WD1200BB Spindle Noise

After reading many reviews on the Western Digital WD1200BB hard-drive I have
come to the conclusion that this is one of the noisest hard-drives on the
market. Even though WDC specs the idle noise at 35dBA some reviews have
listed it as being measured as high as 46.4dBA!

I started researching this because my 4 month old WD1200BB drive is
"whining" at idle. My drive's performance does not seem to be affected by
the spindle whine but sometimes this noise gets a bit annoying, especially
when the room that the PC is in is very quiet. Can anyone provide me with
the experiences they have had with spindle whine? Is this something to worry
about or just a side effect produced by having a high-performance drive?
Thank you in advance.

Chris

On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 19:08:48 -0400, "Christopher A. Brubaker"
<cabrubaker_NO_SPAM@comcast.net> wrote:

>After reading many reviews on the Western Digital WD1200BB hard-drive I have
>come to the conclusion that this is one of the noisest hard-drives on the
>market. Even though WDC specs the idle noise at 35dBA some reviews have
>listed it as being measured as high as 46.4dBA!
>
>I started researching this because my 4 month old WD1200BB drive is
>"whining" at idle. My drive's performance does not seem to be affected by
>the spindle whine but sometimes this noise gets a bit annoying, especially
>when the room that the PC is in is very quiet. Can anyone provide me with
>the experiences they have had with spindle whine? Is this something to worry
>about or just a side effect produced by having a high-performance drive?
>Thank you in advance.
>
>Chris

Unfortunately the bearings are subject to get whiney, though just how
whiney, how fast, might be related to how the drive was handled during
shipping or installation, and small differences in tolerance from one
drive to another. When new the WD drives start out a little louder,
but as with all ball-bearings, over a period of weeks to months the
noise increases.

"Usually" when a drive gets whiney gradually it continues working
fine for several years, though a sudden change in noise is more likey
a sign of a problem. If you want to avoid the sound (it's not going
to go away, will stay the same or get slightly louder) then replace
the drive with one that uses a fluid bearing like Maxtor or Seagate.
The Western Digital drive's performance has nothing to do with the
noise... the "BB" series drive performance is similar to the quieter
Maxtor counterpart.

When the fitness of the drive is in question make a backup of the
contents and then run the manufacturer's diagnostics (on the floppy
included with retail drives or available for download from
manufacturer's website).


Dave