I would have contacted Dell support and discussed the issue with them as i would expect more than 1 & 1/2 years out of a desktop HDD (regardless of any stated warranty). This could have been resolved either under warranty or under 'not fit for purpose' consumer law and saved you the small cost of a new HDD.
Luckily you recognized a potential problem and backed up your data which is much more important that the small cost of the HDD, many do not and loose their data. In any case, i prefer to use the manufacturers test tools, in your case SeaTools by Seagate.
Such tools gives you access to the smart data on the drive and have short and long test routines amongst other routines you can run. It also allows cloning of data from one Seagate disk to another. I would use this tool to check your new drive's smart data for any issues or predicted failures as it should not be making odd noises (if i remember correctly the tool has good help info so you should be able to work out what is a problem or not).
Normally you can hear HDD heads seeking data from the platters but odd sounds and clunks are an indication of something wrong. If you suspect the power supply, the BIOS or a windows app may list the voltages (Sisoft Sandra lists voltages amongst many many things). You could also remove some components and see if the problem goes away with a reduced power load. If so you may have found the underlying issue. You could also return the drive for the noise issue and get another. If the replacement still exhibits issues, then it may well be something else with your system.
To add to skylarking's info, it is not unheard of for brand new drives to fail soon after being put in service. But different drives make different sounds, so I would not jump to conclusions. Go HERE to try the Seagate SeaTools.
Keeping good back-ups is always the best strategy.
skylarking
2 Intern
•
548 Posts
0
April 6th, 2012 00:00
I would have contacted Dell support and discussed the issue with them as i would expect more than 1 & 1/2 years out of a desktop HDD (regardless of any stated warranty). This could have been resolved either under warranty or under 'not fit for purpose' consumer law and saved you the small cost of a new HDD.
Luckily you recognized a potential problem and backed up your data which is much more important that the small cost of the HDD, many do not and loose their data. In any case, i prefer to use the manufacturers test tools, in your case SeaTools by Seagate.
Such tools gives you access to the smart data on the drive and have short and long test routines amongst other routines you can run. It also allows cloning of data from one Seagate disk to another. I would use this tool to check your new drive's smart data for any issues or predicted failures as it should not be making odd noises (if i remember correctly the tool has good help info so you should be able to work out what is a problem or not).
Normally you can hear HDD heads seeking data from the platters but odd sounds and clunks are an indication of something wrong. If you suspect the power supply, the BIOS or a windows app may list the voltages (Sisoft Sandra lists voltages amongst many many things). You could also remove some components and see if the problem goes away with a reduced power load. If so you may have found the underlying issue. You could also return the drive for the noise issue and get another. If the replacement still exhibits issues, then it may well be something else with your system.
Good luck.
osprey4
4 Operator
•
34.2K Posts
0
April 6th, 2012 05:00
Hi ShawnLau,
To add to skylarking's info, it is not unheard of for brand new drives to fail soon after being put in service. But different drives make different sounds, so I would not jump to conclusions. Go HERE to try the Seagate SeaTools.
Keeping good back-ups is always the best strategy.