Seagate Ironwolfs making noise

[Spotty]

I have 3x Seagate Ironwolf HDDs in my system. Recently I've noticed an issue where exactly every 20 seconds all 3 drives make a noise.

• The noise only happens when the drives are idle and while in Windows (does not happen in BIOS).
• All 3 drives are relatively new (650-1000hrs run time).
• SMART check displays the drives as good and chkdsk shows no errors or bad sectors on the drives. Seatools reports the drives as good.
• The load/unload cycle reported in CrystalDiskInfo is increasing by 1 each time the noise occurs.
• I'm confident that the drives are in good condition and not failing. (what would be the chance of all 3 drives simultaneously failing at the exact same time in the exact same manner)
• Tested each drive individually and each drive is making the noise. When all 3 drives are in place, the noise happens on all 3 drives (if idle) simultaneously

My current theory is that the noise is likely caused by the drives attempting to park their heads when trying to enter a low power state in accordance with their APM settings. This theory would match the type of noise I am hearing as well. For some reason the drives attempt to enter this state every 20 seconds (possibly conflicting with windows idle settings?)

2x ST6000VN0033 Firmware: SC60
1x ST8000VN0022 Firmware: SC61

I only started noticing the noise a couple of days ago after dusting out my system. My BIOS also was reset to defaults as after cleaning I had an issue with my pump and I had to shut down the system while it was on the BIOS screen, which it detected as a bad boot and reset to defaults. Could also be that I can only hear it now after cleaning the front intake and lowering the RPM on the front fans, however this is unlikely as even at full RPM the fans are extremely quiet (BeQuiet 140mm) and the noise is quite distinctive that I would hear it over the fans anyway. Any of these could be related to the issue since I only noticed it happening a few days ago.

 

I've tried changing the windows power plan options and changing the HDD idle shut down from never, to a few minutes, to thousands of minutes. Regardless of the power settings they still make the noise while idling (about a minute after being active). I've tried to use CrystalDiskInfo (7.5 & 7.6) to adjust the APM/AAM settings for the HDDs, however the options are greyed out and I cannot alter them (blocked/not supported by the drives firmware?). I've tried in HDTunePro as well but when attempting to change the APM/AAM settings it gives an error message that is is unable to set the new value.

Does anyone know of any way to change the APM settings on Seagate Ironwolf drives to prevent them from trying to park their heads so I can either fix it or rule that out as a cause?  Or perhaps have any idea what else could be causing this issue and other things I can try to fix it?

The noise is very annoying and it's similar to hearing a dripping tap that you can't ignore.

 

@seagate_surfer

[Streetguru]

10 minutes ago, Spotty said:

 

Probably just back up your data and contact seagate support.

[R3ep3r]

16 minutes ago, Spotty said:

...

I am really interested in what you do and how will you solve this issue since I have the same problem with a seagate barracuda 2tb HDD.

[Spotty]

18 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Probably just back up your data and contact seagate support.

Data is backed up to a NAS and/or cold storage with the exception of a few weeks worth of steam game updates (not that hard to download again), so I'm good on that front.
While I'm not entirely ruling failure out, do you really think it's possible that all 3 drives started failing at the same time? If it was just one drive with this problem I would be straight on to Seagate support, but it seems extremely unlikely to me that 3 drives (of 2 different models) would fail simultaneously in the same manner without any form of physical damage to the system.

It also doesn't occur in BIOS or while the drive is active, while if it was a mechanical fault I would assume it would; though there could be other reasons why it might not be occurring in this situation such as not attempting to enter an idle state, not reading/writing data, or not fully spinning up while in bios. I have some Linux distros on some USBs so I will see if it occurs while in a Linux OS once I find the USBs, which may help narrow it down to either a Windows problem or a drive problem.

 

13 minutes ago, R3ep3r said:

I am really interested in what you do and how will you solve this issue since I have the same problem with a seagate barracuda 2tb HDD.

Are you able to adjust AAM/APM settings in HDTunePro or CrystalDiskInfo? Setting the APM value to 255 (disabled) may help you if you are able to adjust the settings, though this will only work for your current session as it will reset to whatever is the firmwares default settings upon reboot.
If I find a solution I'll be sure to mark it.

