WD Red - Strange noise

Bryan Kortez

Bryan Kortez

Bryan Kortez

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I've just had some new 2TB WD Red's delivered this morning. I've put them in my NAS and it seems to making some clunky noises when accessing.. Is this normal?

I haven't used HDD's in a while as I have been using just SSD's for the past 18 months, so I could be over reacting.


Listen here.. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1s8VWlIf38g
 
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Not normal.

Check each one individually, send the bad one back.

Personally, I'd run a full health check on each drive, I always do this with new drives. Yes, it takes AGES.
 
I've done a full health check on both drives, which took about 7 hours. I then tested both drives separately and they both make the same level of clicking sound when writing either large or lots of small files.
 
Hey there, Bryan.

Sorry to hear that you're having issues with your WD Red drives. So, if this happens when the drive spins up and down, this is normal and is caused by one of the drive's features - IntelliPower. This "parks" the head of the drive more often than with other HDDs and every time it is accessed or when you stop using it - the head parking proces makes this "clunking" noise.
What did you use to test the drives and what were the results of the tests.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD
 
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Boogieman_WD said:
Hey there, Bryan.

Sorry to hear, that you're having issues with your WD Red drives. So, if this happens when the drive spins up and down, this is normal and is caused by one of the drive's features - IntelliPower. This "parks" the head of the drive more often than with other HDDs and every time it is accessed or when you stop using it - the head parking proces makes this "clunking" noise.
What did you use to test the drives and what were the results of the tests.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD
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Thank you for the reply.

I have both of the drives in a Synology DS215j running in Raid 1. I ran the Synology S.M.A.R.T Test on the drives which took about 7 hours and it says they are good. I tried the Synology with each drive separately with the cover panel of the synology box off. I sent over 100GB of music files and a single 50gb file. Either way it makes a clicky clunky noise throughout the write process of both transfers.

With just 1 drive in at a time it's so to loud, but with both drives in and the synology boxed closed, it amplifies the noise level so you can hear it from the other side of the room (10 meters away).
 
I have three WD Reds: 2 x 3TB and 1 x 6TB, installed in a MicroServer, and there is no clunky sound of any kind emanating therefrom.
 
Do you have the option to try the drives with a different computer to see if the same thing happens? It might be due to the NAS enclosure's acoustics as @Justintime suggested. If you decide to try them on a different computer, then I'd recommend that you test them with DLG (Data Lifeguard Diagnostics) as well, just to double-check and run both tests (Quick and Extended) to see if any errors or bad sectors pop-up. Here's how to test it (there's a download link included in the guide): How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows

It's not normal for the drives to make that kind of noise if everything's OK with them and they are properly mounted. If you test them as I've suggested above and they still seem to be too noisy with unusual sounds while you transfer data - I'd recommend that you contact our customer support for further assistance, to see if you can RMA them. Here's how to do that: Warranty & RMA Services
 
Boogieman_WD said:
Do you have the option to try the drives with a different computer to see if the same thing happens? It might be due to the NAS enclosure's acoustics as @Justintime suggested. If you decide to try them on a different computer, then I'd recommend that you test them with DLG (Data Lifeguard Diagnostics) as well, just to double-check and run both tests (Quick and Extended) to see if any errors or bad sectors pop-up. Here's how to test it (there's a download link included in the guide): How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows

It's not normal for the drives to make that kind of noise if everything's OK with them and they are properly mounted. If you test them as I've suggested above and they still seem to be too noisy with unusual sounds while you transfer data - I'd recommend that you contact our customer support for further assistance, to see if you can RMA them. Here's how to do that: Warranty & RMA Services
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. I'll have a test over the weekend with your suggestion. I'll update this post with the outcome and also raise an RMA with WD if required.
 
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