Ask HN: Do you know why new high-capacity WD drives make this weird noise?

#1

Post by _ompc » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 7:46 AM UTC

I recently bought two 8TB WD Gold drives, and they happen to be the noisiest drives I've heard in about 20 years. However the weirdest aspect of it is that they make a sound like a floppy drive regularly when not under load. There's a huge thread on the WD forum with other people experiencing this across multiple ranges and sizes: https://community.wd.com/t/strange-noise-coming-from-10tb-drives-wd100efax/226467/240

This audio clip captures the type of sound: https://clyp.it/ltzgugcu

~260 posts and 2 years in, nobody has a clue what it is and WD won't explain it either. The common factors seem to be running them in a software RAID on home servers. It's weird and it's quite irritating, so does anyone on HN have any ideas?

I bought Gold drives so I wasn't expecting silence, but this seems to be prevalent across the Red Pro and Red range too.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know why new high-capacity WD drives make this weird noise?

#2

Post by p0d » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:18 AM UTC

I don't know but I'm glad you shared as I like quiet (and wd disks).

Sounds like something is moving mixed with case vibration. I can only guess it is the arm which moves across the platters. Are you using zfs, mdm? Maybr the raid is at work.

I bought a small factor pc recently which is a little noisy. I rest it on sponge pad. I also discovered setting a speaker on a specific spot much reduces the noise.

I look forward to hearing the cause of your problem.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know why new high-capacity WD drives make this weird noise?

#3

Post by robotmay » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:28 AM UTC

p0d wrote: post #2

I don't know but I'm glad you shared as I like quiet (and wd disks). Sounds like something is moving mixed with case vibration. I can only guess it is the arm which moves across the platters. Are you using zfs, mdm? Maybr the raid is at work. I bought a small factor pc recently which is a little noisy. I rest it on sponge pad. I also discovered setting a speaker on a specific spot much reduces the noise. I look forwa…

Using ZFS myself and lots of reports of btrfs having the same issue on the WD thread. My two 8TB Gold drives are a mirrored pair alongside another mirrored 4TB pair of WD Reds from a few years back, which don't exhibit the same issue.

It's such a weird sound for a modern drive to make - it's like a printer spooling paper mixed with a floppy drive. One suggestion on the thread was that the disk was doing some sort of lifespan optimisation when idling, which might make sense, as it never makes the noise when under load.

Mine are even louder than that clip above, I can actually hear it across a room. Guess I'll be sound insulating a data cabinet to cut it down a bit!

Re: Ask HN: Do you know why new high-capacity WD drives make this weird noise?

#4

Post by cjbconnor » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 1:24 PM UTC

I've experienced the same issue across 14 different WD red drives, mixed 10/8tb and helium/air filled. Whenever the pair in my Synology do it, the sound resonates so loud you can hear it across the house. I've tried everything to get them to stop, but sometimes they still make the noise for 30+ minutes at a time.

I initially thought part of the issue might be due to the drives being mounted directly to the case so I bought a set of anti-vibration rubber drive mounts, but it didn't help at all.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know why new high-capacity WD drives make this weird noise?

#5

Post by robotmay » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

cjbconnor wrote: post #4

I've experienced the same issue across 14 different WD red drives, mixed 10/8tb and helium/air filled. Whenever the pair in my Synology do it, the sound resonates so loud you can hear it across the house. I've tried everything to get them to stop, but sometimes they still make the noise for 30+ minutes at a time. I initially thought part of the issue might be due to the drives being mounted directly to the case so I…

Yeah I thought it might be resonance between two drives moving similarly in a mirrored pair, so swapped the drive order around, but that made no difference either.

I've used primarily WD drives for years but I think my next pair will be from a different manufacturer and will likely replace these golds, which can be relegated to a second machine in my shed where I can't hear them.

Re: Ask HN: Do you know why new high-capacity WD drives make this weird noise?

#6

Post by sylwester » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

It might be the head parking / reentering. This is called "load cycle" count. You might check smartctl and see if the number of load cycles increases after each time you hear that sounds.

I've had this problem with my Seagate Exos X 14TB. In the end I've disabled the idle2 timer, which is resposible to park the head after 2m of inactivity. This resulted in 1000 load cycles just after I had the disk for 100h somehow.