My drive is making clicking sounds. What is wrong with it?

There are several potential problems that can cause clicking sounds. First, the drive itself could be failing, or has failed. However, other reasons could include a faulty data cable, virus infection, data corruption, or incorrect BIOS settings.

There is a definite test you can easily perform to determine if the drive has failed. Power the system down and disconnect the IDE ribbon cable to the drive that is making the noise, but leave the power cable attached. Turn the system on. If the drive makes the noise without the ribbon cable attached, then it has definitely failed and needs to be replaced. If it does not make the noise with just power, there may be other issues. In this case, you should first try a different ribbon cable.

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