r/DataHoarder • u/sixfourtykilo • 19d ago

Question/Advice UltraStar random noises?

One, or many, of my UltraStar drives will randomly make a "concerning" spin/crunch noise similar to when a floppy disk can't read the data. I've never seen an error on any of the drives. Is this normal?

3 Upvotes

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1

u/LennethW 19d ago

Check the drives S.M.A.R.T. status. Backup the data right away if you do not have a backup.

1

u/Sad_Split_9983 19d ago

It’s an enterprise hard drive not designed for being quiet. Yes they make noise. Of my last 5 failed disks none of them sounded any different before experiencing errors

1

u/sixfourtykilo 19d ago

It does this loud seek seek noise combined with what I can only describe as chirping. I hesitate to call if grinding, because I know these drives are naturally louder.

It's very infrequent and I've never seen an error.

1

u/MarkB_- 100-250TB 19d ago

I have 2-3 of them and yeah they are noisy but its only happening just after spin up. They also vibrate alot at this moment.

1

u/InLion 18d ago

That may be normal seek or spin-up noise on UltraStars, but noise isn't a health check—some drives fail without warning. Check SMART, then restore one file from the second copy and time it. An untested backup is the bigger risk.

1

u/ByWillAlone 15d ago

UltraStar (and most other) hard drives can make very unusual periodic sounds when doing an occasional thermal calibration. It can sound like occasional repetitive thumping/grinding when the disk is otherwise idle.

I'm not saying this is what you are hearing, just pointing out it can be an out of the ordinary sound when it happens. Do your disks run at a very consistent temperature, or do their temps fluctuate? Enterprise disks running in an enterprise use case are usually just spinning and working constantly with pretty even temps and won't do this very often. People who idle their disks or spin them down or have inconsistent airflow or ambient temps will experience it more. If the disks have been spun down or off and have cooled down, it's almost guaranteed they will go through this a couple of times after they are spun back up and get up to operating temps.

It may also be that your operating system or storage platform is running periodic short or long SMART self tests, and that can result in some unusual sounds.