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WD1200BB Spindle Noise
After reading many reviews on the Western Digital WD1200BB hard-drive I have
come to the conclusion that this is one of the noisest hard-drives on the market. Even though WDC specs the idle noise at 35dBA some reviews have listed it as being measured as high as 46.4dBA! I started researching this because my 4 month old WD1200BB drive is "whining" at idle. My drive's performance does not seem to be affected by the spindle whine but sometimes this noise gets a bit annoying, especially when the room that the PC is in is very quiet. Can anyone provide me with the experiences they have had with spindle whine? Is this something to worry about or just a side effect produced by having a high-performance drive? Thank you in advance. Chris |
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On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 19:08:48 -0400, "Christopher A. Brubaker"
wrote: After reading many reviews on the Western Digital WD1200BB hard-drive I have come to the conclusion that this is one of the noisest hard-drives on the market. Even though WDC specs the idle noise at 35dBA some reviews have listed it as being measured as high as 46.4dBA! I started researching this because my 4 month old WD1200BB drive is "whining" at idle. My drive's performance does not seem to be affected by the spindle whine but sometimes this noise gets a bit annoying, especially when the room that the PC is in is very quiet. Can anyone provide me with the experiences they have had with spindle whine? Is this something to worry about or just a side effect produced by having a high-performance drive? Thank you in advance. Chris Unfortunately the bearings are subject to get whiney, though just how whiney, how fast, might be related to how the drive was handled during shipping or installation, and small differences in tolerance from one drive to another. When new the WD drives start out a little louder, but as with all ball-bearings, over a period of weeks to months the noise increases. "Usually" when a drive gets whiney gradually it continues working fine for several years, though a sudden change in noise is more likey a sign of a problem. If you want to avoid the sound (it's not going to go away, will stay the same or get slightly louder) then replace the drive with one that uses a fluid bearing like Maxtor or Seagate. The Western Digital drive's performance has nothing to do with the noise... the "BB" series drive performance is similar to the quieter Maxtor counterpart. When the fitness of the drive is in question make a backup of the contents and then run the manufacturer's diagnostics (on the floppy included with retail drives or available for download from manufacturer's website). Dave |
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