[Zazuk]

Early this year I bought 2 WD 80GB SE drives, both worked fine but one had a loud whine about it and it was brand new, so I put it away and did not use it. Time passed, I did some other hard ware upgrades and had enough hardware to start putting together another PC. So I used that loud WD, when I have my second PC running that drive drives me mad... So I ran the WD diagnostics no errors found. So I went to the Western Digital wed site and emailed them.

The hard drive makes a loud high pitch whining noise. I have two of these drives one works great but the other on my second computer drives me crazy and I can’t leave it on. I have looked through the Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and ran the test on it which it passed w/o any error. Is there any way for me to fix the whining noise on this hard drive? If so how? If not could I RMA it even though it has no errors?

And they (Jason N.) replied.

Your drive is failing and needs to be replaced.

We have two warranty replacement options available to you, Advance RMA and Standard RMA. Both options are available online from our website. In an Advance RMA, we will ship you the replacement drive prior to receiving your defective drive. A credit/debit card is required to insure against the receipt your defective drive. If we do not receive your drive 30 days from the date the replacement drive was shipped, the fair market value of the replacement drive will be charged/debited to your credit/debit card. In a Standard RMA, we will ship you the replacement drive only after we have received your defective product. No credit/debit card is required in a Standard RMA.

So I went with the Advance RMA...

All things said, I should have done this 10 months ago...

[9mmCensor]

And? Did you get your new drive? Is it queiter? or are you just moaning about a loud hard drive.

[Zazuk]

The new drive is on its way, should have it in another 2 to 4 business days.

Edit:
Also I'm posting to show that even though the drive will pass the companys fitness test you still might beable to RMA the drive becuase it is loud.

[stool]

Most likely it is a precursor to a complete failure, like an extremely early warning sign. Only bad part I can think of now is that I believe WD only has a 1-year warranty, so you probably lost 10 months worth.

[beefries33]

I had a 40gig Maxtor in my wifes computer for about a year and a half. This sucker was exactly as you described, it had the annoying whine that would drive you crazy. I ended up yanking the thing and giving here another hard drive.

I now use this noisy Maxtor for occatonal back up. I just plug it in every once in a while, do the back up, and then remove it from my computer. Its going on 3 years now and its still working fine...go figure.

Scott

[Zazuk]

Most likely it is a precursor to a complete failure, like an extremely early warning sign. Only bad part I can think of now is that I believe WD only has a 1-year warranty, so you probably lost 10 months worth.

Nope, both my drive's warranty end in 01/06.

Also this drive made the loud whinning noise right out of the box, when it was new.

[leggysoe]

seagate!

[Zazuk]

Got my replacement drive today and copied over the OS, it is nice and quite. Going to send the old one back tomorrow.

[walkitiki]

I have two of these hard drives in a raid 0 configuration, and both make the whining noise. I believe its the same anyways. It started out pretty quiet, then it made most of its noise on start up, but now it's all the time. How do you guys think I should back up my files if I try to RMA? or do you think I should RMA at all?

_tiki.

[JimmyG]

If you have another drive, backup to it. If you have a DVD burner backup to it. Then RMA the drive.

[mbentley]

Originally posted by stool
Most likely it is a precursor to a complete failure, like an extremely early warning sign. Only bad part I can think of now is that I believe WD only has a 1-year warranty, so you probably lost 10 months worth.

they are the caviar se drives. those still come with 3 year warranty