7200.7 : Recommended on This site, but doesn't earn mine.

`clipse · Post by **`clipse** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:50 pm

Okay, this will be a short post. I see there are a few 7200.7 complaints already referring to the SATA Barracuda V drives, however mine is very specific. There is an irritating diagnostic buzz that is emitted from this drive after maybe 30s of idle. It is lounder than anything in my entire case. So far my only solution is to set power-down to the minimum setting in windows power options.

I guess what I'm wondering from you guys is, why is this drive recommended by SPCR, but with this irritating "feature", I don't see how. And is there a good way of dealing with it? I'll add that I am not using suspension so I do not know if it would solve this problem, the drive is in a cage and is wedged into place between two clear rubbery strips.

slipknottin · Post by **slipknottin** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:53 pm

take the drive out of the cage and hold it in your hand, see if that stops the buzzing.

`clipse · Post by **`clipse** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 9:00 pm

k.

by the way if this works.. that would mean the whole system would actually be quiet. imagine... o_0

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 7:42 am

Note that the "noise" rating for this drive is listed at "~5-7", and the comment at the end of the paragraph stating "Check user comments in many forum threads". Reading that would tell me that there's some sort of propensity for sample-to-sample variations with these drives.

FWIW, as I read that recommendation, it seems obvious to me that the 7200.7's are in a clear second place to the Samsung SP80 series.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:07 am

Hi, I have a 80GB 'cuda ATA IV and I think it used to do the same thing. Certainly when it was new it would do it all the time, one recommendation was to leave the drive powered up but inactive, e.g. as second drive in a PC for it to "get it out of its system". I don't remember if I did or if it helped, but I think it did get better with age. I now have the drive in an enclosure and wedged in with foam, which reduces even heavy, seeks to barely audible. If it’s still doing the "buzzing" thing I don't hear it.
I would suggest temporarily resting the drive on foam to determine if full suspension will help. If it does you can then set-up something more permanent, unless you never move your PC.
Seb

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:15 am

There are several threads describing the intermittant buzzing of the 7200.7 drives. Some people have been mucking with firmwares to get rid of the problem. Some drives stopped making the noise after some time.

I have three of those drives. One is hard mounted. (No other choice in a Hush case.) After almost a year of use (and 24/7 since may 2004) it still makes the noise. The second one is suspended inside a dampened case. If I open up the side and listen very carefull I can sometimes hear it. But with the case closed, it is never audible. The third drive is still waiting to be used.

GrahamGarside · Post by **GrahamGarside** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 9:26 am

mine do this and I only notice it when the case is open or I'm going to sleep. when I first got rid of the noisy components from my system it would really do my head in. I would be going to sleep and I'd hear hd activity and think 'what the..' look at the case and see no hd light and just thnk I was hearing things
I didn't fully notice it until one time I connected the drive to a usb dock

BodHack · Post by **BodHack** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 3:29 am

My 7200.7 also does this. As I understand it, this is some kind of offline check the drive performs after some seconds of being idle.

The solution in my case is to get MBM5 to write an interval log every 30 seconds - and voila! noise is stopped

sensei · Post by **sensei** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 5:41 am

BodHack wrote:My 7200.7 also does this. As I understand it, this is some kind of offline check the drive performs after some seconds of being idle.

The solution in my case is to get MBM5 to write an interval log every 30 seconds - and voila! noise is stopped

that's just hilarious...

Samsung it is then...

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 6:52 am

One of my drives did that too. Check the firmware version. There's a good probability that it's v3.05. I suspended the drive and now I can't hear it. I don't know whether it's because it went away or the suspension got rid of it but it's no longer annoying me.

GrahamGarside · Post by **GrahamGarside** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 7:43 pm

mines 3.01

HellDiver · Post by **HellDiver** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 3:26 am

I have 3 160Gb PATA 7200.7 drives in a RAID 5 array in my server which resides in the attic. The first 3 I had were quiet - almost Barracuda IV quiet.

One 7200.7 failed after the electric went off (blame the shorted heater in the washing machine), and the replacement drive is quite noisy. It exhibits the offline calibration.

Alas, I didn't note down the firmware revision of the new drive, but I'd assume it's different to the older two drives, as they are very, very early examples.

As a side note, I have an old 80Gb Barracuda IV which is actually a Seagate prototype which came from their local factory. It was used to test the head mounting method for the IV. It has no Seashield, no blue foam under the board, and no label on the top of the drive. It is fairly quiet, certainly quieter than some production IVs I've had.

Mar. · Post by **Mar.** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 7:41 pm

HellDiver wrote:As a side note, I have an old 80Gb Barracuda IV which is actually a Seagate prototype which came from their local factory. It was used to test the head mounting method for the IV. It has no Seashield, no blue foam under the board, and no label on the top of the drive. It is fairly quiet, certainly quieter than some production IVs I've had.

How did you manage to get that?