hard drive started clicking

[syssyphus]

I have a sata hard drive that is currently attached via usb (external enclosure). It recently started clicking audibly during disk reads. I do not think any data is corrupted yet... nothing is showing up in dmesg or /var/log/messages indicating read errors.

I know the hdd is probability dying.... but does anyone have any ideas that I could try? usb drives don't support smart tests right? (don't have a way to connect it directly, all i have is a laptop.)

I have a backup of everything on it, so that isn't a big deal.

it clicked pretty loud 10 times last time it happened, not sure if the number is consistent. and it pretty much happens every few min now (if i am copying from the disk)

thanks.

[P4man]

Click Of Death
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death#Hard_disk

Note the audio fragment on the right side. if its something like that, go buy yourself a new drive :s

[cmost]

Also known as the death rattle. I'd back up ASAP, while you still can.