Every new hard drive I put starts making clicking sounds

[Paasta]

So my hard drive about a month ago had been making clicking noises for a while and I thought nothing of it, until it completely died and stopped getting read. Now, 2 drives later, still facing the same problem where it’ll work for a bit then start clicking, and then eventually stop getting read. I’m confused on what could be causing this. Could it be the power supply? Or maybe the cables or motherboard? I don’t really know what to replace or if I should just replace everything honestly. Until then I can’t really buy another hard drive as it’ll probably just die again so I’ll be stuck without a pc. I’ll appreciate any tips or advice I can get. Thank you!

[Bruce]

just confirming…

3 drives (one original, 2 new replacements), all start clicking (straight away?) and after a short time (how long?) they completely die and cannot be read?

what were the makes/models of the drives?
what are your PC and power supply specs? how old is the rig?
were all the drives internal and used for booting the system, that is, the OS was installed onto these drives?
is it a laptop or desktop?

[Paasta]

Right, sorry! Should have confirmed everything.
So yes, it is 1 original that was working until it started clicking, then eventually died. Then I ordered another one, which started clicking straight away when I put it in the slot and turned the pc on. Then it stopped getting read after a few minutes and died. The third one came soon after and it started clicking as well, but worked surprisingly for a few days, but then unfortunately also died.

The drives are all the same, they are a Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive SATA 6Gb/s

I don’t know all of my specs but for the most part I have
DDR3-2400 1.65v 8G (3 sticks)
GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus 6G OC
ASRock 970A-G/3.1

I don’t know my processor and I can’t turn my pc on to check but I know it’s an AMD RYZEN

my power supply is a
Thermaltake Smart Series 600w Atx I believe? Here’s a picture of it
[MEDIA=imgur]a/GrQmBxO[/MEDIA]

I got the pc back in 2016-2017 so it’s quite a few years old
All drives were internal and were used for booting as well (I only had one drive in at a time)

This is a Desktop

Thanks!

[Bruce]

while personally I don’t mind Thermaltake PSU’s and have found them a solid unit for non-gaming PC’s, others here have different opinions based on their experiences.

first up, I’d consider getting a new PSU based on the theory that you can’t get three bad HDD’s in a row even though they are the same model (so maybe the same batch of dodgy builds).

so before getting another HDD of a different brand, or even a sexy SSD to give the old gal a performance boost, let’s replace a potentially faulty power supply that could be the cause, however unlikely.

[Paasta]

Thank you! I just have one more question before I go off to buying, since my current PSU is 600w, can I swap to an 850w or anything above the 600w safely? I’ve been thinking of upgrading it for a while. Thanks again!

[Bruce]

anything higher than 600w will be fine.
just make sure it is at least 80 PLUS, and Gold.
another good measure of a PSU’s standards if the manufacture backs it up with at least a 5 year or more warranty.
EVA and Cooler Master have 5 and 10 year warranty.