[SOLVED] Seagate Barracuda weird sounds

bubyy_tomshardware

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Hello.

I bought a Seagate ST2000DM008 2TB drive today.
I hooked it up and cloned all data from my old hard drive. It didn't make any weird noise.
When the cloning process finished, I removed my old hard drive since it is 7 years old.
When the PC first booted with the new drive, there was no sound. However, when reading/writing it makes low pitch clicking noises. This was happening on my old hard drive too, which is also a Seagate, but I never had problems with it for 7 years.
The second time I booted the PC, the hard drive made a beeping-like noise. Not like usual beeping but like a screech, idk how to explain. I haven't dropped it or anything. It's brand new. Works fine as well. Hard Disk Sentinel says it has 100% health.

Should I maybe try to plug in the old hard drive and see the outcome? I also plugged the SATA cable of the new drive where the old drive was plugged in. Should I try other SATA connectors?

Thanks
 
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Solution
Seagate's ST2000DM008 model hard disk has 1 platter and 2 heads, making it a 2 TB platter, which is pretty dense in terms of data per platter.

To achieve that sort of density, it's almost a guarantee you've ended up with an SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) style hard drive.

These types of drives are not usually recommended for anything more than moderate random access workloads and archive storage. They are more of a write infrequently but access often type of device. There's nothing inherently wrong with SMR drives, as long as you respect their behavior characteristics, and for the same storage space using non-shingled methods, you likely would be looking at a higher cost.

The drive sounds perfectly fine and normal for...

DMAN999

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Yeah that does NOT sound right.
I just installed a Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM008 a few days ago (to replace an old HDD).
I actually had it sitting on a cardboard box outside my case and plugged into a SATA card in my PC while I copied the old drive data (about 300 GB) to this new drive.
Mine didn't make any noticeable noise and I was sitting right next to it the entire time.
It certainly isn't clicking, beeping or screeching.
 
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bubyy_tomshardware

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Apr 27, 2016
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Yeah tha tdoes NOT sound right.
I just installed a Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM008 a few days ago (to replace an old HDD).
I actually had it sitting on a cardboard box outside my case and plugged into a SATA card in my PC while I copied the old drive data (about 300 GB) to this new drive.
Mine didn't make any noticeable noise and I was sitting right next to it the entire time.
It certainly isn't clicking, beeping or screeching.

Mine was sitting on my mouse pad when copying. It didn't make any noise. Now it does.
Edit: mine is a ST2000DM008 too.
 
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bubyy_tomshardware

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Can you post the disk full smart-data here?

A faulty disk may as well fall broken at the beginning of it's expected lifetime.

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Is this what you asked for?
 
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bubyy_tomshardware

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I would download the Seagate Seatools and run the tests in that.
https://www.seagate.com/files/www-c..._shared/downloads/SeaToolsforWindowsSetup.exe

I already ran the tests. It passes all of them.

I tried different SATA power cables, different SATA cables and ports... nothing helps

Should I go to the store and ask for a new one because it's under warranty?

Also, my old hard drive makes noises too, but not the weird ones on start-up. Just when reading/writing. But it's still alive, 7 years in total. Could this be a problem with my PC and not the hard drive?
 
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DMAN999

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A video of the noise would be helpful.
Is the Drive rattling around in the drive cage maybe ?
Since it occurs with 2 different HDDs only when they are in the case, my guess is tha the HDD cage is vibrating or something.
Take the HDD out of the drive cage and just rest it inside the case and see if it makes those noises.
If it doesn't then you probably just need to find a way to secure it better to the HDD cgae so it won't vibtare.
 
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bubyy_tomshardware

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A video of the noise would be helpful.
Is the Drive rattling around in the drive cage maybe ?
Since it occurs with 2 different HDDs only when they are in the case, muy guess is tha the HDD cage is vibrating or something.
Take the HDD out of the drive cage and just rest it inside the case and see if it makes those noises.
If it doesn't then you probably just need to find a way to secure it better to the HDD cgae so it won't vibtare.

Nope, tried putting it on the mousepad again, still makes awful noises. I went to the store and gave them the hard drive because it's under warranty, tomorrow they will message me about it's state.
 
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bubyy_tomshardware

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They said the hard drive is fine.

Maybe the problem is my PC?
When I was copying data to the new hard drive, it wasn't making any sounds. But when I booted the PC with the new hard drive, it started making sounds. Is it possible that the problem is the data?
 

DMAN999

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^ that does seem a little loud, what is the temperature of that drive ?
Do you have a case fan that blows across your HDD cage ?
If the temperature is decent (in the 32-35c range) then heat isn't the issue.
But if it is up in the 40's I would figure out a way to cool it.
 

bubyy_tomshardware

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^ that does seem a little loud, what is the temperature of that drive ?
Do you have a case fan that blows across your HDD cage ?
If the temperature is decent (in the 32-35c range) then heat isn't the issue.
But if it is up in the 40's I would figure out a way to cool it.

Max recorded temperature is 39c.

I'm really thinking that the problem is my data because when I was copying stuff to it, it didn't make any sounds.
 

DigDeep

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I have the same drive, no sounds, but Im dissapointed, while copying 6gb file, speed drops to crawling 20mbs, even old 512gb WD Green is better. Barracuda disk looks better only on paper but in real world scenario WD is better even when on paper it looks worse. Seagate disks also have abnormally long access times.
 

bubyy_tomshardware

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The store said that it made a small amount of noise like a normal HDD when they tested it.
I think my PC is the problem, because my old hard drive makes the exact same noise as the new one.
I'll try to put it in another PC when I get the chance.
Some people are saying that some hard drives just work like that and that they've used them for several years without any problems. So I'll just leave it for now. Important data is backed up.
 
I'm not able to hear the sound your linked to.

But I still think I have an idea on what your problem is: The sound from the HDD matches a resonant frequens in the HDD bay on your computer. So it amplifies the sound.

When you take the HDD to the shop for RMA, you therefore won't be able to reproduce.

Conclusion (assumption actually): No problems with the HDD.

Solution : Go buy a rubber HDD mounting kit to prevent the vibrations to the computer cabinet.
 

bubyy_tomshardware

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Apr 27, 2016
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I'm not able to hear the sound your linked to.

But I still think I have an idea on what your problem is: The sound from the HDD matches a resonant frequens in the HDD bay on your computer. So it amplifies the sound.

When you take the HDD to the shop for RMA, you therefore won't be able to reproduce.

Conclusion (assumption actually): No problems with the HDD.

Solution : Go buy a rubber HDD mounting kit to prevent the vibrations to the computer cabinet.

I've tried putting it outside the case, on my mouse pad. It still made the sounds.

Also, today I was downloading a game, and the hard drive was writing 200-300 MB/s, but it didn't make any sound. So I think it's making the sounds only when it's reading.
 
Ehrr - it is the same read/write head (i.e. not two separate moving arms), so the explanation can't be due to write vs. read operation.

BUT when that said - The OS probably cache a lot of the file during download before it actually writes to disk in order to reduce hdd activity (i.e. scattering around on the storage plates)