Question External drive occasionally beeps, runs fine, test don't appear to show issues

[je1983]

I have a backup WD external 2tb MyPassport drive from 2020 that started beeping occasionally recently. It gets minimal use, it was connected to my pc 24/7 for the first three months after I bought it and then only connected when I needed to retrieve or add a file to the drive. The other day I noticed a beeping noise coming from the drive, it went away when ejected the drive despite not physically disconnecting it. Used it two or three more times without issue but then it started beeping again.

The drive runs great, very fast read and write. Files open very quickly, videos run smooth even when I jump around on the elapsed time bar. On HDtune, Health seemed good, the benchmark did not produce the cleanest graph but not the worst I've seen. Quick error test was clean but I suppose I'll do a full one overnight. Until recently, I would eject and remove it immediately when the beeping would occur but I've had it on for several hours today, there was some beeping for some time but then it disappeared.

I'm wondering if the beeping could be indicative of something other than an imminent drive failure? I've had drives fail in the past and the sound doesn't seem to be similar to anything I've heard from drives where bits are failing. I read somewhere for some drives a beeping might be a low power warning which might make sense since I'm currently experiencing issues with my psu and a separate thing with the driver for my usb ports, where only one of the two front usb ports can detect an externan non powered drive. Then again, I've connected a 4tb MyPassport to the same usb and no such beeping has occurred so far...

System: win7 home edition, 16gb ram, 4 internal drives, 400w psu.

EDIT: I don't know if this makes a difference but the 2TB drive in question does not appear on seatools. My other, 4TB drive does show up on seatools.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I can't say that this IS the issue in your particular case, but EVERY SINGLE My Passport drive that I have purchased in the past has had this exact problem sooner or later and in every one of those cases the problem was related to the poor quality of the enclosure's power delivery. Removing the drives from the enclosure and simply using them with either a different external enclosure OR mounting and attaching them as regular internally attached drives (Assuming a desktop system and room to mount them in the case) had resolved my problems and are still in use MANY years later. This, on 2TB, 4TB and 6TB models.

Obviously that is not the only possibility as quite often with these My Passport drives, I've seen others that had problems with the heads sticking. In a few cases, although I personally never recommend bashing or doing anything similar to a drive, lightly tapping the drive against something seems to have worked for some people however IMO if you have to do that there is a problem with the drive that rises to the level of "no f-ing way I can trust this drive anymore" so if the drive is still under warranty you might want to investigate that avenue before taking ANY other actions such as tapping or removing to use out of the enclosure, or with another enclosure.

Also, the fact that it does not show up in Seatools might mean something, but it might not as well. If you have not tried connecting it via one of the back panel USB ports, or several of them in fact, then that might be a good idea as those are dedicated and usually more reliable than those on the front panel of your case which rely on what is often cheap cabling and cheap mini-boards to utilize the motherboard internal header.

 

[fzabkar]

The OP's drive probably has an integrated USB PCB rather than a separate USB-SATA bridge PCB attached to a SATA drive.

In short, WD's 2.5" externals (Passports) tend to have integrated USB PCBs while their 3.5" externals (My Books) have separate bridge PCBs.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You know what, you are right. I WAS thinking of the My Book models. Soon as you said that I remembered that these have the integrated USB connection on the drive. So, looks like either warranty or medium thump against the top of your desk. LOL.

 

[je1983]

48 hours later, not further beeping, all tests are fine, no errors on HDtune error test (long version), pass on all WD utilities tool. Drive runs great, play videos while transferring large files in and out of the drive without any pausing or hesitation. I do freak out everytime I hear some beep from somewhere else around the house.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Good deal. I'd definitely keep one Spock eyebrow pointed it's way in the future though, so that if it begins doing it again you can catch it as early as possible and hopefully while still under warranty IF it is.