5K320 vs WD800BEVT . Noise issues.

I upgraded my Lenovo T61 from a 80GB WD HDD to a 5K320. The stock HDD is very silent, whilst the Hitachi makes a spinning sound. Already used Feature Tool and use AAM to reduce the drive noise, but there is a characteristic noise from the drive even when at idle, as if there's a fan spinning.
I found my 80GB WD totally silent, which I totally love.

Newer 320GB WD 5400rpm drives do have the same noise behaviour as my stock 80GB HDD? I thought the 5K320 was supposed to be dead silent but I was wrong.

 

cool. I want to upgrade my capacity too.

 

I think you got unlucky. Try to change it for a new one or get the WD3200BEVT.

If you don't mind the slicht increase in powerconsumption go with the WD3200BEVT.

My 5K320 was very quiet, although mine was single platter (160GB).

 

It's really a shame Phil, the drive does not vibrate but there's a classical hum present on all the past Travelstars I've had in the past.
The WD800 was actually my first laptop HDD and was overjoyed because of its quiteness.

 

My noisy 5K320 failed after using a 3rd party adapter to use it as an external drive, all my data is wasted, the HDD no longer powers up.

I'm questioning whether the 5K320-160GB model is even quieter than this one. I could get one (single platter is this?)

 

You can try out the 160GB version, and it is sensible to keep the data backed up to an external drive. 5K320s have known to be extremely quiet. You can try out the WD1600BEVT if you want to. I have the WD3200BEVT, and it is pretty quiet in my thin 14"er.

 

Wow, I am sorry you had problems with your 5K320. It seems like you got a bad drive, cause my 5K320 barely made a sound.
Good luck,

K-TRON

 

Which 5K320 model do you have K-TRON?

 

I had the 160gb model

K-TRON

 

7K320 seems much better.

 

Reports suggests it is louder. For 7200rpm I would suggest the Scorpio Black although I've never owned one, my WD 80GB is very silent.

Anyone knows when you RMA a disk if Hitachi would retrieve any personal data contained on the drive; in my case, the dead 5K320 I will be sending to them does not power up and I had several documents there, although not credit card or financial info.

I will wait until new disk arrives hoping to be quiet.

 

When my brother sent his dead deskstar 80gb drive in about 4 years ago they sent him a brand new drive. (not a resticker job, like wd and seagate usually do)
His of course was a refurbsihed drive, so no wonder why it died.
I dont think hitachi really cares. They probably just take your drive incinerate it and give you a new one

K-TRON

 

OK interesting story K-Tron, thing is I have to send the drive from Mexico to US and it could take a while.

 

I think the return time was like 3 weeks. This was 4 years ago, so things are probably a bit faster now.

K-TRON

 

I RMA'ed the disk almost a month ago but didn't found out the prices using equivalent USPS service was like a month so I decided to wait until the 30-day period to send back the HDD is over so I can reenter the HDD serial and send it the first day of submitted the RMA.
I was just tempted to buy the 160GB version of the 5K320, but I'm tight on budget so I would just wait until new disk arrives, I could expect delivery on April maybe