HDD squealing

[DeepScience]

I just got a new Seagate Barracuda ST380021 ATA100 7200rpm 80GB hard drive. When it's busy it's ok but when it's just sitting around it's got this really high pitched squeal that is reaaaaallllly annoying.

Has anyone else had this effect? If I move my head around slowly I can usually find a nodal spot where it's a bit quieter.

 

[stool]

It squeals when it is idle? That doesn't sound normal, or good at all. Maybe you should consider hitting their support site and downloading the Seatools diagnostic software they provide.

 

[David]

I have an older (Dec 2000) Seagate Barracuda HD - 30GB. It isn't too noisy, definately no high pitched squeals. Sounds like a dodgy drive to me. Get on to the tech support and see what they say.

 

[DeepScience]

Well, we swopped the Barracuda for another one and they both make the screaming sound you can hear from down the hall. At first it's only when the disk is working/seeking, and then later it seems to be screaming all the time.

Seems to be fully functional in all other respects.
I can only presume that there is a compatibility issue between the Barracuda 80GB and my Ultra100 Promise controller card (with latest drivers).

I may try swopping it over to the newer Ultra100TX2 and see if the sound continues.

 

[David]

Well, we swopped the Barracuda for another one and they both make the screaming sound you can hear from down the hall. At first it's only when the disk is working/seeking, and then later it seems to be screaming all the time.

Seems to be fully functional in all other respects.
I can only presume that there is a compatibility issue between the Barracuda 80GB and my Ultra100 Promise controller card (with latest drivers).

I may try swopping it over to the newer Ultra100TX2 and see if the sound continues.

Is it mounted in the case correctly. If its loose then it will make more of a noise as it is free to vibrate.

 

[RainMaQer]

What mobo is it on? I had this problem a few weeks ago... changed mobo's and all of a sudden the darn thing is screaming at me... well... here's where your gonna laugh... I had the IDE activity LED connected to one pin of the ide led and one pin for the pc speaker.... hehe... took a couple days to figure that out... but hey... especially since my case doesn't have a speaker... turns out the mobo had a little buzzer thingy

Might be worth a try to just disconnect your hd activity led and see if it works

 

[DeepScience]

hmmm, I wonder if the squeal could be coming from the power supply...? 300W Hyena is powering:

Barracuda 80 - 7200
Quantum 30 - 7200
CDRW & CD
Floppy
OC GF2MX
OC Celery at about 30Watts
Promise card, LAN card, Audigy, 5 fans

It's really hard to hear where the noise is coming from.

 

[DeepScience]

What mobo is it on? I had this problem a few weeks ago... changed mobo's and all of a sudden the darn thing is screaming at me... well... here's where your gonna laugh... I had the IDE activity LED connected to one pin of the ide led and one pin for the pc speaker....

Hey thanks Rain! That wasn't the problem but it started me thinking about the scream coming from somewhere else than the hard drive. It definitately was coming from the PSU!

Replaced with a 400W unit and everything is as quiet as.
It's got thermal fan adjustment and a high current 5 volt line so very nice indeed.

Return to quiet computing, hmmm, and now with about 105GB of space to play in as well.

 

[Yodums]

Wow the PSU was that loud and you didn't know!? JK It was good you replaced it, it was a really faulty PSU and if it died it prob would have taken some other stuff down with it.

 

[DeepScience]

Yeah, I felt a little goofy for not thinking it might be something else earlier. But I just changed the HDD so I naturally thought that was the problem. The HDD was stuck in ATA33 mode until I moved it onto the secondary master pos so I thought both sound and that were related. Great advert for lateral thinking required.

The store didn't cover the PSU under warrenty (one and a half years old) but did give me cost on the 400W. Jolly nice guys I reckon.

Let's hope the thing keeps going for a while.

I havn't gotten used to the quiet fans whirring yet, it's so relaxing

 

[David]

I have a so called 'quiet PSU' but its getting quite noisy lately. Its been pretty good.

 

[SBeaver]

This app from Seagate disables s.m.ar.t. function (this function is not very helpful, i don't think so anyways) and this COULD be a way to stop the noise in the disk.

 

[David]

This app from Seagate disables s.m.ar.t. function (this function is not very helpful, i don't think so anyways) and this COULD be a way to stop the noise in the disk.

SMART can also be disabled in the BIOS.

 

[SBeaver]

SMART can also be disabled in the BIOS.

Maybe it can on your computer, but on mine it can't be disabled.
I don't know about his board but my kt7a probably have the same features as his since its both abit board of almost the same age.

edit: TYPO

 

[David]

Maybe it can on your computer, but on mine it can't be disabled.
I don't know about his board but my kt7a probably have the same features as his since its both abit board of almost the same age.

edit: TYPO

My board is a KT133 board - Jetway 663AS Pro. I believe the KT7A is a KT133A board.

It all really depends on DeepSciences board.

 

[DeepScience]

Well...

My board is listed in my sig
I tried the smscan utility before finding out that...

as I stated...


The problem WAS NOT the hard drive. It was the Power supply not being able to cope with the extra power demands of the hard drive.

ie, the high current drain induced a magnetic field strong enough in one of the transformers to start air resonance occuring in one of the coil windings with a small gap. At least, that's what I think happens in such cases.

I wonder if I can reactivate the smart thingy or shouldn't I bother?

 

[SBeaver]

Well...

My board is listed in my sig
I tried the smscan utility before finding out that...

as I stated...


The problem WAS NOT the hard drive. It was the Power supply not being able to cope with the extra power demands of the hard drive.

ie, the high current drain induced a magnetic field strong enough in one of the transformers to start air resonance occuring in one of the coil windings with a small gap. At least, that's what I think happens in such cases.

I wonder if I can reactivate the smart thingy or shouldn't I bother?

Weird s h i t
Well the readme says it can't be done (at least not by with that app)
But there is no reason to do it since all newer drives have it this way too and you don't see any problems with those.