Multiple Hard drive problems.

[Digitalsoju]

Lately I’ve been having multiple hard drive problems and it's really bugging me. The first few times I chalked it up to bad luck, but now I really think it's not a coincidence.

Some quick background information:
-About a year ago (May 2011), I built a new computer with all new parts.
-I currently work overseas (South Korea), but when I was back home in the US, I bought my computer parts there because they are much cheaper.


-First drive was a Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Black. I bought this in January of 2011 in the US. This drive got really slow, it took over a second to load an mp3 file, transfer rates were less than 1 mb/s. Eventually it couldn’t pass some hard drive tests so I sent this back and got a replacement.

-Second drive was a 2 TB Seagate Barracuda drive (bought this drive in March 2012 in South Korea). This one simply started making an annoying noise after 2 weeks. It passed all the hard drive tests using Seagate’s hard drive diagnostic program. Seagate still recommended I send it back.
Here is a link to the noise (just hit the play button): http://www64.zippyshare.com/v/14067017/file.html

The weird thing is it's hard to get it to directly make this noise on purpose. Yesterday I kept browsing random files on that drive hoping to make the noise, but nothing. It wasn't until I went to my web browser that it made the noise, weird.

-Third drive was a 600 GB Western Digital Velociraptor (bought in March 2012, ordered online from The US). This drive is less than two months old, yet yesterday when I rebooted my computer it made some crazy noises and the bootup was weird, like very delayed. I ran diagnostic tests on it and it passed them, however when I run a 'quick test' it makes this crazy noise for exactly 24 seconds each time.
Here is the audio (just hit the play button): http://www64.zippyshare.com/v/21284152/file.html

Right now the drive is quiet as hell, only seemed to happen the time I rebooted and when I ran the quick test. Western Digital is lazy and won't give me any type of support except for replacing the drive itself.

My computer parts and specs:
-Intel Core i7-2600K Processor with 8 MB Cache, 3.40 GHz for Socket LGA1155 - Unlocked Boxed
-16 GBs of RAM
-Graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX470 Superclocked 1280 MB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card 012-P3-1472-AR
-Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth P67 (New p67 B3 revision)
-Power supply: CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
-CoolIT SYSTEMS ECO-R120 Advanced Liquid Cooling (ALC)



What could be the possible problem? Power supply? Motherboard? Something else?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[floppybootstomp]

Quite odd. Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious but you've either been very unlucky with your hard disk purchases or there is a common problem affecting hard drives only. I'm assuming any other SATA devices such as optical drives which are connected have been fault free and that every other aspect of the setup also performs ok.

Two forms of interface with a hard disk - data and power. Unlikely (though not impossible) for it to be data flow but quite possible fluctuating or incorrect voltage could adversely affect a drive. The sound files are not the most usual noise that comes from a hard disk in it's death throws, it sounds either like high voltage or frenzied data seek.

All in all a bit of a mystery. Have your replacement drives behaved themselves? If so I think it's likely you've just managed to buy three disks from rogue batches and as all were purchased in a relatively close time span it's even possible more than one could have been made at the same factory. A factory that possibly suffered from the recent floods in Taiwan that sent hard disk prices soaring.

Unlikely to be motherboard but not impossible.

All I can suggest is that as you have a modular power supply, use a different SATA power lead from PSU to disk and plug it into a different PSU socket. Then observe.

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

only seemed to happen the time I rebooted and when I ran the quick test.

My guess is that this is a limit test. Kind of like a calibration, it establishes the working levels of the drive. The steady sloping of tone, to me, indicates this type of behavior. Especially when you indicated that this only happened during a test. If it happens any other time than the test, I would figure a bad drive and would open it up to find out why. That's just me though, and it technically voids the warranty.

Annoying noises are probably bad bearings or something like that. If it is a constant noise, chances are it is that. Eventually, they will fail and the platters will fail to move. If it is only during read/write, there may be voltage fluctuations in the supply of the drive itself or the supply within the circuitry. In either case, you're kind of done with that one. I would back it up and replace it sooner than later. I agree with Seagate.


My two cents.