Hard Drive Making Noise

[ItsTheSlime]

Hey,

About a month ago, I bought a new 3 TB Hard Drive from Western Digital, and ever since I got it, it has been making alot of noise when under use (for example, while installing a game, loading a game, copying data, etc.). When idle, the drive is pretty much silent. However, when it starts making noise, it is to the point where I can get hear it over the game sounds, while wearing headphones. I did some speed tests and everything seems fine (Reads: 160 Mb Writes: 120Mb) so I don't think the drive is dying, atleast not yet. My main drive is a 1 TB Hard Drive (also from Western Digital, and it is about 6 months old) so this isn't my main drive, just a backup one. However, it has some pretty important data on it. I also made sure that it was indeed the hard drive that causing the noise and not another hardware part by putting the drive on a table outside of the pc and have it install a game. I don't have that much experiences with hard drives so I can't tell if that's normal, but I would really like to know. I don't know what to do right now. Should I leave it like this, or should I get it to a computer store to see if they can fix it or something? Please let me know what I should do. I included a recording of the sound the hard drive was making while installing a game, though it usually gets louder than that.      

 

Thanks in advance

Hard Drive.m4a

[YedZed]

Doesn't sound bad. Can you describe the noise? Unclear.

 Also, if it is broken, don't take it to a computer store. They can't really fix it. Just warranty it.

[ItsTheSlime]

Yeah, the recording didn't pick it up really well. Basically, when its under load, there seems to be some kind of grinding or something (I dont really know how to discribe it). I now know hard drives are supposed to make sound while reading or writting, but I'm just concerned about how loud it can get.

[RadiatingLight]

15 minutes ago, ItsTheSlime said:

Yeah, the recording didn't pick it up really well. Basically, when its under load, there seems to be some kind of grinding or something (I dont really know how to discribe it). I now know hard drives are supposed to make sound while reading or writting, but I'm just concerned about how loud it can get.

grinding = bad

however, I can totally hear when my HDDs spin up, or begin writing.

if you can hear it over game sounds, you should RMA the drive. (it's what I would do)

but make sure to back up all your data before then

[ItsTheSlime]

Thanks for the info! 

 

Do you have an idea of how long it usually takes to RMA something? Never done it before and I really need this drive asap.