Samsung Hard Disk whistling

[George Lazu]

Hey, i made the mistake of buying a second hand Samsung 500GB 7200rpm HDD [3GB/s SATA 2] and it boots up slower than my old 150GB WD 1.5GB 5000rpm, but that's not the point. What is happening is that when booting the pc up it makes a high pitched noise, but the weird part is it doesn't do that on any boot, only after the system has been inactive for a period of time [usually in the morning, after it's been off for around 10 hours]. Should i worry? It doesn't whistle while using it, only on boot up for around 10 seconds, then it stops.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey George Lazu. Basically this is not something that's normal. I'd recommend that you test the HDD with a diagnostic utility tool to see what it shows and if the drive is working properly. In the meantime I'd suggest that you backup any important data which you might have on that drive, just to be on the safe side.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Boogieman_WD

 

[George Lazu]

I ran a test and the speed was very bad, average of 9MB/s, and this drive has a maximum transfer rate of 300MB/s. Also, on health it says on "current pending sector" a warning. "This drive has unstable sectors". Does that mean it is dying?

EDIT: I ran this test a few weeks ago and it seems the count was smaller then.

 

[Palorim12]

I'd say contact Seagate, see if they have any thing to try.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

I ran a test and the speed was very bad, average of 9MB/s, and this drive has a maximum transfer rate of 300MB/s. Also, on health it says on "current pending sector" a warning. "This drive has unstable sectors". Does that mean it is dying?

EDIT: I ran this test a few weeks ago and it seems the count was smaller then.

Well unfortunately this is not a good sign. When bad sectors start to occur, this will continue until the drive fails inevitably. And to make it even worse, there's no way to tell when the drive is going to fail - it could be days or it could be a year. I would be very cautious with the important data I put on this drive (having in mind the unusual sound with addition to the bad sectors). 🙁
I'd suggest that you backup any important data which you might have on it and replace the drive whenever you get the chance.