Re: [tlug] HDD Reliability

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

>Is it the sound mentioned in this thread?  Hitachi said it is normal. 
>Mine do it also and it is distracting, but not driving me up walls like
>it does to other people in this thread.  Nevertheless it is a negative
>factor when I consider my next drive.
>
>http://www.envynews.com/forums/?showtopic=5999
>
That would be it!  This description fits:

"This new HITACHI makes every 8-5 minutes a strange noise, its like a 
metallic version of a crying baby, really spooky."


Firstly, I'm quite glad to hear that it's not something only my two 
120GB drives are doing, and - if the following is true, then there would 
seem to be a reason for it:

"Hitachi/IBM have actually fixed the old Deathstar problem with a 
firmware upgrade. The read heads no longer "land" on the platters for an 
extended period of time. If the drive is idle but not powered down, the 
heads will move back and forth to prevent then from pausing in one place 
and eroding the platter lubricant over time."

That "heads will move back and forth to prevent then from pausing in one 
place" bit may be the noise!  The noise itself is not so loud as to be 
unignorable - so long as it can be identified as a harmless noise.  What 
makes it ring in poor users' ears though - is hearing an odd noise 
coming from the hard drive in the first place.  And I will add my voice 
to most of the rest of the people commenting at that site - the noise 
itself is very definitely unlike any I have heard from any other hard 
drive - and I've heard a lot of odd hard drive noises with all my 
junkyard computer experience!  So long as it's a normal parameter thing, 
then no problem.  Thanks for that link!!!

Lyle