Extremely disappointed at how loud the 4TB Black Drive is in idle

[Digital2]

I bought a new WD Black 4TB drive from Amazon to replace a faulty Toshiba 4TB that lasted about 2 hours before failing, so I thought I’d spend a far higher amount on a quality WD drive rather than get a replacement and get a refund on the Toshiba.

Not wanting to open up my PC again twice I ordered the WD Black before sending the Toshiba back.

Well now it looks like I’m sending the WD back as well. That thing in IDLE as a dedicated Steam drive is way louder than it has a right to be. Every 5 seconds a loud Thunk/chunk sound audible over anything else in my PC that even has the NZXT Hush noise insulation. It passes the short drive tests and I bet it’ll pass the long ones too,. but that noise almost drove me crazy, it’s no way acceptable for a drive of that price.

It’s like constant repetitive water torture and is completely unacceptable for such an expensive drive.

I’ve done extensive research and some say it’s a faulty drive, some say it’s an intended engineering feature, either way it’s completely unacceptable - the drive should come with a warning of just how loud it is in idle or I have a faulty unit again. Maybe I shouldn’t risk another drive from Amazon as perhaps they get hammered in transit. I feel I’ve wasted my time and effort again by trusting WD and really don’t feel up to getting a replacement if it’ll be that repetitive and noisy in idle.

I work from home on that PC it’s installed in and the noisy WD black drive made it simply an unbearable working environment. 5 second gap, Chunk, 5 second gap, Chunk. 5 second gap. Chunk. On and on and on.

It makes the same noise with the data cable in or out. Now both are out I can finally get some peace until I take it out tomorrow for my second HD refund in as many weeks.

Typing this with the WD drive disabled just shows the difference, it’s blissfully quiet by comparison. That level of noise in idle was completely unacceptable and I will be returning it, my question is should I risk another WD black drive or are they all just ridiculously noisy in idle?

Edit: I included my most relevant links that I could find regarding this:

Periodic Noise from Head Movement WD Black 4TB

I can’t hear any out of the ordinary noises with this drive, and haven’t noticed any unusual chunk or clunk noises. I do have it sitting in a Define R4 case, though, so I can’t hear the drives at all unless they do some serious rapid head movement. To me it sounds like a perfectly normal, and healthy, hard drive. (Esp compared to my 2 year old Seagate drives that sound like they’re scraping the heads across the platters every 30 seconds).

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=568

WD Black head parking every 5 seconds - Storage

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/5rne6q/new_hdd_wd_black_wd2003fzex_thumping_noise_every/

[Digital2]

An update:

I RMA’d the extremely noisy 4TB Black and due to Amazon failing to deliver a Seagate 4TB I subsequently tried to buy, I just ended up going to my local Maplin store and just buying a WD 4TB Blue which was the only 4TB drive they had in stock other than NAS or surveillance drives which I didn’t want.

Wow! What a difference, I can barely hear it at all at its loudest and for a 5400RPM drive it’s actually very fast and works fine for intensive gaming and as a business 2nd backup.

At its very worst it exhibits a gentle hum but most of the time I just can’t hear it.

I think WD’s engineers underestimated how important noise levels are in so called ‘performance’ drives. Those black drives are so loud I’d rather buy 2 quiet blues guaranteed for 2 years and use them over 5 years than have one Black guaranteed for 5.

As I happens I’ve got a good feeling about this blue and am hoping for at least 5 years out of it. Heck, I got over 5 years from an old Seagate 2TB Barracuda green I shucked out of an external as my last gaming/2nd business backup drive.

So if you’re a gamer/ business user that values a quiet PC, don’t get a black drive, the MUCH quieter operation of blues is well worth them being slower than blacks in my opinion.

[rickdean]

Any solutions to the 4tb Chunk Chunk sound when idle? Annoying as hell. I called WD and they were like they have never heard of that issue. Comments appreciated.

[Andika]

because it’s not an issue for WD.
if you cannot tweak Automatic Acoustic Management there’s no other way to drop noise.