[Spotty]

I've been in LinuxMint for about 30 minutes now and the drives have not made any noise at all. I've ensured the drives were mounted and spinning by copying some files between them, then let them go idle for about 25 minutes. No irregular noise from them whatsoever.

I'm not sure what the default HDD idle settings are for LinuxMint, and the power management settings doesn't have an option for it (that I can see), so I can't be sure whether or not it even attempted to enter idle state [which is where I think the problem is occurring]. If it was a mechanical fault on the drives I assume I would have experienced it regardless of which OS was running. Not ruling out the possibility of a drive/mechanical failure completely, but it seems unlikely at this point.

[Spotty]

Recording (8).m4a

Made an audio recording of the noise in the hopes that it might help someone identify what the issue is. The sound is of all 3 drives making the same noise simultaneously. I did my best to unplug as many case fans as I could but I needed quite a bit of mic boost to pick it up so there's a bit of background static. You can hear it at around the 4 second mark and every 20 seconds there after.

Also, the HDD activity light on the case turns on every time it happens if that helps at all.

[LunaP0n3]

I use a program called Hard Disk Sentinel. Download the trial version and see it will allow you to change the power settings. Look for the HDD with a speaker icon up in the top left of the window.

[LunaP0n3]

Having no experience with Ironwolves though, I can't say if this is just a quirk with these drives. I once came across a 750GB Hitachi 7200RPM 2.5inch model that actually made knocking sounds at random intervals, but the drive never died as a result.

[Spotty]

I just tried replacing the SATA data cables with brand new, never used still packaged cables. Still the same problem. Also tried replacing the SATA power cable from the PSU (modular) and still the same problem on a new power cable.

 

10 minutes ago, LunaP0n3 said:

I use a program called Hard Disk Sentinel. Download the trial version and see it will allow you to change the power settings. Look for the HDD with a speaker icon up in the top left of the window.

Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded the trial version but it seems the icon you're referring to "Manage Disk Features" is greyed out (similar to in HDTunePro and CrystalDiskInfo where the settings are greyed out), which leads me to believe that adjusting these settings could be blocked by the drives firmware?

[LunaP0n3]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

I just tried replacing the SATA data cables with brand new, never used still packaged cables. Still the same problem. Also tried replacing the SATA power cable from the PSU (modular) and still the same problem on a new power cable.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded the trial version but it seems the icon you're referring to "Manage Disk Features" is greyed out (similar to in HDTunePro and CrystalDiskInfo where the settings are greyed out), which leads me to believe that adjusting these settings could be blocked by the drives firmware?

Possible, or that the drives don't support the features. I'd suspect that because these Ironwolf drives are top of the line drives, they omit them to ensure the best performance possible in NASes and RAID arrays.

[LunaP0n3]

2 6TBs and an 8TB? I'm envious.

[Spotty]

19 minutes ago, LunaP0n3 said:

Possible, or that the drives don't support the features. I'd suspect that because these Ironwolf drives are top of the line drives, they omit them to ensure the best performance possible in NASes and RAID arrays.

This is definitely a possibility. Just installed an old (15+ years old) hitachi 80GB HDD and it lets me adjust the APM settings in both CrystalDiskInfo and HDSentinel, though for some reason the WD Green 2TB I tried didn't let me adjust it. I'll try a couple of different versions of Seagate 3TBs I have lying around and see if they can adjust it or not.

Update: My ST3000DM001's and ST3000DM0008's (Seagate 3TBs) all allow Advanced Power Management, but they don't allow Advanced Acoustic Management. Seems like it's something with the Ironwolf drives that prevents you from adjusting AAM/APM settings; either not supported or blocked.
Still no idea whether or not this is actually related to the cause of my issue.
 

11 minutes ago, LunaP0n3 said:

2 6TBs and an 8TB? I'm envious.

This isn't even my NAS. I'd hate to think how much I've spent on hard drives.
 

[LunaP0n3]

I'd wager that the settings you can choose will vary from model to model of drive.

