Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[Markus71]

Hello!

I've bought a Barracuda XT 3 TB and  from time to time i hear some sort of a "chirping" sound from the harddisk.

Is this a normal sound from the Barracuda?

Greetings from Austria,

Markus

[Markus71]

OK, now i have sent back the hard disk and got a new one... and it does chirp exactly like the first one! Can anyone please tell me if this is a normal sound from the Barracuda XT?

[Markus71]

I just noticed something:

That "chirping" sound is exactly the same sound that i hear from the hard disk when i shut down the PC. But i do hear that sound all the time, e.g. when i browse through my files with the explorer or while playing a game.

Btw, powermanagment in Win7 is set to "Never Sleep".

[vipeness]

I just bought a 2TB 64MB buffer on friday, installed it brand new in a new machine, and already getting the chirping noise today!!!

Is this normal??????????

[vipeness]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/243584-32-hard-drive-chirps

[Markus71]

The strange thing is this: Normally i use the combination OCZ Vertex 3 SSD as boot-device (on a DP67DE motherboard) + Barracuda for all the data. Result: chirping noise. But i also installed a Win7 on the Barracuda as backup. When i boot from the Barracuda there is NO noise from the harddisk. Could it maybe also be some sort of a power-management-problem? @Vipeness: Which combination of hardware do you use? And thank you for the link.

[vipeness]

So, I have begun running a program called; Actice SMART. So far, it's found a few errors that are showing up for this brand new hard drive. I havent heard the chirping much now but it getting more and more random, but errors are appearing in the program. Here are some of the errors that are coming up...

Date;Time;Model;Serial;Type;Message
2012/03/04;22:09:31;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;INFO;"Monitoring started"
2012/03/05;18:00:41;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 117, New value: 118"
2012/03/05;18:10:40;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 118, New value: 119"
2012/03/05;18:58:38;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (03 - Spin Up Time). Old value: 95, New value: 94"
2012/03/05;19:05:35;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 119, New value: 120"
2012/03/05;21:00:08;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 120, New value: 105"
2012/03/05;21:03:08;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 105, New value: 107"
2012/03/05;21:03:53;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 107, New value: 108"
2012/03/05;21:07:18;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 108, New value: 109"
2012/03/05;21:18:52;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 109, New value: 111"
2012/03/05;22:58:43;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 111, New value: 112"

[vipeness]

and see... this was in the last few minutes....

2012/03/05;22:58:43;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 111, New value: 112"
2012/03/05;23:01:45;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 112, New value: 113"
2012/03/05;23:04:45;ST2000DM001-9YN164;S1E018TX;ALERT;"SMART attribute changed: (01 - Raw Read Error Rate). Old value: 113, New value: 114"

[Markus71]

I am not an expert on these things, so this is just my personal opinion: i don't think the messages do show you actual errors, they just tell you that some SMART-attributes have changed. On my system the value for "Raw Error" does change all the time, for both drives, the SSD and the Barracuda. How about running some tests with "SeaTools"?

[vipeness]

i burned the iso from the email I received from my phone call, to seagates tech support line. i restarted the computer as requested and booted the disk i made from the iso. It could not find any hdd to conduct tests on. Restarted 3 times and still could not find any media to conduct a long test on.

[Markus71]

You can do that tests also in your normal windows, just install SeaTools.

[Markus71]

Btw, we still do miss the answer to the question: is the noise normal or is it a sign of a faulty device? Nobody here who could answer that?

[vipeness]

Hopefully we can get an answer to that about the chirping noise. i have another drive from seagate that chirps too.

I will have to test the windows version later today once I get home.

[vipeness]

I have downloaded the Windows Version of the seagate tools:

I have the STBD2000101 -  2TB 3.5 HDD Internal  (64 MB Cache / 7200 RPM)

Short Drive Self Test: Failed

Inquiry: Worked and displayed information

Short Generic: Pass

Outer Scan Test: (finished fast)

Inner Scan Test: (much longer time to finish)

Random Read (much longer time to finish, bout same as inner)

Long Generic: being done right now.... will update once done. clock is staying at 00:00

during this test, a notice displayed which is being shown on attachment 01.jpg.

[Markus71]

If it failes one test i would refund it! I think that's a clear sign for a device-failure. Please do me a favour: when you've got the new drive, please tell me if it chirps too. Because i am thinking about refunding mine for the third time.

[Cantbecanit]

Markus, make sure it's the drive and not a fan making the noise, give it the finger test and place one finger safely on the label side and see if you can feel anything when the chirp happens, I've had these noises before myself with other drives, but it turned out to be a clogged cooling fan on the graphic card in the end, hth.

