Buzzing hard drive?

[treg50]

I just installed a Western Digital Caviar SE 120 GB hard drive and I noticed that this new HD makes a low barely noticeable but noticeable buzzing/humming sound. Is it defective? Or is that how these HDs are?

I'm thinking that it could even be that I'm only able to attach it to the bracket with two screws on the left side – on the right side it is impossible to get a screw driver in there. So basically, one side of the HD is attached to the bracket, the other side is resting on the HD below – it's suspended on one side and not on the other, so the drive is sitting on slight angle; the left side is higher than the right side. Is the noise actually the vibration of the drive partially sitting on the one below?

I unplugged the power to the HD and restarted and the humming was gone; i put the power cable back into it and restarted and the humming was back. I want to kill the buzzing sound :guns:

[crazydriver]

Try swapping bays and see wut happens, if it continues then its probably just the harddrive's noise.. if it stops then its probably the harddrive vibrating due to the fact that its not fully secure

[ricosuave]

sounds like its vibrating against the case/rails

[hexified]

the last time my hard drive was buzzing.. i came home to a black screen with a white flashing cursor...basically the HD died lol.

Seemed that it was overheating though and once cooled off the buzzing went away and worked fine. Maybe your HD is too hot?

[Davetronz]

Download a WD diagnostic for their drives.
Chances are the drive will fail the SMART testing.
If you cant find the WD diagnostic, the MaxBlast for Maxtor drives tends to work on all drives.

[crazydriver]

MaxBlast 3

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software%20Downloads/ATA%20Hard%20Drives&downloadID=57

Lifeguard diagnostic

http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n&pid=999

[treg50]

UPDATE: The humming noise that I thought was coming from my new HD was actually just vibration caused by one side not being secured to the bracket (due to impossible screwdriver access). It's vibrating because it's partially resting on the my old HD below it. I'll have to get a special screw drive to get in at that angle. I'll also have to get 2 new screws, because my new HD is .25" narrower than the bracket, SO now I need slightly longer screws to reach the HD from the bracket. For now I've got a piece of insulated wiring sitting between the drives, keeping the new one from resting directly on the other one -- this has eliminated almost all of the humming.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

New Question
Does your system or hard drive make a click when you shut down? I'm guessing it's the power cutting out that makes it click. Is this normal?

Sorry this was my first time installing new HD, I'm not sure what's to be expected and what's not.
:dunno: :)

[Davetronz]

Yes the click is quite normal.

[crazydriver]

My old fireball HDD clicks when it shuts down, so don't worry about it