Does anyone miss HDD sounds?

[Chiropteran]

I love the performance and speed of an SSD, but I kinda miss that clicking grinding sound hard drives used to make. It was useful even, because if you heard a ton of disk activity you knew what your computer was busy doing.

Not really much point to this thread, I was just reading some hard drive reviews for the WD 10k rpm drive and noting how it seemed like everyone complained about how noisy they were. I was a bit shocked that so many people hated the hard disk sounds.

It's such a pleasant peaceful sound.

 

[Compman55]

I do miss the sound, but my 74GB WD Raptor was terrible. It was annoying. The old skool drives in the 100MB to 1GB had really awsome sounds.

The new WD caviar blacks are about as best as it gets for sound.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

I had a 74GB Raptor as well years ago. Mine sounded like a garbage disposal but actually performed quite well. My current rig has a backup 500GB WD HDD that I can't even hear over the fans in the case (the fans aren't running that fast either).

 

[It's Not Lupus]

I like the writing and seeking sounds, actually, but not the idle humming sounds that some hard drives do.

 

[HeXen]

That's like missing the old floppy drive sounds. i found them annoying.

 

[Towermax]

I like the writing and seeking sounds, actually, but not the idle humming sounds that some hard drives do.

Agreed, same for me.

 

[Blain]

Does anyone miss HDD sounds?

Not me.
Call me crazy, but I don't desire the sound of a dentist drill either.

 

[MongGrel]

Not really, but for some crazy reason I still stuck two of my old 120 Raptors in RAID0 in the HTPC for the OS.

I get the old nostalgic spiders scratching off those

But might even change that yet when I put the L5639 in it.

Even the old fans I had laying around in it starting to annoy me a bit, I took the quietest ones I had left over and probably don't need half of em in there.

 

[bradly1101]

I love the performance and speed of an SSD, but I kinda miss that clicking grinding sound hard drives used to make. It was useful even, because if you heard a ton of disk activity you knew what your computer was busy doing.

Not really much point to this thread, I was just reading some hard drive reviews for the WD 10k rpm drive and noting how it seemed like everyone complained about how noisy they were. I was a bit shocked that so many people hated the hard disk sounds.

It's such a pleasant peaceful sound.

Until recently my boot drive was four 74GB 10K Raptors in RAID0. They were usually actively seeking and made gentle, intermittent grinding music mounted vertically in the basement of a P180. I tried to move that array into an HTPC after replacing them with an SSD. But what was a satisfyingly busy sound, was now obtrusive. So they are relegated to extra backup duty via an external eSATA dock. The music is dead in favor of the sound of silence

 

[Morbus]

Short answer. No.

Long answer. I still have a HDD for my storage and stuff, and when it's working, I don't care for the sound. I really don't. And whenever I use a computer with a slow and noisy HDD, god, it's the worst. It's like it's actually rubbing it in that it's a slow ass piece of crap that's spinning round reading bits of data, so annoying. All I want to hear it the sound of the music/game/movie I'm playing, not the HDD.

 

[C1]

There ya go.

It should be a piece of cake for a programmer to write some code that monitors SSD I/O activity then generates a commensurate HDD simulated sound thru the computer's speakers.
Make available a configuration menu to select emulation sounds from different drive types. (Be sure to include an option to illustrate a defective drive HDD for demo purposes; eg, an IT training course might make use of.)

Offer it as a download via the networks for $5(?) per CPU.

 

[tweakboy]

Nope!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I was always looking for incremental ways to make my computer more quiet, even though I also look for ways to run a 50 dBA cooling fan so all you can hear is a "rush of air."

I'm rebuilding my server -- this week -- heck- - this month, I should say! I'm trying to keep the number of HDDs to a minimum and reduce the power draw. But still -- with four or five disks, I was watching my TV with usual audio volume the other night, and I heard this gentle "hum." I thought maybe it was the broadcast, so I muted the TV. As unobtrusive as it would usually seem -- it still bothers me.

