Noisy hard drive a sign of death?

[Jason Kimmings]

I have had my hard drive for about 2 years now and the hard drive has become quite noisy recently... It is a low pitches vibration sound when the read head moves, time for a new one? Thanks!

[mansoor_]

usually

[LancerBG]

make sure its the harddrive itself and maybe not something to do with mounting that has come loose.

[Imabigmac]

Al the hard drives I have owned have made noises since day one, they aren't silent.   The trick is is to know what sound is the sign of death, and I would say that a little vibration isn't a death noise. I would far more concerned if it were a grinding/clicking and or a really loud noise. 

[Guest]

Vibration noises might be a sign that it is not mounted correctly/that the mounting has become loose. See if the noise persists if you re-seat it. If your harddrive ever starts making clicking noises you should be very wary and backup everything important.

[Jason Kimmings]

Vibration noises might be a sign that it is not mounted correctly/that the mounting has become loose. See if the noise persists if you re-seat it. If your harddrive ever starts making clicking noises you should be very wary and backup everything important.

Ok thanks for the feedback, I will check the mounts tonight

[Jason Kimmings]

Al the hard drives I have owned have made noises since day one, they aren't silent. The trick is is to know what sound is the sign of death, and I would say that a little vibration isn't a death noise. I would far more concerned if it were a grinding/clicking and or a really loud noise.

I suppose they have to make a bit of noise but for the whole time I have owned it I have never heard the noise before but I will check the mount tonight to see if its all tight

[RossMadness]

Another really handy tool just to make SURE it's the HDD making those noises is Seagate Seatools. You don't need a Seagate drive for it to work. One, you can make a bootable CD for it and run full diags, but the second (and neatest part about it) is a "Acoustic Test". This spins the HDD down to very very VERY low RPMs until it becomes almost silent. This will let you determine if the sound is the HDD or something else. All that aside, it's still a great way to diagnose a failing HDD with the regular tests it has. And it's free!

 

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/