HDD Strange Sound

[dani_17]

Hi there

The last few weeks I'm hearing a strange sound that comes from the computer...

It comes from one of my drives.

I have 2 IBM GXP75, 80gb.

What should I do.Is there a utility that can diagnose what's wrong... I think it's a pretty bad situation, since a sound like that is more of a mechanical problem. The thing is that I have absolutely no performance or corruption issues in any files. No crashes, no strange behaviour...

I think I need some advise here... I'll se if I can get a mic and record the sound... it makes that sound about once every 7 hours...

 

[Soap]

what kind of sound? is it a clicking or grinding sound maybe?

i had a drive making clicking sounds and it literally came to a grinding halt within the month.

might be a good idea to replace the drive that is making the noise.

anyone else have any ideas???

 

[dani_17]

Its not a click. I don't know how to explain it. Also theres a strange thing to note here:

It is always the same sound, same intensity, same volume, same duration... exactly the same.

 

[Nic]

Download IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test to diagnose your drive ...

http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

 

[dani_17]

I already did that. I read the post where you list the utilities.

It reports that it's all okay.

Another question. Does tha SMART technology actually work or is it more a marketing feature?

 

[Nic]

SMART definitely works and is not a marketing gimmick.

Did you run the 'advanced' test on the DFT? If your drive passes, then you have nothing to worry about.

You might also want to download the Feature Tool to check what features have been enabled for your drive. You can change the options using this tool. Make sure that you enable SMART for your drive with this tool, as I've had several 'new' drives that came with SMART disabled.

 

[dani_17]

I'll do that tonight.

I first want to backup some files I have in the hdd.

Is there any function in the hard drive that could couse a mechanical noise?

 

[Nic]

Head Parking - When going into power saving mode.

PS: I'm not familiar with your particular hard drive model, but I do own several IBM hard drives.

 

[armengar]

hmm, ive had a few GXP drives (4 to be precise) although I am probably biased, I have no more faith in IBM/Hitachis ability to quality control as all 4 have died (and 3 of the subsequent warranties have died).

do you leave your pc on for long periods of time (i.e. 4/5 days) and then have you shut it down for a while and the noise happened shortly after? (Maybe a long download thena cooloff period?)

I have typically found (non scientific) that the drives run HOT and I reckon the drive simply forgets where it has put certain data (maybe heat expansion on the aluminium platters?) and the noise appears when the computer is trying like mad to find the data (which it may do eventually).

Unfortunately soon after my drives started to make the familiar "nyyyyack, nyyyyyack, nyyyyyack, whiiiir" sounds which meant the drive was dying again.

Get a SMART utility (activesmart has a trial period i think) and look at the smart logs for "timetoseek" errors.

 

[Nic]

Originally posted by armengar
hmm, ive had a few GXP drives (4 to be precise) although I am probably biased, I have no more faith in IBM/Hitachis ability to quality control as all 4 have died (and 3 of the subsequent warranties have died).

If you visit 'storage review' website and look at the reliability surveys (by users) you'll find that the most reliable hard drives are produced by Seagate (low performance/ultra quiet), followed closely by IBM/Hitachi (high performance/reasonably quiet). Other maufacturers come in much lower down the list. Of course these figures only apply to the newer GXP120/GXP180 series drives, as older GXP60/GXP75 series had known issues of head damage during long idle periods (newer drives park the read/write heads). I have 7 IBM/Hitachi GXP180 hard drives, and I've had one drive fail within the first few weeks of use, another failed after 3 months (2 out of total of 9 drives failed). This is no worse than my experience with other drive manufacturers, though I don't know how some of these manufacturers calculate their reliability figures (Maxtor quotes 1% return rate on their drives, but that is probably for drives that are dead on arrival, as I have experienced much worse than this). Typically, hard drives are the least reliable component in a PC, as they are predominantly mechanical devices.

Originally posted by armengar
I have typically found (non scientific) that the drives run HOT and I reckon the drive simply forgets where it has put certain data (maybe heat expansion on the aluminium platters?) and the noise appears when the computer is trying like mad to find the data (which it may do eventually).

I think you may be refering to the 'calibration' routine, which all IDE hard drives periodically perform.

Originally posted by armengar
Get a SMART utility (activesmart has a trial period i think) and look at the smart logs for "timetoseek" errors.

There is a FREE SMART monitoring utility available on the IBM/Hitachi website.

 

[dani_17]

I now started to have corrupt data on the disk that made the sound. So i took it off and im going to buy a seagate drive. I'm a bit upset because I payed good money for that disk, they were expensive...

 

[SNGX1275]

Originally posted by Nic
...Of course these figures only apply to the newer GXP120/GXP180 series drives, as older GXP60/GXP75 series had known issues of head damage during long idle periods (newer drives park the read/write heads)...

There is actually a firmware update that fixes that.

 

[dani_17]

Does anybody know where I can find the fix?

I have another hdd that is the same model, but works fine for now.

 

[SNGX1275]

This Explains what it does:
http://www.pheuron.de/deathstar.htm

This is the link to the stuff you need to fix:
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&q=DTLA&uid=psg1MIGR-44195

 

[dani_17]

thanx a lot!!!