hard drive "thinks" really loudly

-N- · Jun 10, 2006

so basically here's the problem.. my hard drive "thinks" really loudly now, whenever i scroll through a webpage, scroll through a music list, drag some window across the screen, stuff like that.. I can hear it like it's busy. There's also a weak high-pitched hum that's pretty constant as well. I'm not 100% sure this is the hard drive but it sounds like.

Do these sound anything like symptoms of an aging hard drive? i would say it's about 3 years old or so. it's a 120gb seagate barracuda.

nd4spdbh2 · Jun 10, 2006

is it an SATA or PATA version of the seagate.... cus the PATA ones are alot quieter than the sata version of that drive... i have the 80gb PATA 7200.8 hd and its dead silent... but my friend has a 250gb SATA 7200.8 and its way loud.... now i can see more sound from extra heads and platters but not that much...

Its probably not thats its ageing... hell i have a 7.85gb hd that cost back in the day $509.99 and it runs my cs server for 15+ hrs a day and sometimes weeks at a time for the past 2 yrs.... not to mention the person who had the computer with that hd prior to that.... i have never had an hd die one me and im not all that nice to the ****ty older ones either...

EvilT · Jun 10, 2006

sounds like the otes on the mobo, they usual do this on the older mobos, and on some of the new ones

GV2NIX · Jun 10, 2006

It's probably not aging, but I don't think we can totally rule that out.

Has it always sounded that loud in the past when it was seeking/reading/writing data? Is it the same noise level except now it's just more constant? Your files may also just be severely fragmented. Try running disk cleanup (check off everything except compress old files), and after that, try degragging your hard drive. That might clear things up. If not, depending on the last time you installed Windows, your OS might just be severely bloated. Also, how much total space and free space do you have on the drive?

It doesn't sound like anything really serious, but you should probably try to deal with it. At the very least, excessive hard drive thrashing will shorten the lifespan of the drive, even if only minimally.

-N- · Jun 11, 2006

it's the PATA version.. :/

back when i bought it, i haven't noticed any noise. But more recently, maybe sometime this year, I began to notice the noise everytime it's busy. I can just scroll my playlist in winamp and i can hear it (the "busy" light in front of the computer doesn't light up in this scenario).

I must admit i've never defragmented my drive every since i bought my hard drive. I did it maybe a couple months ago for the first time. anyways, it never actually completed for some reason. It always stopped like part way through, but it did defragment some of the files. right now it's 9% total fragmentation and 18% file fragmentation. I have 35% free space so that's not a problem...

I think my maxtor's more quiet than the seagate. My fans are pretty loud but I bet if i had silent fans i would hear it a lot more clearly.

GV2NIX · Jun 11, 2006

It might be a good idea to clear your IE cache (if you use IE) and cookies and all that junk along with your local temp files. I would recommend running the defrag and letting it finish after that. Hopefully that'll calm things down a little. Keep us updated on your progress.

larva · Jun 11, 2006

The noise is coming from the PWM section of the MB or (more likely) the system power supply. This is inductor whine, a condition where inductor legs (and/or other metal parts) are excited to vibrate at extrememly high frequency. This excitation comes from the fact that they exist in the magnetic field of the power transformer, which is switched at very high frequency. Since transformers create a magnetic field, switching them means the field switches (expands and collapses) at the switching rate. This cyclic nature of this on-again off-again magnetic pull can create audible harmonics of the high-frequency oscillations often induced in surrounding metal components.

Captain Helghas · Jun 11, 2006

Sold me on it.

GV2NIX · Jun 11, 2006

Really?? Is this a commononly-occuring phenomenon? I don't think I've ever been witness to it. Maybe I'm just not listening closely enough.

greenmaji · Jun 12, 2006

inductor wine only when the HD is busy?
I was under the impression that inductor wine happened intermitintly, or extra load..

Maybe the HD spinning up is the kicker for the PSU, have you tried load testing the GPU or the CPU and see if this noise shows up?

killermiller · Jun 12, 2006

Does the whine happen when you other HDD is spinning? you can try adjusting the page file size or turning it off all together. See if that makes any difference.

-N- · Jun 12, 2006

interesting... i just completed a defragmentation and it finished, although it says there were files that could not be defragmented. I anazlyed hard drive and this is what it was before defrag: 9% total fragmentation, 18% file fragmentation. Now it's: 9% total fragmentation, 19% file fragmentation. awesome.

and no, the low volume high pitch whine can be heard constantly. Obviously after a while in front of my comp i don't notice it anymore, but if i listen for it i can hear it whenever..

and boy, i haven't played any games in a long time (because of school) but i just started up a couple games i still had installed on my computer and damn, the hard drive was going wild. I can hear it "thinking" constantly in game, seems louder also. But i exit and it's back to normal.
how weird...

greenmaji · Jun 13, 2006

Ok, it sounds like inductior wine and loud HD seeks.

If the seeks get really loud I would be extra carefull with backing up data.

Cjwinnit · Jun 13, 2006

GV2NIX said:
Really?? Is this a commononly-occuring phenomenon?

Yep, similar to mains hum.

hard drive "thinks" really loudly

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