i recently got two new wd drives. both identical 2tb blacks. they both make a “strange” noise ONLY when shutting down desktop pc. this sound is new to me, and i have been using wd drives for decades. over that time i have never heard this sound - ever! these are the latest drives i got, with the newest last one being abut 2 years ago, so maybe it’s normal? but i am still concerned. i don’t want to start using them only to have them fail later.
i have read a couple of existing threads here and it seems, if i read and accepted them at face value, the noise may be “normal”. i also read the official noise article here; support-en.wd. com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16309 – the “Whirring noise” part kinda somewhat puts me at ease, though it does not mention “at shutdown”, only the opposite. so kinda worried still.
here are both drives making the noise. you may want to temporarily increase your volume by a bunch to get the best results;
the longer one you can hear the fans and pc running and then the power button being pushed and THEN the drive making that noise. there is no confusion. the second clip is the other drive doing the same, but i kept the clip shorter with just the drive sound.
obviously i “tested” the drives with programs like crystal disk info and such, and everything seems fine. but to me, thinking “old school” and comparing this noise to my brain’s hdd database, it would seem to be a heads / arm “issue” where maybe the drives are physically damaged and as it shuts down and the arm retracts it “hits” the spinning platters and produces that noise. that’s how i interpret that noise and will continue to do so unless wd staff says otherwise. if new mechanical drives (2018 and later) truly all do this and it is normal, maybe best to expand the front sticker of the drives to include a short blurb about it. ie:“a short whirring type noise is normal during this drive’s shutdown”. it would get rid of most such tickets and put users at ease from the get go.
i would really prefer a WD staffer to reply about this so i can perhaps rest easy. ie: community.wd. com/u/tech_wanderer/summary – if not, i might have to swap out both drives (3 year warranty and just 2 weeks old, so my local store WILL just outright swap them out no problems.) and see if two new ones do it too.
finally, why is this official WD site using let’s encrypt? really? major companies should use digi cert or similar not a free CA that is meant for the “poor” public. does not bode well as optics!! on top of that it’s not even covering the site properly. the above user link (the wd staffer) shows that - unsecure!!
finally, the two non clip links i spaced out the domain so that i could post them. you see, in case you don’t know, this silly scrolling type forum only allows two links from “new” users… yeah…