Uneasy about enclosing hard disk

jbw · Post by **jbw** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:22 pm

I listen to my hard disks carefully. Over time, the noises from the motor changes, as does the clacking sound of the heads. Also, sometimes on older drives, there is a squealing sound that means that the belt/clutch in there is heading south. All of these sounds help me to determine the health of the disk and whether I should think about retiring and replacing it. And general thrashing means that I need to do something about excess swapping.

I would be very uncomfortable "entombing" (as I recently read someone post) the drive in a soundproof enclosure.

I know that I could look at the HDD light for the thrashing issue, and could run SMART to check sectors, etc., but I'd rather just hear the disk. I've had some pretty quiet hard drives and I would rather listen to that small amount of noise than to have a totally silent, non-functioning PC.

Does/did anyone feel the same way?

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Tue May 01, 2007 2:37 pm

To be honest if you can hear the change in sound quality your PC isn't quiet enough.

seriously though, I expect my current hard drive to last a couple of years and I have all the stuff on it backed up so if it fails, no big trauma. I certainly wouldn't tolerate having a noisy PC just so I could have some vague reassurance that the HDD is not on the point of failing.

[F]bernZ · Post by **[F]bernZ** » Tue May 01, 2007 5:19 pm

As long as the seeks aren't obtrusive, I'm perfectly fine. It's the idle whine of the hard drive that annoys me the most.

efcoins2 · Post by **efcoins2** » Wed May 02, 2007 1:58 am

I would like idle to be silent, but I want to hear HD activity when I save something

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Fri May 04, 2007 9:12 am

You can hook up one of those little PC speakers in place of the HDD LED. I accidentally did that once, and I thought my HDD was dying. It sounded more like scratching than chirping.

kittle · Post by **kittle** » Fri May 04, 2007 11:35 am

im in the same boat as jbw.
I want to hear that my HD is healthy and working. chatters when seeking and doing read/writes are a welcome sound.

And it can be an alarm sound too. if im sitting reading a long article here on the forums and suddenly my HD starts chattering... it something to look into.

And if the "click of death" starts up -- I want to hear that right away, not after the fact when my PC wont boot.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Fri May 04, 2007 11:43 am

if the "click of death" starts up -- I want to hear that right away

what does the "click of death" sound like? how is it different from a normal seek?

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Fri May 04, 2007 12:46 pm

Sounds like the tick of a pendulum clock but faster and followed by a loud yelling noise full of obscenities...

Maelwys · Post by **Maelwys** » Fri May 04, 2007 1:35 pm

I sometimes call it the 'ka-chunka of death'. It kinda sounds like that:

Ka-chunka, ka-chunka, ka-chunka! *pause* Ka-chunka, ka-chunka, ka-chunka! *pause*