Killer HD!!

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A1A2

A1A2

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yeah, it's just as loud as my guitar or vocal when I'm trying to record...

What do you guys do with this situation? I heard HDs go loud after awhile, can't just keep buying new ones, right??

AL
 
RU sure it's your HD?
I have four systems and mostly the chipset cooler will start to make more noise after a while.
 
For about $30, you can get extender cables for your mouse, keyboard and video cable. Put that sucker in a closet or drill a hole in the wall and put it in the next room.

Then you'll have no excuses!
 
TimOBrien said:
For about $30, you can get extender cables for your mouse, keyboard and video cable. Put that sucker in a closet or drill a hole in the wall and put it in the next room.

Then you'll have no excuses!
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I'm doing, except the puter is going in the closet. :D
 
Any spinning device that suddenly gets louder than it has been during its life is a pretty good sign of impending failure.
 
yeah, I am sure it's my HD cuz I have 2, and I unplug the loud one (a 1-2 yr old Western Digital) when I get tired of it. But it's my audio HD, so, I gotta keep it running when recording.

About HD shouldn't go loud...I don't know, I have heard too many HDs that do that. From what I heard is some kind of dust or small particals that slowly get onto the disks and cause the noise.

Now, it's not loud like it sound as if it was falling apart, but it just makes this sharp noise that wears your ears out eventually...

TimOBrien:
A link would be appreciated:)



AL
 
I don't know if the dust can reach motor moving parts of HD, but disk plates are sealed in vacuum.

Maybe you can reduce the noise by putting some kind of soft rubber spacers between HD and mounting rack.
 
What kind of noise? Bearing failure (whine) or seek noise (tick tick). A lot of seek noise might just mean it needs defraging.
If you look in WDs website, you'll probably find a drive test utility - should show up if the things going bad. HDs can do a very good job of hiding data errors until they die completely.
Some people fit hds in "silent drive" sleeves. www.quietpc.com
I am now feeling nervous about the two "deathstars" in my rig.
Better heed my own advice ;)
 
where can you buy these extender cables? they have ones for headphones too?

thanks
 
Jotosuds said:
where can you buy these extender cables? they have ones for headphones too?
Click to expand...
Any local computer shop should have those extender cables on stock. And for the headphones? Sure! But you'll have to go to the local audio shop for that.

These cables should not be hard to find at all.
 
I"d have to say that I'd be worried if I had a lot of data sitting on that hardrive. Maybe it's full or needs a defrag? Hard drives should have ~20% free space to operate optimally (I've read).
 
Hey A1A2 - HD whine is not neccesarily an indicator that your HD is failing (or going to fail anytime soon). Some models are more prone to develop the noise than others. In addition, if it is in a "hot spot" inside your case, consistent heat can bring that whine on. Over the years, I have had Seagates, Quantums, IBM's, and WD's that start getting noisy. All of those drives are still running today. Some are 7+ years old.

However, if you are going to replace the drive you might want to consider relocating the drive inside the case. Most ATX cases are pretty restrictive, especially if you have two IDE HDD. Hard drives CAN get very hot.

What kind of case do you have? Do you have a front case fan? If so, it is really easy to drop a drive down in front (or near) the fan to help pick off that heat (i.e don't have to add any MORE noisy fans).
 
A1A2 said:
From what I heard is some kind of dust or small particals that slowly get onto the disks and cause the noise.
Click to expand...

Most constant-noise problems with HDDs are bearing whine: The bearings for the platters are going, and eventually it will fail.

If there is anything stuck to the disks other than the coating holding your data, kiss it goodbye within seconds. The space that the heads fly at means that NO amount of stuff on the surface will be acceptable.

Any particles within the sealed unit should end up being captured in the internal microfilter. These bits may be chunked off the surface from impact damage, but they are a sign that the drive is being mistreated anyway. The microfilter is to save your a$$ just in case you do have an accident!

Mike.
 
I just saw an ad in the back of this month's Electronic Musician for a company that makes wooden sound isolation enclosures for PC's. They're a bit spendy (about $400), but it's an option.

In either case, I'd make sure your audio data is backed up then run a surface scan just to be sure.
 
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