Weird HDD behavior? Silent at max speed but noisy otherwise

[ThoriumEx]

I got a new Toshiba X300 4TB and I'd like to know if this behavior is normal or not.

If I transfer a big file to it, the drive is practically silent, no sounds or vibrations at all, while writing at a steady 250Mb/s.

However after the file transfer is done (or cancelled) then the drive starts being noisy for a minute or two, specifically making very loud low pitch thumping noises that can be felt as well.

If I write a file to the drive at low speed (like a low bitrate recording), these thumping noises happen again, though much quieter.

At idle the drive is silent.

 

I've tried disabling caching to see if that makes a difference, but it didn't.

I've also installed the drive with and without rubber shock absorbers on the screws/pins, which did help a bit but nothing major.

SMART report is all good.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

[RAS_3885]

Sounds like when it's less/not active it spins slower, which has a different resonance than full speed.

[ThoriumEx]

1 hour ago, RAS_3885 said:

Sounds like when it's less/not active it spins slower, which has a different resonance than full speed.

I understand what you're saying but it's not a constant spinning noise.

It's a short strong thumping noise/vibration that happens every few seconds and can be physically felt on the entire PC, like a strong knock.

[RAS_3885]

41 minutes ago, ThoriumEx said:

like a strong knock.

Definitely not normal. Since it's a new drive I'd return/exchange it.

[ThoriumEx]

39 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

Definitely not normal. Since it's a new drive I'd return/exchange it.

The thing is this is already the replacement!

I had another X300 before which made both loud knocks and loud ticks/clicks while writing at any writing speed.

So I returned it and got a new one, which doesn't have the same problem as the first one, but has the issue I've described in this thread.

At this point I think I'll just return it for a refund.

[RAS_3885]

1 hour ago, ThoriumEx said:

The thing is this is already the replacement!

I had another X300 before which made both loud knocks and loud ticks/clicks while writing at any writing speed.

So I returned it and got a new one, which doesn't have the same problem as the first one, but has the issue I've described in this thread.

At this point I think I'll just return it for a refund.

Yeah, I would go with a different brand/model at this point.