Periodic Noise from Head Movement WD Black 4TB

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
41

Add me to the list. I’ve been experiencing this noise, as well, with a 4TB WD Black Performance HDD ( WD4004FZWX , firmware: 81.H0A81 ) While idle, every ~5 seconds, there is a “chunk” or “click” noise. The drive passes WD Diagnostic Tool test, as well as tests from other tools. I’m not experiencing any performance issues with it.

It was making a similar noise every 1 or 2 seconds at one point, but I found that that was coming from HWinfo’s monitoring of the drive. After disabling monitoring on just that drive, The 1-2 second noises stopped. However, the regular ~5 second noise remains.

This drive shouldn’t be in constant use, as my operating system (Windows 10 Pro, latest version) drive is on a SSD. This HDD is the only internal HDD I have installed. I have my pagefile set to the HDD, but it’s hardly ever in use, and after restarting, 0% of the pagefile is reported to be in use. I have also tried removing the pagefile from the HDD, just to see if that would change anything, but the “chunking” noise continues, regardless of pagefile existence or usage.

I’ve noticed that while I’m in BIOS, the noise doesn’t occur quite as often, but there’s still some kind of either head parking or PWL sound, maybe every 10-15 seconds–but I could be mistaken.

I didn’t really want to replace this drive, as Western Digital drives have been very reliable for me for many years now, especially the WD Black series of drives. Also, I’ve had it for several months now, so exchanging it is an issue.

edit: just wanted to add that my case is a Corsair Carbide Air 740. It’s separated into two compartments to maximize airflow: one for the motherboard, etc. on the left side, and one for the drives and PSU, and cabling, on the right side.The HDD bay in this case, on the right side, has the drives mounted vertically. I don’t think that matters, though. Also, I have my case sitting on top of my desk, and it’s to the left of me (no other choice–that’s just how my desk is made). Also, I’ve added various anti-vibration things to the HDD area, including using vibration damping screws and silicone mats, and the sides of the drive caddy, or whatever you want to call it, also have a vibration damping rubber interior. I’ve tried about everything I can to dampen the vibrations, although some still travel throughout my case… I would try suspending the drive, as some others have suggested, but there’s nowhere for me to attach anything like that in my drive bay, since it’s open on one side, presumably for airflow.

42

Hey, add me to the list too.
I also have a new WD Black 4TB and the clicking sound was driving me crazy.

The only solution I found (as I think someone pointed out here) is to change the power management as explained here: Windows: Disable Power Management Settings
Instead of “Never” turn off hard disk I set it to a couple minutes.
This helps me not to hear that awful sound except when I use the hard drive.
Is not a complete solution but I can live with it considering I also have an SSD on the computer.

I just have a question: is this constant “turning on and off” may eventually damage the hard drive?

Is probably a stupid question but I wanna make sure I don’t break a new, expensive -and in my case no warranty- product.

Thanks and sorry for my poor english.

43

For the record, this “solution” doesn’t work properly either.

I put 1 minute limit to the hard drive being on but it turns off several minutes later than that.
Even if I’m not using it.
And it turns on again when it wants, randomly. Weird.

I hate this.

Seems stupid that if I’d bought the Blue WD, cheaper and slower, would be quieter.

44

Another one here - can’t stand the thumping from my WD Black 4TB. I chose the quietest everything else for my new pc build but this happened. Have you found anything that could effectively dampen its noise yet?

Also, found these two:

  1. Error
  2. Error

The first one made it sound like it’s normal, while the second just sends you straight to the RMA page.

Anyone else got any update regarding this? Doesn’t look like it’s going to be any different if I RMA mine from what I’ve gathered above.

45

Heads move each 5sec even during read/write sequential operations so it’s just all the time.
I have tested and detected this issue and still not use this disk for the moment. I wait a fix like WDIDLE (software) or a firmware update for remove this issue or just a parameter to modify for disable that.

46

Well, it’s nearly 2020 and this still seems to be an issue. I just received a 4TB WD Black (WD4005FZBX) that I bought for over $200 and it is doing the same thumping noise described here.

The unit was made in Thailand on 04 Nov 2019 and it is 28 Dec 2019 as I write this.

I can also confirm that my older 1TB WD Black I bought back in 2015 did not have this issue and I am still using it in the same machine with no problems.

The sound is truly annoying and causes my entire desk to vibrate. Extended Test on Data LifeGuard passed. Tried connecting without the data cable and the clicking was still present.

Unusable for me and I’m going to return it unless there’s a fix. It’s a real shame this thread started in 2016 and four years on it’s still a problem.

