Noisy Harddrive

Hi,

i have recently bought a Toshiba R100 and the whole Notebook is virtually silent, except for the Harddrive, which emmits a constant whirling noise (event when "powered down" ).

I came to the conclusion that the Toshiba MK4004GAH (1.8", 4200 u/min) is crap
And i need your advice which Harddrive is the most silent. I won't need more than 40GB.

Is there a way to dampen the current Harddrive ? (It already has some rubber around, but that doesn't work that well)


Thanks in advance,

Tobias

 

Hi Tobias,
You are going to have a tough time finding 1.8" hard drives aftermarket; typically, they are only sold to resellers/manufacturers. I believe the only two manufacturers who currently make 1.8" drives are Toshiba and Hitachi; Toshiba is clearly dominating in the 1.8" market. Hitachi makes 1.8" drives up to 40GB.

Install Notebook Hardware Control, you can custom-set profiles for your hard drive using it. See the attached screenshot.

 

Hitachi 1.8" HDDs are currently available in UK up to 60GB. However, while I consider that Toshiba HDDs are noisier than average, I have a Toshiba 1.8" HDD in my MP3 player and have never noticed any noise.

A noisy HDD with poor performance could be symptomatic of pending death. Make sure you have your files backed up.

John

 

@chaz:

The Problem is that the "acoustic managment" option isn't available in NHC ... maybe i should get rid of the Toshiba Managment Tools which might prevent the optimum usage of NHC.


@John: maybe your right.
Is there a way to see if the HD is still in a good condition ? (some software maybe ?)

I have found some Hitachi and Toshiba Harddrives for around 100? a piece (60GB). Do the Toshiba and the Hitachi Harddrives have the same connection ?

Is there a way to dampen the Harddrive ? Maybe with a filler between the Harddrive and the Laptopcase ?


Tobias

p.s. maybe i'll just wait for the SSD from Sandisk and get that sweet little drive *droll*

 

That might be something to do with the fact that you have a 1.8" drive then, uninstalling the Toshiba tools will most likely not help.

I'd highly recommend not putting anything between the hard drive and its surroundings; it needs air/space to cool.

Download HDTune, you can run a check:
http://www.hdtune.com/

 

1. In theory, SMART data should indicate the health of the HDD. See this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=96918 . Yyou keep a record of the readings and see if any parameters are changing with time. This could prove indication of a dying HDD.

2. The 1.8" HDDs come with two types of connector: A set of pins (similar, but smaller, to a 2.5" IDE HDD); or a ZIF connector. The latter provides a smaller connection and is used in some MP3 players. This site http://www.span.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=23_504 brings together the data for most of the available 1.8" HDDs.

3. You would need to see if there is any space to provide and dampening. The HDDs in most notebooks are held in by small rubber pads which provide some shock protection, but would also reduce the transfer of noise.

John

 

Are you sure It isnt just the cooling fan that is making the noise?