[Markus71]

No, the sound is coming from the drive for sure. I can hear it when the drive reads data, e.g. when i browse through files with the explorer (especially when i switch between partitions) or when i read the SMART-data with a tool. Sometimes i think it could be related to power-management, the drive is set to "never sleep" (and HIPM or DIPM doesn't make any difference).

[Cantbecanit]

Try this, loosen the screws or take the drive out of the case and run it to remove any sound transfers, it is possible you have one with a weak head and it will fail early so I'd be running Sentinal to catch it before it fails, also try giving it it's own dedicated rail from the psu.

[Ryle]

It´s caused by APM. You can disable it with CrystalDiskInfo and a few other tools for the session, after a cold boot the settings are back so stock (APM enabled 80h).

Please release firmware updates for the drives with APM enabled, this chirping is so annoying...

[Markus71]

You are right! When i disable that feature the HD is quit as it should be!

[rauti]

Hello Seagate,

selling a desktop 7200rpm performance-drive with permanently enabled APM is nothing short of embarrassing. You cannot be serious that all users have to use additional tools, to get the noise down and lifetime up.

I had a bad feeling when I read about the end of SAMSUNG HDDs...

Firmwareupdate, PLEASE!

Thanks.

[Cantbecanit]

Hangon buddy, the company did have issues 3 years ago with FW, since then I've aquired 2 more high end Seagates and both do the job and are NOT going bad one bit according to the monitor software I use,

Samsung before becoming Seagate on the HDD front also have had FW issues and failed drives, all firms get them but as the Seagate one was well advrertised ppl just can't wait to point the down finger at them, there are also lots of variables with a HDD, it doesn't last long in a $3 case with no ventilation, yet some will be doing just that to their drives and then wonder why it failed early,

All my Seagate/Maxtor drives left the factory not maxed out, my software says I have about another 25% of speed in them if I want to play gosh with them,

I think the real problem is ppl expect more from a Seagate drive than others, they expect the others to die but not the Seagate, and all firms have a fail rate, and to give you a tip, when buying HDD's avoid anything in a plastic case or with eco/green written on the box, those are the ones that are going to give hassle because ppl expect too much from them, a drive that is born for storage ends up being in Raid and basically wasn't intended for that use, hth.

[rauti]

@Cantbecanit

Hi,

my drive is a 7200rpm SEAGATE 7200.12 ST2000DM001 9yn-164 Desktop drive with the latest firmware.

There is no plastic case, nor a polar-bear-hugging ecogreen-sticker on it. It is just a 7200rpm drive from which I expect to behave the same as my other 7200rpm-drives.

Nothing more but nothing less.

Cheers,

rauti

PS: Seagate service wasn't much help, no answer on the APM-topic. Now I have a dos-window showing up at every power-up to disable apm. Wonderful world.

[Cantbecanit]

Thats a fair comment bud, but so far in the last two posts you seem to calling the drive bad because of the sound level, none of mine are any louder than any of my Samsung or WD's, and I used to only buy Samsung for quite a while as I do like a Spinpoint or two,

Anyway, there is an effort under way to trash the company name and I don't think it's fair, I've been helping out for three years now and the common thing I find when a user asks for help is they blame the HDD from the outset and it in a lot of cases is user error rather than the drive, they don't mention they dropped the drive, nor that it sat in an oven for the last 15 mths of it's life etc etc,

Now I've been supplied 3 different standards of drive in that time by the company, one is a Free Agent, I like it but I don't rate it, it seems design flawed to me, the next is a 3TB Cuda, this has been brilliant, it has no errors or bad sectors on it and I've given it every scenario you can think of for a HDD, next up a Momentus XT the latest one, the one that's powering me right now and what do I think? brilliant, it's as fast on the eye as my full SSD OCZ Agility is only it has about another 600GB of room to use and basically is a 750GB drive raided to solid state memory just like the latest thing is to buy an SSD and use it as a cache drive for a normal HDD,

As for help, this isn't Seagate service, this is users who help out, if you want full TS you need to pick the phone up or e.mail them, as for the problem you mentioned about the APM you simply need software that can adjust it for you, Seagate picks a sweet spot between speed and sound for the average user, you obviously aren't the obvious user so you should know how to adjust it, if it's other sounds like the thread title is then you should make sure the screws aren't too tight and that the data cable is good, if it's clacking,ticking,screaching then it's rma time.

hth.

[XenonKilla]

I have two BRAND NEW Seagate Barracuda STBD3000100 Drives and they also are making a weird "chirp" sound. I was gonna create a thread about this issue when I ran across this thread. I was actually able to capture a recording of the sound so just wanted to see if you guys can confirm if this is the same sound you're hearing as well on your own drives.

