Sometimes I hear a single click sound from HDD..is it normal?

[patkim]

I hear a single click but noticeably audible sound coming from my HDD of my desktop PC. It's not repeating. Just a once a while event after starting PC, that too not every time. It's an old 320GB HDD, despite 5 - 6 years old its SMART parameters are still good. No bad sectors at all.
Otherwise performance of the HDD is quite normal.

There's backup, so from data point of view I am not worried but just wondering if it's normal for HDD to make a clicking sound.

 

[TigerKing]

I hear a single click but noticeably audible sound coming from my HDD of my desktop PC. It's not repeating. Just a once a while event after starting PC, that too not every time. It's an old 320GB HDD, despite 5 - 6 years old its SMART parameters are still good. No bad sectors at all.
Otherwise performance of the HDD is quite normal.

There's backup, so from data point of view I am not worried but just wondering if it's normal for HDD to make a clicking sound.

Yep. It looks normal to me.
It's like switching tracks on gramophone.
HDD writes data like in spiral form inside out.
So your file may be "in end of spiral" now you want access another file which is "on start of spiral".

Or
Deep defragmentation needed
Try boot time fragmentation

Or
Overheating

Or
Loose connection to HDD (less power)
Many cases of this.

Or
Bad sectors

That's what I think of..

 

[TigerKing]

Hard Disk Working | How does a hard disk work | Hard Drive - YouTub

How To Tell If Your Hard Drive is Failing - Tech Tips - YouTub

HDD click noise - Bad Sector problem or Normal Sound? - YouTub

 

[zero]

I hear a single click but noticeably audible sound coming from my HDD of my desktop PC. It's not repeating. Just a once a while event after starting PC, that too not every time. It's an old 320GB HDD, despite 5 - 6 years old its SMART parameters are still good. No bad sectors at all.
Otherwise performance of the HDD is quite normal.

There's backup, so from data point of view I am not worried but just wondering if it's normal for HDD to make a clicking sound.

Please check the condition of earthing on the power socket that you are using. Usually a sign of impending failure caused due to poor quality power supply, though you may not be able to find any defects right now but its advisable to check it up. Do check the voltage difference between phase / neutral and Phase / Earth, should be as less as possible but must be less than 5 volts.

 

[quicky008]

I hear a single click but noticeably audible sound coming from my HDD of my desktop PC. It's not repeating. Just a once a while event after starting PC, that too not every time. It's an old 320GB HDD, despite 5 - 6 years old its SMART parameters are still good. No bad sectors at all.
Otherwise performance of the HDD is quite normal.

There's backup, so from data point of view I am not worried but just wondering if it's normal for HDD to make a clicking sound.

No its not normal for a healthy hdd to generate any kind of clicking noise,even if it happens only once.It usually indicates the hdd will fail in the near future.