HDD clicking/seeking every time I create new partitions [SOLVED]

matter · 2011-10-07 00:29:38

Hi all,

So after using Windows 7 Starter for around a year on my Samsung N150 netbook, I decided to stop putting up with the slow chug speed and install Arch linux to really make it sing. After finding this walk-through: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Samsung_N150 and using my, limited but hopefully adequate, prior Linux knowledge, I figured it should be a breeze.

Firstly, I have been through this process with many different combinations of different partitions and all seems to yield the same result.

After creating new partitions, my HDD starts to do a repetitive seek. A noisy (well, it's not _that_ noisy, but believe me after hearing it nigh on 1000 times it's is incredibly annoying) seeking sound which regularily repeats. I would say the frequency of the noise around 2 seeks per second.

An example of a typical partition I have tried:
sda1 - /boot - 100mb - ext2
sda2 - swap - 1024mb - swap
sda3 - / - 15440mb - ext4
Logical remainder:
sda5 - /var - 20000mb - rieserfs
sda6 - /tmp - 2000mb - ext4
sda7 - /home - remaining space (~200GB) - ext4

An example of another would be:
sda1 - / -15000mb - ext4
sda2 - swap - 1024mb - swap
sda3 - /var - 20000mb - ext4
sda4 - /home - remainder (~200GB) - ext4

I get no errors at all when creating the partitions, but as soon as they have been created, the clicking noise starts. If i rollback, it immediately stops.

A colleague has suggested that I was trying too create too many partitions, but even just creating one partition for / and one for swap seems to yield the same result - oddly enough the seeking noise frequency sounds even faster though with less partitions, i'd say around 3 clicks/seeks per second.

Could this be related to my choice of file systems?
Otherwise, I understand that i could have a cactus (a.k.a. screwed) HDD here. Is there any way i can salvage it?

Looking forward to hearing what this thriving community has to say on this - and whether anyone else has come across the same issue.

Cheers, TIA,
Matt

Last edited by matter (2011-10-08 03:33:16)

lagagnon · 2011-10-07 14:19:17

As a computer tech. I would say your hard drive is on its way out - at least that is my experience with clicking hard drives. Burn yourself a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD, or onto a pen drive, and use their hard drive diagnostic tools to check it out (you need to know the manufacturer of the hard drive). If you just have bad sectors those tools might even fix it, but clicking is usually a hardware, rather than sector fault, IMHO.

.:B:. · 2011-10-07 15:03:29

How about performing a SMART test on that disk?

matter · 2011-10-08 03:31:01

Thanks for the suggestions.

I figured it was a bung internal hdd so i bought a new one. Seagate, 500GB internal. Installed and away i went.

No dice. The noise was still there. BUT I figured i can just "deal with it" and went ahead and continued with my installation of various packages and whatnot.

After around what must have been TWO HOURS (!) the seeking just suddenly stopped. I am around 30 mins in with no repetitive seeking noise. Perhaps the laptop needed to do some sort of house keeping after creating the partitions!? Who knows. I certainly have no idea as to why it needed to do this. Very strange, but I am hoping it stays this way ... the silence in the absence of repetitive clicks is beautiful to say the least. It's the little things in life right ! ;-)

Thanks again for the suggestions. Loving Arch by the way!

Cheers.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-10-07 00:29:38

HDD clicking/seeking every time I create new partitions [SOLVED]

#2 2011-10-07 14:19:17

Re: HDD clicking/seeking every time I create new partitions [SOLVED]

#3 2011-10-07 15:03:29

Re: HDD clicking/seeking every time I create new partitions [SOLVED]

#4 2011-10-08 03:31:01

Re: HDD clicking/seeking every time I create new partitions [SOLVED]

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