Caviar Green 1TB Very annoying noise

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

Since it’s been 6 days and no response from the technical support, I’ll try luck here and see if there is someone else with a similar problem.

Since 07/28/10, I bought the HDD on 05/22/09, the disk started to make some weird  noises, some minutes after it’s turn on.

It’s a little like the sound it does when it’s in use, but a lot more loud and annoying, besides this sounds only happen when I’m not using the HDD, they  stop when I access data or run any defragmentation program, and when the noises occur, the HDD activity light is off.

Trying to determine the source of the problem I unplugged the data cable from the HDD leaving only the power connection, result: the same, after some minutes the noises start.

Another thing that could be relevant to this it’s that the drive has never been with so little free space, almost 93% of the HDD was full, and the disk was 5% fragmented; by now I have freed some space and today the free space on the disk is up to 21%, and the fragmentation is of 2%.

Could it be a Firmware problem?

Is this disk likely to die at any time now?

Has anyone had a similar problem?

Thank you, for your time.

2

Perhaps this would be relevant; WD Elements have Caviar Green disks inside. This might be a firmware problem, but it’s not known for sure. If the disk passes the tests successfully, it’s likely that it would work just fine, but again, not sure how this problem would affect it in the long run.

3

Thanks  qqqwerty, for the info of the other post, even though it’s more centred in external drives, the problem seems to be the same, i’ll keep an eye on it for any update.

I uploaded an audio recording of my HDD noises, notes for the audio file:

at 00:33 i started the desfragmentation analysis.

at 00:38 the analysis ends.

at 00:40 the defragmentation begins, note that the sound stops and starts again at any chance it has between data readings/writings.

The sounds at the end it’s just me stoping the recording.

Download, or listen, the file from here:  Audio

4

If you don’t use it too often it might last another month. Better get anything worth saving off of it. That is the device that moves the arm and its getting tired. I took the cover off of one and put a cd case over it and watched it die in just a few days.  Come to think of it why don’t they make hard drives with lexan  cases?

5

dcgun, have you read the other post?, it seems it could be a firmware problem.

also, I forgot to mention that the noises I recorded are not the only ones it does, some times the sound is continuous, and other times, like this one, it starts and stops.

6

I’ve uploaded the audio of the continuous noise.

Download or listen to it here

7

qqqwerty referenced another post on this forum, regarding an identical noise.

qqqwerty, you are wrong in thinking that this is an unknown issue. It is an IGNORED issue by WD that is exhibited by more than just the green drives.

WD have basically ignored this issue. There is no resolution coming from WD. We have been trying to get an official response for 9 months now. One complainant has been bought of with a new drive, the rest of us have been left in the dark.

If you recieve an official reply from WD please post it here as I am very interested.

8

Hi…

I bought two WD Caviar Green 1TB (WD10EADS) HDDs in May 2010. They’re used as backup drives. I seldom used them in the past three months. Recently, I heard the similar sound (when the HDDs did nothing) as described by the TS.

I’ve been a supporter of WD for more than 5 years. Someone suggested me to get Samsung drive (they claimed Samsung drive was faster) but since I always thought that WD HDD is more reliable, I purchased the two Caviar Green. But now both of them produce the similar “strange” sound. Is it still safe to backup data using both of them?

Thanks.

9

I tend to only turn on my drive when I need to access my archives, as I do not trust the drive to be working due to unnecessary strain (from constant activity)

I have opted to use the drive for archive only.

10

I have the same issue wtih my Caviar Green 1.5TB.It’s annoying.

Device Model:     WDC WD15EADS-00P8B0
Serial Number:    WD-WMAVU080XXXX
Firmware Version: 01.00A01

11

I have a question for those of you living in USA or Canada, have you called 800-ASK-4WDC?

If so, what was the response?

12

I bought a new drive to replace the defective one, of course it’s not WD, anyway, I started copying data and i’m founding some corrupt files, also the other day I ran the “Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows”, and the program found some problems on my HDD, when I touched “Repair” it told me that the process could cause some data loss so I’m waiting until the files are secured on the new seagate drive, and then I’ll clic repair and come here to tell you the results.

P.S.: Again, Did anyone called 800-ASK-4WDC?

13

Is there anyone following this?

I got my new drive this morning, start copying files, 3 files were corrupt and couldn’t be copied.

Anyway, I ran the test early this morning, while the test is running, there are no noises, but the test stoped at sector 1563840767 of 1953525167, when it reaches this sector, the noises come again, and it wont advance from there, I left it for several hours, and ran the test twice, with the same results.

