Hard Drive failure

a clicking sound is referred to as a click of death and makes repairs virtually impossible

it is when the pick up arm that reads the disc, flicks back and forward across the disc hitting the stops for the movement

if you can retrieve any files or folders then do it but the hard drive is on the way out

get better info fro an IT geek shop that repairs pc's

Sounds like recovery files are corrupted need a fresh install from dvd,
if you have valuable info ,take the hard drive out and read it in another computer as external ,you will need the proper usb and data connector reader (sata,ide) in order to be read externally
save your files ,if accessible ,then put back hard drive on your pc and do a fresh install ,if hard drive is mechanically defective you are out of luck and must be replaced

Any sounds other than a light humming or hearing that arm move lightly back and forth is usually a sign of the hard drive failure beginning.

Does the computer have a S.M.A.R.T.S. system on it in the bios. What model of computer is it? You need to get in the bios by tapping F10 or DEL key a few times when it shows the first screen on the monitor.
Once you get in bios, go through each tab and see if you can locate a smarts option and make sure it is enabled.

Scandisk is only good if there is actually bad sectors or bad headers on the platters of a hard drive, corrupt data and such, thus it gives you the software physical side of the hard drive, but the smarts is a self monitoring system. It detects abnormality in the hard drive itself and warns you ahead of time of a catastrophic failure due to the way the drive is not acting correctly.

Here is more info about smarts. Hope this helps.
What Is Drive eHow

This hard drive is faulty. The ticking sound is the read/write head banging back and forth - known as the click of death.
There are companies that can recover data from hard disks BUT it will cost you an arm and a leg for their services.

The clicking noise is the reader arm skipping across the platters on your hard drive
a dirty hard first clean all of the dust from your computer using a fine air blower from an air compressor making sure there is no MOISTURE in the air line then give the hard drive a firm tap on one side to free up the read arm
you could run the check disk utility
click start run type cmd then type chkdsk/r/f which willscan for and attempt to repair any bad
sectors and automatically fix any corrupt files on your hard drive then defragment your hard drive
hope this helps

It sounds like you have damaged the drive.

The clicking sound is a mechanical failure where the the read arm inside the drive is hitting the magnetic platters. You should backup your data immediately as drive failure is imminent.

Robert from Blitware

The arm that moves the heads over the platters inside your drive is loose. That means your drive is mostly toast. Read this link that I wrote on hard drive failures. It also has a way you can possibly recover a few files.

http://www.fixya.com/support/r3584465-bad_hard_drives_and_data_recovery

A clicking hard drive is a faulty hard drive. The clicking sound is the read/write heads flicking back and forth across the disk platters.
You can remove the hard drive and insert a new hard drive in the Western Digital case.
If yo need data off this hard drive then there are companies that can recover data from faulty hard drives BUT it will cost you an arm and a leg for their services.

Hi,

Clicking is generally a bad sign as it indicates the harddrive is seeking over and over not getting a read of the pallets (think arm on a record player swinging back and forth with no needle).

Good news is if it's just the control cicuitry the drive can usually be recovered for under $500. If the failure is internal rates can range from $700-$5000 depending on the level and type of damage.

If you think you would want to try either of these methods get back to me and I can recommend appropriate service providers for either.

Sorry it's not better news,


Chris

There is an arm in a harddisk that holds the read-write heads. This arm can move the heads to tracks near the hub or near the edge of the disk. A normal hard disk is 5 inches (12.5 cm) or so in diameter. This arm, therefore, can move about 2 inches (5 cm) across the face of the disk. The speed at which this arm can move is astonishing. The arm is very light, and its actuator is powerful and precise. The arm can slide across the face of the disk hundreds of times per second if it needs to.
As the hard-disk arm moves back and forth rapidly, it sets up vibrations that our ears hear as sounds.