Click of death in Seagate FreeAgent XTreme

[Sib Bachchan]

I have a Seagate FreeAgent XTreme hard disk with me. It was working fine for couple of months, but 3 weeks back it started giving problems. Three weeks back, whenever I would try to start my computer with the hard disk plugged in, the boot would fail. When the hard disk was not plugged, he PC would start normally. After two weeks of this problem, it became worse. After I plugged the hard disk in my computer, it wouldn’t be detected. I could hear the disks spinning for 2 to 3 minutes. But after this I would hear a continuous clicking sound for around 10 seconds after which the disks in the hard disk would stop spinning. I don’t know what is happening, I contacted one of my friends regarding this issue and he said that it must be the ‘Click of Death’ that has killed the hard disk. What is this ‘Click of Death’ in Seagate hard disk, can someone shed some light on it?

[Gameli]

This type of problems are usually found in the hard disks when they experience a shock from push or being banged into some hard object. Was your hard disk ever pushed or dropped? Even a drop from smallest height can create such problems. Regarding the clicking sound, I can say that the head of the reader must have shifted from its original place. This must be causing it to be rubbed between the platters and the cover. So the clicking sound.

[Denholm]

The clicking sound you hear is called the ‘Click of Death’. Many people who have purchased the Seagate hard disks are complaining about the clicking sound. One of friend experienced the click of death when he was watching a movie from the hard disk. He played the movie and after 20 minutes or so, the hard disk just froze. Later he tried to connect the hard disk, but every time it would make the clicking sound and the OS would fail to recognize the device.