Maxtor HDD High pitched whining noise

[Darkhound85]

I used to have a pretty noisy PC but I have been taking steps to silence it over the past few weeks and yesterday I finally got it Silent for all intensive purposes (except the low hum of my 4 case fans at low RPM, the computer can run without these but i prefer to have them on)

Anyway to the point. Since silencing the rest of the PC (CPu fan, PSU, GPU fan) I've noticed another noise that was lurking under there - my damn HDD. I have an 80Gb 7200rpm Maxtor drive and its emitting an insanely annoying high pitched whining noise. The noise is ear peircing even though its not that loud. Funny thing is it goes nearly inaudable if i start winamp and play songs, or play a game - basically anything that means the HDD is constantly access; but sitting idle its terrible.

So, before I go and spend another £24 on an enclosure for the thing (or I suppose I could just run winamp...lol), is there anything that is 'causing' this? Can it be fixed/stopped, or is it just a trait of the hard disk?


Help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[johnjkr1]

Have you tried the maxtor acoustic management utility? AMSET? Give that a try, you might also want to try their diagnostic program to make sure there is nothing wrong with your drive?

 

[Darkhound85]

Thanks I'll give it a try - does this affect the operation of the HDD in any way except noise? e.g. make it slower?

 

[johnjkr1]

It will make is slower, sure. But it really isn't that much of a performance hit for the quietness. You could run a HD benchmark to compare if you like, I did and it wasn't that bad. The problem is, the constant whine is usually not related to the acoustic management utility. The amset utility slows down the read heads, so it quiets down the seek noises. It doesn't slow down the motor. If your motor is whining really bad, it is probably dying. I would run the diag on it just to be sure. (of course, the diags usually don't pick up dying motors)

 

[Darkhound85]

damn my other HDD just died on me - this one is only about 6 months old.

 

[johnjkr1]

The only real question is, did it make the whine noise before? If it did, it is probably just fine. If this whine is new, I would definetly be worried.

 

[InlineFive]

1. AMSET is bad, in a way. At Quiet mode the drive will have the seek performance of a 5400RPM drive but the transfer rates of a 7200RPM drive. Fast mode doesn't have this problem.
2. If this is a DiamondMax 8+ drive then whining is normal. However if it is a DiamondMax 9+ then I would RMA it as mine is very quiet. Either that or you have very sensitive hearing.

-Por

 

[daveybrat]

I've had that noise problem with a lot of maxtor drives in customer's pc's and even my own.
I now only use Seagate drives in all my personal pc's, they are ultra quiet! I have to look at the HD light on my
case to see if it's working! lol