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Quieting a whiny hard drive

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CompuTamer

Member with Some Fancy Text Under His Name
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Location
Brandon Mississippi
Okay. So, i have a WD Blue hard drive. It's a good drive. Fast, silent seeks, and runs really cool (like 3 C above ambient). Here's the problem: The rotation whine is KILLING ME!! It's like that extremely high pitched whine that some CRT monitors make, all tvs make, and even some LCDs make. Most people can't hear it. I can.

I already have the drive set to turn off after 10 minutes, but for one reason or another, i always have to pull something off the drive, so it never turns off... are there any tricks to muffle the whine?

EDIt: Or Windows decides it wants to read 2K of data off the drive out of the blue...
 
I am pretty sure that I have bad news about the sound. my CD drive makes the same noise and it kills me. I do believe that it is just the nature of the beast.:(
 
Are you absolutely sure that the whine is coming from the drive? Older drives (back in the 8GB and 16GB drive days) were MUCH whinier than modern drives and used to drive me nuts. However, I cannot hear whine on any of my newer HDDs (160GB - 1.5TB). It seems to me that there are 3 possibilities:

1) Your ears are extremely sensitive to the frequency of the rotational whine.
2) You have a particularly noisy sample.
3) Whine noise from the drive is radiating from other surfaces of your case.

You can test for possibility (3) by dismounting the drive from your case and holding it in your hand while it's spinning. If it's much quieter than when hard-mounted in your case, you have a vibration problem, and you should focus on an isolated mounting scheme for the drive, or apply damping material (viscoelastic adhesive layer bonded to metal foil) to the radiating surfaces.

If the drive is just as loud while you're holding it in your hand than when it is mounted, you'll have to either replace the drive to see if a new one is quieter, or try to quiet the noise by applying acoustic absorption material inside your case. Rotational whine is relatively high in frequency, so your best bet is probably some type of foam. If you have room in your case, try lining the side panels with 0.5-1" foam (you can get some at a fabric store). Of course, if you do this you'll need to monitor your temperatures to make sure airflow isn't too restricted.
 
plain and simple... detach the drive from the case... it will do wonders.

My prefered method is suspending the drive with "Stretch Magic" ... u can find it at Michales or most other craft stores for way cheap. The stuff is stupid strong and way stretchy.

Here are some of my past hd suspensions.

IMG_0244.JPG


COMP%20006.JPG


I got a lil over zealous with the stuff on this one... but its my server so why not.
IMG_0559%20%28Custom%29.JPG
 
plain and simple... detach the drive from the case... it will do wonders.
This will work great as long as the the noise is mostly due to vibration being transferred to the case. If it's airborne noise radiating directly from the hard drive, any type of vibration isolation from the case isn't going to help. Typically noise from head movement is lower-frequency chugging noise, which can really be quieted through isolation. Whines due to rotation are more likely to be radiating directly off the surface of the drive. Vibration isolation is certainly worth investigating though, but he can hold it in his hand for a quick test. :)
 
Sadly it's the actual drive. Idk why this one is so loud, but if i'm not listening to music or anything, it kills me. It's not as loud as older hard drives, but since i do have sensitive ears, it still bothers me... my 5 year old 250GB drive is quieter (and according to SMART also failing. The irony) except when seeking.

I actually did think about the insulation, but the noise is coming out of the fan in the front of the case. If i put my ear next to the side of the case i can't hear it... would it be safe to wrap the drive itself up since it runs so cool?
 
There are enclosures you can purchase that are intended for silencing hard drives. These will address the directly radiated noise as well as noise from case vibration. Most of these rely on thermal conduction through the enclosure to keep the drive cool. I don't have any experience with such enclosures, but it seems like it would be a good, albeit a bit pricey, solution to your problem.

Here is one example:
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/hdd/005/sqd1000_detail.html
 
Well, that would work... if i didn't actually need all the bandwidth of my drive :/ I suppose that would be a good option once i get my 1TB WD green drive in.

Though, at that point, this drive will be off all the time. Sigh. Guess i'll just wait it out. I don't have enough room to pad it down, and i'm afraid to try that anyway as all i have is foam, and it's used as an insulation for a reason...

anyone know of any software i can use to just turn off the drive when i want it off instead of waiting for Windows to turn it off?
 
Well, that would work... if i didn't actually need all the bandwidth of my drive :/ I suppose that would be a good option once i get my 1TB WD green drive in.
Where do you get the idea that your bandwidth would be limited by an enclosure? The SATA connection is just a pass-through. It doesn't introduce another controller or anything. I actually have a 2.5" to 3.5" enclosure for my SSD that works in the same manner, and it doesn't limit the bandwidth.
 
plain and simple... detach the drive from the case... it will do wonders.

My prefered method is suspending the drive with "Stretch Magic" ... u can find it at Michales or most other craft stores for way cheap. The stuff is stupid strong and way stretchy.

Here are some of my past hd suspensions.

IMG_0244.JPG


COMP%20006.JPG


I got a lil over zealous with the stuff on this one... but its my server so why not.
IMG_0559%20%28Custom%29.JPG

That is frightening. It looks like the Cenobites got a hold of your hard drive. Or it got apprehended by your friendly neighborhood SpiderMan. If it weren't for heat issues then you could always try wrapping it in Dynamat but if it's spinning fast enough to produce an ear piercing shriek then it's probably putting off some serious heat too.
 
Where do you get the idea that your bandwidth would be limited by an enclosure? The SATA connection is just a pass-through. It doesn't introduce another controller or anything. I actually have a 2.5" to 3.5" enclosure for my SSD that works in the same manner, and it doesn't limit the bandwidth.

Ah, didn't notice it was Sata.... i've just always assumed that most enclosures were USB (which, as we all know, isn't all that fast...). I'll look into a few and see what i can come up with. Thanks for all the help guys :)

My 1TB drive should be in Monday or Wednesday at the latest, so i'll be playing a hard drive trade up. Hopefully i can just use this drive as a program drive and have it just off most of the time. Best way to quiet anything! Turn it off! haha
 
My two older IDE hard drives wine. I bought them used. I insulated the cage they are mounted in with thin carpeting that has a rubber backing. I bought it at a dollar store, cut it to pieces, and lined parts of my PC. It absorbs much of the wining sound.

Harder materials like Dynamat will not absorb sound nearly as much as carpeting. With similar hard materials, nearly all of the sound instead will bounce around and exit the case.

I read in the cooling forum years ago that a hard drive's wining sound comes from the spinning parts inside after they become slightly misaligned. And this is usually caused by the PC being moved around or jarred when the hard drive is in use.
 
I sit my whiny hard drive on a piece of foam, on the bottom of my case. It's next to my intake fan so it stays cool. This way I can't hear the whine.
 
I sit my whiny hard drive on a piece of foam, on the bottom of my case. It's next to my intake fan so it stays cool. This way I can't hear the whine.
Hmm, that's something i didn't think of.
I might try that when i get the new WD Green in. I'll be doing my best to keep this drive off, but for some reason FF tries to access EVERY hard drive in the computer when it starts up... or renders a page... or anything :/ Kinda silly really
 
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