My Book 4TB clicks twice after spinning up, normal?

I have a couple weeks old My Book 4TB (the newer SmartWare edition) that I’ve just backed up all my stuff into.

I’ve however noticed some oddities with it that I am uncertain are normal.

Firstly, when I originally used it standing vertically, whenever it was actively working, the drive would generate strong, audible vibrations at a consistent pulse (vrrrr…brm, vrrrrr…brm and so on). I expect it’s normal for a drive to be louder when active, but this vibration is stronger than expected.

Today I placed it horizontally and no longer observed this phenomenon, but a while ago the drive clicked twice and stopped responding.

I attempted to reconnect the data cable, but it did not reappear in Windows.

A restart of Windows brought the drive back and it appeared to work normally afterwards.

However it noticeably clicked twice whenever spinning up. I verified this by taking the drive to a quiet room and plugging it into power. It spins up normally, then I hear it clicking twice after it has spun up. Is this normal?

Will I have to replace the drive? My other hard disk appears to be faulty and all my back ups are on this drive.

Hello,

I recommend that you make sure the drive is plugged in directly into a wall outlet, since a power strip or power surge sometimes do not provide enough power to spin up the drive properly, causing clicking sounds and sometimes the drive might not be recognized at all.

For more information please click on the link below.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/197

This might be off topic, but if you are even the slightest bit concerned about safety of your data, then please keep the drive flat at all times. Much smaller chance of it falling that way :wink: