Why external hard drive making noise

External hard drive making noise can come from a variety of sources. In this post, we will discuss the most common causes for external hard drive making noise and how to reduce or stop it. 

In order to avoid data loss, you must first identify the problem before taking any action. This article will help you find out what is causing your external hard drive to make a lot of noise

Why is my external hard drive making so much noise?

The following reasons may cause an external hard drive making noise:

The error of power supply or USB wiring hardware The damage of the hard disk due to overheating The problem of motor’s rotation system or logic board Many of these reasons will not be too difficult for you if you are familiar with computer. But one thing you must know is that your files can be damaged at any time! So if your external hard drive makes noise, don’t delay it and just take action to get rid of this problem.

External hard drive making noise, so?

when our external hard drives make noises while working on them, that means the disk inside will stop rotating or work crazily because of too much heat. So you can not access your files at all after your external hard drive stops working.

What kinds of noises do I hear from my external hard drive?

Here are two common sounds:

● LOUD CLUNKING NOISE

● MECHANICAL GRINDING NOISE

External hard drive making loud clunking noise will cause the disk to shake violently inside, or sometimes it won’t stop when you are using your computer. Mechanical grinding sound is quite complicated, because it depends on whether there is any dust in your computer cabinet. A lot of people will see this kind of situation when they are using their external hard drives: sometimes the disk makes noises and suddenly stops working, And shortly disconnects. This phenomenon occurs due to poor quality USB cables or bad joints between the cable connector and PCB board with high voltage breakage.   When you find these two kinds of sounds coming from your external hard drive, please stop accessing them because the disk inside might be broken.

External hard drive making noise

it will depend on how bad your situation is. If there are no noises, But you find it’s hot when you plug in your external hard drive, please don’t access it until you find a professional data recovery company like Ontrack or KrollOntrack for help. Because if It takes too much power to make motor work at this moment, there is a high possibility that hundreds of millions of files can be lost forever after one more time turning on your computer because the motor just burned out due to large current flow through the circuit board. When an external hard drive makes loud clunking noise or mechanical grinding noise, please stop using it immediately and contact a professional data recovery company to get the job done.

If you didn’t do anything wrong to your external hard drive, like dropping it or flowing water into it, then you should check if the hard disk inside is defective your external hard drive makes noise.

If you do not hear any sounds at all, this is another case for the pros. If the drive motor is shot, the platters won’t spin. If the platters don’t get up to speed, the actuator won’t attempt to move since the necessary airflow to float the read/write heads won’t be there and it would simply drag the heads across the surface of the disk causing physical damage. It means the motor is abnormal and try to stop running  Stiction is when the read/write heads are physically stuck to the platters of the drive. You may still hear other sounds, sometimes sounding like beeps or a quiet buzzing, when this happens

Whilst many of us enjoy listening to metal, hearing metal-on-metal sounds coming from one’s hard drive is far from pleasant. The best course of action is always to make an immediate backup, if possible. If a backup cannot be made, professional data recovery is the next best option.


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Wasim Cheema
By Wasim Cheema

Wasim Cheema is a tech enthusiast who is passionate about all things that have to do with laptops and gadgets. He provides unbiased laptop reviews on different tech sites, where he has been sharing his thoughts on the latest technology for over 8 years now. His technical knowledge has helped him in providing sound advice on various topics including laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other consumer electronics which are often difficult to find a reliable source of information on the web.


The Laptop Arts is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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