No SMART warnings, no hitches in performance, no discernable vibration when the clicks are happening. I did just move the drives into an actual case from a Sabrent USB enclosure, I’m wondering if these sounds are normal and they were just muffled before. They are directly attached to a metal case now, and these clicks are audible in the next room over if it’s quiet.
Sounds like a perfectly healthy hard drive to me.
Kids these days have been spoiled by silent hard drives. When I was young these clicks meant that the computer was thinking.
I was leaning towards thinking it might be a normal sound, it was too consistent not to be. The new case it’s in must just not be deadening the sound like the old enclosure, I might have to add some foam washers between the metal hard drive cages and the drives. And maybe a bit of foam in front and behind the cages without blocking the airflow.
I was worried I might have damaged the drive during the swap at first