You can hear the "chirp" at 5 seconds...

http://soundcloud.com/user3445428/weird-chirp-sound-seagate

I've been building and customizing computers for over 16 years now and the only time I have ever heard a sound such as the one my drives are making is when something isn't right. Even old school PATA IDE drives from back in the day never used to make such weird sounds like this. I always use Western Digital Drives however I needed a couple of high capacity drives ASAP and these seagate drives were the only ones available.I'm definitely beginning to regret my purchase. 

[Cantbecanit]

That isn't the chirp the others mean, they get what sounds like two metal surfaces coming together and scrapping each other for a second, yours is more like the drive is about to read and changes it's mind which could just be a config problem, if you could tell me your specs and how the drive is being used I may be able to help get rid of that, as I've had it before and got rid of it myself.

[XenonKilla]

Mainboard: ASUS P8P67

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600 @ 3.4GHz

RAM: 16GB

OS: Win 7 x64

OS Drive: 120GB Intel SSD AHCI Mode

Data Drive: 3TB Seagate Barracuda STBD3000100 AHCI Mode

Really nothing complicated about the setup. The seagate is being used as my D:\ data drive and is just being used to store images, text, video, etc etc. Not like it's being ran in a super crazy RAID arrary or anything like that.

I would have immediately assumed that the drive was at fault. However as I said earlier I bought two of the exact same drive and they are BOTH making the exact same sounds, so I find it hard to believe that they are both defective. Although I did buy them both at the same store so perhaps it could have been a bad batch or something I dunno. If not then assuming that this sound is "normal" I would think there would be more talk about it on the internet as I know there are other users out there like myself who are on the up and up when it comes to these kinda things and I know they gotta be curious as well. I've never had to "configure" a hard drive other than setting jumpers or changing BIOS settings etc. Not sure what needs to be configured, perhaps you can shed some light on the subject =)

Thanks!

[Cantbecanit]

Believe it or not what you are hearing could be internal sound transfer through the PC case, not saying it is btw but it could be.

I would install HD Sentinal to get a quick health check of the drive also, this should give you a bit of confidence if it says it's all fine, you also have to factor in the drive going to sleep if it's a slave and then being woken up on demand (unsure of a workaround for that tbh) maybe full power in Windows pwm.

If it was making a budgie sound then you need to worry, but I'm not certain that either ill fitting or case resonance isn't causing that.

What case is your rig in? looking at your rig I would assume you have a mid to high ender?

[XenonKilla]

I went ahead and started a new thread since this sound is not the same as what's being discussed in this thread....

3TB Barracuda STBD3000100 Making Weird "chirp" Sound?

But to answer your reply, this sound is coming from the drive itself. I never used to hear this sound until I installed this new drive. When I first heard the sound I immediately knew is was the drive so I decided to swap drives with the other Seagate drive that I had bought just to see if it would do the same thing which it did. I know for a fact it's the drive because I put my case on my desk and removed the drive and had it sitting right on my desk connected to my computer while I sat there opening and closing videos, applications, waiting to hear that sound. Also when I recorded the sound that I posted several posts ago I placed my recorded on top of the drive itself in order to get that recording.

It's making that sound when I'm accessing the drive such as when I open a video or an app or copy a file etc. It doesn't do it all the time just random times. But for example, I was on the computer for about 6 hours straight yesterday doing some coding and I could hear the drive make that sound several times throughout the hours. I would say it makes that sound about 3 times per hour on average. I have all my power management settings disabled such as going to sleep after x amount of time and my turn hard disk off after setting is turned off as well. As I said before I was on the computer for over 6 hours straight yesterday and I could hear the drive making that sound several times per hour at random.

BTW the case I'm using is a DangerDen Water Box Plus (Acrylic Case). This is irrelevant though as I said earlier I have heard the drive make this sound while it was sitting right next to me on my desk.

[rauti]

Hi,

the sound you recorded definitely comes from Seagates APM. Proof is, when I disable APM no chirping does occur anymore. (The main drive vibration-noises always stay the same of course)

@cantbecanit: I think seagate's decision to go for permanent APM in a desktop drive is just not properly thought through. 5400rpm drives are for power-saving. You don't buy a porsche expecting it to shut down the engine while going downhill.

I don't have any preferences in manifacturers' names, I just like products which are properly thought-through. There are always reasons for manufacturers to make compromises (profits at last), but here I cannot think of a single one. I just think it's a step backward from a silent (or constantly noisy) drive to a chirping hdd.

cheers rauti

ps: This forum and the official seagate service is a completely different kettle of fish. While here you get proper answers the offical support just ignores the question of APM.

