How to make HDD quieter....

[ajbrun]

I can do it. It's just I need sleep. Don't do it if you're busy etc. I'm going now - last post.

[Bruno]

I'd invest in a "Silent Drive" - I've got one, and with a HD in it, you can't hear the HD at all.

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/harddrive.php

[rox0r]

Lowering the acoustics with a tool liek the Maxtors use unfortunately has the added effect of slowing access times down, albeit not immensely but enough to notice if you choose the quietest settings.

Personally I use silentdrive enclosures and the problem is negated altogether with no side effects.

[myth]

Lowering the acoustics with a tool liek the Maxtors use unfortunately has the added effect of slowing access times down, albeit not immensely but enough to notice if you choose the quietest settings.

Personally I use silentdrive enclosures and the problem is negated altogether with no side effects.

quite right! but its not a cost efective means of doing so... Personaly I woulld rather have a silencer with functionality...

http://www.vantecusa.com/p_vtxc01_sl.html

[ajbrun]

Thanks for all your help. In the end, I searched the net, and found out that on the Maxtor site is a free program that can quieten their drives. But for quietness, I think it slows it down slightly or something. Anyway, there are 3 settings - off, fast and quiet. Fast reduces the noise VERY slighty, so keeps the performance, and quiet makes it as quiet as possible, but loses some performance. Since all maxtor drive are automatically configured to fast by default, I set mine to quiet (I couldn't find any difference between off and quiet anyway).

More information incase anyone's interested can be found here:

http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/m...p?p_faqid=1200

Just thought I should let you all know incase anyone else has a maxtor frive noisier than they'd like .
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Also, I should point out that if you do try to change the drives settings, you'll need to create a bootable floppy disk - I could get my disk to startup right ! I did this by formatting a floppy and creating a startup disk. Then unzip all files onto there.

[rajagra]

FWIW the Hitachi (IBM) feature tool http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm can do the same thing. The difference in speed between modes is measurable, but NOT noticable to a mere human. The difference is a few percent at most.

[funnelhead]

The Seek noise is pretty easily eliminated by suspending the drive in a 5 inch bay with some elastic.... Just make a figure of eight with the drive in the middle. This stops the noises being transmited to the case and practically removes them.....course not much use in a shuttle....

[Stoo]

My case has little rubber bungs through which the drive is bolted through, so the drive is actually cushioned, that certainly seems to have reduced the noise compared to my old case. All you can hear is a slight rumble and that's it