Segate Barracuda 500GB 7200.11 sounds like popcorn

K

KPark

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
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Finally got all of my computer parts and I am very happy with my build. But one little issue I have is the noise of the harddrive. I purchased the segate barracuda 7200.11 and when it is writing files it sounds like popcorn popping very loud. I can hear it from all the way accross the room. Is this drive supposed to be making this much noise or did I get a bad drive?
 
Unless you're exaggerating, no it shouldn't be making that sound.

Of course, I haven't heard my hard drive since my Pentium 200, my fans are always louder than the drive.
 
I can hear the drive clicking over the fan noise
even when the fan is at high

looks like I'll have to rma it...
 
I guess it depends on what type of clicking. I'm currently trying to track down a good microphone so I can document this phenomena. I just ordered the exact same drive as you to replace what I think is a defective 7200.10 320gb.

7200.11 - light click when writing. Audible over the fans, but I think its normal
7200.10 - loud "chirp" when writing. Sounds almost like the armature slamming into whatever it normally rests on when its not powered on. Pretty sure this is defective.
 
KPark said:
I can hear the drive clicking over the fan noise
even when the fan is at high

looks like I'll have to rma it...
Click to expand...


Yeah...that's not good. I have that same drive and I can only hear it if I put my head near the case.
 
Did you screw it in tight? DId you check if something else is making that noise? I have exactly the same drive and I can't hear it but than again I have Raptor's which are loud and possibly preventing me from hearing the 7200.11. But popcorn poping is way to loud so RMA whatever is causing that noise.
 
Just for curiosity's sake, you may want to go to Seagate's website, and look int he support section and download the Seatools diagnostic software and check things out. Get the Dos version and run the long test.

Don
 
I can't say I've had good luck with HD diagnostic & S.M.A.R.T. monitors, etc.
I have a seagate running in my Shuttle PC that's frozen up and done the click of death at least half a dozen times. Neither software, nor VIsta's hardware fault detection(? whatever it's called) showed any problems after a hard power down and reboot. On the other hand, bad sectors, I've had those on a Maxtor and the software confirmed it.
 
That may not be the hard drive causing that.

At work in the past, I have had multiple hard drives that gave SMART warnings on boot, would appear to work fine, but had definite problems when I ran diagnostics on them. I used to be skeptical of SMART when it first came out, but not any more. I have never had a SMART warning on any of my home systems.

Now SMART will only detect a gradual decline in hard drive health. A sudden or intermittant failure is not the kind of info that SMART monitors.

Don
 
jwhazel said:
I guess it depends on what type of clicking. I'm currently trying to track down a good microphone so I can document this phenomena. I just ordered the exact same drive as you to replace what I think is a defective 7200.10 320gb.

7200.11 - light click when writing. Audible over the fans, but I think its normal
7200.10 - loud "chirp" when writing. Sounds almost like the armature slamming into whatever it normally rests on when its not powered on. Pretty sure this is defective.
Click to expand...

The chirp is defective, we got a bad batch where I work, every one that chirped we marked, they almost all came back for completely failing.
 
It's all a matter of perspective. With my 120mm Silverstone fans at full blast I can’t hear anything. Once I turn the fans down to the minimum setting on the fan controller the noise from my 7200.11 drives is definitely audible while they are being accessed, but still much quieter than the noise from my 15k scsi while it is being accessed.

The only time I would ever describe the noise from the 7200.11 drives as “sounding like popcorn” would be when it is constantly thrashing, such as when I fire up Azureus that is seeding 400 torrents that are located on that drive and it has to sit and think for a minute.
 
The chirp is defective, we got a bad batch where I work, every one that chirped we marked, they almost all came back for completely failing.
Click to expand...

Were you actually having any problems with these drives? I've run seatools long test and advanced DFT. No smart errors/bad sectors. Thats why I've been so slow to RMA it. It's mostly just annoying. But I fear that it will die a sudden death.
 
I just got my two 7200.11s running today and they're quieter than my 7200.10. There was a few errants clicks at first but only until I partitioned them.
 
jwhazel said:
Were you actually having any problems with these drives? I've run seatools long test and advanced DFT. No smart errors/bad sectors. Thats why I've been so slow to RMA it. It's mostly just annoying. But I fear that it will die a sudden death.
Click to expand...

They had no initial issues but they came back with HUGE data corruption issues/click of death.
 
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