HD is too loud...

[phan1]

Well, my HD is giving off this high-pitched noise which is really annoying. It started making the noise off and on (say every 10 seconds with a duration of 3 seconds). Now, the noise is continuous. Anything I can do? It was just fine a couple of months ago.

It's a Western Digital 200GB HD. I also owned a WD 100 GB HD and I got it replaced due to similar noises. Is this an occuring problem with WD HDs? My Seagate HD works just fine and doesn't make much noise at all. It seems that both WD started making the same high-pitched noises after 1-2 years. It's like that high pitched noise you hear when you turn on a TV except more obvious. HUGELY ANNOYING!!!

 

[The_Other_One]

Uh...hope my WD's done start messing up...

I had an OLD Maxtor drive that suddenly started doing something like that(3.2G) I bet the spindle motor is dying. I would see if you could get it replaced before it dies completely.

Oh yeah, back everything up ASAP...

 

[DarkBlade1]

Yeah, Western Digital SUCKS. I recommend (despite Other's prior experience) Maxtor or Hitachi. Both make long lasting excellent drives. Like he said, backup ASAP and get a new drive before this one goes POO on you.

 

[1badtech]

Yeah! Consider that noise your warning to backup your data and replace the drive.

 

[setishock]

Ok...

Let me jump up on my soap box to express a personal opinion.
1> Always turn on the S.M.A.R.T. system in the bios. This handy little guard dog will let you know if it detects a problem with the drives. I have never seen a smart alert in all my years turn out to be a false alarm. But this handy dandy guard dog will not pick up on failing bearings which I think you're hearing.
2> Routine back ups should be a part of owning a computer. As old fashioned as tape drives are they can hold a lot of data. And with you having several large drives you might consider looking in to that as a cost effective means of doing large scale back ups. I used to manage a hotel that used tape drives as a back up tool. One tape compressed will hold 80gigs of data. Windows still supports tape as a back up media.
3> I too have my prefs as to brands of drives I use. So let me preface this with> This is my personal opinion < All the major players in the hard drive biz have had their share of problems. I personally do not see using one or two large drives over several smaller ones. My logic being if you lose a smaller drive to whatever problem you've just lost that amout of data. If you lose a 200giger drive, well that's a lot of data gone. My setup has 3 80gig drives and my brand of choice is Samsung. Their Spin Point 80 series has had no problems I am aware of. And the cost of one drive lets me keep the cost of adding on new drives as I need them very resonable. And yes they do offer sata drives.
Now what I would do is back up that drive as a precaution and rma that drive back to the maker. They may be having a problem with that series like maxtor did a while back with their 80gig drives.

 

[The_Other_One]

I recommend (despite Other's prior experience) Maxtor or Hitachi.

Dude, I've been though like 6 or 7 Maxtor drives! I finally sold the last one they sent me to someone else, warning them about the problems I've had. Guess what, it died on them too!

WD's can be picky about there settings, but other than that, I've had great experiences with them. Using one for a video drive now. I've had it for a few years now without a problem...

Seagate, though, has been the top brand for me. Quiet, cool, fairly fast, no little jumper glitches ;P

Just my little review...

 

[DarkBlade1]

Dude, I've been though like 6 or 7 Maxtor drives! I finally sold the last one they sent me to someone else, warning them about the problems I've had. Guess what, it died on them too!

WD's can be picky about there settings, but other than that, I've had great experiences with them. Using one for a video drive now. I've had it for a few years now without a problem...

Seagate, though, has been the top brand for me. Quiet, cool, fairly fast, no little jumper glitches ;P

Just my little review...

Well, each to their own, but Maxtor's newest drives are very good, and I had the same problems, just with EasternDigital. Seagate makes LOUSY SATA drives, but their SCSI drives are VERY good. WD is a different story. Hitachi is my new favorite. Currently, I am using 2x Maxtor Maxline3 SATAII drives and they SCREAM, so I am not worried about them, and I have SMART on Setishock, always do. Good tip BTW. Other_One, needless to say, I suppose it is just fate, and Fate dealt you Seagate, it dealt me Maxtor and Hitachi I guess. To each their own.

 

[connchri]

As everyone else has said, I would get the thing backed up and replaced ASAP.

Hitachi is my personal preference. Realtively cheap, wins in most/all benchmarks and I have never had one fail on me - other brands have though.

Can't speak for everyone, but thats my opinion.

 

[Dishdog]

i always buy maxtor. i've never any problems with them. i had a 14gb one for six years and it still works fine.

 

[rat_boy_100]

Just curious...Can things like bearings go in hard drives? Cus they have motors in them dont they? I would of thought they had ball bearings.