Hard Drive clicking sound
 

My computer was working fine the last time I booted up, but now whenever I turn on my comp either one or both of my hard drives starts making this clicking sound. It sounds like a relay popping on and off and it does this about 4 times a second. I tried upgrading to a 350 watt power supply but the problem persisted. Sometimes I can get to Windows and use my system for a while before this happens, and when it does, I can still move the mouse around but the system is unresponsive. I would appreciate any info on this.

The drives are.
Western Digital caviar 80gb
maxtor 40gb

BTW: my system specs:
Gigabyte 7VTXE+ | mobo
--256 stick of DDR
Athlon XP 2000+ | Processor
GeForce 4 Ti 4200| Video card
Hercules Game Muse XL | Sound card
D-Link DFE-530xt? | NIC
ATI all in wonder VE | TV tuner card

time for some new HDs, yours (at least one) is on its legs.

I could be wrong

I would advise to download and run the hard drive diagnostic programs from the respective manufacturer's homepages and see what the results are. You can find it under the support section of each manufacturer's homepage. Your description does sound very much like hard drive failure.

Update: I'm at a friend's house with my 80gb to backup data to a 60gb, the 80gb is working fine. I will post another reply about the 40gb

I agree - you need to run the diagnostic programs.

The WD lifeguard ones are very good and WILL work with most maxtor drives too.

I'd recommend running it 2-3 times to ensure it gets fully covered. Most of the time the clicking is the actuator head smacking an imperfection (physical error) in the disk. However, it could be the spindle bearings or a problem with the motor.

Is it a real fast high pitched click/chirp or a deeper click (more of a mechanical sound)?

Ok, the verdict is in. The dead drive is in fact the maxtor. The WD jumped through the diagnostics while the Maxtor ended up with a DNF. I called Maxtor, and they are going to send me a new drive! I'm glad I didn't have any particulary important files on the drive since I was unable to retrieve them when the problem started. Any ways, thanks for your help guys.