Noisy hard drive

[mustpost]

One for the real hardware gurus - and I know there are a few here. I have a relatively high speed video editing tower with 2 x 1tb drives; one stores most of the video files. (Avid) Recently when scrolling through a video clip I hear a very different stutter/buzz from that drive..Now

A. Is it on the way out? (I guess so)
B. What part of the platters/spindle fail at this point? It's a reputable 7200 drive around 2 years old.
c. I thought they were supposed to last longer than that...

[Bernoulli]

Yeah. I've got a noisy hard drive too but when I called Porsche they said that's normal.

[green granite]

Time for a backup by the sound of it, although having said that I have one that's been making grinding noises for a couple of years now, just use it as a download cache and a scratch disc so if it fails it doesn't matter.

[Bushfiva]

I'd probably back it up/clone it, since drives are cheap and data is valuable. You can also read out the drive's SMART data using a utility such as HDD Health failure prediction for hard drives and ssd drives, just to confirm that the drive's on the way out. Most manufacturers have their own test utilities, too.

[Romulus]

It may be that we have had similar problems. One of my drives sounded like it was continually sounding like it was being accessed, making a noise very similar to when I boot it up.

What worked for me was a defrag and drive cleanup, now it has returned to a more normal purr with the odd check sound every now and again.

(Not telling you how to suck eggs but backup first, and set restore point, just in case something goes awry)

[green granite]

Yes if you have some bad sectors where the drive has to try and read it several times you will get strange noises, so a a defrag and drive cleanup, will sometimes cure things.

[Saab Dastard]

After the backup run chkdsk (assuming Windows).

After that run the manfr's HDD diagnostics and repair disk (CD / USB / diskette).

SD

[mike-wsm]

Sounds like it's having to work hard to access scraps of data which ideally should be recorded in a single stream, so yes, do a defrag.

But why use such archaic hardware? Hard discs are fast on streaming but painfully slow for random access. Install plenty of flash and you get faster random access, whilst the slight penalty for streaming remains constant rather that deteriorating.

I use a tablet with one hundred per cent flash and no nasty mechanical hard disc, so I would say that, wouldn't I?

[mustpost]

Ok, mike-wsm, it is on the to-do list, the cameras all operate on expensive flash storage, but I'm getting round to the edit suite! Curiously enough, after posting this morning I once again went through the defrag routines, etc, much quieter now. About to re-do chk disk etc. I defrag once a month but maybees my data input (large) recently has given it a wobbler.
Bushfiva, lost a 1tb external drive completely 2 years ago which is why I now panic a bit...still have the bits, but it's £700 to restore (2 x 500gb)
Thanks for all the encouragement folks..

[Sunnyjohn]

How noisy is noisy? Put a screwdriver to the outside case and put your ear to the handle. The type of noise you hear will tell you whether its a serious mechanical fault or just a noisy arm. Back up anyway!

[lomapaseo]

How noisy is noisy? Put a screwdriver to the outside case and put your ear to the handle. The type of noise you hear will tell you whether its a serious mechanical fault or just a noisy arm. Back up anyway!

Describe type of noises

soft musical ?
waves on a sea shore ?
gurgling?
Fingergnails on a chalk board?
Ticking of a clock?

all of the above in a cacophony?

[seanbean]

See if any of these ring a bell (no pun intended!).

[mustpost]

seanbean, thank you for that terrfying litany of failing hard drive sounds..