External drive, vibration and noise?

[Tommynew]

It does not make any pitching or scratching sound, but when its working, especially reading, it vibrates and makes a "humming" noise.
I guess the noise is produced by the vibration.
Is this expected?
Thank you.

 

[panathas]

Usually all external hard drives produce some kind of vibration. The bigger they are the more vibration they produce. So the 3.5 drives, that go into the big external enclosures, need an external power brick and produce more vibration (especially if they operate at high RPMs). In contrast the portable external drives that are based on 2.5 internal models produce a lot less vibration and consequently are quitter than their bigger brothers.

 

[Tommynew]

Usually all external hard drives produce some kind of vibration. The bigger they are the more vibration they produce. So the 3.5 drives, that go into the big external enclosures, need an external power brick and produce more vibration (especially if they operate at high RPMs). In contrast the portable external drives that are based on 2.5 internal models produce a lot less vibration and consequently are quitter than their bigger brothers.

Thank you.
It´s a wd elements, a 2.5 unit.
The vibration is "noticeable" and audible.
I´m a little worried because i don´t have another drive to compare the sounds :s

 

[panathas]

Usually a 2.5 drive doesn't operate at high RPM and doesn't produce a lot of vibration. On the other hand I once bought the same external drive twice and one of them was much noisier than the other. You'll always see some variations even between the same drives. You'll have to make sure that you don't put the drive over a metal surface or something else that amplifies the vibrations.

Now if you want to be safe you should monitor your drive regularly (especially if it's new), with the wd software that came with it. Run the extended test one. It may take a lot of time to complete, but if your drive passes that test it's fine. Usually a failing drive isn't able to complete this test or breaks down during the test. You could also download a third party utility like Crystal Disk Info and check the smart status. Keep checking it for a month. If it has hardware damage somewhere you'll soon see a warning popping up in the smart report soon.