WD Velociraptor Unusual Noisy Activity ! Any Tips Welcome!

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
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WD Velociraptor Unusual Noisy Activity ! Any Tips Welcome !

Please watch the Video I have made. Its on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgNDvzKRD0E

Any Ideas welcome and appreciated as regards to fixing this unusual and very irritating HD activity problem.

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The drive might just be doing a self test - which explains why the activity LED doesn’t blink. Let it sit for a while and see if it finishes.

You can disable automatic self testing with  this utility (‘Enable/disable features’ tab). This does not impact the lifetime of the drive, but it does increase the chance of errors remaining unnoticed if any occur.

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Thanks I will give it a try. Also to mention chat from other forums: I tried the WD Diagnostics, windows & boot. Completed without errors, under 2mins for quick test & 20mins for full test… been trough all this tho with WD representatives many times prior! I should mention that my ram tests OK also… Ive been wondering if I should have HD jumpered to support Slave & Primary, as the HD has a Storage Partition on it & the PC has another Windows Installation HD bootable plugged into Sata… ? Though it hasn’t been plugged in for some time yet the problem continues…

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Also I should mention that this Activity will typically happen directly after defragging!

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The activity continued to run for about 10-15 mins after the defrag

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Here are the links for the other forums used for this topic: http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/1090730-bios-hacked-please-i-need.html#post8625393 http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=166756.0

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I have run HDD Guardian V2 (other versions wouldn’t work). There is a setting: Enable/Disable SMART automatic offline test… and: Enable/Disable SMART… Should disable both or… ?

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There is also a option to debug firmware. Is that worth trying ?

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Ive Disable SMART automatic offline test… Testing now…

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I tried HDD Guardian, disabled Smart Self Test & attempted to disable Smart, but the Smart came back on upon PC restart. I’m afraid the Activity still remains though perhaps it has changed a bit! Another user commented that the defrag may be the problem. I use MyDefrag, I checked with Windows Defrag, it showed a large gap of free space & a fair area of fragmented data, surprising as I had fully defraged prior with MyDefrag. I used Windows Defrag & afterwards the HD didn’t react as it does when I use MyDefrag! Does this indicate anything?

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I retract my comments about the Defragging effect. I have re-used Windows Defrag again today and the HD reacted immediately when defrag completed with the usual noisy churning with no L.E.D’s showing activity for about 10mins.

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WOW, Thanks very very much indeed, what a relief! I can hardly believe it but you guys were right about the Defragging… I uninstalled MyDefrag/ Cleaned Up/ Installed Perfect Disk & used. It took a few restarts and defrags, but the HD Activity has nearly stopped completely, apart from the last few seconds of shutdown (the l.e.d stops, the screen goes off, then 3-4 seconds of Problem HD activity, without showing l.e.d activity, then powers off then finaly about 15 seconds to fully powerdown residual USB power etc. Note: If I switch of the PC just before the Problem Activity, then the residual USB power goes of in a few seconds) and occasional few seconds at boot and in windows. Ive tested downloading gigs and online gaming etc, and still ok… After all my various diagnostics prior, I always remained suspicious about software being the cause rather than settings or security/ permissions etc, but i’m shocked that it was the MyDefrag Program having particular issues with the WD Velociraptor Drive/ Hardware Arrangement (seen as MyDefrag has never been an issue with my other various hardware setups)… I still maintain that this could be some sort of hack/ boot virus that could cause this sort of intolerable and ‘unusual to detect’ problem… Well, Thanks again for giving your time and effort and experience to helping me. Oh, just to mention, I did try various defragmentation programs along the way but considering the gradual fading of the issue after the repair changes, it obviously went by undetected… grrrr but :slight_smile: