Optane Causing HDD Noise

[Shrepto]

I bought a 16GB stick of Optane about a month ago and after installing it about a week later my HDD kept making this repetitive sound.  It goes on and on and on until I access the drive then it stops.  I noticed when I stopped Optane from speeding that drive and clearing the cache it stopped.  Then I put it back on the drive and well... it's been two weeks now and it's making the sound again.

Any ideas?

[Husky]

Check the drives SMART status and see if there are any errors. You can use CrystalDiskInfo to do this, just download the standard zip version so you don’t even have to install it.

 

If there are no errors then it is probably just Optane learning what data is frequently accessed and is preloading small chunks of data and caching it. If the noise doesn’t irritate you and the SMART results are fine, then there is nothing to worry about. You can do a chkdsk /r on the drive as well if you want (open cmd as admin and “chkdsk * /r” replacing the * with the drive letter ex. “E:”. It may take upwards of 2 hours to complete).

[seagate_surfer]

Hello Shrepto,

 

Try to de-concatenate the Optane module first and then check to see if the issue persists. There is a list of hard drive noises recorded that you could use to try to identify if it is an actual failing hard drive noise: http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

[Decom]

Hey, I'm having this same issue, just wondering if it was a faulty drive or actually caused by the Optane module?

I'm noticing this whenever the system is idle for a while - as soon as I access the secondary drive in the system (either through Task Manager or Explorer or by starting an application on said drive), the odd noise will cease instantly.

[seagate_surfer]

Sounds like a normal behavior of a drive that was in suspension and then awaken, but I would still check this website to hear the recorded noises and if the sound is similar to one of these, it could be an indicator of a unit that's about to fail: http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

[Decom]

Well, I recorded this to give you an idea of what it sounds like when the drive is not currently used by any application. This doesn't happen all the time, either. But if I'm working and the 10TB drive is idle for a while, it will start to make this noise until the drive is accessed again (either by me or by an application installed on the drive itself). I listened to the majority of the drive noises that were listed on the site you provided but it didn't sound like any of those specifically. As it's still within warranty (running in an entirely new system assembled last month), would I be better off just RMAing it and trying it with a different drive?

[seagate_surfer]

Go ahead and try the warranty replacement, I'll post the link down below. If still issue persists after RMA come back to this post, we'll try something else: https://www.seagate.com/support/warranty-and-replacements/

[Shrepto]

Decom, mind sounds nothing like that, but glad to see you're getting yours resolved.   

[seagate_surfer]

21 hours ago, Shrepto said:

Decom, mind sounds nothing like that, but glad to see you're getting yours resolved.   

Hello Shrepto,

 

Do you have a Seagate drive? Please run Seatools, do one SMART check and share results through here.

• https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
• 

[Shrepto]

No it's a Toshiba drive.

[seagate_surfer]

Ok, you can use their Diagnostic Tool then: http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/SPD7303VE0000R01.htm

1. Select HARDDISK from the list (tick mark).
2. Click Start Diagnostic.
3. Click Yes when prompted to start the test.
4. Click OK when Diagnostic Test is completed.

Any inconsistencies is an indication of problems with your unit, backup your files and get support on that unit, you may require a replacement.

 

[Decom]

Update:

HDD got RMA'd and sent back to Seagate. Replacement was sent out and received within the week (earlier today).

Tested out the new drive with Optane and yet again, the same noise popped up.

However

After experimenting a bit, it turns out (at least with my setup), the odd repeating audio from the HDD actually came from the Intel Rapid Storage Software.

I had Link Power Management enabled (which is supposed to save power during idle time) but I guess it put the drive into some kind of loop. After disabling it, no more noise in the last 6+ hours of usage. Hopefully that did it!

 

Edit: Also disabled Windows Power Saving trying to disable drives after 20 minute idle time (figured that might also be butting heads with Optane)

 

Edited September 23, 2018 by Decom

[seagate_surfer]

Glad to hear the drive was RMA'd and I see what you are saying, under certain conditions/situations you'll gain some minutes in battery time with Power Management enabled, maybe lowering screen resolution as well and tweaking the system with some thing here and there (disabling Windows Power Saving) but that also may correspond to some little decrease in performance with things that require more power. So, don't do it unless it's necessary, it is better just to shut down the computer when not in use and that'll make it.