HDD Click driving me crazy

[roinuj]

Hi all,

I've been offline for a while because what should have been an easy computer upgrade has been 3 week nightmare. Hopefully someone may be able to help me figure out what is happening. I trust you guys more then the laptop manufacturer, Windows or the drive manufactured.

I have an Win7 64bit, i7 ASUS G73SW laptop with 2 hard drives. One drive setup for OS and Programs, the other set up for Data. I initially had replaced the factory drive (500GB WD Black Scorpio) with a 500GB Segate Momentus XT Hybrid for slight performance improvement. The original drive was used in slot drive HD1 for data. This worked very well for about a year and half. About 3 weeks ago I started getting a single click every 5-10 minutes from the drive area but everything seemed to still work ok but then I started getting BSODs and chkdsk error screens on start up for the C: drive. Thinking it was a sign of impending death, I replaced the C: drive (HD0) with a OCZ 240gb Vertex 3 SSD. (jumped Windows performance rating from 5.1 to 7.1!!) The first SSD drive pooched because of firmware problem but the retailer exchanged it for a new one. Got it working and windows re-installed. I still had the click coming from the the drive and then got the chckdsk error on start up for drive D. Figure it should be replaced so I purchased a WD 750gb Black Scoprio and installed. Still got the click? I did some research and found that WD drives have aggressive power management causing hard head parking every 8 seconds so I disabled it in the drive, disabled power management in Windows 7 but nothing worked. The drive would continue to work most of the time but then click like it was going into hibernation. Sometimes the drive would be dropped by windows and sometimes during events like backups. The click would cause failures in backups or large file transfers. Ran different HD utilities and saw no issue with the HD.

I began to think it was a hardware issue (SATA controller or Mother Board) and RMA'd the laptop with the factory drive back to ASUS for repairs. All they did was replace to original drive with a new drive (500GB Seagate Momentus) and re-imaged the drive.

I re-installed the SSD and the WD750gb but still got click issues. The clicks in the WD750gb also happened on while it was in a cradle so I got it exchanged at the retailer. The new drive was installed and it too clicks! Thinking its could be a problem caused by my SSD and my Windows setup, I re installed the factory system disk but it too had the click in the second drive. Strange thing is I tried a DOS based utility called Spinrite and it ran for a couple hours in DOS with no click at all which suggests to me its not a hardware issue. Seems to only happen while in the Win7. I checked the BIOS and drivers and they appear to be up to-date and re-ran HDD utilites. Anyways, for no reason at all I was able to get it to run, even with the click but no drive drops in Windows for most of the day so I transferred 100gb of data files from my original backup to the new drive. No problem. Once finished, I decided to do a back up of the new drive but then the click caused the backup to fail and then the drive was dropped from windows resulting in me having to re-scan it. This dance continued for a few hours before I gave up and got a wobbly pop.

A day later, I was finally able to get a back up. Not sure why but I'll take it.

Today I'm running a deep scan with Spinrite and its been running in DOS with no clicking for over an hour.

I'm completely baffled as to what is causing this and how to fix it. Its like my laptop is being held together with Duct Tape and spit. Its working but for how long I don't know.

Right Now, since beginning what should be a simple upgrade here is what works and doesn't while using Windows 7

HD0 - 500gb Segate Momentus (factory) = No problem
HD0 - 240gb OSZ Vertex 3 SSD = No problem
HD0 - 240gb OSZ Vertex 3 SSD + HD1 - 750GB WD Scorpio Black #1 = click
HD0 - 240gb OSZ Vertex 3 SSD + HD1 - 750GB WD Scorpio Black #2 = click
HD0 - 240gb OSZ Vertex 3 SSD + HD1 - 500GB WD Scorpio Black (original Data drive before RMA replacement) = click
HD0 - 500gb Segate Momentus (factory) + HD1 - 750GB WD Scorpio Black #2= click

plus the orginal configuration:

HD0 - 500gb Segate Momentus XT (original OS drive) + 500GB WD Scorpio Black (original Data drive) = click

Common problems:

1.) WD drives in HD1 slot are causing a click.
2.) Click happens while in Windows 7 and not in DOS.

Any of you guys who build your own systems have any idea what could be causing this? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I'm going crazy with this.

Sorry for the long post.

Thanks

[arizonachris]

Well, you have swopped the drives around, so I think it's the board. Could be the power supply, too. Try the cheaper solution first. (yeah, you have spent a ton of cash already) SSD's don't click. Regular hard drives only click when they are parked by the O/S or the board. You do have this fix for the core parking : http://www.abithelp.com/post14505.html#p14505 Actually, a mechanical drive will click when doing a search for programs or files. Defrag it.

[roinuj]

Thanks for the advise Arizonachris. A new wrinkle in the equation is the fact my ssd pooched this evening with out warning so in order to get this laptop to be anywhere useful, I 'm resorting to the factory drive setup. This is the second ssd in a little over a couple weeks to die. I'm giving up on them, they just arent reliable......at least OCZ.

Too bad as it was such an improvement in performance. Will have to see if the retailer will help out on the ssd considering it was exchanged less then 2 weeks ago? Also have to see about the WD drive as It started clicking while using it in a cradle, same problem as the one I exchanged last week. I'm having no luck with this.

I'm really getting sick of these laptops and the fact its so hard to fix them when something goes bad. At least with a desktop, parts can be replaced with out too much bother ( costs aside....).

Excuse me while I go

Thanks.....and I'll keep you posted.

[Hawk]

If it's a motherboard or power supply problem, that might explain why the ssd's are going bad. It seems to me they would be affected more by power issues than a platter drive.

