Rattley Harddrive

[seekermeister]

One of my new WDC 1TB FAEX hard drives is making a sound that is sort of a rattle, rather than the better known "click of death", and generally only when under a heavy load. I definitely don't want to wait until it fails to do something, but I'm wondering if WDC considers a rattle a sufficient reason to RMA?

 

[theog]

3 defective Caviar Black 1TB FAEX in a row?! - Western Digital Community

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

 

[thefabe]

Well if they don't they should. I know I would transfer all my data if possible and return it myself. After all their not supposed to make those kinds of sounds unless something is not right.
JMO Fabe

 

[seekermeister]

3 defective Caviar Black 1TB FAEX in a row?! - Western Digital Community

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

That's an interesting thread. I hope that these FAEX drives are not like my Seagate 7200.11s, because I got sick of sending those drives back again and again. That is the primary reason that I went with WDC on these, even though my past history with WDC was never very good, because others told me that these were good.

I don't think that it has any bearing on the noise problem, but I noted the advise given about jumpering the drives for a max. of 3GBs for a SATA 2.0 motherboard (which I have). Like the OP of that thread, I never thought about it. It would seem that they would have included the jumpers with the drives, but they didn't. I guess that I will need to shop for those also.

 

[seekermeister]

Well if they don't they should. I know I would transfer all my data if possible and return it myself. After all their not supposed to make those kinds of sounds unless something is not right.
JMO Fabe

I will try to RMA it, but I doubt that I will do it immediately, because I have over 600 movies and counting on it, and don't feel like moving all of them at the moment. I really don't have a spare drive to use for that right now, because I need the data on it to be on my external case, so that I can move the drive back and forth between my rigs easily.

 

[seekermeister]

The thread posted by theog mentioned the need to install jumpers on some drives, depending on the motherboard that they are ran on. It wasn't clear to me whether that only applied to SATA I motherboard, or also some SATA II motherboards like mine. Since the hard drive does operate with my MB, I probably don't need them, but after eBaying for them, I'm not sure which kind of jumper to get, because some are 2.0mm and some are 2.54mm. Anyone know what a WDC 1002FAEX uses?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Are you sure the noise is coming from within the drive---as opposed to noise created by vibration within the drive mount?

Does the noise persist or change in pitch if you clamp down on the drive with your hand to keep it from vibrating in the mount?

 

[seekermeister]

I can isolate the noise to the drive, because it is located in my external case, which houses 2 drives, and since the noise only occurs when this drive is operating, I know that it is not a noisy fan in the case (same fan cools both drives). I'm not sure what you mean by the mount, but if you are simply referring to a secure attachment, I know that it is secure, because all that I have to do is slide out the tray to inspect the screws.

EDIT: As far as clamping down on the drive while operating, that is not possible, due to the design of the case, but I feel confident that the noise is internal to the drive.

 

[seekermeister]

I was premature, when I said that only 1 of the 3 FAEX drives that I have are noisy, all 3 are. I sent a question to WDC support asking about this, and they replied in form, only advising me how to diagnose and apply for an RMA. Since all 3 drives are the same, and were acquired at different times, over ~ a 3 month interval, it seems unlikely that one would receive 3 bad drives in a row, unless the entire model line were bad.

I can't send all 3 drives at once, because I have too much data on 2 of them to backup, and the third is where Windows 7 resides on my secondary computer. I had considered buying another drive so that I could clone the data from one to another, but if I got a 4th drive with the same problem, I would not be a happy camper. Originally, the purpose of my inquiry to WDC support was to verify that these drives are lemons, and not characteristic of the entire line, but as expected, they didn't respond to this directly, only returned a response that appears to be a form letter.

 

[seekermeister]

I just called WDC support, to enquire if that model of drive is experiencing problems, and they claimed that it wasn't. I had hoped to be able to let them hear the noise for themselves, so that they could verify the problem, so I started a defrag and called. The drive was rattling away when I started to call, but as Murphy's law goes, it got quiet when the rep answered the phone.

If I bought another drive to clone the data to, I would like to buy another of the same, because it is the only one that I know of that size, that is SATA III, with a 64MB cache.

 

[Anthony]

Try other cables on the faulty drive. Power & Data Cables.

 

[seekermeister]

It seems unlikely that I would have 3 bad cables, which are only attached to those particular drives, but I can switch data cables easy enough, but I can't switch power cables, because I have no extras available.

 

[Anthony]

It seems unlikely that I would have 3 bad cables, which are only attached to those particular drives, but I can switch data cables easy enough, but I can't switch power cables, because I have no extras available.

Sorry seekermeister, its just a process of elimination, best to leave no stone unturned.