[SOLVED] My WD external hard drive always makes grinding noises! Should I be worried?

[MTaj89]

Hi

I have a Western Digital 2TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive (Made in Malaysia-WDBS4B0020BBK) that I store most of my project files in it.

I've recently noticed that it makes a subtle grinding noises and I'm really worried I'm gonna lose my files on it.

I ran the drive test in WD Drive Utilities software and all the test have passed and they didn't detect any malfunction or anything.

Here's the grinding noises of my hard drive: (also you can here my clock ticking in the background) https://voca.ro/bL9Wuet97xI

Is it normal for this model?

I also have a 1TB WD My Passport Ultra and it is connected to my PC 24/7 and it's always silent, doesn't make any kind of noises...



Thanks in advance

 

[DSzymborski]

Those are not good noises. You should already be backing up important files in multiple locations and formats; if the hard drive dying causes you to lose files, no matter how healthy the hard drive is, then your backup solution is insufficient.

 

[Mezoxin]

grinding noise is not good , could be bad bearings preventing the drive from gaining full rotational speed you should backup your data

https://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

 

[jon96789]

A hard drive should not make any noise other than a soft whirring sound. Any clicking or grinding is a sign of an upcoming drive failure.

 

[USAFRet]

Even if it were not making new noises, what would you do if it died tomorrow? (yes, that sometimes happens)

 

[popatim]

You should never have important files only on 1 device.
Storage devices can and do fail without warning and you need to plan for that.