Noisy Caviar Green 1.5

I have two fairly well-aged Raptors; three Caviar Green 1TBs; and one Caviar Green 1.5 TB and only the latter one is currently driving me completely mental. Don’t misunderstand, the harddisk is fast, responsive, doesn’t corrupt its data, shows no delays, no SMART errors and everything’s just fine – but as soon as there’s no activity on the volume and the disk is idling for more then a couple of seconds, it starts emitting a constant, low volume, high frequency buzzing sound that has just the right frequency to drive me completely insane.

So I guess my question is, what’s up with that? Is there an explanation why the disk is noisy while idle and much more silent while actually working, and perfectly silent just after having finished working? Is it constantly running some selftest? Is Windows 7 at fault – but if so, why are *none* of my other harddisks affected?

And most importantly, how do I get rid of it? Please save my sanity! :angry:

Hi,

I’ve got exactly the same thing. it might not be so annoying if it were high speed sound but my computer is almost all the time in the silent idle mode which causes the constant high frequency sound. the sound goes away when you copy files or do something else that uses the drive.

I’m using Windows 7 pro and the drive model is wd5000aads-00s9b0

Have you been in contact with tech support?

This model is with 32MB memory and it seems to be 5400-7200rpm, is your modell also with this variating speed?

Hi, whats your motherboard?

This noise i am having, might be issue with Intel DG45FC motherboard. It’s  constant and high pitch and it’s not so mechanical sounding, but it could be also that. It appears it’s not only stopping when you have HD activity, but also when you scroll down on web-page, so it could be related to videocard(integrated intel 3200HD) or to memory.

-Markus-

I solved the problem. In my case it was noisy motherboard and updating bios solved this annoying sound. My Green power is totally silent.

If you happen to have same intel board, then it should help but it’s unlikely.

Hope you find solution too.

Hi All

Has anyone found out any more about this noisy drive issue yet.

I have had exactly the same problem with two internal Caviar Green 1.5TB Drives.

I returned the first to the retailer and the replacement has the same problem.

The thing is I have a third matching drive which doesn’t make the noise.

I am using the drives in a FreeNas box formated to UFS and NOT in a RAID.

Thanks

I have exactly the same behaviour: I have my WD15EADS within an external enclosure. Even when my computer is OFF (and the external enclosure is ON), the hard drive, in idle state do this continuous noise: it seems that it seeks something by itself…

This occurs just after the head is parked… A workaroud could be to desactivate head park but, what I want to know if there is a risk of hard drive failure…

Iv having the same issue. i just got a WD10EARS the other day and everything seems great, but when the drive is idle it start making that buzzing noise which is VERY annoying! If funny coz when the drive is doing something its quite.

Im using it in a Icecube G3 SK-3500 external enclosure.