CharleyVarrick 277 Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) My secondary server, running only to do a daily backup of my primary, has recently started to emit an odd sound which I can't pinpoint the exact source of for now. All I know is It's not coming from speakers, as there's none on this machine. It powers up fine and I can use it, but within seconds, it begins to emit this sound, every 5 seconds like clockwork. Crystal disk Info doesn't show anything wrong. Maybe one of you guys heard something similar before and can share ideas. In this 17 seconds recording clip, you'll hear the unidentified sound 3 times: recording.mp3 Edited April 30, 2017 by jlr19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyVarrick 277 Posted April 30, 2017 Author Share Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) Update: it has to come from one of the hard drives, as I disconnected all but the OS one and now its dead silent. I'll reconnect the data drives one by one until the noise resume. Found this website http://www.datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php to help identify hard drives issues, but I haven't heard anything quite like mine yet. Update #2: With every data drives disconnected, all is good, but, when shutting down, at the very last second before everything goes off, I do hear 1 instance of the noise. I've reconnected all data drives 1 by 1 without any difference (same single noise 1 sec before going all off) Oddly, no more sound every 5 sec, that's odd. I do have a problem: one of my drive is not showing up, not in Explorer, not in Disk Mgmt, nor in Crystal Disk Info. I have replaced the sata data cable, same thing, I've replaced the missing drive with another (new), still no show. I'm beginning to think the problem is on the mobo, damn ASUS! Edited April 30, 2017 by jlr19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1292 Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) @@jlr19 That is the sound of the head slamming home and back to where it was.. copy your info off that drive asap. lol. My very first drive crash, before I had any kind of raid, was that same issue... It will progressively get closer and closer together until you can not read the drive any longer, at that point you will hear that noise one after another constantly about every second. I'll never forget that sound lol.... With the covers on it almost sounds like a high pitch speaker or buzzer noise along with the mechanical click, this is the head "voice coils" making that noise... the video below sounds more mechanical.. But trust me its the same issue... The reason you hear ONE INSTANCE of that noise when shutting down is NORMAL the drive heads PARK home on shut down.. Your faulty drive is slamming the heads home every 5 seconds, even if its no longer doing this, if still readable i would copy and/or replace it. Edited April 30, 2017 by pir8radio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyVarrick 277 Posted April 30, 2017 Author Share Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) Similar indeed, though mine is every 5 sec, you're right, probably what's happening, although my computer has been running dead silent for 3hrs+ now. I have no alarm from Crystal disk, does this issue have a name? The thing is I have not been able to pinpoint which of the 7 drive's doing it. If and when the noise come back, I'll go bad drive chasing differently next time: Disconnect hdd #7, power back system= noise again Reconnect# 7 and disconnect #6, power back... ...and so on, until I find which drive makes that noise Of the 7 drives in this machine, the only one that shows significant hours of operation is the OS drive (28k+, vs 400-5k for the 6 others If its this one, I'm not worried one bit (pun intended) as its go no personal stuff on. And the 6 other drives are daily media backup. Important personal stuff is backed up once to another pc, then a 2nd time to this one. The only thing I'm not covered for is meteorite/missile; I like my odds... EDIT: watching the video, If the noise comes back, I might be able to feel which one it is just by touching the drive cases 1 by 1 Oh, btw, the missing drive was just one of the sata cable not seated properly. Edited April 30, 2017 by jlr19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyVarrick 277 Posted April 30, 2017 Author Share Posted April 30, 2017 Sometime this season, I will go shopping for more big drives, for now I have "only" 2 6tb WD blue left as spares. I have seen Seagate 8tb, I admit to always having cold feet with this brand. There was a killer report a couple of years back that said they were not built to last. Nothing in there to change my mind. Should I give em another chance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6771 Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 Sometime this season, I will go shopping for more big drives, for now I have "only" 2 6tb WD blue left as spares. I have seen Seagate 8tb, I admit to always having cold feet with this brand. There was a killer report a couple of years back that said they were not built to last. Nothing in there to change my mind. Should I give em another chance? Western Digital all the time for me. Have had Seagates, but they just don't last as long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1292 Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) Western Digital all the time for me. Have had Seagates, but they just don't last as long. huh... I was going to say the opposite. I use the enterprise Seagates though, never tried any other version.. vs blue, green, black WD's I had, my Seagates have never had an issue. My clicking drive issues have always been on WD's. All of my Small Form Factor drives are HGST, and I haven't had an issue with those yet... 5 years running 24-7 so far. I always like reading the backblaze drive reliability reports, one because I am a customer, and two they go through tons of drives and are vendor neutral. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016/ While on the topic of backblaze.com You should backup your data to the cloud or some other off site storage.. I had a home fire and was able to go back into the home and grab my raid array, it was crunchy, covered in soot, and when i tipped it sideways water came out! I was able to run everything in a dehumidifier for a week and thankfully I was able to get my data off and on to a new raid array. But ever since that day I started storing my info off site.. I love backblaze... I emailed them, told them it would be neat to see where all of my data is stored! I wanted to see what the server looked like.. I'm geeky like that.. Expecting that email to get a generic response, basically saying no.. They replied back saying they had to pull some strings but here you go, and sent the below pictures (blurred my name even though you can figure it out pretty easily) Off topic a bit, but "I'm just sayin'" I like backblaze lol... Edited April 30, 2017 by pir8radio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyVarrick 277 Posted April 30, 2017 Author Share Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) Western Digital all the time for me. Have had Seagates, but they just don't last as long. I hear you, I'm the type of customer that you can fool once. I haven't given the other guys another chance in 12 years, so that's why I was asking what others thought. I wouldn't know how to do that but maybe someone should start a "what drive manufacturer do you trust the most" poll. People in this forum have a cumulative experience that would be interesting to hear about: I love to hear all sides Edited April 30, 2017 by jlr19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37060 Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 Aren't they the same company now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyVarrick 277 Posted April 30, 2017 Author Share Posted April 30, 2017 (edited) @@pir8radio Yes, off site backup is a great idea, one I am seriously considering. I am guessing if you backup offisite, then there's little point in local backup (as I've been doing for the last 10 years or so). Going this avenue would double my local storage capacity, saving me a bundle in new material. Edited April 30, 2017 by jlr19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1292 Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 Aren't they the same company now? Yea I think they are... I hope they keep separate manufacturing, HGST is also part of WD, Not sure why those drives have a better reliability than regular WD's. Maybe different manufacturing as well.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37060 Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 It's been a few years now since the merger. I would expect at this point they've unified quite a bit to help them bring down costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 Google knows EVERYTHING! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyVarrick 277 Posted May 1, 2017 Author Share Posted May 1, 2017 Google knows EVERYTHING! Well, almost everything, I swear I had no clue what the result of googling your nick would give beforehand. (English's not my main language) Here we ALL know what Doofus truly means: ordering/buying tech stuff every other day... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 They nailed it! That's totally me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6771 Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 They nailed it! That's totally me! I assumed that was why you chose that as your account name Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 I assumed that was why you chose that as your account name Absolutely! I'm an idiot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyVarrick 277 Posted May 1, 2017 Author Share Posted May 1, 2017 Absolutely! I'm an idiot An idiot that knows he's an idiot is far less idiot than an idiot that doesn't know he's an idiot (or something like that) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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