Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Hard Drive Problems - Again! (Read 2473 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Hard Drive Problems - Again!

Hey guys!

After my Samsung HDD started to have bad sectors after only 6 months, I replaced it with a Seagate drive that arrived a few days ago. While everything seems to be in order, whenever the PC is idle, I hear some rhythmic noise similar to the one you hear when sitting in a train. It lasts for a few seconds to a few minutes and then stops. If I access the unit during this noise, the noise will disappear immediately.
SMART values are OK.

So, is this another drive that is on its way to the grave?

Regards,
Sebastian

Hard Drive Problems - Again!

Reply #1 –
No. Seagate drives do self-tests when they're idle.

Hard Drive Problems - Again!

Reply #3 –
A train?!

My IBM DTLA rattles some when idling. I'm not sure, but I think it may have started after I updated the firmware (which is supposed to make it less crashy, being one of the Deathstars). Or maybe it's just XP doing something... did you rule out real disk activity with ProcMon?

Hard Drive Problems - Again!

Reply #4 –
Yes I did and CiTay was right. Found this reply on a forum:

Quote
Seagate Tech Support:

The Self-Test feature you are referring to should not be that loud that you can hear it outside of the case clearly. If you are unhappy with the noise this drive is making then you can return this drive for a new one.
There are no known issues with this noise being extremely loud. The Self-Test is not there to emit meaningless noise. It is there to protect from data loss caused by an unexpected drive failure.
The latest generation of our high-capacity hard drives has been programmed to perform regular offline scans to test the drive’s reliability and detect any possible malfunctions that may have been caused during transit.
The offline scanning takes place when the drive is idle. This feature cannot be disabled and does not affect the performance of the hard drive.
The feature should disappear after a few hours of drive operation. Offline scanning helps to maintain the reliability of the drive by moving the heads within the "high-flight zone" in a pre-programmed pattern. The "high-flight zone" is located toward the outside of the platters where the most air flows under the heads during times of inactivity.
If you feel that your noise is excessive or does not reduce after a few hours of operation, you can run Seagate's SeaTools diagnostic software to check the physical integrity of the drive.
SeaTools can be obtained from Seagate's website at:
(http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/)

Regards,

Stefan M.
Seagate Technical Support