question - hd performance after replacement

Question

Hi all,   I just had my old 160gb maxtor hd replaced (under warranty by Dell) with a 160gb seagate. This is a good thing; after looking at these forums it seems maxtor hd in general arent spectacularly reliable. I have noticed though that my dimension 4700 is now making the same intermittent ticking and grinding that my old HD used to make, and that no other PC I've ever owned has ever made when it is sitting idle.  Its as though the HD is accessing and reading, except that the ticking is a constant slow pattern. The drive itself sits quiet for say 5 minutes and then bursts into 30seconds of methodical slow ticking and grinding.  Its not a sound or pattern Ive heard on any other pc before--and I've owned a fair number of computers in my day...Ive even worked as on-site support and admin at different times.   So my question is:  Is this a normal sound and pattern for a dimension 4700 when it is in a state of relative idleness?  It has always bothered me because it is an almost painful sound, and when the original hard drive actually died I really wasnt surprised and attributed the sound as sympomatic of the faulty drive, yet here it goes again.   The recurrence makes me wonder what the fail rates for HD are on Dimension 4700s as a whole, rather than merely the fail rates of maxtor drives.  The recurrence also makes me very glad I have a 3 year hardware warranty, because I fear that in another 6 months I will be calling with the same issue: HD failure.   If there are any support people able to address my fearful speculations or explain the horrific sound that comes like clockwork from my new hd (just like the old one) every 10 minutes or so, I would love to hear it please.   Thanks

shesagordie · Answer

munin   Try running Dell diagnostics extended test on the hard drive. Boot the system, press F12 to run the Dell diagnostics.   Bev.

munin · Answer

Hi Bev,

Thanks for the quick response. I've just run the extended test and it comes back fine. I dont doubt that the hard drive is fine...Im more curious as to what is causing the drive to act and sound like it does intermittently.

Interestingly, the hard drive makes this noise and runs through this cycle of grinding and clicking even when the system is idle at dos prompt when booted from an old win95 boot disk I scrounged up to check this. So the issue isnt with the OS, and it isnt with the HD (being as that's been warrantied for dying already) so it seems to me its with how the mainboard handles the hd.

my laptop (dell winxp pro..same OS), and none of my friends machines (some of which are different model dells) make anything remotely like the sounds that this hd makes (just like the old hd) so I am fairly curious about the fail rate on HD on dimension 4700s in general. I really suspect something to do with the mainboard is working the HD to death when it should be idle. I have the latest bios for the 4700 as well.

Message Edited by munin on 11-19-2005 01:45 AM

munin · Answer

Hi Bev,

Yeah Im aware of the heat issues from looking through the forums. I have a temperature monitor and it runs fine at ~46c.

I will just wait for the hd to die again I suppose and get the most out of my warranty every 6months for the next 2.5 years. hooray for extended service plans.

shesagordie · Answer

munin   As the hard drive, tested out with no problems, there basically nothing you can do.    It could be heat related, I've been reading on the boards about heat problems with the D-4700.  Try using the 'Search' feature at the base of this page about this subject.    Bev.

shesagordie · Answer

munin wrote: 'I will just wait for the hd to die again I suppose and get the most out of my warranty every 6months for the next 2.5 years. hooray for extended service plans'   My sentiments exactly.:smileywink:   Bev.

munin · Answer

The funny thing is, I spent a few hours searching the hd forums today with "hard drive strange noise" and other strings and I found alot of people with the same problem Ive described that had all been given the same shrugging disinterest: 5-10 minutes of normal idle hd followed by a period of intense grinding and ticking like the hd head is continuously resetting itself over and over. This is an issue that has been raised in these forums many many times and has never been addressed in any manner as a distinct problem.

And with this new HD being noisier than my last one, this constant activity actually breaks my concentration when Im sitting across the room from it working. so...this is going to be an issue for Dell because its now a very annoying issue to me. I shouldnt have to close up all my apps and turn my pc off to get 20minutes of quiet while I work on something away from the pc.

The nearest theory that rings of any truth is something a person quoted on these forums from their cousin's uncle's niece's boyfriend's friend at IBM stating something along the lines that the mainboard isnt handling the hard drive idle mode properly and the hard drive's heads reset over and over repeatedly.

dougvan · Answer

I am experiencing this exact same problem on an Optiplex GX520 with an 80GB SATA hard drive which I just purchased in the last few weeks. A relatively quiet, but still noticable, grinding noise with ticking begins and last for some number of seconds. I haven't had a chance to determine the pattern, but if I do something to make my PC access the hard drive, the grinding and ticking stops immediately.

I am concerned about the long-term effect this could have on the hard-drive, not to mention having to live with that annoying noise -- painful is an apt description!

Storage, Drives & Media

question - hd performance after replacement

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