Use a long screwdriver and touch the housing of the drive with the tip and then put the handle up to your ear. You will hear the tick very loud on the bad drive
this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
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Ah, good idea! ~~I just don't have any non-magnetic screwdriver at home, I'm afraid as to what might happen if I get its magnetic tip close to a drive.~~
Oh wait, I found a lousy screwdriver, it works like a charm! It's definitely the bottom one. Thank you very much!
Nothing. The field isn't strong enough to affect the drive. They have much stronger magnets inside them all the time.
You could just use any other object too.
Don't worry about magnetic screwdrivers, the drives themselves have way stronger magnets for the head arm actuators.
Glad you found the failing drive though 👍
Hm, I should have asked... When I had a similar problem I just unplugged disk by disk from my raidz2 to find the right one. Good that you found a better way.
Interesting approach, makes sense.
Coming from automotive repair and using a section of hose to narrow down sounds.
I knew I couls trust you when I saw the stethoscope around your neck.
I had one such case recently, turned out it was due to a faulty SATA (data) cable. Once you find which drive is clicking, try plugging it with a new cable before declaring it dead.
dmesg output may contain some useful error messages. If you find errors related to I/O, block devices, SCSI or SATA, you should include them in your post
This is solid advice. I've had the exact same experience where a "failing" drive was just a bad SATA cable. Saved me like $80 on a new drive. Smart move to check dmesg too, it'll usually show I/O errors if its a connection issue vs actual drive failure.
First thing that comes to mind is a mechanic's stethoscope.
Edit: basically 8adger's screwdriver trick but I have one in my Kit of Resourcefulness™
The shade tree mechanic's version is a long screwdriver, press the end of the handle just in front of your ear (to the little fleshy protrusion).
You'll hear it loud n clear.
A mechanic's stethoscope will make it pretty easy to figure out where the noise is coming from.