WD10EZEX Hard Drive Noise

[DarthWoo]

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 3847, which contains a WD10EZEX HDD. From time to time, I hear what seems like a little squeak come from the hard drive, occasionally followed by some other noises. Running HDTune, I found that these squeaks are always concurrent with an increase in the load cycle. This is a WD Blue type drive, not a Green, so this shouldn't be an Intellipark issue as far as I know. However, in around 170 hours of powered-on time, the drive has reached 2000 load cycles, which seems rather alarming. As I have been in the process of downloading various game patches and things, I have noticed that this does not happen at any time I have a long and active download going.

Does anyone know if wdidle3 is safe to use or would even work on a Blue drive? I've only ever been able to find articles referencing its use with Greens.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, DarthWoo!

I'm very sorry to hear about this issue with the WD Blue drive. The HDD noise is never a good sign, because it indicates internal damage on the drive. I strongly recommend contacting the PC manufacturer and let them know about this issue. Unfortunately, I cannot refer you to our WD support, since we don't cover the warranties of OEM drives but the computer manufacturer does. So back up any data that you have on the WD Blue somewhere else ASAP and give them a call!
They should be able to provide you with a replacement!

Hope I was helpful! Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[DarthWoo]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, DarthWoo!

I'm very sorry to hear about this issue with the WD Blue drive. The HDD noise is never a good sign, because it indicates internal damage on the drive. I strongly recommend contacting the PC manufacturer and let them know about this issue. Unfortunately, I cannot refer you to our WD support, since we don't cover the warranties of OEM drives but the computer manufacturer does. So back up any data that you have on the WD Blue somewhere else ASAP and give them a call!
They should be able to provide you with a replacement!

Hope I was helpful! Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

That's what I was afraid of. I had actually contacted WD at around the same time, and they directed me to the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool, which indicates that there's nothing wrong with my drive at the moment. They had said that the WD Blue does have some degree of automatic head parking, but never answered whether wdidle3 is compatible with the Blue drives. Is there any chance the noise really is just a head park and I'm overly paranoid about it?

Update: I was hoping maybe the situation had sorted itself out spontaneously (I know, unlikely, but I like to be unrealistically optimistic sometimes) as for the past two days the load cycle count had barely gone up at all. Today I've noticed the sound as frequently as before, and after I stepped out to get some lunch, I came back to find that it had gone up by 20 in just 20 minutes! I sometimes see other people's postings of their SMART data, and it seems like a lot of them have load cycle to power on hour ratios of less than 1:1 over a period of tens of thousands of hours, whereas mine at the moment is over 10:1 at barely over 200 hours.

 

[JPNpower]

That is alarming. Hit up Dell with an email and see if they'd replace it. But also run CrystalDiskInfo and post your findings here. I know it's mostly just SMART data, but I like the format, it helps me think.

 

[DarthWoo]

That is alarming. Hit up Dell with an email and see if they'd replace it. But also run CrystalDiskInfo and post your findings here. I know it's mostly just SMART data, but I like the format, it helps me think.

I'll have to get that one in a moment, but here's what HDTune gives me. (emphasis mine)

ID Current Worst ThresholdData Status
(01) Raw Read Error Rate 200 200 51 0 ok
(03) Spin Up Time 173 173 21 2308 ok
(04) Start/Stop Count 100 100 0 57 ok
(05) Reallocated Sector Count 200 200 140 0 ok
(07) Seek Error Rate 200 200 0 0 ok
(09) Power On Hours Count 100 100 0 204 ok
(0A) Spin Retry Count 100 253 0 0 ok
(0B) Calibration Retry Count 100 253 0 0 ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 100 100 0 57 ok
(C0) Unsafe Shutdown Count 200 200 0 2 ok
(C1) Load Cycle Count 200 200 0 2054 ok
(C2) Temperature 105 99 0 38 ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 200 200 0 0 ok
(C5) Current Pending Sector 200 200 0 0 ok
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 100 253 0 0 ok
(C7) Interface CRC Error Count 200 200 0 0 ok
(C8) Write Error Rate 100 253 0 0 ok
(F0) Head Flying Hours 100 100 0 188 ok
(F1) Unknown Attribute 200 200 0 -1447927642 ok
(F2) Unknown Attribute 200 200 0 2761035718 ok

Health Status : ok

 

[JPNpower]

Okay that's fine. (CDI is a free software that's more friendly, but HDTune gets the job done).

I'd still pressure Dell for a replacement, but it seems that this is just how the drive works. In which case, IDK.... Wdidle might work but is not designed for Blues so it might be dicey. Surely it could void warranty replacements if something bad does happen. But in theory it would do the trick. WD RED drives have their own tool, so I'd hope that BLUE's have some tool too.....

For now, just keep your data safe and secure, and see if Dell responds. I won't tell you not to use Wdidle, but always prepare for bad stuff if you do.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hi again, DarthWoo!

I'm sorry fo the late reply! The sounds are never good, as @JPNpower suggested keep your data safe and sound somewhere else and demand your replacement from Dell ASAP.
Hopefully they will be able to respond soon and fix your issue!

Good luck with everything! Hope we were helpful!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[fzabkar]

A user at WD's forum did some firmware hacking and came up with the following tool:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/apmtimer/

It changes one timer value in the firmware and is aimed at disabling the autoparking that occurs as a result of APM.

A software alternative is quietHDD:

https://sites.google.com/site/quiethdd/

 

[JPNpower]

IDK about quiethdd, but the firmware hack is dangerous for warranty purposes I think.