Edit2 - OMGWTFmechBgon for ELITE

[MercenaryForHire]

UPDATE2

mechBgon for Elite
From his vault of tools did he thusly pull the Excaliber sword of Idle-Seek Slaying, SMSCAN.EXE Please don't flood him with PM requests if you need it - ask me and I shall provide.

:heart: + :beer: for you, mech!

UPDATE

Pulled the drive before I went insane. It'll have to go in a system that makes enough ambient noise to shut it up. Emailed Seagate to ask. It's only got 85 hours of power-on time on the drive according to SMART though, so maybe it's their "burn in tester" thing like on the newer ATA Vs.

I have a WAV file that needs hosting for this.

When the drive isn't in use (idling) it occasionally emits this insanely annoying "squeal/meow/beep" sequence of noises, which is driving me bloody insane.

Anyone heard this from a hard drive?

- M4H

 

[Auric]

No, and that's including three 'Cuda IV's. Actually, the fourth one didn't either before it suddenly failed.

 

[Viper96720]

Put power to drive without the ide cable. If it still is noisy return it.

 

[RalfHutter]

Jeez, I've used dozens and dozens of Cuda IV's and none of them have ever pulled a stunt even remotely like that. I'd expect that particular drives has "issues" and may not be long for this world. Have you run any drive fitness tests on it?

 

[Subhuman25]

Wow,I've never had problems like that with any of my Seagates.I'd say you have rare problem HD there.Maybe it was damaged prior to you getting it?Maybe you did something to it?
Look around and you'll see that Seagate is highly regarded for it's silent operation and performance and reliablity.
And I really had to laugh out loud reading that you're replacing it with a Fujitsu drive,wich probably have the worst ever track record of any HD manufacturer on the planet in any criteria.

 

[CraigRT]

never had a problem with any Seagate drive at all.. period.

 

[Jigglelicious]

My Seagate 7200.7 made similar annoying sounds. I purchased it because everyone was raving about how quiet Seagate drives were (mostly the Baracuda IV and V series, but those were out of production by the time i purchased mines). I used it in a fanless system, so I needed it to be as quiet as possible, since the HDD would be the only thing i'd hear. Unfortunatly, about every 30 seconds of being idle, the drive would make this quiet but annoying grinding sound that would last anywhere from 5-10 seconds. If you ever remember the days of Win95/98 when you were done playing a memory intensive game and you quit the game and the HDD would release the virtual memory used, thats what it sounded like, and it was VERY annoying. I checked some online forums (including here), and many other people experienced the same issue.

I eventually returned the drive and replaced it with a Samsung. I loved the Samsung so much, I ended up getting 3 more. All have been quiet and very cool running.

 

[Pollock]

Recent Hitachis used to have this "feature"...It's supposed to help extend drive life by moving the heads periodically, because them sitting idly used to be a big cause of failure or something. I read up about it before I bought my Hitachi drive(because they too do this), but sorry to say for you I don't have any of the bookmarks regarding it anymore. How frequently do you hear the noises? I don't hear anything out of my drive, but I also have a lot of ambient noise. At the very least, you may be able to find some firmware from Seagate because I think Hitachi released a firmware upgrade that disabled this feature.

 

[rliao]

Agree w/ jiggle regarding the samsungs. Their spinpoints are definitely some of the best drives in terms of noise.

Apparently, the 7200.7s used to be good until seagate started disabling AAM as a result of a lawsuit that they were involved in concerning patents for AAM.

I've had comparable models from both manufacturers and I wholeheartedly believe you cannot find a more quiet drive right now than a samsung spinpoint. Unfortunately, samsung is not without their own problems. They make 2 versions w/ different motors and users report the JVC-equipped version to be quite annoying. I only have the nidec-equipped revision so I can't comment on what it sounds like myself. As of right now, getting the proper revision is really a luck of the draw.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Balls. It's the "Offline Scan" thing, apparently. Some firmwares are noisier than others, and I got a lucky batch.

Looks like it's time to sandwich and suspend 'em.

- M4H

 

[caivoma]

i wasnt notice that noise until today, which is almost 5 am. the room was really quiet and i could hear it, it really annoying but i wont hear it during the day so all is good

 

[MichaelD]

I have no problem with the three Fujitsu MAS SCSI drives I have. Two are striped and one is stand alone. They are quieter than the WD 80 and 100GB IDE drives I have.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

This thread is getting bumped only because that goddamn whiny bitch of a Seagate in my nighttime rig woke me up :|

- M4H

 

[Sulaco]

I recently got a Segat 200Gb SATA drive, and its easily one of the quietest I've ever used. Extremely pleased with it thus far.
It does make a soft clicking sound when accessing, but every hdd i've ever owned has as well, so I can't be too upset.
But the actual idling is dead silent.

I actually bought the Seagate to replace a 4 year old WD, that while it still works fine, makes the LOUDEST whining sound as it runs. So loud, in fact, you can hear my computer running out in the hall, and nearly all the way down the stairs ( a good 50+ feet).

 

[MercenaryForHire]

OMGWTFMECHBGONFORELITE :Q:heart::beer: bump

- M4H

 

[mechBgon]

Looks like I did my good deed for the day

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Looks like I did my good deed for the day

Your Eagle Scout morals have stopped my homicidal rampage. Are you able to guest-star on a 24 episode?

- M4H

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Looks like I did my good deed for the day

Your Eagle Scout morals have stopped my homicidal rampage. Are you able to guest-star on a 24 episode?

- M4H

Hmmm... I'll have to check my schedule

 

[Czar]

uuuu I have two segate drives which do the exact same thing

 

[Zoe]

For those of you with the Spinpoint drives; how do you tell if it has a JVC or Nidec motor?

 

[imported_Phil]

SMScan and a temperature monitoring program for Seagates here.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: Zoe
For those of you with the Spinpoint drives; how do you tell if it has a JVC or Nidec motor?

Look on the bottom of the drive. It's stamped on the silver housing that's about 1.5" in diameter.

 

[Auric]

So does smscan allow disabling this "offline scan" thing (at the risk of shorter drive life?) or does it simply enable a reduced seek noise mode as the Hitachi Feature Tool and Maxtor amset does? HFT, at least, also works on other manufacturer's drives although just as a toggle whereas IBM drives had adjustable ranges for quiet versus performance.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Auric
So does smscan allow disabling this "offline scan" thing (at the risk of shorter drive life?) or does it simply enable a reduced seek noise mode as the Hitachi Feature Tool and Maxtor amset does? HFT, at least, also works on other manufacturer's drives although just as a toggle whereas IBM drives had adjustable ranges for quiet versus performance.

smscan disables the offline scan. There's also a seaaam utility that lets you change the AAM level. http://www.omnicast.net/~tmcfadden/index.html and the bottom link... yeah

 

[Auric]

Coo, thanks. I haven't witnessed the problem with mine but will check it out. Was surely tired when last posted 'cause I didn't even make the mental connection betwixt smscan and offline scan. Have always used I/HTF for AAM on all drives.