Hitachi Deskstar Hard Drive "Crunches" A LOT

[barlowc]

I purchased an Hitachi Deskstar 1 TB hard drive back in the spring and transferred my existing Windows 7 Professional system to it using Seagate DiscWizard which is Powered by Acronis. (I used Seagate DiscWizard because the drive I was transferring my system from was a Seagate and the new Hitachi drive did not come with any such software.)

Ever since installing it, the new Hitachi hard drive seems to run just fine, but it "crunches" A LOT. What I mean by "crunch" is that you can hear it chattering and the disk drive activity light on the front on the computer flickers. It's almost as if it's constantly indexing something. It doesn't always crunch away, but it does so much, much, much more than any other hard drive I've ever had. Even when the computer is sitting idle and not being used. (And I don't really have anything special running in the background.)

I've downloaded and run Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test diagnostic utility and it does not show any problems or abnormalities. I've also made sure the drive is not fragmented, using Auslogics Disk Defrag software to keep it defragmented and optimized.

Anyone else ever experience anything like this, either with an Hitachi drive or another? I'm a computer professional and in all my years, I've never had a hard drive behave this way.

 

[Deltona_Dave]

I think the reason it is chattering more, is that the new drive electronics think the file is at one track, and the Seagate allocated the files on a different track or sector. So, the drive's electronics are asked to retrieve the file, it has to go looking for that file in a different sector.

It could be that that one drive has a noisier head drive. I would not worry too much about it. Windows likes to keep the drive busy with it's background processes and indexing.

I have used all sorts of HDD's in 30+ years of computer work, and the IBM/Hitachi's are pretty quiet overall (like WD). Remember the old Connor drives? Noisy as sin.

Dave

 

[Quest]

The sound you are hearing is from the OS, esp. when idling (starting with Vista and now into Win7) for it is due to the fact that the OS is indexing or the volume shadow copy is working on restoring/checking something.

Last but not least: it can be defragmenting also.

Some HDD offers means of subduing the noise by either HW (Barracuda earlier versions were built to be more quiet than the others of the same era), or SW means.

Q.

 

[barlowc]

I don't think the noise is defragging, although the sounds is similar. But I checked and Windows built-in defrag is scheduled to run at 1:00 AM every Wednesday. And I hear the chattering almost all the time.

But that is what I was initially thinking/wondering (i.e. indexing or defragging). Though before I upgraded the drive it didn't chatter like it does now. My previous drive was a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11, so maybe it was simply a quieter drive compared to the Hitachi Deskstar that I now have?

 

[Deltona_Dave]

Seagates are a little quieter, WD's I think are the quietest. There are several articles about Hitachi's being noisy.

There is a Acoustic Management software called Windows AAM. I have heard good things about it, although I have not tried it.

Dave

 

[Virtuoso]

+1 on the above comments. You're probably just noticing the new drive since it's new, and perhaps noiser than your previous unit.

Windows, espeically since Vista, seems to thrash discs constantly.

 

[barlowc]

Interesting! Thanks for the thoughts/input fellas. I feel better knowing that the drive is probably operating just fine. Although, I now wish I'd spent the extra $10 and gotten another Seagate rather than going with the Hitachi to save a few bucks.

Hitachi has some software called "Feature Tool" for changing the drive's firmware settings/features. Interestingly, the latest/current version on their web site has a release note that says "Removed the function of acoustic management."

 

[JustinH]

Some drives make more noise than others.

In my experience Samsung drives are usually very quiet. However, I just picked up a Western Digital "Green" 1TB drive for 50 dollars or something like that, and it is DEAD silent.

Its only 5400 RPM's, but its fine for most normal folks, and it uses a little less power than a regular 7200 rpm drive.

I noticed also it has double the cache of some other drives, so that may contribute to the silence of it.

 

[Rick in PA]

Some drives are noisey. I bought a used computer a few months ago. Other purcheser's reviews were that they were good machines, but drive noise was noted. Sure enough, when I got the computer, it had a noisey drive. It's an older Seagate drive and it sounds a bit like a garbage disposal, the drive seems to work a lot too. I got use to it after a while, so my worries abated. I recently got a Western Digital drive as a back-up and re-imaged the Seagate to the Western Digital. The Western Digital is wisper quiet. Anyway, I'm going to keep running the Seagate, noise and all...

 

[barlowc]

OP update...

I transferred the system back to my old Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 and things are quiet again, confirming what you all were saying about the Hitachi just being noisy.

I'll probably wipe the Hitachi clean, sell it on eBay, and get either another Seagate or a Western Digital when I reach the point of needing the extra space again.

 

[barlowc]

OP Update...

