Hard drives are usually virtually silent, but some make a faint clicking noise when accessed or turned off. This is normal.

On the other hand, if you only hear sounds occasionally or sounds you've never heard before, such as clicking, grinding, vibrations, or beeping, your hard drive may be bad. Datacent provides some sample sounds of bad hard drives that may be similar to what you're hearing.

The steps below will help you determine if the problem is actually with the hard drive. And if so, what you need to do before all of your valuable data is lost forever.

Check to see if the hard drive is the source of the noise and not another hardware component. For example, if you disconnect the power and data cables from the hard drive but you still hear the noise when you start the computer, then it is clear that the problem is not with the hard drive.