Harddrive Noise

[Clayton]

Sometimes when I am copying files or opening files I get a pause (nothing
happens) then my harddrive clicks once and away I go, I have already
replaced 2 hard drives under warranty which were WD Raptors and decided to
go with Seagate.
I have created a Seagate diagnosic CD but everytime I boot to it nothing
happens I only get a message saying something about getfat failed, I know
the CD is fine as it works in other systems.

 

[Richard G. Harper [MVP]]

Is the hard drive "going to sleep" while unused? Check power plan settings
and turn this feature off if the occasional pause is unwelcome.

 

[Timothy Davis [MSFT]]

What do you mean by "...then my harddrive clicks once and away I go..."?

Does this mean that the copying process continues after the pause? Why did
you replace the WD hard drivers? Did they fail? Or were they exhibiting
this pause issue? How long is the pause?

The Seagate diagnostic CD: Have you tried it on other Vista systems?

 

[Clayton]

Running Vista 64 had HDD set to turn off after 20 min, changed it to 0

2 of the WD hard drives failed within a month of each other, windows started
freezing and all that then I pulled the HDD out and plugged it into another
system and ran tests on it and got bad I/O so was replaced and it did the
same thing again so I gave up on WD.
I don't think they exhibited the pause issue, I have notice the seagate is a
lot noiser than the WD's hence the reason I notice the seagate clicking
once.

 

[D Lirious]

One of the biggest reasons there are so many failures of new hard drives is
that manufacturers have presumably calculated that replacing defective
drives is cheaper than having good quality control during manufacture. I
have experienced failures recently of two new Seagate drives, not to burst
your bubble. Seagate was excellent about replacing the drives and the
replacements have worked well.
If a hard drive is defective it will usually fail the manufacturer's
software test very rapidly after initiating the program. I believe Seagate's
program allows you to test the drive from within Windows.
I do not think you are hearing the click of death because usually that
results in increasing BSOD's, which you have not described.

 

[Clayton]

No BSOD's never had them with the other 2 WD drives either. I would really
like to run the manufactures diagnosis CD in Dos but doesn't seem to work,
trying contacting Seagate but they never reply tried a floppy disk test and
still would not start the diagnosis process the seatools for windows did
give me the following report

--------------- SeaTools for Windows v1.1.0.21 ---------------
11/30/2008 3:15:46 PM
Model: ST3500320NS
Serial Number: 9QM5SYA2
Firmware Revision: SN05
SMART - Pass 11/30/2008 3:15:46 PM
Short Generic - Started 11/30/2008 3:15:53 PM
Short Generic - Pass 11/30/2008 3:17:14 PM
SMART - Pass 5/12/2008 4:42:54 PM
SMART - Pass 17/12/2008 12:38:11 PM
Long DST - Started 17/12/2008 12:38:45 PM
Long DST - FAIL 17/12/2008 2:29:17 PM

 

[Timothy Davis [MSFT]]

Also, make sure you are getting very good ventilation on the drives -
overheating could be what is causing you to have such a high failure rate.
I am suspecting it is not the drives; it is most like how the drives are
being treated.

I have hundreds of machines in our lab running stress constantly on drives,
and have only had a few failures over the past couple of years.

 

[Clayton]

They are mounted at the bottom of the case in cages. Dell Precision T3400
What should the temps of the drive be? I could monitor it.
What do you mean by how the drives are being treated

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Running Vista 64 had HDD set to turn off after 20 min, changed it to 0

2 of the WD hard drives failed within a month of each other, windows
started freezing and all that then I pulled the HDD out and plugged it
into another system and ran tests on it and got bad I/O so was replaced
and it did the same thing again so I gave up on WD.
I don't think they exhibited the pause issue, I have notice the seagate is
a lot noiser than the WD's hence the reason I notice the seagate clicking
once.

Are you referring to a setting under Power Management? Did you really intend
to indicate that you set it so that the HD turns off after 0 min? This means
that the HD will spin down after the last read or write in the command que.
This places high demand on the mechanics of the drive even in typical, let
alone high demand, use. I can't think of any pattern of use for which that
would be a suitable setting which is not to say that there might be.
--

Tom
MSMVP 1998-2007

 

[Clayton]

Thanks for the advice Tom, I have changed it to 60 mins, what should it be
set to?

 

[Tom Ferguson]

The suggested setting 20 minutes for most users. You could turn on the
resource monitor and run it under a variety of your typical uses. Then you
could select a few different settings to try.