Hard drive beeps or squeaks - these tips help, however

If your hard drive beeps or squeaks, this is often a sign that the hard drive is soon to die. Even the smallest vibrations can destroy the read and write head and thus lead to errors. We'll show you what to do and whether you can still save your hard drive.

Hard drive beeps, buzzes, squeaks - what to do?

• First, you should back up your data externally. The hard drive can break down in 5 minutes or 5 years, depending on the case. Move all important files to a USB stick, an external hard drive or upload the files to a cloud storage.
• If you want to continue using the hard drive and you still cannot find a solution according to the instructions in the next paragraph, perform a backup regularly.

Hard drive makes loud noises - this can help

• If the hard drive or the entire computer is still within the manufacturer's warranty period, make sure to have it repaired. The following steps should only be carried out if the guarantee has already expired.
• With the free tools HDDScan and CrystalDiskInfo you can put your hard drive through its paces. If you are lucky, you will find out the reason for the defect here.
• Turn off your computer and disconnect it from the electrical outlet. Unscrew the device and remove the plug connection of the hard disk. Blow any dust off the contacts and reconnect the hard drive.
• If possible, also connect the hard drive to another computer. Under certain circumstances, the hard disk is not recognized by the BIOS and tries to perform an operation over and over again. Reinstalling Windows can help here if the tones only appear at startup.

In the next practical tip we will show you how to use an internal hard drive externally. We have summarized everything about must-haves around hard drives in another article.