Poll of the Day > if a hard drive were failing in a gaming console how long would it take for the

(+) Yeah! (+)

system to break?

i was playing the my hero academia game on ps4 for a week and on every loading screen the system would make 1-3 clicking sounds. i was told that clicking sounds may signify hard drive failure.

however the system has been fine, i started another game last night and been playing it today and there haven't been issues. but say if the hard drive were breaking, how long would it take? a short while, or awhile? i want to keep using the system as is, and feel like if i use the system long enough without issues like a couple of weeks that maybe there isn't anything wrong with the hard drive. just been highly concerned, thanks.

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There's no real way to tell. It could a month or it could be tomorrow. In any case, you should replace the HDD as soon as possible before it fails else your data might become unrecoverable.

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is it possible it could be anything other than the HDD? it wasn't happening in any game i played before that one, and it doesn't seem to be happening in the one i'm playing now,

it was definitely a different kind of sound though, like the ps4 does make cracking and popping sounds from the plastic which is normal, but this was more like a ticking/clicking sound. only on loading screens, the game was digital btw i don't play many disc games these days.

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To be on the safe side, I'd make sure your data is backed up. You don't necessarily have to jump straight to replacing the hard drive, on the off chance it's nothing catastrophic, but you should definitely have a backup.

_AdjI_ posted...

To be on the safe side, I'd make sure your data is backed up. You don't necessarily have to jump straight to replacing the hard drive, on the off chance it's nothing catastrophic, but you should definitely have a backup.

Seeing as it's just a console though, you only really need to backup your saves, if you don't cloudsave with PS+.

I'm not aware if you can even backup the individual games unless you use an external HDD.

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helIy posted...

Seeing as it's just a console though, you only really need to backup your saves, if you don't cloudsave with PS+.

I'm not aware if you can even backup the individual games unless you use an external HDD.

yeah i have PS+ which i think auto backs saves too. i typically play one game at a time before i play another although i keep multiple games that i keep downloaded in a folder as a potential next to play game. so as far as backing up i don't really see the point.

i use the system every day from anywhere to 3-6 hours i'm guessing, and my idea is to keep on using it as i am. even though i feel stressed when using it cause i mostly hear of HDD failure and i keep worrying. i keep trying to calm myself by saying if it breaks i'll just get another one and to just relax a bit and maybe its not as bad as i keep thinking. been feeling very over worked up lately.

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You could just get a cheap external HDD and transfer everything over to it.

You'll probably get faster loading times, too, since the internal HDD is slow as fuck.

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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.

Red_Frog posted...

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.

@Red_Frog

i haven't ruled out anything, didn't even think of the fans. i honestly have no idea, most have said and when i read on clicking sounds point to the HDD failing.

one person even said its normal that its the sound of a mechanic hard drive loading. have no idea what that means, i generally thought clicking sounds = bad. that's one opinion out of many i've heard.

thank you for your help.

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