I hate to be THAT guy
But "Trying a few things," and actually getting metrics are two different things. If it's intermittent and such, it could be that the drive is only
starting to fail, which may not show in just "Trying a few things."
Oh yeah, HDDs still write in the same way, and NTFS is still a file system
Consoles have tons of files for their operating systems and such; ever modded a console? They're not as simple (Ha, I'm honestly laughing at calling old consoles simple) they used to be.
And that's what I'm saying; your drives SHOULDN'T be making audible clicking noises in the way you're describing.
In a huge storage array? Sure, you will, in fact it's one of the factors you have to take into account for when building storage arrays with HDDs instead of SSDs
But if this thing is in on your desk, in your living room, etc, you should NEVER hear it click loudly like you're saying
Either that or you bought a REALLY shitty hard drive with REALLY poor quality parts
Not even a reputable site I would go to, just some random link
Do you hear a click coming from your hard drive? There are a few causes of hard drive clicking. Here’s what you should do if you have a clicking hard drive.
drivesaversdatarecovery.com