[roinuj]

If it's a motherboard or power supply problem, that might explain why the ssd's are going bad. It seems to me they would be affected more by power issues than a platter drive.

Logically I thought that was the problem and I did have the laptop back to ASUS for a warrantee RMA but they claim everything is running fine and only replaced the factory hdd and re-imaged. Thing is I think they were searching for the wrong needle in the haystack.......

The SSD died while working on a very large file immediately when the second drive "clicked" and dropped from windows locking up the system requiring a cold boot. That's when it died.

Thing that baffles me is when I boot in to DOS(using bootable usb key) the hdd drive with the "click" is as quiet as a mouse. Yesterday I ran a DOS based hdd utility (spinrite) for 6 hours with not a sound or click to be found anywhere. But when I go into Win 7, after 5 minutes it starts to click. It really seems to be a power savings issue causing a "head parking" which I can not disable. Problem is this "head parking" is putting my files at risk. Yesterday, it corrupted my Lightroom 4 library file which use to be 900mb and is now only 750mb . Good thing I have a backup safe and sound on my home server which is staying there until the gremlins are expelled from my system.

The retailer told me to bring the drives in and they'll have a look at them and need be will exchange them.

[arizonachris]

How old is this laptop? You can try a new power brick. Does the battery still work? My Alienware Area 51 would not run without the battery, even with the power brick. Got rid of that overpriced POS, got a cheap little Dell, works for Internet stuff, but I have my killer desktop. You also have to realize, that in a small, confined place like a laptop, it's all plastic, you will hear clicking, fans, all that stuff. I'm still thinking it's the main board.

[arizonachris]

Why can you not disable head parking? That doesn't make sense. Do you have Win 7 set for High Performance?

[roinuj]

How old is this laptop? You can try a new power brick. Does the battery still work? My Alienware Area 51 would not run without the battery, even with the power brick. Got rid of that overpriced POS, got a cheap little Dell, works for Internet stuff, but I have my killer desktop. You also have to realize, that in a small, confined place like a laptop, it's all plastic, you will hear clicking, fans, all that stuff. I'm still thinking it's the main board.

The laptop is a little over a year old. The battery seems fine (getting 3 hours to a charge) and the power brick is fine. I have had nothing but good things to say about ASUS. My last ASUS was built like a tank and ran 4 years with no problems, but this one is giving me grief.

I'm starting to see why people are starting to ditch laptops for tablets for mobile computing. Since laptops are so difficult to maintain when they go bad and you can't easily change parts, I'm think the same as you to build a killer (and serviceable) desktop and then go with a simple Nexus7 for mobile computing (web, email, social) and stop trying to do Photoshop, Lightroom or Railworks on a mobile device.....too much can go wrong.

[roinuj]

Why can you not disable head parking? That doesn't make sense. Do you have Win 7 set for High Performance?

I don't know? I did everything I could find online.

- I disabled it in the drive using wdidle3 utility from Western Digital.

- Ran Win7 in high performance with the drives set to never turn off while on AC power.

- I set the Drives to Turn off to "0" in the advance settings in Power Management.

- Disabled auto drive optimization in Norton Internet Security 12

- Ran QuiteHDD utility to turn of the Auto Power Management.

- Tried HDParm to turn of the Auto Power Management.

Don't know if there is something else I can try?? Nothing would work. It seems something else was still trying to force what I think is the "head parking". Then it again, it may be just supper bad luck with a bunch of bad hdds.

One other thing I know is last week I put an old 500gb Segate Momentus XT drive into the HD1 slot and I never noticed the "click". The WD Blacks are suppose to be Western Digital's high end drives but it seems every WD drive that I have put in HD1 has this "click".

[arizonachris]

Personally, I can't afford an SSD that has the capacity I need. And I run Seagate drives. I have two 500Gb drives in my desktop. Flawless. Had a WD Black die on me a few months back. Lost everything. What a PIA. Now I do a weekly backup to my second drive using Acronis True Image. Great program.

[Hawk]

I had always considered WD to be one of the best drive manufacturers out there, but lately I have had two fairly new WD drives go bad on me.Now I'm not so sure they are as good as they once were.

I have heard some good things about Seagate though lately.

[roinuj]

Props to Tiger Direct Canada and their tech support. They exchanged the 2 bad drives for new ones (for the second time). I was able to upgrade the OCZ SSD to a new Samsung Series 830 (good deal as it came with USB/Sata cable and full version of Norton Ghost). I changed out the WD for a Segate to see if the aggressive APM isn't as intrusive. I always had good luck with WD but since I've had 3 drives exhibit the "click" time to try one of the others. Hope it all works and the duct tape won't be need for too much longer.

[arizonachris]

What, duck tape, ROJ? Serious? Is it just a rattley latop maybe?

Glad you got the drives replaced. I use New Egg, their customer service is just superb. Of course, all the money I have spent with them, I better have good customer support. Oh, New Egg is in Canada now!

[BNSFdude]

I had my OCZ Vertex 2 go into panic mode yesterday. Lost my MT14. Just awesome.

[roinuj]

I had my OCZ Vertex 2 go into panic mode yesterday. Lost my MT14. Just awesome.

I havn't had a chance to try out the Samsung SSD yet but the tech guy at Tiger Direct was telling me OCZs are good and blazing fast but may be a little too much on the edge and prone to more problems. His recommendation was the Samsung for better relibilty. I hope he's right.

Nothing worse then a blue screen of death followed by a black screen looking for boot up data......ugh. Not fun. Hope you get yours up and running again soon.