[PartsMan]

My HDD is making this terrible sound ~ like it is out of alignment and going down the Hyway at about 45 MPH. This happened twice yesterday (both times I turned it off quickly) Then later it worked OK. Now today the same thing is happening ~ I'm just letting it run ....... sounds like its slowing down as I type this but still making this loud wouwouwouwouwouw sound.

Do you think it's ready to fail? only two years old ~ 20 gig WD 7200 .... Caviar 205BA / Mfg. Mar 2000

I should also mention that I have HDDs in "hot-swap" drawers .... maybe it's the fan in the drawer casing that's failing .... it seems like it's more of a fan noise than a HDD noise. But what lead me to think it was the HDD was that after those two tries yesterday I slipped in a different HDD and all went smoothly.

So now, after typing this much I just turned the key off and then back on after about 15 seconds and now it's running smoothly with normal sounds.

The only thing I can think to do to isolate the situation is to hook up this HDD permanant instead of in the drawer and see if it happens again. I could cut the wires to the AUX drawer fan and see too but then I'd have to solder it back together if the HDD still makes this noise.

Does anyone had any similar experience to share?

Or alternatives to offer?

I have my HDDs in drawers for a reason .... I'd like to avoid a direct permanent connection if possible.