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My hard drive is making noise, just like the old computers, which is strange, cause my pc is 3-4 months old. I got this one: http://tinyurl.com/3k7hc2s Is there a way to fix that? What causes this?

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Can you describe the noise? Is it a clicking? A whine? Something else? – Darth Android Jul 22 '11 at 14:11
Scratching noise, like when you run an old computer. It's not all the time. – blez Jul 22 '11 at 14:21
Stop shaking it then!! – PriceChild Jul 22 '11 at 14:55
@blez If your new hard drive makes noises, and you know they are not normal noises, then return it, RMA it, or exchange it!!! Any person who knows what a computer is should know what is a normal noise and what isn't. – Breakthrough Jul 22 '11 at 15:46
Scratching noises are normal. Whining or clicking noises are not. – David Schwartz Jan 7 at 7:51

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

I did a quick Google search with this query (without quotes): "WD Caviar noisy" and found lots of discussions about the noise produced by the hard drive. The 'Green' variant is silent though. So I think that's the way your drive works. See: 1

  1. http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WD-Caviar-Black-is-a-loud-drive/td-p/6468
  2. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249058-32-worry-noise-black-caviar-drive
  3. According to Tech Report review of WD Caviar Black, it's the noisiest drive they ever tested: http://techreport.com/articles.x/15363/13
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Thanks, I guess it's normal then. – blez Jul 22 '11 at 18:32
up vote 2 down vote

Check the SMART status. Could be a bad drive or a failing motor. If it fails SMART, you probably want to contact the mfg and see if you can get it replaced under warranty.

WD makes tools to check the SMART status of their drives. Here is the link: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=613&sid=3&lang=en

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It passes the SMART status with the tool on the link. – blez Jul 22 '11 at 14:21
Your sure its the drive and not a fan or something else in the system right? You may want to contact WD tech support and see if they have other suggestions. If it passes SMART most likely the drive is ok. – sbtkd85 Jul 22 '11 at 15:20
It's not fan and it's definitely not my SSD. I hope that it's ok. – blez Jul 22 '11 at 18:31
up vote 0 down vote

What kind of noise, specifically? Those drives aren't perfectly silent to begin with, but if there are loud repetitive clicks or grinding noises or even if just the standard operating noise is deafeningly loud then there may be something wrong with the drive (in which case you should get an RMA from the manufacturer ASAP.)

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