is the hdd supposed to be so loud?

[Bucklaz]

so i have a seagate baracuda. Bought it less than a month ago, and it always makes this ddddt ddddtd and it drives me nuts! i wish i could describe the sound better, its like tttuttututu.

if I could compare it to anything, I'd say its waaay louder than my gfx cards fan when set to 100%.

I duno if its the hdd or if its supposed to sound like, all i know is its veeerry noticable.

should I rma it? or is this normal

[Jake_HT]

I can't hear my hard drive at all over my case fans... I don't have the seagate barracuda though.

[AkG]

Some people find Seagates loud but not normally that loud! Download and run their hdd diagnostic tool and see if it passes the Long/extended/etc (can't remember the name usually there is a quick test and a long test....pick the long one) test. Only way to be sure.

[Bucklaz]

oh yeah, i read osmething about that. I think i just donwloaded it a second ago lol, completely forgot about it

i will run the test right now

[DarKStar]

Even better, can you record the sound it makes, there is a difference between dddddddddt dddddddddt and tttuttuttutu, I'm confused, I've never heard that sound before, so best thing is to listen to it and determine if it's normal or not.

Normally, the motors should not make sound loud enough for you to hear - the case fans and even the CPU fan would overpower it - if it's loud enough for yout o hear it then it's something to look into - I have many seagates and some outside in enclosures and I barely hear a very soft whisper that it's on, barely can hear them. However, it seems some, not all drives have noisier motors (buzzing, intermittent noises, etc.) If you can manage to record the sound it makes and post it.

Also be very careful not to rely strictly on Seatools and software diagnostics - the software only takes into account soft errors and checks your drive's SURFACE for any defect sectors and runs other offline smart read / seek testing - but in no way does the diag detect physical defects or sudden mechanical failure.

[Digikid]

Sounds to me like the clicking noise that Seagates are known for. Or Chirping.

[Bucklaz]

it passed the short drive self test as well as the long drive self test.

weird. I'm positive that its the sound of the hdd being accessed. I'm not sure if its just me being too paranoid or something, but the sound can easily be heard above the rest of the system.

I've just recorded the sound by putting my headphones on the ground infront of the computer, will upload it and post it when I get back home tonight.
Does anyone know where I can upload a small sound file?

[MacJunky]

might look into a free divshare account for occasional smallish files.

[Andy]

As long as it has passed those tests, and is performing properly I don't think you have anything to worry about. While Seagate is currently having tons of issues with their newer drives, (assuming the drive in question is the one in your sig) you should be fine. My 640Gb .11 Seagate's are much louder than my Western Digitals, but they work great and passed all tests, so I am not concerned.

[Bucklaz]

heres the audio file. that single thump at 2 seconds in is my banging my foot against something, but the rattle is the hdd. It sounds like popcorn popping.
tattle.wma - DivShare

**edit** you might have to turn up your volume a bit, as my mic is calibrated for speech rather than small mechanical sounds. If you listen you can notice the fan noise being engulfed by the "popcorn machine".
Also, I may have exaggerated a bit when I said that it was WAY louder than the gpu fan at max speed I think it is about equal in noise. (btw, the gpu fan is set to 20% in that sound clip, the fan noise is probably the casefan and the cpu fan, so this is NOT a comparison to the 100% gpu fan noise)

maybe its because the antec 300 sacrifices noise for air cooling, but if darkstars hdd that are outside of his case make only whispers then what the heck lol.

Originally Posted by MacJunky

might look into a free divshare account for occasional smallish files.

thx mac, I made a divshare :D

Originally Posted by Meth

As long as it has passed those tests, and is performing properly I don't think you have anything to worry about. While Seagate is currently having tons of issues with their newer drives, (assuming the drive in question is the one in your sig) you should be fine. My 640Gb .11 Seagate's are much louder than my Western Digitals, but they work great and passed all tests, so I am not concerned.

Yeah if the drive is healthy and fine then I'd rather keep it. I don't really want to back everything up and install windows again AND wait for the RMA. But that I might as well ask for the advice of people who are more knowledgable than I am.

Also, if the hdd is about to go belly up, then I'd prefer to wipe the drive clean of all my info and stuff :D, before I sent my hdd back. If the hdd bricked without me being able to wipe it, I would not send it in. I would rather pay for a new hdd all together than send in my bricked hdd with all my info on it.