hard drive noises -- western digital wd800ve

[Markus Dolze]

Michael Roberts wrote:
> i'm encountering something funny in a hard drive i just installed. 
> issue is: the hard drive makes clicking noises sometimes when the system
> is trying to access the drive, and when that happens, there is a
> momentary (half or quarter second) pause in whatever the computer was
> trying to do.  e.g., if i type in a partial path in a terminal, then try
> to tab-complete it, i hear a little tic-toc, accompanied by a pause,
> before the completed path shows up in the terminal.

I once had a IBM hard drive which made such a noise right from the
beginning. According to the support people this was "normal" with that
series of drives.

However, I finally persuaded my supplier to have this drive replaced
with one from another vendor. I couldn't have a drive in my PC which
brings me cold sweat every day.

As the others I recommend smartmontools and perhaps do a check with some
"drive fitness test" tools from WD.

Markus