are Sata drives normaly chatty?

Dark Lord · Jan 22, 2007, 09:45 PM

my seagate 400gig 7200.10 seems abnormaly loud when its accessing. are these drives all pretty chatty, or should they be almost silent at all times?

PangingJr · Jan 24, 2007, 02:30 AM

i'm not sure if i can say that Seagate 7200.10 is a noisy hard drive... i have 3 of mine mounted on a removable hard disk drive module of computer case... i can't hear so much of any noises from the drives when the drive module is mounted inside the computer case, however if the drive module is outside the computer case and while the computer and hard drives are running, then the drives are just a little bit chatty, not like they makes very unusual or loud noises.

Tipstaff · Jan 24, 2007, 03:19 AM

I asked Seagate once about a curious consistant clicking sound whenever their drives were in idle. It would happen about every 5-10 minutes or so. This started back with the 200GB IDE drives (at least that's when I noticed it as I have one in an external box), and has continued throughout their drive series. According to Seagate the "chatty" nature of the drive has to do with some random drive checks that the hard drive will make as a way to keep the read heads from sitting in one place too long. The idea is that with the read heads moving around, and not sitting in one spot, the less heat the drive creates. It's what they call STIR, or "Seek To Increase Reliability", and it's part of the drive controller. As the name suggests it's meant to increase the reliablity of your drive.

'Course, there is one other noise that seems to be popping up more and more lately from Seagate drives, and this one sounds more like a high pitched metal grinding every once and a while (I've even had drives, brand spanking new ones that did this constantly from startup). If that's the noise you're talking about, then take the drive back. This is the read head/s brushing up against or grinding into the platers.

As for access chatter, some of the newer drives from them can be a bit loud. Most times you won't notice it, but it can get worse depending on where or how the drive is mounted, and the type of material a case is made of. In a ridged case, for instance, the drives can become very loud as the case will amplify the noise a bit.

Dark Lord · Jan 24, 2007, 11:48 AM

i actually found out something of intrest about this last night. apparently the 7200.10s are god awful for their seek noise. this is so incredibly loud i can hear it over my music, and the case is under the desk.

now, good idea or bad idea time.

i saw some one set teh drive out of their case and put it on a blanket. they said it was incredibly loud before, but was silent after that. ive got the foam inserts here that the drive was shipped in. if i put the drive in that insert, will that have any negative affects on the drive?

Dark Lord · Jan 24, 2007, 03:26 PM

and thats it, time to pull all the important info back off the drive and start another RMA. hope this one doesnt take another 2 months....

the drive is starting to throw out a bunch of errors, and im getting random crashing in every game while the HD is seeking. some apps are starting to fail to initialize, etc etc.

also, the just started hearing the high pitched metalic noise. only happend for a couple of seconds, but thats enough for me to say the hell with it.

maybe ill see if theyll switch me to a 7200.9... ive had two of these damn 7200.10s go dead on me now.

Tipstaff · Jan 25, 2007, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Lord

also, the just started hearing the high pitched metalic noise. only happend for a couple of seconds, but thats enough for me to say the hell with it.

As soon as you hear that it should go back. However, don't think that going to the .9 drives will help. I have 2x300GB 7200.9 drives, and I know one of them is making this noise very, very briefly.. maybe once every week. Problem is that I can't tell which, and I've not had the time to work it out, so I've been backing both up just incase these last 2 weeks (yes.. weeks.. ton of stuff on them). As soon as that's done I intend to RMA them (luckily I buy from a supplier that will just give me, right then and there, a replacement drive, and it only costs me $10 more per drive to have that).

Dark Lord · Jan 25, 2007, 12:59 AM

thats gotta be nice not haveing to go through seagate. their RMA process is god awful... theyll give you what ever they damn well feel like.

it took them over a month to locate the drive they just sent me, and before that they sent me an Ultra ATA 7200.8 as a replacment for my other 7200.10 that died.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 25, 2007, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Lord

i actually found out something of intrest about this last night. apparently the 7200.10s are god awful for their seek noise. this is so incredibly loud i can hear it over my music, and the case is under the desk.

Your music isn't loud enough.

Seriously though... I've got alot of these 7200.10's and yes they are 'chatty', but they're really no worse than any other drive.

My Maxtor DiMax 10's are really quiet when seeking however... they bench normal but they're still really quiet.

You can always turn AAM on too.

I also noticed that the 750GB drive in my external enclosure got quieter when I had it in the external enclosure vs. plugged into my system. The difference? The enclosure has rubber gromits on either side of the drive. The 3x 7200.10's I have in my Antec P180 case and Core 2 Duo system are using the silicone gromits and I can't hear them.

I notice the perpendicular recording drives seek really loud when they're not dampened with some form of rubber/silicone... so maybe the problem is just vibration.

Those grinding noises people hear though, regardless of manufacturer, are ALWAYS ALWAYS bad. That's the noise those infernal IBM GXP75's made when they were dying by the millions.

Judas · Jan 25, 2007, 12:46 PM

I've got 4 (count em 4) Seagate 7200.10 320gb Sata 2 16mb cache Hd's in raid 0 in my computer right now, the loudest thing in the case however is probably the 120mm 2300rpm fan thats in front of them. Even my x1900xtx and mastercard are quiet. (no games playing though, they incease when playing mind you but are still quiet)

The hardrives are mounted in the case by using the side brackets which are very solid and stiff that basically slide into the screw holes. then slide easily but very snug into the case. They don't chirp or screech or nothing. I mean when i fire up, i can hear the whine of the hardrive motors speed up, but running doing anything, loading anything, can't hear a thing.

I actually had 5 in the case at one point (it's my backup 320gb 7200.10 sata 2 16mb cache drive). I use it at different intervals. It's my hot swappable drive

Dark Lord · Jan 25, 2007, 09:12 PM

seagates website is completly fucking useless. i spent over an hour trying to get an RMA requested, and i still dont know if it went threw.

CDsDontBurn · Jan 25, 2007, 11:16 PM

my two 80Gb drives are chatty like you describe. they only are when i'm accessing/writing the drive. however, the noise level that comes from them does not really bother me. my raptor, and all the other raptors i've seen in action are louder than my two seagates when those are accessing/writing info.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 30, 2007, 04:53 PM

Raptor's have a different sound quality to them though... all WD drives do, their seeks are 'softer' than most other drives.

Seagate 7200.10's when under full random seek can sound like howitzers