LogFAQs > #932184788

RJP_X posted...

is it possible it could be anything other than the HDD?

I suppose it could be a fan, but it seems like you may have ruled that out. With some modern variable speed drives they sometimes make odd noises that are a little like a dying drive but possibly not. My best advice at this point, check the following site and look up some videos on Youtube involving drives with clicking which are actually dead or dying. Knowing what the noise is won't help you fix a dying drive, but if you can't identify the noise (or, in fact, if you can) it may not actually be dying.

http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

Also, there's an element of common sense. You know your own device better than anyone else. If you've had it for a length of time, you know what it normally sounds like and if this new sound is something you could have overlooked before or if it's genuinely something new. If it has a long history of not making odd noises, the likelihood of its failing obviously increases.

Not to fill you with potentially false hope or anything, but I have a pair of drives that have periodically made odd noises since I first put them into service. I was, to put it diplomatically, rather concerned in the beginning. They've been at nearly 100% uptime for almost 9 years.