Re:Well, I'd find it hard to trust a hard drive making that noise. Why don't you call WD tech support and explain the problem and see if they'll give you an RMA.
I have a Seagate SATA that's made a little noise during bootup since it was new, but is quiet at all other times. I've been using it for a year now as a secondary drive with no problems, so maybe it's just a crap shoot.
Re:Yes, the WD Diagnostics(windows version) said the drive passed.
Re:You haven't said what the WD diagnostic showed? Did it say the drive was OK?
Re:Well, used Data Lifeguard floppy to wipe and repartition the drive to 40gb and 200gb(roughly).
Windows XP SP2 found all 240gb~ of the drive and both partitions.. reformatted them with NTFS in Windows XP setup.
Got to first bootup and noticed an all too familiar sound… so I dunno anymore, maybe it's just a loud drive. In the process of reinstalling applications, but all data transfered, and noticed something. Whisper.. WHISPER quiet when writing data to the hard drive from DVD-Rs… but loud normal churning(just loud) when accessing the hard drive during Windows XP bootup/Outlook launching/Firefox launching/large file executions/pretty much any accessing of the drive.
Is it ok for a hard drive to be fine in all aspects, but just have loud and enduring churning during program launching/data access? It writes to the hard drive whisper quiet….
The drive works fine for the most part, it just annoys me for it to be loud, and I am paranoid I guess.
Re:Backups up to date. /check
Windows XP Pro SP2 slipstreamed CD ready /check
Fresh Formatted and written WD Data Lifeguard Tools Floppy /check
Not to just find the Raid/SATA driver disk.. but its 2am and more work tommorow.
Will run the WD Diagnostic prior to reformatting.
After reformatting if problem persists(all components will have been 48bit LBA aware at point of install/partition/format) I guess the drive is bad? Even if diagnostics say no?
Will check back later with updated info.
Re:Run the WD diagnostic on the drive, that will tell you right off if the drive is bad.
Re:However this was done around march with a brand new hard drive.
So its two months old.
I put everything in.. had the computer working fine. BIOS read the HD, Windows read it.
It was unpartioned, never had been formatted.
Windows 2000 SP0 does not recognize hard drives or partitions over 131gb I believe.
Windows 2000 SP0 found the 131 and I made a partition of 30gb.
Then setup windows 2000 after formatting.
After booting, I formatted the other 98gb or so.
I installed SP4(SP3 supports 48bit LBA via a registry edit), then installed a few programs getting the system up to speed, before doing the registry edit and rebooting..
Now the last 100gb was visible, and was formatted.
All were NTFS as stated.
However, upon that very reboot is when I noticed that it was slightly louder..
I havent noticed it increasing, but it may have, as it seems a lot louder on access now than any hard drive I've used. It's normal grinding(geider counter type noise.. not alarming.. I've had the pleasure of listening to a few failing hard drives, and this doesnt sound like one.. yet), just very loud.
I am just wondering if Formatting a HD partially in 28bit.. then later changing it to 48bit to get the rest of the space is a recipie for trouble.
I have a Windows XP Pro CD now, and can slipstream SP2 with a little bit of work.
Windows XP SP1 supports 48bit LBA.
Do you think I should back up my data and give the repartition/reformat with WD floppy downloaded from WD website a try.. then put XP on it.. and see if it sounds different… or are physical sounds only limited to physical problems(a defect).
ie.. should I reformat or call WD for a replacement.
And thanks for your answer.. .just your example differs from mine because you had slipstreamed(48bit aware) OS installs.
Re:I have never had a problem with 48bit addressing making a drive louder. I dual boot with Win2K/SP4 and XP/SP2 using a 300gb drive. I also made slipstreamed cds for both OSs just as a time saver.
Usually increased noise from a hd is due to failing bearings. I have had a WD hd replaced under warranty and they sent me a refurbed drive. That kind of bothered me because it was bad out of the box.
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