WD Black 4TB clicking noises.

[Le Québécois]

Hello,

I recently bought and installed a WD Black 4TB (WD4005FZBX ) and there's some "light" clicking noise coming from it in intervals of time ranging from 5 seconds up to 25 seconds. It is constant(never goes more than 25 seconds) and it doesn't t matters if I'm using the drive or if it's idling. Now, after doing some reading, it seems that this might be "normal" for a high density drive (4TB and up) but I can't find anything conclusive on this.

I've ran diagnostics on it using the WD tool (both the long and short versions) and also using HDTune PRO, everything is fine according to those.

The best I came across what this:

Normal drive sounds include:

• Whirring noise during drive spin-up when the computer is starting up, waking from sleep, or the drive is transitioning from idle to full speed to resume normal operation
• Occasional drive clicks occurring at 4 or 5 second intervals, and the drive is functioning normally and passes diagnostics
• Hard clicks during a head park operation during shutdown or entering sleep mode

From here:

https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16309

So a few questions:

1-They do say "Occasional drive click", but to me, that would mean, from time to time, not non stop in intervals of 5-25 seconds. I am misunderstanding the meaning of this sentence?

2-Anyone else with drive of 4TB or more have the same "issue"? I did ask around and got two replies from friends about their drives, one saying he hears the same thing and the other one, that he doesn't.

3-Is there any point to exchanging the drive? Don't want to waste time and money if I'm going to get the same problem with another drive because it's normal... It's too late for a refund but I can still go to the store to exchange it for another one.

Any thoughts on this?

PS:On top of some SSDs, there's currently a 7yo 750GB WD Black and 10yo 640GB WD black on my system, so it's been a while since I bought a new HDD, I don't really know what's normal or not anymore in the sound category. The new 4TB is quieter than the other two except for that clicking.

 

[ch33zw1z]

1. Run Western digital lifeguard diags, if it passes, leave it alone. Obviously, you already did this. IMXP, their software is pretty good at identifying drives with problems.

2. Check the warranty for the drive serial number on their website.

3. Always keep a current backup (or 2) on separate offline hard drives.

 

[Billy Tallis]

Assuming you're running Windows, it may be difficult to get the drive actually idle, depending on what's running on the system. Try using Disk Management to unassign drive letters from any partitions on the drive and unmount those filesystems. That should stop basically all potential sources of background IO that may be messing with the drive even when you're not actively using the computer.

 

[mxnerd]

Haven't used WD HDD for quite a while, in the past I always found that WD HDDs are a lot more noisy than any other brands, including clicking sounds even if they are brand new.

 

[sultroy]

It's not a boot drive? The method of connection is the same as for all of the other drives connected to the system?

 

[Le Québécois]

1. Run Western digital lifeguard diags, if it passes, leave it alone. Obviously, you already did this. IMXP, their software is pretty good at identifying drives with problems.

2. Check the warranty for the drive serial number on their website.

3. Always keep a current backup (or 2) on separate offline hard drives.

1-Yes, I did, it passes, no problem there.

2-Haven't registered it yet but simply using the serial number, there's a little less than 5 years left. The drive was manufactured a late 2018. It's not a question of warranty, I can exchange it a the store where i bought it for a few days still.

3-Always do.

My main concern/question is if it's normal for a drive of that capacity to behave like that? Reading all the other replies, the feeling I get is that it is.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It could be STIR, Seek To Improve Reliability. Look it up.

 

[deustroop]

Just exchange the drive. Then you'll know .

 

[ch33zw1z]

1-Yes, I did, it passes, no problem there.

2-Haven't registered it yet but simply using the serial number, there's a little less than 5 years left. The drive was manufactured a late 2018. It's not a question of warranty, I can exchange it a the store where i bought it for a few days still.

3-Always do.

My main concern/question is if it's normal for a drive of that capacity to behave like that? Reading all the other replies, the feeling I get is that it is.

Seems fine, based on your analysis. I'm sitting next to a 2TB WD Black Drive right now, it doesn't make that sound....but I can hear the drive spin up when I go to use it. I wouldn't worry about it too much, unless you hate the clicking, swap it with a different 4TB and use the WD as a backup drive.

 

[Furious_Styles]

As an owner of many WD black mech drives sounds normal.

 

[mxnerd]

See if the clicking sound is like this guy's.

https://soundcloud.com/sitischu%2Fwd-black-wd4004fzwx-boot

https://soundcloud.com/sitischu%2Fwd-black-wd4004fzwx-quick-test

https://community.wd.com/t/wd-black-4tb-fzwx-clicking-noise-on-boot-and-quick-test/226658

 

[GrumpyMan]

Have one just like yours that did the same thing. Got really irritating since all my other drives are SSDs and my case sits right next to me. Was about to take it out and shoot it but decided to reformat the drive instead. Did that, hasn't done it since, go figure. Never had a problem with it other than that.

 

[quartzz1]

edit- yeah, I just copied and pasted the link you provided in the post . I've had a 2.5" WD sata drive connected to a USB hub, that did the same. afaik...normal drive operation. it MIGHT...have an effect if you don't have the drive letter expanded in windows explorer

 

[Amol S.]

I own a WD pocket or my WD or something like that, 4TB blue colored USB3.0. It actually is normal, even for another brands external hard drive of its dimensions, to make that noise. Being a non-vertical standing, 2.5" external HDD, the arm can actually move a lot faster since gravity is not as big of a fighting factor for the arm.

As for when the drive is idle, Windows regardless always reads or writes every now and then, this is even the case for flash drives. Another important thing I would like to tell you that I noticed is that under a very low reading or writing operations, occasionally the activity light may not blink at all.

Another thing I noticed is that sometimes before the drive spins to halt for ejection or to go in a idle sleep state, there will be a click before spinning down, and after the spinning stops another click is heard.

I don't think there is something very much to be worried about.