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    Noisy Hard Drive

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by extra-ordinary_guy, Oct 24, 2006.

  1. extra-ordinary_guy

    extra-ordinary_guy Notebook Consultant

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    I've got a Hitachi 100Gb 7,200rpm HDD in my system and the sound of it almost constantly clicking away is driving me nuts.
    I checked in the BIOS, and it was set on 'Bypass'. I set it to 'Performance' just to see what the noise of that would be like but it's exactly the same. I've now set it to 'Quiet' which has lowered the volume slightly but doesn't this involve a performance hit?
    Is noise along with heat one of the trade-offs for a faster drive or have I got a freaky loud one?
     
    extra-ordinary_guy, Oct 24, 2006
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  2. ivang

    ivang Company Representative

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    Download Hitachi's drive fitness test here to check the drive:
    http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

    Hitachi also has a feature tool for their drives where you can increase performance or make drives quiter, you can find it on the same page look for "Feature Tool (v2.03) "
     
    ivang, Oct 24, 2006
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  3. extra-ordinary_guy

    extra-ordinary_guy Notebook Consultant

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    Hey yeh, thanks for the link, I'd just been on that page after a DFT Google search - I was looking for something to reveal the HPA on my HDD. Feature Tool seems to do the trick.

    On the HDD noise issue, Hitachi tools can't do anything that can't already be done in the BIOS.
     
    extra-ordinary_guy, Oct 24, 2006
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  4. ivang

    ivang Company Representative

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    The HGST Feature Tool needs to be burnt as on ISO image on to a CD. Boot from CD and than adjust acoustics, there is a testing function so you compare each setting. Also there is Windows programs, such as Notebook Hardware Control (NHC) that can adjust the acoustics of Travelstar drives too within Windows.
     
    ivang, Oct 26, 2006
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  5. gridtalker

    gridtalker Notebook Virtuoso

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    Thats a excellent program
     
    gridtalker, Oct 26, 2006
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  6. extra-ordinary_guy

    extra-ordinary_guy Notebook Consultant

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    Hey! I used FeatureTool, but as I said, it doesn't do anything accoustically that can't be done in the BIOS.

    On another note, it did manage to reveal the HPA on my hard drive.
     
    extra-ordinary_guy, Oct 26, 2006
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  7. seoul_suicide

    seoul_suicide Notebook Guru

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    hardware issue.. ive seen this happen to a lot of dell notebooks. did you install it yourself? if not then just get it replaced if your still on warranty
     
    seoul_suicide, Oct 29, 2006
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