Old IDE drive humming

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

I have an old IDE 80gig WD drive in an external encloser, holding various unimportant files. I’ve noticed lately that it has a kind of surging hum or vibration. It’s on a 3-second cycle, just a gentle low-frequency vibration. For a while I thought it was a hum from my PSU until I realized it vanished when the USB encloser was turned off.

It’s still working just fine. I’m just wondering if it’s a bad sign or if it’s just a bit “loose” from many years of service.

It’s a WD80 00B-00FRA0 if you are interested in such things.

2

Clean the fan in the enclosure if it’s not that it’s the drive. If it’s the drive then don’t use it for anything that isn’t backed up. When it dies the enclosure may still be of use and there’s some strong magnets in the drive…always fun to dissect the dead. Often drives click alot before they die but the drive may be having a hard time reading data and searching furiously for it. I had about 3 out of 5 of the 80g die so far So it may be time for the torx driver…

DEX