[SOLVED] HDD knocking - is this disk healthy?

[CrispyBytes]

Hi,
I recently bought a 12TB Ironwolf disk which is temporarily installed in a Windows 10 PC. It is making quite a loud knocking sound. I have uploaded a recording of the sound here:

https://soundcloud.com/user-232358853%2Fironwolf2

View: https://soundcloud.com/user-232358853/ironwolf2

It doesn't happen all of the time, but was especially noticeable this evening while the disk was being continuously written to and read from for an extended period of time.

Can anybody please let me know whether this sound is normal, or whether I should expect problems.

CrystalDiskInfo is not showing any errors, but I have only run the basic diagnostics in SeaTools so far.

Would it be prudent to run other checks?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[Darkbreeze]

ANY knocking from a hard drive is not normal or acceptable, however, that doesn't seem to be a "knock" so much as simply a loud drive. It also seems you are not the only one AND it's not limited to the 12TB model.


View: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/6o6gbv/noisy_6tb_seagate_ironwolf_drives_while_idle/



View: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/9haxit/yes_seagate_ironwolf_is_loud/



I don't like the noise it makes myself, but it seems as if that is the norm for those drives.

 

[CrispyBytes]

Thanks DarkBreeze, much appreciated,

I read a couple of threads elsewhere, in which people had mentioned noise when the disk was idle, and the head was engaging and disengaging.

In my case the disk is silent when not being accessed, and the noise only occurs when it is being heavily accessed (but not all the time), so I just wanted to check that this was the same issue.

I have managed to find a couple of other examples online and, to my untrained ear, they do sound very similar.

I also created an amplified version of the recording yesterday. I don't know if it adds anything but I've linked it below, and if anybody does have any further observations they would be much appreciated.

https://soundcloud.com/user-232358853%2Fironwolf

 

[Darkbreeze]

I think your best option would be to contact Seagate and allow them to determine whether the noise is normal or not. Since they would be the ones responsible for making a decision on warranty replacement anyhow, it might be appropriate to initiate contact with them and get an answer straight from the horse's mouth. They might simply tell you it's normal for these drives, or they might initiate an RMA replacement. Either way, you'll have an answer and record of it for later if the drive should actually begin to fail more obviously.