, although I know sometimes the data is time sensitive and it's needed fast. I will put you on my list of future possibilities as the technology in the data recovery business improves. I have all the details of your drive so when that time comes I will notify you and you can resend us the hard drive so that we can retry it with the latest technology.

A stack assembly was purchased to attempt the recovery. I leave that installed inside the hard drive to prevent any possibilities of damaging the drive any further by trying to remove them.

One of our complete temporary circuit board was used in the recovery attempt. It is part of our extensive collection of logic boards so the hard drive will be returned with the original damaged circuit board. We just temporarily used one from our collection instead of having to purchase one for the recovery.

Is there any hope for the future? Yes. Technology is improving in the data recovery business every day.
We thank you for having confidence in us. We just wish we could have come through for you. I hope you understand we did our best. Every recovery mission is important to us."

[Keatah]

Can you get a 2nd opinion on the failed disk?

And what is the interval between clicks on this newer seagate?

[northwind]

twilightID, did you ever get a second opinion from any other DR professional about your Toshiba drive? For me too, the explanation about "tiny magnets" sounds like some made up fantasy.

Your "BS detector" going off as well??

I have to hand it to this guy, he's should be a Sci-Fi movies writer.

[Keatah]

Maybe he means the heads got permanently magnetized and as they retracted they marked the platters in a spiraling pattern or something. That's not a likely event.

More likely he doesn't understand how GMR heads work, or is unable to properly explain their operation in text.