[Veltliner]

My G-Tech external hard drive is dying. While burning back-up copy of a DVD (where it's recording for 50 minutes without interruption) the clicking noise got so loud you could here it in the next room.

It's going to warranty repair.

But why isn't it clicking all the time?

For short back-ups (I hardly turn it on until my back-up back-up drive arrives) you don't hear much, maybe just a little bit of scratching.

Is the clicking caused by imbalance on the spinning disc, and has the drive to get warm to achieve its full "clicking potential"?

I'm wondering this, as I need to fill out an online form before getting an RMA.

Thanks.

[Big Mac]

http://www.bestsyndication.com/Artic...king_sound.htm

[Simon]

My guess would be it depends on the temperature (mechanical expansion).

A while ago we got a batch of Hitachi 1 TB drives for a few MPs. Several of them were DOA. One of them wasn't but we noticed it would cause trouble (no clicking sound though) in one MP and not in the other. After a lot of tinkering around we realized the difference wasn't the two MPs, but that one was in a basement room around 62F while the other was in a hot office with sun shining onto it all the time. The disk simply didn't work properly when it got too warm. Obviously we had it replaced.

[Veltliner]

Originally Posted by Simon 

My guess would be it depends on the temperature (mechanical expansion).

A while ago we got a batch of Hitachi 1 TB drives for a few MPs. Several of them were DOA. One of them wasn't but we noticed it would cause trouble (no clicking sound though) in one MP and not in the other. After a lot of tinkering around we realized the difference wasn't the two MPs, but that one was in a basement room around 62F while the other was in a hot office with sun shining onto it all the time. The disk simply didn't work properly when it got too warm. Obviously we had it replaced.

I was thinking of expansion through heat, too.

It's good to know it as a fact that bad hard drives behave differently at different times. But I don't think G-Tech will cause me trouble.

I'll simply not use the hard drive until I get a second back-up hard drive, then transfer data, finally wipe it and ask for a replacement of the hard drive (not the enclosure) as I don't really think a repair would make sense - and have them wreck the old drive.