I have the same issue. Not sure if mine's a Samsung, but it is a Dell 1330. Random loud click. What did you find out?

Thanks.

Tom,

I got a new Samsung hard drive from them, same model, same computer, same loud click. However, the good news is that the new hard drive clicks very rarely. You can use Everest Home Edition, a free program, to check out the brand and model of your drive.

I can report the same noise from a Samsung 250GB drive bought separately to replace my old Seagate that died.

Out of the blue; "CLICK!", then silence for a long time.

As with the poster above, I see no connection between usage and clicking.

UPDATE: I first changed the HD mode to performance in the BIOS (click still happened, but less often).

THEN, I updated to SP1 in Vista and knock on wood, it hasn't happened all day since I upgraded. Could be that the click was something to do with Vista's management of the HD, but who knows…

I'm sure as soon as I submit this it'll "clunk" to spite me.

Oh my…. All you guys dont know what the click of death is.. You soon will know.. This click you recognize is one of the first signs of a physical harddrive defect.. Be sure to backup as often as you can, and if its dead check if you have warranty or better change it now..

Markus,

That is usually the case, but I don't believe it to be defective as both of the hard drives I've received have this clicking sound. Other people with the same hard drive also have it, it could be the way the hardware was designed. I'm not sure. I'll certainly do backups though, it's generally good practice to do that anyway.

I have this exact problem with my brand new XPS m1530. It doesn't happen often, just every now and then.

I called Dell Tech Support, and they make me do a lot of noise/harddisk test, There is no problem or noise during those tests, but as soon as I start Vista it comes back again.

I suspect it is something to do with Vista and/or hardware driver, but a quick search in google suggests a mac user has this same problem, with the same model of harddrive. So I think it is definitely hardware defect. When (or should I say if) Dell Tech support get back to me, I will ask for another model of harddisk. Keep me posted on how you guys are doing.

Same clicking, same hard drive @ inspiron 1720 :/

My new Samsung HM320JI 320GB 2.5 " notebook drive also produces the loud clicking sound. The sound is similar to when when the power is shut off suddenly and the heads are retracted. I am using Win XP Sp2 on a Sony vaio. Looks like it's only happening when the drive is idle. Happens sometimes every 15 min or so.

However, sometimes I also get an audio sound probably generated by the drive like an alarm tone of about 3/4 of a second.

I have a SMART monitor running constantly, but nothing is recorded in the smart attributes of the drive, except temperature change (highest about 40 degrees).

It looks like the click is positively recorded in the S.M.A.R.T attributes. I had 2 clicks within a minute and was recoding the raw smart data while the second click was happening.
The attribute changed was:
load/unload retry, it changed from 427 to 428, all others (raw values)did not change

This is also confirmed by a posting about another samsung drive (250 GB) where 'morecowbell' says
"Cons: CLICK EXPLANATION - SMART property number 0xDF ((LOAD/UNLOAD RETRY COUNT) is the number of loading retries when reading, recording, positioning of heads) increases with each and every abnormal 'click'. Loading is the heads moving from their plastic parking tab that lifts them from the disk (unload) to the disk (load). Rapidly unloading causes the click by the actuator arm hitting the ""door stop"" for the arm. I'm guessing that when the drive is idle, it unloads and when it loads again to write/read there's an issue and causes the arm to immediately retract and try again. But it also happens when active so it must also reload if there's any other anomaly. After 116 hours of POT, there have been 368 clicks, 4736 sectors recovered via ECC, and 41 re-reads required. The compromise between storage size and reliability should NOT be such that emergency reloading the heads is required, period…ever. I wish the seek time was better - I don't care about noise."

see: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822152094&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&SelectedRating=-1&PurchaseMark=&VideoOnlyMark=False&Page=1

Sorry to say you're all screwed. I'm on my second Samsung HM320JI drive now and the first broke down after 3 months. The new drive has the same clicks as the old one had. And there is still an occasional beep from the motherboard. I will call Samsung and ask them to replace all their new drives. Evidently there is something wrong with all of them.

I've tried my old fujitsu drive (which is considerably slower) and it has no ECC recoveries or the like. It doesn't click and no beeps from the motherboard. As it should be.

No luck I'm afraid. Couldn't speak to anyone that knew Samsung made harddrives. Anyone know a number or e-mail address I could use?

And I've noticed something else. The G-Sense Error Rate current and worst values are decreasing toward the treshold value. You noticed the same?

The sound you are here may simply be the part of the power saving features built into the computers bios or the OS. If you have it set up to cut power to the drive when its not in use for a certain period of time. The hard drive makes a loud clicking noise when the power is cut. Its the read/write arms hitting a small bar inside the drive. i have a 120GB 5400 RPM 3.5" drive in a G4 Cube that does this all the time.

Chris, the "clicking" sound I am describing cannot be mistaken for the clicking sound when the power is cut. The sound I am describing is more lika a "clunk" and you can easily hear it one or sometimes even two rooms away (that's how loud it is). Occasionally the clicking noise is followed by a beeping or screeching sound which is even louder.

Hello,

I noticed the same noise as you for my new HM320JI. The drive is in an Insprion E1505/6400.
The clunk appens randomly I would say.
Another thing is that with Speedfan freeware, I see its tempreature reach sometimes 56°C with big activty (file copy) ! The average is 49/50°C, with very few activity (internet, word processing). Have you the same values for temperature ?

JK,

My temperature is averaging around 39C. I don't know why there's such a big discrepancy between the two temperatures. Yes, I would say that the clunk is completely random. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and hears the clang, maybe it wakes me up…who knows.

I recently installed the Samsung HM320JI as an upgrade in my MacBook Pro 15", and have noticed the same loud click. It's random, and seems to be just the read/write head parking.

My heart skips a beat every time I hear that click.

My HM250JI has been clunking randomly for over a year now, without a hitch in performance. The occurance is truly random. It doesnt seem to be detrimental, but it does seem to be a logic glitch. The drive normally performs a Load/Unload at times, different than the Idle parking. It load/unloads ramdomly, akin to an ink jet printer wiping it's nozzles in the middle of a print job.Studying it's behaviour carefully, I notice that sometimes it will do the Load/Unload wipe normally, which is a barely audible 'clicka', even quieter than some competitor drives during a normal idle head park. But sometimes, there is an irregularity that causes the Load/Unload cycle to spike the voice coil, or cut power to it causing it to mechanically park at which time it is inevitably pulled back to the platter for service, instantaneously. I believe that Load/Unload cycle logic is defective, perhaps being normal when no data is demanded, but abnormal when the Load/Unload command and a data command are recieved at the same time. Something like that I'm thinking. Doesnt seem to damage the drive, other that theoretical wear on the latch mechanism.