hard drive noisy

[neil217]

hi, i have a seagate 7200 rpm barracuda 320gb hard drive, and it is extreemly noisy when the hard drive is being accessed . I have run seatools and other diagnostics utilities, and the drive passes all tests. The hard drive is fully defragmented, I have run windows defrag and iobit defrag several times.
Is there a way to quiten the hard drive down without buying anything? or is the hard drive faulty? Surely this cant be normal!

[Davey W]

Hi neil217,

Are you sure it is definitely the drive? If you are comfortable opening the system, check that the hard drive is secure and not rattling in it's cage.

Without hearing it I could not advise if it is normal or not, I'd think it unlikely though. At the same time I'm not so sure of a fault if Seatools didn't pick up any problem.

Davey

[neil217]

hi davey,

I am sure that the hard drive is not rattling inside the case, although it is vibrating a lot. I changed the hard drive mode to udma5 in the bios, and now the hard drive is accessed less, but the noise is still there when it is being accessed. I am not really bothered about replacing it though, i was just wondering if i can stop the noise by myself by tightening any screws etc. I don't really want to replace the drive as i have had an engineer come round twice before for other things, and the hard drive still works anyway.

Is there a way to make the hard drive quieter at home without buying anything?

thanks
neil

[Davey W]

Hi neil217,

If it was vibration I would suggest some sort of dampening on the connection to the case.

If it's actual operation noise from within the hard drive then you can only really do things like box it away to my knowledge. I used to use noise dampening material on the inside of the case myself a few years back but it used to increase the amount of heat reflected back into the system increasing the need for cooling and removing any benefit it provided.

If it's really as loud as you say then likely the only solution will be to replace the unit.

Davey

[neil217]

thanks for the reply.

the hard drive is REALLY loud, but I think I will just get a hard drive enclosure. Thanks for the advice.

Neil