[Spotty]

I've found the problem!

The issue is caused by AIDA64 running in the background and when it attempts to retrieve sensor information from the hard drive in order to report it.
My guess is the drives are in a lower power state but AIDA64 is trying to wake the drive every 20 seconds when it attempts to gather the sensor information for the temperature readings.



This is definitely the cause of the issue,as when I closed AIDA64 the noise stopped, and when I changed the value from 20 to 10 seconds, the noise occurred every 10 seconds.

To change or disable this feature in AIDA64, select File > Preferences > "Hardware Monitoring" and either uncheck the disk temperature box or change the value of the update frequency.

Thanks to those who helped and provided suggestions for things to test.
@R3ep3r

[seagate_surfer]

On 4/22/2018 at 12:02 AM, Spotty said:

I have 3x Seagate Ironwolf HDDs in my system. Recently I've noticed an issue where exactly every 20 seconds all 3 drives make a noise.

• The noise only happens when the drives are idle and while in Windows (does not happen in BIOS).
• All 3 drives are relatively new (650-1000hrs run time).
• SMART check displays the drives as good and chkdsk shows no errors or bad sectors on the drives. Seatools reports the drives as good.
• The load/unload cycle reported in CrystalDiskInfo is increasing by 1 each time the noise occurs.
• I'm confident that the drives are in good condition and not failing. (what would be the chance of all 3 drives simultaneously failing at the exact same time in the exact same manner)
• Tested each drive individually and each drive is making the noise. When all 3 drives are in place, the noise happens on all 3 drives (if idle) simultaneously

My current theory is that the noise is likely caused by the drives attempting to park their heads when trying to enter a low power state in accordance with their APM settings. This theory would match the type of noise I am hearing as well. For some reason the drives attempt to enter this state every 20 seconds (possibly conflicting with windows idle settings?)

2x ST6000VN0033 Firmware: SC60
1x ST8000VN0022 Firmware: SC61

I only started noticing the noise a couple of days ago after dusting out my system. My BIOS also was reset to defaults as after cleaning I had an issue with my pump and I had to shut down the system while it was on the BIOS screen, which it detected as a bad boot and reset to defaults. Could also be that I can only hear it now after cleaning the front intake and lowering the RPM on the front fans, however this is unlikely as even at full RPM the fans are extremely quiet (BeQuiet 140mm) and the noise is quite distinctive that I would hear it over the fans anyway. Any of these could be related to the issue since I only noticed it happening a few days ago.

 

I've tried changing the windows power plan options and changing the HDD idle shut down from never, to a few minutes, to thousands of minutes. Regardless of the power settings they still make the noise while idling (about a minute after being active). I've tried to use CrystalDiskInfo (7.5 & 7.6) to adjust the APM/AAM settings for the HDDs, however the options are greyed out and I cannot alter them (blocked/not supported by the drives firmware?). I've tried in HDTunePro as well but when attempting to change the APM/AAM settings it gives an error message that is is unable to set the new value.

Does anyone know of any way to change the APM settings on Seagate Ironwolf drives to prevent them from trying to park their heads so I can either fix it or rule that out as a cause?  Or perhaps have any idea what else could be causing this issue and other things I can try to fix it?

The noise is very annoying and it's similar to hearing a dripping tap that you can't ignore.

 

@seagate_surfer

Thanks for tagging us. One potential solution would be our free diagnostic software, SeaTools, which has a function for disabling extended power conditions.

[Naraus]

On 25/04/2018 at 7:11 AM, seagate_surfer said:

Thanks for tagging us. One potential solution would be our free diagnostic software, SeaTools, which has a function for disabling extended power conditions.

Seatools has no such function for disabling extended power conditions.
And when clicking on Help > Seatools Help, it comes up with an error message.
I also have no "AIDA64" and my Ironwolf keeps making the noise as described above.
The only thing it does is give drive information with "SMART" as "Enabled" and I want it "Disabled", and no my MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC has no such BIOS option to disable "SMART" hence why I'm here.
So on these forums is their an actual Seagate person that knows what they're talking about and how to prevent lower power states.