Keep getting bad HDDs?

D

DF-1

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Jun 17, 2011
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I bought a 6TB WD black a week ago, when i first booted it up it made a lot of bad noises, and when i got to the desktop it made these tocks or ticks every 5 seconds that i could hear and feel if i put my finger ontop of the hdd. It also wasn't detected in windows, i restarted and tried different ports/cables,etc, even ones from working hard drives in the case. tried a few times, windows detected it maybe 1/2 of the 4 restarts i did. It benchmarked pretty fast though (230MBs)

I returned it.

I bought and just got an 8TB HGST deskstar and its doing the exact same things, loud/ weird sounds when i started up the machine, clicks every 5 seconds, and windows didnt detect it on the first bootup.

am i doing something wrong? I wanted to replace my infamous seagate ST300M001 (or whatever the model is).


edit: on restart windows recognized the hard drive, its still doing the tick/tock/whatever every 5 seconds though. and doing the HDtune test when it tested access time (yellow dots) it made a lot more noise, not quite scratching.

I cant remember any HDDs that ive had over the years doing this (500GB WD caviar black, samsung spinpoint, or the seagate 3TB)
 
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The only time I had trouble with a hard drive was when the 5 volt line from my power supply dropped to around 4.3 volts. You could check your power supply to make sure both 12v and 5v lines are within 10 percent of spec.
 
Find out if your shipper is dropping the boxes on the ground at your door instead of setting them down.
 
well I kept googling and i ended up finding the WD forums.

Seems like this is not an isolated case.

one posts
"as it seems all the WD drives (and also their subsidiary, HGST) now exhibit this issue/'feature'"
Click to expand...

and there are like 5+ threads with the same issue that ive seen, every 5 seconds a clunk noise. theyre saying its lubricating something in the hard drive supposedly as one WD tech says? but a different WD tech told the person to return the drive immediately.

i guess its not just me, wtf is going on with HGST/WD?

should I keep this thing?

here are the threads i found with the same issues
https://community.wd.com/t/periodic-noise-from-head-movement-wd-black-4tb/183096/21

https://community.wd.com/t/wd6002ffwx-clicking-noise-every-few-seconds/189769

https://community.wd.com/t/wd-red-pro-4-tb-constant-noise-when-idle/180213/8

https://community.wd.com/t/wd4003fzex-black-4tb-clicking-when-idle/17601
hat there is a strange clicking noise every 4-5 seconds, continously. It occurs when the drive is powered up and idle (BIOS or windows doesn't seem to make a difference).
Click to expand...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2886955/hgst-5tb-drive-loud-makes-sound-seconds-normal.html
Additionally I hear and can feel like "bumps" every 5 seconds or so. (It's not the clicking sound you hear when the HDD is broken).
Click to expand...

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2611562
I just built a new computer with a WD Black (WD4004FZWX) as a storage drive, and when the drive is idle it is making a clicking sound every 5 seconds.
Click to expand...
It happening precisely every 5 seconds when the disk isn't even being used is what is nuts.
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After even more time looking at this online, a lot of results come from searching Background Media Scan which supposedly scans for errors and makes this 3-5 second ticking sound and movement/vibration.
 
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Strange. I just added a few more 8TB 5k Reds to my server and they are all quiet as a mouse. My HGST's don't have that issue either but they are the 4TB version from a few years ago.

I'd be curious to see if your drives do it from a Linux live boot just to rule out any crap the OS might be doing. If not that, maybe a firmware bug.
 
Plug them into another power supply and see if you hear the same sounds.
 
When I got my 6TB Deskstart NAS (most likely H3IKNASN600012872SE), it also made me worry that the clicking sound means it's broken/defective. Googling revealed that sadly this is what it's doing when in idle. Closest video I could find about it: (turn the volume up enough to hear the clicking)

4TB Reds compared to it are quite quiet. Seems like that's the price you pay for 5400rpm vs 7200rpm. I suppose Blacks are using the same/similar technology as Deskstars.
 
Back when full height 5 1/4" HD were a thing, Miniscribe drives were noted for their loud noises. I had one and it was a bit chirpy though it worked well.

If the drive is working, I wouldn't worry about it unless the drive needs to be quiet for something like a home theater setup.

Might see if there is a firmware update for your MB. And check for updated SATA drivers for whatever controller you are using. Might help with the drive being recognized although probably not with the noise.
 
DF-1 said:
After even more time looking at this online, a lot of results come from searching Background Media Scan which supposedly scans for errors and makes this 3-5 second ticking sound and movement/vibration.
Click to expand...

I think this is the answer. The drive is autonomously scanning for errors during idle periods.
 
If HGST is starting to exhibit WD problems, that's too bad. They are normally a premium brand.

Switch to Toshiba.
 
When I've had drives that SMART fine but make odd clicking noises is to turn the power management off or slide it up to performance in Crystal Disk Advanced settings.

No more clicking/head parking.
 
daglesj said:
When I've had drives that SMART fine but make odd clicking noises is to turn the power management off or slide it up to performance in Crystal Disk Advanced settings.

No more clicking/head parking.
Click to expand...
I just switched to Intel RSTe variant AHCI drivers which seems to have the power management disabled.
 
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