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Question

Seagate Hard Drives

Jun 14, 2011 11:55AM PDT

I have not used Seagate Hard Drives for a long time so don't know if this is normal. It makes a lot of noise the the Western Digital drives don't.
This started when I had 3 BSOD in one day and as soon as it would re-boot, it would go right into CHKDSK. The computer is still under warranty so I called Dell and after some trouble shooting steps it was determined the hard drive is going bad.
The tech came out the next day and installed a new Seagate hard drive, that's the one making noise that sounds like someone tapping on the bottom of a aluminium can with a pencil or stick. Not real load, but very anoying.
Turns out the drive was sent with the wrong image and they have to send another hard drive to replace this one.
The tech will be here tomorrow and I have no idea what brand hard drive it will be.
Is this noise normal with the Seagate drives or was I just very unlucky?
Thanks
Wayne

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Not Seagate
Jun 14, 2011 3:15PM PDT

The tech was a day early and installed the drive today. It was another Seagate drive and this one you can't hear at all, so the first one must have been bad.
One bonus is the first drive was a 640 gig and the new one is a 1 Terabyte drive.

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The noise you heard on the 640 might have been normal
Jun 15, 2011 7:32AM PDT

To me it sounds like some harmonic being created and emanating from the cover. You said a pencil tapping on a can. The covers on newer drives can be very thin and made to flex easily. That could be just the way it sounds when the heads move and the vibration is picked up by the cover. Putting some foam tape on it might have reduced the noise. Of course the 1TB drive will be a different model and could be made differently. As long as you're happy with it, that's fine but don't think that all drive noise is an omen of impending doom.

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Thanks Steven
Jun 16, 2011 7:43AM PDT

The 1 terabyte drive has been working great and still no noise.
One thing is it appears the bigger drive is actaully faster than the 640. I thought it would be just the opposite.
This is not only the seak time, but also boot up and shut down.