Maxtor 7200 drives whining sound?

[neddog]

I was wondering, I just installed a KT7-Raid board running RAID 0 with two new 15 gig Maxtor 7200 rpm UDMA 100 drives, right now sitting there the HDs seem to have a whiring sound coming from them, its louder than the case fans even. I am thinking there may be something wrong with them but as I have never owned a 7200 rpm drive, or a RAID sustem I wondered if it is normal?

Thanks

NeDDoG

 

[spamboy]

The two Maxtor 7200 RPM drives I've worked with both made that whining sound, too. I think it is just a loud design. Pisses me off when I'm trying to sleep.

 

[LXi]

Its not normal, Maxtor make some of the quietest 7200rpms out there.

 

[MWink]

I know what you are talking about! My 40GB does it some of the time. My older 30GB has never done it. In fact I know about 10 people who have this drive and my new one is the only one that does it. It is EXTREMELY annoying when I try to sleep. I don't know if it is a problem. I have had the drive running 24/7 for over a month. I am kinda hoping it WILL die!

 

[jamarno]

It usually means that the bearings weren't made quite right. It rarely affects reliability unless it makes you smash the drive with a bat.

 

[Plantanthera]

My Maxtor 30gigs +40 worked perfectly for 5 months, but now it started to squeal. I have backup all of my data and hopping that it die soon so I could RMA it for a new one.

 

[formulav8]

I can't hear my drive at all.

 

[Big Lar]

Same as Formulav8 here, I've got a 45 gig or whatever ata100 7,200 drive, and I'll be darned if I can hear it....

 

[KaptHook]

Mine started acting up a few days ago and I asked someone and he said try defragmenting.. Worked like a charm.. was 49% fragged.

 

[Taz4158]

Mine's very quiet even with amset off.

 

[Nessism]

Both of my Maxtor drives make a whining noise. I think it's normal since the noise has been there since day one on both drives. Some days the noise is a little more noticable than others, but overall, the noise has not increased significantly in magnitude since new.

I've noticed that some people are more sensitive to noise than others. I perform subjective noise evaluations at my work and it amazes me sometimes what some people can and can not hear.

My guess is that your noise is normal. But if it increases siginficantly something may be wrong. Good luck.

 

[Cessna172]

I had this problem with a recent 46GB Maxtor 7200. It was perfectly quiet the first couple of weeks that I had it, and gradually it started making a REALLY annoying whining sound that I just couldn't bear. So, I exchanged it at the place I bought it from and the new one is quiet. I hope it stays this way.

However, I will say that it is probably the loudest single component in my case, but that's probably just because I'm using a Dell (Palo Alto ATCX) case, which is known as being one of the quietest cases around.

 

[PandaBear]

I am wondering how reliable are Maxtor's drive.

I had maxtor drives 2 years ago and they all have high noise and they would usually start having problems in either HD testing software or start having bad sector after 1/2 to 1 year.

So I am wondering how you guys think of them now? other than good value do they have good quality as well? what about performance?

 

[neddog]

Thanks for the replies guys.... I guess I will have to see what happens, I bought them from a online company

NeDDoG

 

[DeezNtz]

I used to have Maxtor 6 GB drive and it made some of the loudest, most annoying sounds. Now I have a WD 15 GB 7200 RPM drive and I can't even hear the damn thing, even when the drive is busy. I think I read somewhere that WD has some kind of technology that dampens noise in their drives. The only thing I hear coming out of my comp is my CPU fan and my case fan.

 

[Cessna172]

<< I think I read somewhere that WD has some kind of technology that dampens noise in their drives. The only thing I hear coming out of my comp is my CPU fan and my case fan. >>



You can't compare an old 6GB Maxtor to a new WD. The new Maxtors are generally regarded as some of the quietest drives around. My 46GB 7200RPM drive makes absolutely no noise when busy (unlike my old ridiculously loud IBM 14GXP)--only the sound of the platters spinning, which is very quiet. They also have SilentStore(?) technology, which you can disable for slightly better performance. But overall, most new hard drives are very quiet. I have a friend with a IBM 75GXP, and it's about the same noise-wise as my Maxtor--very quiet.

As far as reliablity goes, supposedly the DiamondMax Plus series has been very reliable. Maxtor had problems in the past, but supposedly these newer drives are very reliable. Google.com bought thousands of them to use in its servers. As far as the whining noise that some drives experienced, I don't know if it has anything to do with reliability--it's just noise. It seems as if lately, IBM is the one having reliability problems with its 75GXP series. Dell even stopped using them in its systems and started using Maxtors instead. IBM is generally great, but that particular series has been having a disproportional amount of problems.

 

[sharkeeper]

I just slapped in a DM+60 and it definitely IS quiet. Idle noise is totally absent. I do have a near silent case (<25 dB) so I can tell.

Seek noise is there though. Not as bad as the &quot;marbles in the blender&quot; sound of the first generation external cheetah's I have sitting on the floor!

Cheers!

 

[masterpc]

I'm using a 10,20,27,40 gig all 7200 rpm. The 10 gig is the only quit one.

 

[neddog]

This noise that I am getting is when they are inactive. Its sorta like they are spinning like crazy


NeDDoG

 

[Zach]

You should hear my Maxtor 10gig 7200RPM drive!! OOORR, whoohee my Atlas II 9.1GB SCSI 7200RPM drive!

It's normal, as far as I'm concerned. As a matter of fact, I bet it's quiet.

 

[Quickfingerz]

<< most new drives are very quiet >>



I'm not sure about very quiet but if you really want a drive to be quiet, you should get Quantum's AS or the WD (20 gig per platter) drive.

75GXP are by no means quiet the spindle speed of a 75GXP is much louder than any of the recent offerings by Quantum, Maxtor, or Western Digital.

 

[Yoshi]

Something sounds fishy.

I have a 40Gb 7200RPM Maxtor Diamond Max Plus that is practically silent. It makes less noise than my WD 7200 RPM Expert.

 

[Killbat]

My DiamondMax40 30GB HDD was silent when I got it, but a few days later it started developing the whirring noise. It's not unbearable, but it's too damned loud. I'm thinking of replacing it. :|

 

[sharkeeper]

Most likely a whine will NOT cause the drive to fail diagnostics and produce an error code! While the drive is spinning, drag a paper clip across the leads of the processor. [the small square chip on the drive NOT your computer CPU!] This WILL make for an RMA'able drive.

Do NOT hit it with a hammer! I don't know about Maxtor, but IBM drives have shock detection and if it is triggered they WILL charge you for the replacement drive!

Cheers!

 

[OS]

My maxtor 20 gig is almost silent when idle. I wish I could say the same for my 45 gig wd.