I think Maxtors are known for noisy drives. THat is according to some people here on the forums and from experience with friends having Maxtor drives. I actually called up MAxtor to see what they said about the drive before and they told me that it was normal and part of the hard drives seek process. Whoopy. You should try Western Digital. I have their SATA drive and it is soo quiet. Then again, my fans are probably covering up the noise, lol.