Hard Drive Noise

[tgpo]

Lately my external HD has been super loud. When I accessing files off of it I hear a knocking sound. The dirve is only about a year old. Is there anything I can do to make it stop sounding like it is about to die? Does fragmentation play a part in this or is the drive about to die on me?

[redwudz]

I've got a Maxtor like that in one of my computers. Every time it does a virus scan, I can hear it clacking from across the room.

That can't be good. Of course that drive has done it all along. If yours just started, I would be a little worried. I recall a program or software mentioned here sometime back that was supposed to help the problem, maybe someone can remember?

Defragging may help, I'm going try it on that drive and see if it makes any difference.

I always figured the clacking was the drive read arm hitting the stops at the ends of it's travel. Seems like that has got to do some damage over time.

Worst case, keep your files backed up in case of failure. I don't suppose S.M.A.R.T. works for external drives. I have it on for my internal drives and it has warned me a couple of times in the past before failure.

[Soopafresh]

Click click click... Could be bad news. If you can, move the data to another drive, and then run some serious tests on the external.

http://nu2.nu/bst/

The app above will heavily stress test your drive, but only run it if you've backed up your data off it.

[glockjs]

no matter what moving parts are going to break down. it's life. i wouldn't trust anything important on it. then again if it's a piece of western digital that noise is pretty much normal

[Cobra]

Funny... All the WD drives I've tried (admittedly only three or four) have been quiet and cool.

tgpo - I just had a Maxtor 120GB ATA133 drive fail on me for no apparent reason. If your drive is playing up, back it up ASAP. Thankfully, my one died during a reformat so I had everything off it anyway!

What brand is your drive, anyway? You can get specific diagnostic utilities from most manufacturers that can confirm if your drive is OK or failing.

[waheed]

True. My WD is also quiet too.

[tgpo]

Maxtor

[Cobra]

Download and run a suitable diagnostic utillity here:

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.8db0c3d6932ced37294198b091346068/?ch...re%20Downloads

[tgpo]

Download and run a suitable diagnostic utillity here:

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.8db0c3d6932ced37294198b091346068/?ch...re%20Downloads

...and where are the Mac tools?

[Hardcoreruss]

tgpo[/url]]

Download and run a suitable diagnostic utillity here:

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.8db0c3d6932ced37294198b091346068/?ch...re%20Downloads

...and where are the Mac tools?

You dont get any cause your lame and weak.

[glockjs]

Funny... All the WD drives I've tried (admittedly only three or four) have been quiet and cool.

tgpo - I just had a Maxtor 120GB ATA133 drive fail on me for no apparent reason. If your drive is playing up, back it up ASAP. Thankfully, my one died during a reformat so I had everything off it anyway!

What brand is your drive, anyway? You can get specific diagnostic utilities from most manufacturers that can confirm if your drive is OK or failing.

sorry i had to. 3/3 of my wdd were/are noisey

[tgpo]

Personally I don't care about the noise. As long as it works I'll be happy.

[stiltman]

Was it making noise before?
If not, expect the drive to fail soon

[tgpo]

Was it making noise before?
If not, expect the drive to fail soon

It's always been a loud drive, but never this loud.

[Conquest10]

Is it also slower than usual?