Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive noise

[covici@ccs.covici.com]

Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:

> Bill Kenworthy wrote:
> > On 19/12/15 08:01, Dale wrote:
> >> Howdy,
> >>
> >> I finally got a new 3TB hard drive.  I got one on sale for under $100. 
> >> Anyway, I put it in, did the LVM thing and set up my backup script, very
> >> basic as it is.  A little bit ago, I noticed a sound.  It's not a click
> >> or a metallic type sound.  It sounds like the heads are doing random
> >> reads/writes and the heads are moving but doing so noisily.  Thing is,
> >> there is no drive activity according to gkrellm or iotop.  All the
> >> drives should be basically idle.  I even went to single user mode to be
> >> sure nothing in KDE was doing some index thingy or something.  Still,
> >> nothing showed that there should be any drive activity, including the
> >> hard drive light on the case. 
> >>
> >> <<<< SNIP >>>>
> >> The last SMART test I ran showed no problems but I have a fresh one
> >> running as I type on all drives.  Will update if it shows anything. 
> >>
> >> Thoughts? 
> >>
> >> Dale
> >>
> >> :-)  :-) 
> >>
> >>
> > Mechanics trick - place a largish screwdriver end on each hard drive
> > case in turn and the handle end to your ear.  You can hear difference in
> > sound quite clearly.
> >
> > BillK
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> That would likely work.  I've also used a water hose to do that on
> cars.  I'm not sure how well that will work since the drives are only
> like a inch apart.  With the screwdriver I might even be able to feel
> it.  It's not very loud but I can hear it.  One reason I can hear it so
> well, the fans on my case are very quiet.  In a quiet room, I can't hear
> the fans.  I can hear this drive noise even with the TV at a reasonable
> level.  With no TV, I can hear it pretty well.  My water hose trick
> wouldn't likely work but your screwdriver idea might work in more than
> one way. 
> 
> I also found this after the reply from Ian.
> 
> https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/ 
> 
> No wonder they had it on sale.  Heck, why didn't they just say it was a
> good door stop instead of a hard drive??? 

I always try to get something a bit better than consumer drives, at
least the equivalent of Western Digital Red which now has a longer
warranty -- notice that a lot of drives have only ONE year warranties
now?  Doesn't that make you feel warm and fuzzy?

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com