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What causes a HDD to make a high pitched whining noise?

G

GreenBeret

Golden Member
Somone suggested the heads are scratching the platters. This is not a new drive, but it isn't quite a year old yet. Is this what is causing the noise, or could it be something else? It did not start doing this until today, and I am concerned.
 
This might not have any bearing upon it but "bearings" or should I say the beginning of no bearings. Or a change in the shaft tolerance because of a defect in the material... Since its only about a year or less old "RMA" is the best words I can give at the moment... Sorry dude...
 
Alright. I can deal with that, but how am I supposed to rescue all my data? I don't have another HDD I can use to back it up, or a CD burner which is accessible to that computer.
 
Hard drives do that when you install Barbie Super Collection and all educational software...you would too.
 
Uh, it's a Maxtor, right? I RMA'ed one because of it's whine. Only noticed it when it was installed in a PC case other than my mega tower. The replacement whined too. It's the 5400RPM unit. I hear the newer ones aren't so noisy. I've since set the ah heck on a piece of foam rubber instead the usual mounting screws.

If yours is really screeching, I'd get an RMA. Buy another in the mean time. Best to keep backup data on a second physical drive anyway. And the dang things are so cheap, there's no reason not to.
 
I've had the same problem...WD Expert, 27 gig...and RMA isn't an option since they don't make the drive anymore, I got it from Value America (out of business), and all WD does is have you test the drive...in which case your drive would probably pass the tests...so no RMA = (
 
I bought mine from Best Buy, so if WD won't take it back, i'll shove it down their throats :|

Maybe I can get it to fail their tests somehow... WITHOUT FUBARing the drive.

If they don't do something about it, I don't think I'm going to waste time buying WD products. :|
 
I've never had a bit of trouble RMAing a Western Digital drive. I also had a situation like yours where the drive stated making abnormal noises, but was still functional. If the unit is a year or so old and making bad sounds, I would guess you'll have no problems getting an RMA replacement.

Also, if you have a credit card handy, they will send you a refurb replacement so you can swap all your data to the new drive. Now, any more problems?
 
I'll see what happens when I call them tomorrow. Hopefully, they will send me a refurb, let me transfer all my stuff, and then take the noisy sucker back.
 
Is it a red whine or a white whine?





I think Highwire is right. You should have no prob. getting a new one. WD is a good drive dont let a single drive turn you off them. I dont think you can go wrong with Seagate, WD, IBM, Maxtor, or Quantum.
 
I had to RMA a discontinued WD drive a while back. It was a 3.2GB WD that went bad. Since the 3.2GB had been discountinued, they sent me a WD 4.0GB. Unfortunately the replacement didn't work and I had to get another replacement. The second 4GB is still working today.



-Jimbo
 
hmmm. Maybe I'll get a better drive out of this? I don't think they make the 20.5GB ATA66 7200RPMs anymore. I'm sure they have some refurbs lying around though. Oh well

edit: I see that they still make it. I thought they had moved on to high density platters?
 
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