47

Made an account to say that I found a solution to my thumping issue. I don’t have a WD on my main PC, but I have a Seagate Backup Plus Hub where I install most of my large but infrequently used files. It’s idle 90% of the time, and yet, it softly thumps every second, vibrating my entire desk and slowly driving me insane.

It turns out that my hardware monitoring tool (HWinfo) was poling the S.M.A.R.T. of each drive every second to read the temperatures and health. As soon as I closed it, the thumping stopped. So, I reopened it, scrolled down to the S.M.A.R.T. section and disabled monitoring for each hard drive. Voila, no more tell tale heart thumping away under my desk and tearing at my sanity.

Check to make sure you don’t have a monitoring tool running that’s poling the health of your disk every second / few seconds.

4 Likes
48

I have also purchase a wd 4tb drive WD4005FZBX and installed it today. It also makes a loud clicking noise. I am so disappointed and feel embarrassed that I purchased it. I was building this computer for a loved one who wanted their new computer to be powerful and quiet. There was nothing in the specifications of the drive that said it was noisy. I don’t know what to do with it. Feel totally let down.

49

Hi, i bougth a WD BLACK 6 TB a few days ago. I have the periodic noise every 5 seconds too. And it would make me insane, if i have to hear it the next months. I read, it is caused by a normal function of the hd: PWL, Preventive Wear Leveling. I tried to understand the problem for finding a solution. I hold the wd black in my bare hand, connected to the power cable. The PWL noise become quiet. I feel the PWL, but it was quiet. Then i brought it in direct contact metal to metal to my pc casing: And the there is this loud noise again. My whole casing is resonating to the PWL. Then i put the hd to my wooden floor. Not only the PWL got loud, the rotation of the hd got loud too. The Problem of loud wd disks, is they bring their surroundings in resonance to their own vibration.

My solution is to store my wd black on foam, to stop transfering vibration to my casing. Now my WD black is quiet.

Be aware of heat, by this solution. The vibration dampener must not disturbing the ventilation for the hd.

51

Thank you for posting! I did exactly the same thing. Turned off HWinfo and the noise is gone!

52

Excuse me, where did you find the “HWinfo” equivalent on Windows for the WD Black drive? So I can close it down.

53

If you don’t know what it is then I doubt you’d have it.

55

Hi

Just bought a 4 Tera WD Black

Same problem, a regular noise even when I’m not accessing the drive at all (I only have the windows “Documents”, “Pictures”, “Videos”, “Music” and “Download” on it, so only folder, no software at all)

My old WD Black 1 Tera was not making any noise at all

I just bought the 4 Tera because the 1 Tera was full so I was not expecting this new drive to make such a noise
I have a very quiet PC (be quiet! dark base pro 900 with custom watercooling and every pc fan at less than 1000 rpm) so this noise is driving me crazy. I hear it even with my headset on !

HDD
HDD1684×946 466 KB

56

My chassis sets deskside and the only noise apparent is the chassis fans which run constantly

57

Thank you so much! I was going crazy!

58

I had this issue before and discovered it was HWiNFO64 application running in the background was regularly scanning the drives and also preventing them to sleep. The solution was to “Disable Drive Scan” in the program settings. However if it happens when the data cable disconnected then its the drive controller executing a certain maintenance task.

59

Created an account to resurrect this thread by posting THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, BROTHER. Problem solved, I was bouncing off the walls.

60

Thanks for keeping the thread alive. I still have those drives going. No problems. I moved some of them to a different computer when I upgraded to a new MOBO/processor in 2020 but they’re still going. Some are in a backup rig that only gets turned on once every couple of months but they’re good too (when originally installed those machines were on 24/7 for years).

/R

61

I have a WD Black 2TB that I bought in 2016 (not sure of the build year). It does not make the noise. I added a newer 2021 WD Black 8TB drive to the case recently (July 2022) and it thumped. I took it back for a replacement and the new one is doing the same thing. I only now found this forum. I have a quiet setup and a quiet office and this isn’t going to work for me. I understand that it’s possibly a feature to extend the life of the drive but at what cost? My 2016 is fine (and quiet) under daily use for work and casting movies. Can we just go back to that reliability/sound tradeoff? I cannot believe I’m going to have to buy something other than WD. Unreal.

62

Just discovered this thread. I bought a WD Black 2TB a few weeks ago, and it’s making the same head seek thump every 15 seconds, even when just sitting in the BIOS.

According to WD support, “The noise heard is due to a feature used to prevent disturbances in media lube due to prolonged dwelling at a single location.”

So apparently it’s intentional, but it seems like hard janking the head around like this literally thousands of times a day would wear out the drive faster than some lube issue that’s apparently never been a problem before now.