How can I silence this noisy HD?

[WhiteMyth]

I just bought an antec sx 1030 case, and I"ve noticed that one of my 2 HD's has a wining sound which is really annoying, not that loud though. I guess I never noticed before since this case is very open in the front compared to my previous case.

The HD is a 45g 7200rpm maxtor I bought several months ago. again, the sound is high pitched, but not very loud (enough to be heard over 4 case fans + psu) I KNOW it's the HD, I disconnected everything, every drive and fan and narrowed it down to this hd for sure.

thanks for any suggestions.

Update: I'm just going to transfer this thing to my home file server, all my programs ect are on a seperate HD anyways. But Would this sound be any sign of trouble perhaps?

 

[GryphonsClaw]

I would say that the drive is starting to wear on a bearing which could be a beginning signs of failure. Maxtor drives are notorious for failures and I would recommend IBM drives which have a higher quality.

 

[Grendel99]

GryphonsClaw were do base this assumption? Maxtor drives are very high quality. The IBM 75GXP is notorioius for failure and a lot of people have lost trust in IBM. IBM is even stopping there business in the HD market.

But anyways, you might wanna download the utility (forgot the name) that checks your HD from the Maxtor website. It does sound like your HD is about to bite the dust though. If you get another, Maxtor, WD, and Seagate are all great drives.

 

[GryphonsClaw]

You are right on the 75's failing this was a problem, from what I read it was do to overheating on its controller board and you can actually replace that board and the drive will function again... or just keep it cool in the first place. IBM drives bench faster than Maxtor and run way quieter. I base my assumption on doing computer tech work for 4 years and saw that the number one failure drive was Maxtor and in a close second was Western Digital. I had maybe a 5% failure rate in IBM drives that I installed or worked with, I never used a 75 though. I personally run an IBM 40 GIG 7200. It has been solid for me and it gets worked constantly. Seagate is actually the best drive to own based on lowest percentage of failures. Either way you go IDE hard drives are built cheaply now and all have their issues.

But your real problem is the noise. This could be just that Maxtor drives are noisy or your drive is about to go, I would definitely back up the data, take Grendel's advice and download their support software it should be able to diagnose some common issues. If their is a problem drive is still under warranty and Maxtor will replace it if a problem exists so you might want to contact Maxtor.

 

[ChrisADuffy]

Get an rma on the drive and get a new one.

 

[xXgambitXx]

Just FYI. there is a company that makes dampeners for HD's. they're called QuietPC. Here's Their Hard Drive Enclosure Deal