I reached the point of needing the extra space again and bought a 1 TB Seagate Barrucuda 7200.12. It runs as quiet as the 500 GB 7200.11 did. Further confirmation that the Hitachi was just a noisy drive.

 

[Silver]

Do a search for "Deathstar" and "Deathstar tick". That's the nickname the Hitachi/IBM Deskstars and their activity have earned. Had one fail on me... waiting for the second Deathstar to fail (came with the pc).

I found that if I moved my virtual memory to my WD drive it stopped the tick, but I'm sure it'll come back.

In my uneducated opinion, the only reliable hd's left are Seagates. I've had such bad luck with WD and Hitachi and good luck with Seagate that I've drawn this concludion. Granted, I'm no IT admin, etc.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Silver
Do a search for "Deathstar" and "Deathstar tick". That's the nickname the Hitachi/IBM Deskstars and their activity have earned. Had one fail on me... waiting for the second Deathstar to fail (came with the pc).

I found that if I moved my virtual memory to my WD drive it stopped the tick, but I'm sure it'll come back.

In my uneducated opinion, the only reliable hd's left are Seagates. I've had such bad luck with WD and Hitachi and good luck with Seagate that I've drawn this concludion. Granted, I'm no IT admin, etc.


I've had seven dead Seagate drives; three 1TB's and the rest of the 500 and 320GB sizes in the last couple months.

WD has a much better track record with me. Only three in the same time period. One was a 320GB Scorpio notebook drive, another was a 500GB in a MyBook enclosure where the PCB got burned. Not the first time I've seen that failure model either..... Third was an RE2 from a SMB server. I've replaced a pile of these over the last couple years. Always get an RE3 when I RMA them. They have some known issues with the RE2's.

 

[Silver]

You've got to be the most unlucky person on the face of the earth.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Silver
You've got to be the most unlucky person on the face of the earth.

Oh, these aren't all my personal drives, LOL! Two of them were from servers, one from my own box, another from a client's workstation...etc. Only one of them was actually mine. A Seagate 1TB.

 

[javacontour]

Just lost the kids 500gb Seagate Barracuda SATA drive.

The kids learned the importance of backups.

I had been backing up the machine sporadically to another box on my network, but hadn't since late September. So they lost 2 months worth of stuff.

So I hope they learn to put things more than one place, just in case.

I do have their machine backing up the \Users directory nightly as a scheduled task now.

But add me to the anecdotal information about Seagate drives failing. The kids did get a replacement drive. A 1TB Samsung from MicroCenter for $59.99 on the day before Thanksgiving.

Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: Silver
Do a search for "Deathstar" and "Deathstar tick". That's the nickname the Hitachi/IBM Deskstars and their activity have earned. Had one fail on me... waiting for the second Deathstar to fail (came with the pc).

I found that if I moved my virtual memory to my WD drive it stopped the tick, but I'm sure it'll come back.

In my uneducated opinion, the only reliable hd's left are Seagates. I've had such bad luck with WD and Hitachi and good luck with Seagate that I've drawn this concludion. Granted, I'm no IT admin, etc.


I've had seven dead Seagate drives; three 1TB's and the rest of the 500 and 320GB sizes in the last couple months.

WD has a much better track record with me. Only three in the same time period. One was a 320GB Scorpio notebook drive, another was a 500GB in a MyBook enclosure where the PCB got burned. Not the first time I've seen that failure model either..... Third was an RE2 from a SMB server. I've replaced a pile of these over the last couple years. Always get an RE3 when I RMA them. They have some known issues with the RE2's.

 

[Rand]

The 7200.12 seagates seem much better than the issue prone 7200.11 series (esp the 1.5TB's)

I have 9 in use(500gb).. no issues so far.

also just picked up 4 1tb models for a NAS

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: Rand
The 7200.12 seagates seem much better than the issue prone 7200.11 series (esp the 1.5TB's)

I have 9 in use(500gb).. no issues so far.

also just picked up 4 1tb models for a NAS


And as I look at the 500gb paperweight on my desk, it's a 7200.11 series drive, FWIW.

 

[brianl703]

Google Seagate 7200.11 fix. There is a firmware bug in these drives which causes them to "lock up"--the chances of this happening are one in several hundred boots, as I recall. There is a way to reset the firmware using a serial console cable connected to the drive via pins for that purpose on the jumper block.

It works, I have done it. You do need an RS-232 to TTL level converter--I used an old Nokia data cable I had laying around.

There is updated firmware for these drives available from Seagate, but it does you no good if the drive's firmware has locked up. You need to unlock it first, then apply the upgrade.

 

[PandaBear]

Most likely the drive is noisier by design. Have you tried using a smart utility to change its performance / seek profile? That could help a lot.