Question HDDs strange noise and stuttering

[KyoKalreyn]

Hello guys, recently, i have noticed that my 16 TB HDDs (which I cant backup at the moment), make this really strange noise, always when booting up the PC, and sometimes, randomly while its on. When it happens while its on, the file explorer suddenly stops working for a few seconds, doesn't respond, and then, the sound stops, and it starts working again with no problem. This happened with just one HDD a while ago, and then, after I had to change the PSU for another unrelationed problem, the other one started beeping, as well.

The only thing that they both have in common, (aside from the brand and storage, two Seagates IronWolfs Pro), its that I noticed that the SATA data cables, dont get completely plugged in the HDDs, both of them are a little loose, even when they have those metal plugs that should make them get stuck when plugged correctly (they are pretty stuck in the MOBO), but not in the HDDs. Maybe that could be a problem of the space of my case, which is a bit small, but the SATA power and data cables arent really the most flexible, and the usual slot which are in cases for the storage isnt always the most comfortable for the cable management, but i would like to know if someone knows what could be causing this noise and the stuttering. I took some videos to catch exactly the type of sounds they produce, if neccesary i could upload them to any page, and then send the links here. I already did some basic tests with Crystaldisk, which told me that the HDDs were in good shape (they have a little over one year of use). Also, I must clarify that I'm using the Y-splitter in the SATA power cable for the connection to the PSU for both HDDs.

PD: Sorry if the question isn't that well redacted, but my english isn't pretty good.

 

[USAFRet]

New noises from an HDD are rarely a good thing.

(which I cant backup at the moment)

You need to fix that.

 

[KyoKalreyn]

Yeah, new noises from an HDD usually are worrying, and i already checked that isn't the cage that makes that noise, since I unscrew them from there and run them in the floor to check, and the sound was still there. As I said, it might be the SATA connector on the HDD, but I have never unplugged forcibly, nor have I plugged and unplugged it a lot, but the connection hasnt been the best, mostly because the SATA cables are in a pretty bad spot of almost any case, specially the small ones, and they end up pretty tight, dont know if that could damage the SATA connector of the HDDs.

Maybe that's fixable (not for me or almost anyone in the country I live), so I would like to know what's the best next step to take, unplug them, damaging more the SATA connector, but being able to RMA them to Seagate or something (since I dont know if there's actually any damage, maybe they wont be able to do anything), or any other option. And I must repeat, I dont have any way to do a backup of almost 30 TB of data, don't have the cash right now to spend on new HDDs or any Cloud services for that amount of storage.

I did capture and upload the noises they make, in case someone can kinda figure out what kind of noise (electrical or mechanical) it is:

While booting:

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/eXuIDRSQr5k?feature=share


While reading (not the one that worries me the most)

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/FN8dZy57nkg?feature=share


Thanks in advice.

 

[USAFRet]

And I must repeat, I dont have any way to do a backup of almost 30 TB of data, don't have the cash right now to spend on new HDDs or any Cloud services for that amount of storage.

I'm not sure what anyone can say for this.

Any action you take on the device, or no action at all...can make it die within the next 5 minutes.

If someone comes along and says do X, Y, Z, with tools A, B, C....which might "fix it". Or, hasten the death of it.
Or doing nothing at all....it can still die.

Personally, I would just unplug it completely and leave it offline, until such time as I had the resources to back that data up to something else.



You say "30TB of data", but mention "my 16 TB HDDs"...are these two drives in a RAID 0 array?

 

[KyoKalreyn]

No, the HDDs arent in any sort of RAID, they just work as two independant HDDs. Guess the best thing I could do for now is unplug them and leave them in a safe place while I get the resources in a way to backup them, so thanks for the advice. I would only have a few more doubts that I hope you (or anyone else) can answer:

- First, if the weird noises have something to do with a faulty connection, how possible it is that the HDDs just, die completely instantly at some random point in the future (to be able to save at least some data if it just get partially corrupted), or is it the most probable thing that it dies completely?

-Second, would it be a good investment to, aside from spend in new HDDs for backup, buy a NAS, and plug the HDDs in there? As far as I know (I'm pretty amateur in a lot of tech stuff), the NAS doesn't have the issue of running cables, they just have bays for the HDDs, so while it could be good in the future, I'm worried of the state of the SATA plugs on the HDDs, while as I already said, I have never treated really bad, the cables have been pretty tight for a while, and the NAS wouldn't fix a partially broken connector.

-Third and last, while I know that data stored in an SDD offline for a lot of time will end up erasing and corrupting (learned the hard way), I don't know how much time it would last in an offline HDD, to know more or less how much time I have to actually get some backups before the data gets corrupted.

That would be all, after I get some answers to my questions I guess ill just close the thread, thanks a lot for the advices and the info

 

[USAFRet]

First - Drives can die at any time, sometimes quite suddenly.
I've had a 3TB WD go from 'perfect' to completely dead in 36 hours. A 14TB Toshiba Enterprise generate 14k+ bad sectors in a week.

Second - My NAS has been a good investment for me. It is basically a little house server.

Third - Have more than one copy. The basic concept is 3-2-1. 3 copies, on at least 2 different media, at least one offsite or otherwise inaccessible.
Highly unlikely that all of those would go bad at the same time.
Offline stashed storage...how long is "offline"? For me, no more than a couple months, no matter what type of drive.