A clicking hard drive is usually a sign of a mechanical failure, where the read/write heads are not functioning properly or the platters are scratched or broken. This can be caused by physical shock, such as dropping the laptop while it was turned on. A damaged hard drive may not be able to boot up the operating system or access the data stored on it. This is a serious problem that requires data recovery and hard drive replacement. References Identifying Hard Drive Sounds and Determining What They Mean Hard Drive Clicking? See How to Fix Click Hard Drive On Your Own Chapter 3: Hardware