Question What is this high pitched sound?

[FogHazard]

Hello,

I have a noise in my PC that occurs almost randomly and I am unsure what it is.

It's a bit faint in the video, but it occurs twice. You may have to turn up your volume to hear it, but it's fairly audible in person.

I say "almost" because it seems to happen randomly when using my PC, but more frequently when I have something like CrystalDisk Info open. This leads me to believe it is a noise coming from one of my HDDs, but I am unsure. All of my drives appear to be in good health.

It seems too inconsistent to be coil whine, as I am familiar with that sound in my older computers, as well as my current work laptop.

Without boring you about my specs, as I'm unsure if it's really that important, I have several HDDs, SSDs, and an nvme SSD in this PC (I've turned into a data hoarder). If it is indeed an HDD sound, it may be a bit harder to diagnose since I'm unsure which of the four HDDs it might be.

I could totally be off on my assessment, however, as I was unable to find this exact sound anywhere online, even when searching for HDD sounds. I figured I'd try asking here first before opening up my PC and disconnecting drives one-by-one. Not sure if this sound is a warning sign, or a normal thing that happens sometimes.

Thank you for your time and assistance!

 

[Ralston18]

Specs are important.

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, used, refurbished)?

Multiple drives: List drives - make, model, capacity, how full?

Key is to discover the source of the sound and to do so the case will need to be opened.

Use a long cardboard tube or rolled up sheet of paper to carefully listen around inside the case to locate the sound source.

Put one end of the tube to an ear and aim the other end of the tube at various components. Get someone to help if necessary to prevent the tube from hitting anything.

If a HDD is suspect, disconnect all but the boot drive. If the sound is not present then reconnect the HDDs one at a time. Determine if the sound returns with one particular disk drive. Then repeat the process reconnecting the HDDs in a different order. Just to confirm that it is that one particular drive.

Lastly - before doing anything: if you have not already done so be sure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations away from the system and HDDs in question. Ensure that the backups are recoverable and readable.

 

[FogHazard]

I appreciate the advice, but my intention with this post is to see if anyone can identify the distinct sound in the video. If it doesn't sound familiar, then no specs I post will help identify it. I say this with the best of intentions and with no ill will. I've worked with computers for a long time, but I'm sure people with more time/experience than I have may have heard this sound.