Hard drive clicking. But not all the time.

There is a Tl;Dr at the bottom if you don’t want the full story rundown.

So, I've been having this issue for a while now but only recently has it made my PC unusable. Or, at least I thought it was. So, a while back while I was in the middle of a game, my computer just started making this could, repetitive, clicking sound. I had no clue what it was, restarted my PC, and all was fine.

Fast forwarding, it happens time and time again, up until one time where it kept happening each time I started up my PC. I let it cool down, gave it a few hours, and when I started p everything ran fine. This type of on-off behavior with this thing has been happening for months, but as someone who lacks money I couldn't get a new hard drive. By this point though, I was told it was my Hdd.

Going ack a few days now, it started and won’t stop no matter what. Or I thought that. I’d boot up, load into windows, log into windows, and then i’d be given about 2~ minutes to do stuff before the clicking started. I used those 2 minutes again and again to save my files in-case I never get the chance.

So, I was told “Broken hard drive arm, you need a new hard drive.” Which, I was accepting till now. Today, I boot into safe mode just trying all hopes to get something to work and to my amazement… It wasn’t happening. Nothing was clicking. I sat there for five minutes and then was just sorta wondering what else might work. So, I made a new user and then I went and tried opening chrome in safe mode and the clicks started instantly.

So, I try using the new user, the clicks happen during the PC setting up my desktop, but afterwards when I try getting in again it works. I’ve been on it for about 20~ minutes, 10 times longer than my normal user without any clicking and still nothing yet. However, I want to mention I have not downloaded nor installed anything and the only program I've opened is Microsoft edge. I’m very curious on if anyone knows why this is only happening on my normal user, which, can open up chrome within those 2~ minutes of breath I get without the clicking instantly starting.

Tl;Dr

Hard drive is clicking. I’m able to boot to windows, I can sit at the login screen with no issue forever. Logging into my normal user gives me 2~ minutes before the hard drive begins to click. No clicking happens in safe mode unless I attempt to open chrome, however I can open chrome in the 2 minute grace i’m given in my normal user without it instantly clicking. However, using a new user I made in safe mode and only opening Microsoft edge has given me no problems yet. Any idea what’s up with my Hdd?