The noise ....... AAARRRGGGHHHHH

PartsMan · 08-18-2002, 03:44 PM

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.

thunderbt3 · 08-18-2002, 04:10 PM

well............if i was u, id back up any important stuff quickly, the same thing happened to my 20gig WD 7200 rpm, i posted something up here and then it froze and i restarted and after that BOOM, the HD was gone along with everything on it including my season of NASCAR 2002, i was like 3/4th thru it. i had my WD for about 2 years and it pooped out on my, i gave it to a friend and he RMA'ed it cuz it had bad sectors in it and i didnt want it anymore, now i got a 60 gig maxtor 7200

, make sure to hurry up and back up before its too late

cwizard · 08-18-2002, 04:19 PM

Hello:

If it were me, I'd quickly clone off the information to another drive.

The next step is to operate the bare drive outside of the case where you can listen to it without it being mixed in with other noises such as hs/f and case/f.

Also, get the diagnostic utility from WD or Gibson Research Spinrite and run it. Keep exercising the drive with tests.

Intermittent noise is the beginning of hd failure. Sometimes the drive error correction masks the impending failure. A program like Spinrite or some other diagnostic can help but is not fool proof.

I have seen a drive go down like a lightbulb blowing out. Age of the drive is not a factor nor is manufacturer. The upside to the situation is that drives are really cheap these days (<sighs> remembers when 5MB hard disks cost 2,500-5000$

).

Best of wishes on resolving the problem.

Cwizard

PartsMan · 08-18-2002, 04:26 PM

Any chance it's the fan in the drawer casing ???? <hopein', hopein', hopein'>

I have 4 HDDs. This is my "on-line" HDD .... nothing of any real significance on it ... nothing that can't easily be replaced.

Skywalker[TSG] · 08-18-2002, 04:31 PM

I used to have my harddrives in a "drawer" too
it made a terrible noice and turned out to be the fan

try running the harddrive outside the "drawer"
that way you would know where the sound comes from

PartsMan · 08-18-2002, 05:11 PM

Now that the whole thing is warmed up I'll probably sound like those danged auto mechanics at the dealership .... "We couldn't duplicate your problem, there's nothing wrong. ... That'll be $165.00 please."

Once I turn it off for the day, I'll physically change things and see what happens tomorrow when I "cold boot" the system.

I'm glad to hear someone else has had drawer failures; and that *it's possible* that that is the problem.

cowboybooter · 08-18-2002, 05:16 PM

after backup, I would whip off the covers and take the drawer bay out - saves cutting fan wires, and you'd have to take it out to resolder.

As everyone says, run the drive outside the case and be sure where the noise is from

CBB

Mead · 08-18-2002, 05:20 PM

If it is the harddrive, most of them have 3 year manufactures warrenty. So just back up your data and get it replaced if its going bad.

samwichse · 08-18-2002, 05:44 PM

I'll go out on a limb here and say it's not your hard drive.

Quote:

sounds like its slowing down as I type this but still making this loud wouwouwouwouwouw sound.

If your hard drive was slowing down, your computer would have crashed already and your data would be corrupted.

That said, you definately want to take it out of the cage/drawer and run it, and let the fans in the drawer run too. If it makes the noise again, you'll be able to tell which, although I'm pretty sure it's the fan.

Sam

PartsMan · 08-18-2002, 06:16 PM

BTW ~ speaking of auxilliary fans for HDDs .....
1. Is it usefull under normal conditions to do things (directional cooling, aux fans, vented spaces/drawers etc) to cool HDDs, or it is all a bunch of hype? My sys is a PII, not OCed.
2. When I build my new PC, either a P4 or a AMD (after the next price drop) will it become more (or more valid) of an issue?

When building my next PC, I do plan on doing a heavily modded case at that time too - window, cathode tubes, numerous low db fans ..... etc. I don't want to waste my time with something that in all reality is not an issue. I will be spending time on non-issue items that I choose to .....so ~ should I also dutifully invest my time making quarter or half spaced filered vented "breathers" between the external 5.25 bays for extended life of CDs HDDs DVDs?