More important I have to reset the computer to do anything at all, because, even tough the PC it’s not freeze, because the number of minutes left on the test goes up, I can’t cancel it nor use the rest of the computer.

Earlier this week, I ran the same “extended test” from WD “Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows”, but cancel it before it ends, then a message pops up offering me to repair the HDD, I’ll try to do this later, because for today I had it with this.

I think that the noise is from that error check in the firmware, but it’s not faulty, the thing is, that there are corrupt files in the disc, and its trying to fix them. So probably if you are hearing this noises, you’ve lost some data already, please confirm using “Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows” or something like it.

P.S.: If some is reading, please post anything, because it’s not worth posting here otherwise.

P.P.S.: If you are living in Canada or USA, CALL 800-ASK-4WDC and demand some answers. 

14

Hey everyone. I was googling about noise from my WD Caviar 1.5TB and found this thread. 

I’m running the 1.5TB Green in an OWC Mercury Elite enclosure via FW800 on my Mac OS X 10.6.5. I erased the drive and made two partitions. As soon as the drive was connected after the partitions were made, it started making a lot of noise. I reformatted, and tried going back to one partition, but the noise persisted. 

Eventually I said to heck with it and just left it to make its noise - and it eventually stopped! Now it only makes the noise for a little while after I’ve written data to the drive. The length of the noise seems to correspond with the amount of data written. I recorded the sound before it stopped. Listen to it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-onSd-9uuU

15

i got the same problem with 1 of my 2 WD500DAADS  (3 month’s old)  it started 1 month ago and is getting realy loud at times it seems to me it started when drive got more and more data on it  and also copying large files to it  like 5GB takes some hour of  noise and what’s realy strange it does it also in post when no OS is loaded

ok just finished EXT TEST I NOW this without looking Because  I heard my drive beginning to get busy and real noisy again and test results a nice PASS

I Think some response from WD ( hello there ) would be nice or are they also going to be like the rest

selling bad products  and don’t care just making money and more money as long as they can

16

Just wanted to add that my HDD, a Caviar Black WD1001FALS, is experiencing the exact same symptoms that matt1234 described. After using the drive for about 9 months, it started making noises every time I write a lot of data on it.

The noise appears AFTER the write, not during it. It’s not an OS drive, so it shouldn’t be doing anything at that point. The more data I write, the longer the after-noise seems to last. The noise doesn’t cause the HDD led to flash. The noise only happens when the disk is idle. Using the disk instantly stops the noise, but it comes back after the disk returns to idle state. 

I hope this is nothing serious. The drive’s SMART status is still perfect. The firmware is 05.01D05.

17

Hello!

I have  HDD WD2500BEVT-80A23T0 on NEW my netbook ASUS EEE PC 1015PN and have the same annoying clicking sound. And my friends (ASUS 1015PEM and 1215N) have the same sound.

I think that  our new HDD are in escellent conditions but we can do nothing with this sound…

18

Try disabling Indexing Service and Windows Search service.

1 Like
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Hello, I’ve been experiencing this same Caviar green idle noise issue for the past few months.

I have a 2x 1TB Caviar green drives, one an EARS, the other an EADS. The EADS is the only one exhibiting the idle noise issue, but I have to assume from reading multiple threads on the topic ( such as this particularly long-lived thread) that it is because I am using the EARS as my boot drive, and the EADS is only being used for storage and backup. Therefor I don’t think the EARS ever goes into the idle state that the EADS does (though this could be faulty logic on my part). I am somewhat curious if the EARS would exhibit the same behavior or not.

I am posting this mostly for record, that the issue is still alive and kicking. I have turned off index servicing and windows search, and while it seems that the noise doesn’t happen as often, it still occurs on a regular basis. The decreased frequency also may be due to my computer being on for longer periods of time, though I don’t know if there is any correlation.

I’m also wondering if the other Caviar drives have this same issue or is it only present within the greens? I’ve been using WD drives for years and my experiences with the green have been the first negative WD experiences in all that time. Customer support has suggested RMA’ing the drive, but I already RMA’d to get the current drive (first one died within a week of use). I’d be very saddened if WD has let the quality of their drives slip so much in such a short time, but numerous accounts and personal experiences have left me wondering if going to another manufacturer might be the best option.

20

Just to throw my two cents in, I bought a1002-FAEX black 1 tb about 3 months ago and had the same noise. Yesterday when I turned on my Computer it took almost 5 min to boot up . i have a gadget that monitors my CPU and memory usage and all was normal but the activity light for the hard drive was on and stays on which causes my computer to run very very slow, the drive sounds like it’s grinding rocks or something. If you here this noise get your files off that drive or you will lose it.