Originally Posted by SplitInfinity

Western Digital drives suck. We refuse to use them AND also refuse to use IBM (now Hitachi) Deskstar drives. They WILL fail miserably.

Head clicking/clunking is a sure sign of a head crash.
If I can find them, I'll post a photo of what that looks like...
Basically the head ends up touching the surface of the disk and literally scrapes off the metallic coating leaving a see through area on the disk platter. When the head gets to that part, it doesnt know what to do
so the controller keeps pulling it back and forward in attempts to get a bearing on things...