[Cantbecanit]

You could be right mate, I've raised it anyway, while that happens though as you seem to be of ability could you play about with the bios and windows management settings to see if these also stop the noise, fan controllers in the bios would seem a logical test step as they could be causing a power fluctuation through the MB, and can you list your MB model as well so it can narrow things like bios and form factor down thx.

[ben777]

I have the exact same noise as the OP and others who have posted on my brand new 3TB Seagate Barracuda (ST3000DM001). Is it definitely just the APM noise as in this thread or is it something different and a fault worth RMAing over?

I was extremely worried when I turned on my PC after installing this drive (which was to be used for recording with Fraps, which I haven't tested it with as of yet) and hearing that noise once every 30 minutes or so. Also consider that this drive had nothing on it and was not being used at all when I heard the noise although it may have just been reading generally for no reason after turning the pc on or something.

Since I installed it yesterday I heard the noise about 10-15 times but have not heard it at all this morning (I am currently transfering files on to it to test it and no sound) so it is very random for me.

I ran a Long Generic test on SeaTools last night and it passed that, but it fails the Short Drive Self Test every time (error: 6c9ac2a4) which I think means it just couldn't find the serial number rather than something physically being wrong with the drive.

I'm not sure if I should return it or not, I can still return it to dabs but it didn't make the noise late last night or this morning so I'll give it another few days and test it recording with fraps and see how it goes. Edit: Scrap that it just made the noise about 4-5 times in quick succession, the drive was not doing anything at all as far as I could tell (the files had finished transferring, during which no noise was made, about 15 minutes ago).

Anyway, add me to the list of people having this exact issue with this HDD.

[Cantbecanit]

Ok guys it has been taken upstairs and it is being looked into and taken seriously, that's not an admission there is actually anything wrong btw but if there is a bug it will be getting sorted out so stay tuned on the updates pages incase a new flash does appear, I'm a bit hands tied tbh I don't have this particular drive as mine is an earlier series model so I'm unable to confirm or deny any chirps as mine doesn't do it,

In the meantime I would suggest only using them on the Intel 6GB/s ports and not the Marvell ones, ensure you connections are secure and you have the latest drivers for your rig installed,

If there is a bug I'm sure the company would like to thank you all for bringing it to their attention, as some have mentioned a Seagate drive is still the best performing HDD that doesn't cost the earth to buy in comparison to others, and I would also install HD Sentinal to monitor the drives health, not that I think this will degrade the drive but should yours start on the downward percentages you can at least have enough warning to get your data off before a date with disaster comes.

All the best Cant.

[ben777]

Glad its being given some attention as it seems like we are all hearing the exact same sound (I know mine sounds exactly the same as the audio file and the videos shown). I just moved my drive from the Marvell Sata port to the Intel port and made sure I was using a proper 6gb/s sata cable but it is still making the noise.

[Cantbecanit]

Oakies np, just keep it monitored for now incase it does lead to damage, drives these sizes usually are all eggs in one basket, so in the interest of not losing your data keep a monitor like Sentinal or HD Tune so you get an early warning should the worst happen.

With the lead it's more a case of the quality of it rather than a 6GB/s branding, they are the same lead but marketing has made ppl think it has to be a 6GB/s lead only, also would all you users experiencing this post operating temperatures as well so I can find out if there is any heat issues as well, brand of PSU & power rating and age, PC case and how many installed fans would help as well if you can thx.

[ben777]

I have a HAF-X case with a big fan blowing onto all my HDDs (this one is my fifth), temps sit around 31/32 C. PSU is a Corsair tx 750 and is about a year old (ish).

Will post back if there is any unusual activity, when I recorded with fraps earlier today it was behaving normally and it was very smooth, though I did not have a chirp then so I do not know if it would have caused a hickup/stutter if it occurred whilst I was using the drive for recording or watching a movie etc.

I just switched out one of those standard red sata cables for a "6.0gb/s" one that came with my asus p67 mobo, it's probably the same cable but I thought I might as well use it.

[brainout]

I'm trying to understand this thread, have the same problem with a Barracuda on my new computer.  How do I disable the APM at boot?  How do I even find out where that option is?  HP 6400 Workstation is the computer, and I know to enter setup, but don't know where to go once in Setup, to disable APM.  I don't care that it's an extra step at boot, I do care that the chirping happens often, especially during data transfers.  I'm certain it's the drive, since the chirping and the lighting change in the drive, are in sync.

Thank you for your time! sorry to be so ignorant on this question.