iPod hard drive clicking... this can't be good, right?

sir_pinch-a-loaf

So my 5.5gen 30GB ipod is currently playing a podcast while hooked up to my work PC (technically, it's playing through iTunes, but the podcast is on the iPod). It's playing perfectly fine, but as it plays, the HD in the iPod is clicking every 5 seconds or so. It's worth noting that this is a refurb given to me when I thought my last one was busted, but actually wasn't. It's no longer under warranty, and I don't have Apple Care.

Should I be preparing to give Steve Jobs 42% of my economic stimulus rebate?

Treas

sir_pinch-a-loaf wrote: »

So my 5.5gen 30GB ipod is currently playing a podcast while hooked up to my work PC (technically, it's playing through iTunes, but the podcast is on the iPod). It's playing perfectly fine, but as it plays, the HD in the iPod is clicking every 5 seconds or so. It's worth noting that this is a refurb given to me when I thought my last one was busted, but actually wasn't. It's no longer under warranty, and I don't have Apple Care.

Should I be preparing to give Steve Jobs 42% of my economic stimulus rebate?

I have a sixth-gen iPod Classic (80gb), and every so often it will make a soft clicking sound. For me this only occurs rarely, and when a new album or video begins to play. Seems to me that this is just normal noise resulting from accessing the harddrive, given how it sounds and when it happens.... But if it truly is happening every five seconds for your ipod as you said, it might be different.

If the noise really bothers you or it seems to be tied to a decrease in performance, I would check around the apple forums, or give them a call if you can't get help elsewhere. I definitely would make sure you can find out if something is actually wrong before spending money on another iPod though.

Is the clicking completely random? Is it dependent on what type of media is being played?

Airan

In general, hard drive clicking generally means the head that reads the data off the discs is hitting itself against something hard (possibly the edge of the casing). Not entirely sure why this happens, but it does, and if it's constantly clicking you should back up your data and replace the HDD.

However, I don't have an iPod so I can't say whether this explanation applies to their tiny hard drives.

sir_pinch-a-loaf

Well, after stopping the file, doing hard resets multiple times, and playing around in the diagnostic menu (aside: they took out HDScan? booooooooo), the clicking stopped when resuming the podcast. I'm aware and familiar with the ipod HD clicking when it accesses some data, but I'd never heard it quite like it was this morning.