WD Caviar Black Help

[Pooley2290]

Hi all,
I recently bought a new caviar black hdd 1 tb from amazon and it makes this grinding noise when it is in use, for e.g I have steam installed on it so when I play a game ect it makes the noise. Is this normal or is there something wrong?
I do have a 500gb one that I got with my pc I bought from here and that makes no such noise. Any and all help is appreciated.

 

[steaky360]

Hi Pooley,

If the harddrive is making a grinding noise chances are its got a fault and will likely break soon. If I was you I would get in touch with Amazon and let them know, they will probably send you another one and you can return your current (broken) one.

 

[Pooley2290]

hi steaky,
thanks for the quick reply, I think that's what I will do, thanks.

 

[steaky360]

No worries, if your lucky they might send you the replacement out before you have to send back your current drive. Giving you a cahnce to copy all of its contents over saving you re-downloading your games.

 

[Boozad]

If by grinding you mean like a rumbling then it's normal, the Black is a very noisy drive. Well the ones I have in both my rigs are anyway.

 

[steaky360]

Boozad makes a good point, the Caviar Blacks are by no means quiet drives. But I think if I were describing their noise, I certainly wouldn't say 'grinding', they are loud but not exceptionally loud.

 

[Boozad]

The one in my AMD rig would put you off watching the TV it's that loud. I'll have to get a video of it sometime.

 

[steaky360]

I'll have to do a wee test when I get back home. Open the door on my case and unplug the case fans down near the hard drive cages. Still, if its grinding its not right, it should make a sorta fast clicking noise I would say (again I'm not at home so can't test mine to see how I'd describe the noise, just trying to do it from memory (which is crap tbh).

 

[Boozad]

Mine doesn't click it really does rumble, the one in my Haswell rig isn't as bad but it doesn't have the OS on it.

 

[YAMAHA]

Mine is very quiet, just a kind of fast ticking noise and you can only hear that if it`s very quiet in the room if thats any help. I would send it back if it was mine.

 

[ubuysa]

Is it possible that the drive is mounted badly, so that any noise it makes is transmitted through the mounting and amplified? You might want to check how well it's mounted in the case?

 

[steaky360]

I was too keen to write a return to supplier remark to actually diagnose the problem correctly I failed .

However, it should definitely be checked out before sending it back and the option to return it will be open for a while if it is indeed faulty

 

[Pooley2290]

thanks guys
I think i'll check to see if its mounted properly but it sounds very much like this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC-HfGs4pog

 

[Pooley2290]

I've checked to see if its mounted properly and its fine, so I'm returning it and getting another one. Thanks again guys for your help.

 

[tom_gr7]

mine makes the same kinda noise, but not so loud. I think its common with these types of drives. - in any case the drive has been running problem free for well over 2 years.

 

[Pooley2290]

hi all,
ive just got my replacement drive and it makes the same noise but not as loud, so im guessing its normal, im going to give it a week or so and if it gets worse I might get a blue drive instead of a black.

 

[Rakk]

I think its common with these types of drives. - in any case the drive has been running problem free for well over 2 years.

My Caviar Black has also always made a lot of noise and is still doing fine 2-3 years on

 

[Pooley2290]

hi,
that's good to know that yours is still going strong so hopefully mines fine and will be ok too I have a 500gb version and its pretty much silent but the 1tb one is loud so im guessing its because of the size perhaps.

 

[Gazza]

There is a fix for this problem.
Go here .. WinAAM ... you can translate and read or just go to the bottom of the page and download WinAAM 2.9.2
It will detect the drive and set to quiet.

 

[ubuysa]

There is a fix for this problem.
Go here .. WinAAM ... you can translate and read or just go to the bottom of the page and download WinAAM 2.9.2
It will detect the drive and set to quiet.

But as they say on their site, your seek times will increase and that will impact performance. Nice idea though, but there's no such thing as a free lunch.