Tested in a second caddy, the 500GB WD external "clicks 3 times then stops", and the trade enquiry that came with it noted it "appears to be wear and tear, as customer is certain it was not dropped". There is around 300GB to get back. The customer is very likely right, and it changes nothing about the job. Heads fail through ordinary use as readily as through accidents — the read elements degrade, the lubricant on the surface thins in the tracks that get used most, and one day the drive can no longer find its bearings. Three clicks is simply the retry limit in that model's firmware. It tried, it tried again, it tried once more, and then it stopped.
| Media | A Western Digital 500GB external drive that clicks three times and stops, tested in a second caddy with the same result, holding roughly 300GB to retrieve. |
| Reported situation | WD 500GB external drive · not working · clicks three times and stops when tested in a different caddy · believed to be wear and tear, the customer certain it was never dropped · around 300GB wanted. |
| Fault class | Head fault — the heads fail to read on start-up, the firmware retries its set number of times and then parks. Wear alone accounts for this; no impact is required. Data intact on the platters, with further power the only real hazard. |
| Equipment used | Not powered further once the click count was described · brought up on a current-limited bench supply, the three-click sequence characterised · opened under a laminar-flow hood, heads and platter surfaces looked over under a stereo microscope, matched donor heads installed and the alignment set · copied to an image on DeepSpar, PC-3000 UDMA underneath, the data picked out in R-Studio and verified. |
The specific number is more informative than people expect. A drive attempts to load its heads, read the servo pattern and become ready; when that fails it retracts and repeats, and each firmware has a set number of goes before it parks and stops drawing current. Three is a common figure. So 'clicks three times then stops' is not a vague noise, it is a drive completing a defined routine and reporting failure in the only way it can.
Testing in a second caddy was exactly the right move and it settles the other half of the question. Enclosure electronics fail often enough to be worth ruling out, and a drive that behaves identically in two different caddies has taken the caddy out of the argument. Whatever is wrong is inside the drive.
On the wear-and-tear point: the customer's certainty is worth taking seriously, and it fits. Heads do not need to be dropped to fail. The read elements degrade over thousands of hours, the lubricant layer on the platter thins in the tracks that are used most, and eventually a head that has been marginal for months cannot find the servo pattern on a cold start. That is why a drive can sit quietly on a desk for five years and then simply not start one morning. The bench work is identical either way — clean air, matched donor heads, careful imaging — so nothing hangs on the diagnosis except the customer's peace of mind, which is reason enough to say it.
It was not started again; the click count had already told us what a further attempt would. On a current-limited bench supply the sequence was characterised and the drive's behaviour measured rather than assumed, then it was opened beneath laminar flow with the heads and platter surfaces examined under a stereo microscope. Matched donor heads were fitted and alignment set, and imaging ran on DeepSpar behind PC-3000 UDMA in controlled passes across the used capacity, with the data traced in R-Studio and confirmed.
Heads replaced in filtered air, the drive read out to an image, and the data returned on fresh media — comfortably including the 300GB that mattered. The diagnostic cost nothing; the figure that followed was fixed, written and inclusive of VAT. Opening the drive meant committing donor parts and hours in filtered air, so half the figure was settled in advance and the rest fell due only on a proven recovery. Wear had marked the most-used tracks slightly, as wear does, which was reported at quote stage rather than after the invoice.
Count the clicks and then stop counting — the number tells an engineer something useful, and repeating the test does not. A drive that clicks a fixed number of times and parks has run through its firmware's retry routine and given up, which means the heads cannot read, which means clean-air work with matched donor parts. Trying it in a second caddy was worth doing once, because enclosure electronics do fail; trying it in a third proves nothing and puts failing heads back on the surface. If you are handling this for a customer, the single most valuable thing you can do is take it out of circulation now: a drive with three attempts left in it is worth considerably more than one that has had thirty.
Every case file here is written up from a real enquiry handled for households and businesses across Norwich and Norfolk, anonymised so that nobody is identifiable. Each sets out the reasoning behind the diagnosis and the method used on that particular fault, with the equipment named.
A general repair shop has general tools; below a certain fault they run out, and the fee should have run out with them
The IT department did the useful half — they ruled out software, which is the half most people skip
A glued shell is a five-minute obstacle, not a reason to send somebody away with their photographs still inside
Diagnosis costs nothing and takes up to 2 working days from arrival, the quote is fixed in writing, and logical work runs no fix, no fee — start online or ring the freephone.