Harddisk "grinds" exactly every 10 minutes!

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RealBlackStuff

Posts: 6,450   +3
Client of mine has a Dell 2400, XP-Home,
Hitachi Deskstar 180GxP 80GB harddisk, model IC35L090AVV207-0.

On the dot, every 10 minutes the HD sort of makes a grinding noise, like it is doing a backup, or start a search or anything.
I have deleted all tasks, uninstalled NAV 2003, stopped Outlook Express from automatic checking, switched off any automatic updates in every single program on this PC, as well as update for XP itself.

Could the HD be overheating? (temp. 39 C)?
DriveFitness Test is OK, only 7GB from 80 used. Fully checked, defragged, etc.

Any suggestions what this might be? It's driving my client crazy!
 
That's a "feature" of Deskstar drives. IIRC the frequent reset and quick self-test are supposed to ensure the drive health. IMHO it's some bug in the drives that needs them to be reset every once in a while when idle.. Hitachi would never admit that of course :p
 
Thanks Nodsu,

found some more info after your post:

http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?act=Print&client=printer&f=4&t=12042
In there, Hitachi states:
Hitachi said:
thank you for your email.

Regarding your enquiry relating to the brief sound that emanates from our
drives.

I suspect that the occasional 'sound' you are hearing is the Idle Time
Function that has been introduced on our latest drive designs as a
reliability enhancement. You need not be alarmed by this,

This "sound" is due to a brief but deliberate head arm movement every so
often. This has been added to maximise the reliability of our disk drive
products.

This function is invoked if an extended period of inactivity is detected,
so has no impact on active performance. [It is bad to leave the heads
hovering over the same data track unnecessarily].

Even after a period of time of activity the Idle Time Function can be
implemented as the Idle Time Function is a cumulative function.

The level of sound emitted may vary from one drive to another and as such
this should not give rise to concern or be considered an impending failure.

Please be assured that this drive design is one of the quietest drives, at
this data density, in the industry.

I trust this information will be of use and help you to resolve your
problem.


Regards

Catrin Schoening

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
So the buggers have done it on purpose!
Glad it's not MY PC.
 
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