I got wise early, I think. Rubber mountings for hard disks and fans. As long as metal-to-metal contact is avoided and the vibrating part is totally isolated with rubber, you're pretty much "good to go." My gentle server "hum" would and could be a lot louder.

 

[corkyg]

I echo Morbus. My case has always been on the floor under the desk, and I rarely7 heard anything. I guess there's nothing to miss in my case.

 

[rasabel]

I love the performance and speed of an SSD, but I kinda miss that clicking grinding sound hard drives used to make. It was useful even, because if you heard a ton of disk activity you knew what your computer was busy doing.

Not really much point to this thread, I was just reading some hard drive reviews for the WD 10k rpm drive and noting how it seemed like everyone complained about how noisy they were. I was a bit shocked that so many people hated the hard disk sounds.

It's such a pleasant peaceful sound.

Me to,

now trying to search some sort of third-party applications or plugin to hear HDD in headphones.Really miss this monitoring of activity in nowadays Lenovo.

regards

 

[cbn]

I was just reading some hard drive reviews for the WD 10k rpm drive and noting how it seemed like everyone complained about how noisy they were.

I use both fourth and fifth generation Raptors (fourth generation was the first one to use the 2.5" from factor) and they make the same noise as my 7200rpm 3.5" drives.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I hate those sounds, especially the click sound because that means I need to buy a new HD.

 

[bigboxes]

I hear the noise. I have four thrash drives (HHD) in my main rig in addition to the SSD. I have 8 HDDs in my file server (SSD for OS drive). They sit on the floor and my main rig is under my desk. Can't say that it bothers me in the least. I too have a 72GB Raptor in my main rig that is quite quiet. Maybe you guys just got bad drives. It's quite possibly the best HDD I have ever owned. It's sitting at 10 years of power on time. Too bad it's so small capacity wise.

 

[Elixer]

That's like missing the old floppy drive sounds. i found them annoying.

Oh really?

 

[PliotronX]

Hard drives haven't even been that chattery since about 2010 anyway and I don't miss that crap at all.

 

[corkyg]

I don't pay any attention to those sounds - so I guess I don't miss 'em.

 

[hal2kilo]

I love the performance and speed of an SSD, but I kinda miss that clicking grinding sound hard drives used to make. It was useful even, because if you heard a ton of disk activity you knew what your computer was busy doing.

Not really much point to this thread, I was just reading some hard drive reviews for the WD 10k rpm drive and noting how it seemed like everyone complained about how noisy they were. I was a bit shocked that so many people hated the hard disk sounds.

It's such a pleasant peaceful sound.

Reminds me of the earlier generation of our data collection system. We used to record all of the digital data on seven track digital serial tape recorders at a .5 second rate. You knew by listening to the systems shish, shish, shish every half second that things were working right. Then we switched to optical disks. No more shish, shish ,shish. But, I get ya, at least you know something is going on without having to look at the HD activity led.

 

[ClockHound]

While I enjoy the occasional sweet sound of a precise servo riff, not fond of the clunks, hums or clicks of mechanical spinners.

Unfortunately I still need to use tens of terabytes of them...so... for desktop/workstations I suspend them with DIY elaborate elastic suspensions to minimize noise transmission. If one of them fails prematurely also like to suspend them. Over an open flame and a barrage of curse words.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

nothing compares to the ST-225 MFM drive i ran in my 286 AT. compared to that, modern HD sounds are a blessing.

hd noise never bothered me really but one advantage they have over ssds is the distinctive clicking that they make during bad sector reads as they tried to reread them over and over. let you know that drive was well on its way to dying.

 

[hal2kilo]

nothing compares to the ST-225 MFM drive i ran in my 286 AT. compared to that, modern HD sounds are a blessing.

hd noise never bothered me really but one advantage they have over ssds is the distinctive clicking that they make during bad sector reads as they tried to reread them over and over. let you know that drive was well on its way to dying.

Ah memories. Sounds like it was time for a low level format. Some of the younger posters are probably wondering what that was. Spinrite was the last one I remember using but I swear there was a different low level formatter before that.