Any Tips for making Hard Drives Quieter ???

I just got a new case which is much better built, and larger than my old case.
But I noticed that the Hard Drives are much much louder in this case.
Which is odd, I had the top and side off the old case :thinking:

They just whine loud, damn near gives me a headache.

Anyone have any ideas to quite them down?

~John

Antec supplies these screws with rubber washers glued to the underside of the heads, about 1.5mm thick for mounting HDDs. But it sounds like it's less a vibration issue and more a whirring thing.. If your case is big enough you could put sound-absorbing foam inside in strategic locations..

not the answr ya want but go get the drive i have man this thing is so quiet its 300 gig but its only pata but its fast in a maxtor with 16 meg cache i can never here it

Most modern HD's have a bios setting (or you can probably get a utility from the HD manufacturer) that lets you set the Acoustic properties of the HD. The settings are (if I can do this from memory):

Bypass - Best Performance, but also loudest
Quiet - Quietest, but may be slower
Performance - Not as fast as bypass, but fast, but may be noisier, but not as noisy as bypass
Suggested, or Auto - what the HD manufacture recommends.

Hope that

I used to have that problem also, but found a fix for it.

When looking at the drive from the rear, identify the wide cable and the narrow one. Unplug the narrow one. It will be colored red, black, and yellow.

This took care of my noise problems, but performance suffered a good bit.

BONUS! This also put the drive into eco-power mode. It hardly uses any energy!

lol it took me a bit to get it turbo dog

You can get special anti-noise enclosures for hard drives--quietpc.com might be a good place to look, or you can google around.

td,

My SATA 7200rpm WD HD is uber quite. I can't hear it at all.

Perhaps the case where the HD mounts too is vibrating and moving. Stifening it up would reduce noise/vibration.

Look into any of these products sold at Sharka:

http://sharkacomputers.com/hddsico.html

Not only do they isolate noise, they provide decent cooling too. I buy my water cooling stuff from Sharka. love em!

Ok, I have the answer to top all answers! Get a new case... more specifically- this one: http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/view.asp?idx=64&code=

Well, i think I want to leave the power connected for now, so thats out. :ironic:

carrot,
I just got a new case!
I have seen that one, it seems really nice, till you see the price.
Plus, that wouldnt really make a HD quieter.

I dont think its the case vibrating.
I can hold my hand on the drives, pressing them tighter, etc.
and they still sing.
For all I know, one is going bad :shrug:

Maybe the fact that the old case had plastic sides helped?
Where this one is all Stainless Steel.

~John

jtice said:

I dont think its the case vibrating.
I can hold my hand on the drives, pressing them tighter, etc.
and they still sing.
For all I know, one is going bad :shrug:

Maybe the fact that the old case had plastic sides helped?
Where this one is all Stainless Steel.

~John

Click to expand...

If its not vibrating, it's not the case's fault for the noise. But you can look into getting some soundproofing foam that people use to make quiet PCs to mask the noise... or just get a new hard drive. I've had good luck with the IBM/Hitachi drive I bought from ZipZoomFly -- it's incredibly quiet compared to the Maxtor I also use. There are also a few guides to quiet pc components, but I don't remember where. SilentPCreview or something. Once any computer component starts making more noise than seems normal I'm ready to replace it.

I've seen a number of references to some hitachi utility program on the Tivo Community that is being used to quiet down the Maxtor "QuietDrives" often found in home Tivo units.

"The utility you're looking for is called AMSET.EXE. Hitachi's disk configuration utility can also set the acoustic management level on Maxtor drives.

A quiet ticking is normal for hard drives and nothing to worry about. The one to worry about is the drive reset, which is a response to a bad block. That makes a much louder click sound (many drives make this sound when they switch off - the sound is the head parking, which is triggered by a reset and by a power-down)."-from the Tivo Community archive

I recall seeing a video awhile back made by a CPFer showing how to deal with pesky computers. Who was that masked man??
Topper

thin silicone inserts between the case and the HDD? May isolate metal vs. metal ?

Topper said:

I recall seeing a video awhile back made by a CPFer showing how to deal with pesky computers. Who was that masked man??
Topper

Click to expand...

Hey, I have never worn a mask !! er ah

http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/short_films/TS--ThePC_Hunter_FINAL%5bInc.Outtakes%5d.wmv

Warning, may not be suitable for all viewers. :devil:

~John

if it's an external drive i've done a few things to help quite it down

firstly i make sure the fan isn't close to the wall(it will reflect sounds)

i put it ontop of a nice thick almost firm piece of black spongey foam that i ripped off a old pc box

I went to staples and got some foam coar board made a really big box 3x size of the hd w/2ply of the foam core i lined the inside w/the egg type foam i pulled out of a pc boad box and used some dense foam black on the outside about 1" thick

then i cut up some floor tile you know the 12" industral kind used everywhere to cover the foam, you can also cut a plastic botle(caution razor sharp ) that a 2L coke /pepsi comes in , check the label to see if it's PET-G it's GREAT soundproffing material

then i put 2" foam on top of it

i put holes in it to vent in/out for the fans

makes less noise then my gerbil when it is sleeping


cost me like 10bucks for the glue and scraps i rummaged for did the same for a pc

naturally you can add varing ammounts in steps perhaps just sitting it on a thick foam pad might be fine for you or making a thin foam U shaped cover just make it bigger to prevent heat build up

i dont recomend it but alot of the newer hd external cases don't have fans in them naturally they are a bit quiter


good luck

ahh looks like fun. The music was great too! :rock:

photo: holy smokes, got a pic of that setup? I need to see if it's Significant Other friendly.