So my PS3 seems to have gone bonkers. Need more opinions.

[Hard-Target]

I was recently playing some games with my buddy. I had picked up Lego marvel for free from PS+ and since we both liked Marvel we figured it be at least enjoyable. My ps3 randomly decided to stop working after an hour or two of gameplay. The game would no longer load so we had to turn off the console. At this point we decided to let it rest for a bit while we went out to eat. When we returned to play some rounds of Blazblue an error messaged showed up saying "Cannot Start. The appropriate system storage was not found." We tried starting up the ps3 in safe mode multiple times but the message continued to show regardless. A clicking noise could also be heard coming from the console every time we turned it on. It was at this point we contacted Sony to get some answers. Guy said the console would need to be sent in for repairs but the warranty has long since expired.

Now i should mention i have had experiences with people trying to jipped me during such issues so i'm not too trusting of this. The way i figure it seemed the hard disk drive it self was lose or just finally gave out. i tried taking it out to check for any issues but i'm noobish when it comes to tech so all i did was give it a quick look. Since i couldn't find anything through eye and touch alone i placed it back in and tried connecting again. Lo and behold same message and clicking noise.

Now my question is: should i suck it up and send it in for repairs or try to upgrade to a new hard disk drive and mount? Since all i have are just guesses i'm iffy on taking either choice. I would rather get the new hard disk since i've been meaning to upgrade for a while and it'll be easier on my wallet but if the problem is different then it'll just be a waste of money.

it is a PlayStation 3 slim 160GB System if that is necessary to know.

 

[SnowyGamester]

Hard drives are known to click when they fail [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death] and the error message sounds related to reading data (Googling that error message [https://www.google.com/webhp?#q=cannot+start.+the+appropriate+system+storage+was+not+found] points to hard drive problems) so a failed hard drive is the most likely issue. You could always try connecting it to your PC via an external hard drive cable/enclosure or by properly installing it to confirm that it's the definite source of the clicking and maybe attempt to format it and try putting some files on it to see if it's actually capable of storing anything however I don't see there being any other explanation that would warrant that sort of extensive testing other than for peace of mind. You could also try reseating the drive [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNLNwvabrsE] and formatting it if necessary which may fix the issue but if it's clicking the drive is most likely physically broken.