Hard drive Heartbeat sound

Muso · 14 Oct 2021 at 20:51

Hi,

I've got a really strange problem. In my Pc I've got 1 SSD and 2 x HDD's. Currently the 2 x HDD's are making a heartbeat pulsing sound, one is louder than the other so I thought it was dying and replaced it but the same problem occurred with the new drive.

So I've investigated further and it seems the heartbeat pulsing only happens when both HDD's are plugged in. I've tried swapping power cables & SATA cables around but nothing seems to make a difference.

My only conclusion is that it could possibly be a power issue but I realise HDD's use very low power and
can't find anything about this online anywhere. Buying a new PSU would be a significant amount of cash if it's something else.

Any ideas anyone?

Muso · 14 Oct 2021 at 21:23

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, it only happens when both hard drives are plugged in together. The pulsating is coming from both hard drives but only when they are both plugged in. If I put my hand on either drive I feel the heartbeat, it's hard to explain but really annoying. Yes I've tried one drive at a time and there is no heartbeat type pulsing. Not read sounds they are totally idle my main drive is the SSD, the HDD's are for storage.

I wonder if it could be a software issue as it only happens once Windows in loaded, if I start into BIOS no issues at all.

Cheers

Muso · 15 Oct 2021 at 09:20

Randomly the problem has stopped, you are right it happens on start up. I think it's something to do with the power settings, I will check further. Cheers all!

Muso · 22 Oct 2021 at 15:21

Hi all,

Annoyingly the problem has started up again. They are mounted on rubber things but that's not going to say it would stop any vibrations. I even set the hard drives to switch off with no use after 5 minutes, made no difference.

I'm at the point where I'm thinking to just to replace with SSD's as it's driving me mad!

Muso · 23 Oct 2021 at 07:41

Hi,

Sorry, I'm pretty sure the hard drives arn't reading as they don't make that read sound. Its like they are on but idling, the whirring buzzing heartbeat sound progressively get louder to a point where it's really annoying.

If I take the drives out of the case then put them back in again it stops for a while.

Its definitely the drives like I said before it doesn't do it with 1 HDD plugged in.

These drives are backup drives so I hardly ever access then they shouldn't be accessed unless I go into the drive to get a file.

If I get a stethoscope and put it in either drive I can really hear the whirring heartbeat noise on both drives.

Muso · 28 Oct 2021 at 07:44

Hi, no I don't have an LED read light.

Its a Fractal Design R3.

I hear what you are saying with getting an SSD, I think they don't last as long as a regular HDD and my drives are purely used for storage/backup.

The noise in my case is definitely coming from the drives. The weird thing is I set them to turn off but they don't. There must be some kind of activity they are doing making them buzz.