Mild noise in HDD
- Thread starter Universe
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- May 27, 2010
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Drives make noise, especially when reading or writing. I can hear them turn on, park, read/write even with brand new discs. Way quieter than older model drives, of course.
If you just built the system and copied a lot of stuff to it, defragment it. Once the bulk of your files are contiguous they'll make a little less noise during reads. (Windows will do this slowly over time, and optimize commonly used files)
If the disc hosts the OS, the virtual memory (swap file), will cause a lot of random drive access.
If you just built the system and copied a lot of stuff to it, defragment it. Once the bulk of your files are contiguous they'll make a little less noise during reads. (Windows will do this slowly over time, and optimize commonly used files)
If the disc hosts the OS, the virtual memory (swap file), will cause a lot of random drive access.
- Jun 17, 2015
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if the noise has been there and you don't see performace issues, well, there are hard disk more noisier than others
but last time i got a noisier than most hard disk, i should have returned it, it doed and killed like 100 gbs of files with it, i could recover the rest more or less
as said before, all hard disks make noises, but if you really feel unconfomatable with that one making noise, well, the backup asap and the decision of return it is in your hands
have a hard disk that you can't trust, well, it is the same as not having it, so if it was mine, i would have returned it already
but last time i got a noisier than most hard disk, i should have returned it, it doed and killed like 100 gbs of files with it, i could recover the rest more or less
as said before, all hard disks make noises, but if you really feel unconfomatable with that one making noise, well, the backup asap and the decision of return it is in your hands
have a hard disk that you can't trust, well, it is the same as not having it, so if it was mine, i would have returned it already
- May 27, 2010
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If it isn't an active drive you can defragment it whenever. It will only help with the noise of the read/write head having to move rapidly across the drive.
When a drive is blank and you do a bulk copy to it, it places the bits wherever the read/write head happens to be for maximum performance. When you defragment it takes bits from single files and moves them so they are on a single track.
Some drives will also make electrical noise that people with very good hearing can pick up. The Motor that swings the read/write heads can make a high pitched noise that can sound kind of like a quiet cricket.
When a drive is blank and you do a bulk copy to it, it places the bits wherever the read/write head happens to be for maximum performance. When you defragment it takes bits from single files and moves them so they are on a single track.
Some drives will also make electrical noise that people with very good hearing can pick up. The Motor that swings the read/write heads can make a high pitched noise that can sound kind of like a quiet cricket.
- Apr 23, 2014
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Never defragmented, will give it try.
The noise happens even while waking up from sleep.
The sound is right what shows in this video, the Actuator Arm Motion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJTrZ8IYRL4 . It isn't as loud as this one in the video, probably because of the cover.
Obviously it creates greater noise than the other one same brand & model I have.
- May 27, 2010
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When a drive sleeps it moves the arm into a docking position. Basically a safe place on the drive platter where the read/write head can make contact with the platter. When it wakes up from sleep it has to wait for the drive to spin up before airflow under the head lifts it off the platter, then the arm is free to move.
Modern drives have accelerometers so they know when too much force is being applied and they will move into the docking position before a potential impact. Which is the only reason people can throw laptops around and still have them work later.
Older drives had fixed arms that didn't touch the platter at all, but since the read/write head was bigger and farther away, density suffered greatly.
I would say if the SMART report from the drive shows good, then it is probably normal.
Modern drives have accelerometers so they know when too much force is being applied and they will move into the docking position before a potential impact. Which is the only reason people can throw laptops around and still have them work later.
Older drives had fixed arms that didn't touch the platter at all, but since the read/write head was bigger and farther away, density suffered greatly.
I would say if the SMART report from the drive shows good, then it is probably normal.
- Nov 19, 2010
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Looks fine. Though when it comes down to it, *every* hard drive is a risk. The best thing you can do is have a proper nightly backup of files with constant cloud backups of the most crucial files that you're working on. Optimally, the solution for hard drive issues is to put yourself into a position where the sudden death of a physical hard drive causes nothing but minor annoyance.
- Apr 23, 2014
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That is what I've been doing. But what to do about the sound.... it is clear and annoying; also gives 'whether they've given me a bad HDD' feeling. There is no speed or load issues, acts like fresh HDD so far, except the noise of course. Does loud actuator arm motion mean necessarily to be a bad HDD?
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