How to quiet down a hard drive?

[aphex]

Do they make any enclosures i could put around my hard drive? My damn Maxtor 80gb is pretty damn loud now that i quieted down the rest of my rig.

 

[stultus]

Don't use a silentdrive. I baked my maxtor 60gb to death in 6 or 8 months (then I RMA'd it, oops). The solution is to buy Seagate... seriously. Get a Barracuda IV or V. Even Maxtor's fluid bearing drives can't beat the Seagates.

 

[Bluefront]

Here's my solution....mount the drives outside the computer, complete with their own cooling system. You cannot hear the two Maxtors at all. And they run about 32C with that 120mm fan at 995rpm.

External IDE Hard Drive Case.

 

[keyeye]

For a somewhat simpler box (though Bluefronts solution is impressive), I put my 15gig Maxtor 5400 in a tupperware (cut out holes for the cables) after seeing it on a website. It definitely helps the high frequency whine. Velcro'd the tupperware to the bottom of the computer, and put a temp probe in there to make sure it doesn't get too hot. I do agree with getting Seagates if that is an option.

BTW, what is most of your noise? Is it the seeks or the bearing noise? I found my maxtor 60 gig FDB to be too loud in the normal seek mode. It's ok (much quieter) with the acoustic management on quiet seeks. The bearing noise itself is minimal on this drive.

 

[klein297]

I quieted my Maxtor down by mounting it in a 5.25 bay with two small bungee cords.
Seek noise is down, and all the vibration is isolated from the case.
Grounded it using a wire running to the case.
Temps are probably up some, but I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[amcdonald]

use the bungee method...
Link to slientpcreview.com

 

[powergyoza]

Although it doesn't get as much attention as the Silent Drive, the Smart Drive is a much better solution for hdd silencing. Available @ SiliconAcoustics.com and Googlegear.com. Reviewed @ SilentPCReview.

A more extreme silencing technique likely the same in effectiveness as bluefront's solution is to make rubber boxes for your hdd. It'll require active cooling from a 6V panaflo, but my experiments show a 15-20dB noise reduction. Lay it on soft foam and you cut the vibration too. Click here - and here for 2 articles on the technique.