Quiet 500GB Hard Drive?

I recently upgraded my 80GB Fujitsu HDD with a new 500GB Fujitsu drive. The 80GB drive has always been very quiet and reliable, so I had no hesitation in buying the same brand.

Unfortunately, the new 500GB drive sounds like a machine gun during normal drive access. It is silent when idle and runs cool, fast and efficiently, but the drive access noise is just far too annoying.

After 2 weeks I now want to replace this drive; can anybody recommend a 500GB SATA 2.5" laptop hard drive which they have used and which was actually quiet in a low noise environment? SSD is not an option at the moment.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Hitachi 7k500. I basically have to stick my ear to the chassis to be able to hear it when the heads are moving. And it's fast too .

 

I have a Hitachi 7K500 500GB 7200RPM in my notebook; it is relatively quiet though some soft clicks are audible while reading/writing. The clicks are very faint, though.

I also have Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB 5400RPM (WD5000BEVT). It is even quieter than the 7K500 but is noticeably slower in real-world usage.

 

If you think it's too noisy, get it replaced under warranty.

 

Get a refund and get 500GB Hitachi 7K500.. it will be nice and quiet... and fast.

 

WD5000BEVT.. WD 500GB Scorpio Blue... Cool and quiet.. Its also designed by an American company.

 

ive had experience with the 500gb scorpio blue and its been fairly quiet

 

Whatever Toshiba that came with my Acer Timeline 3810t was, it was pretty quiet.

 

I didn't realize that 2.5" drives could be so loud...the 500GB in my G72 is damn quiet...when you say loud do you really mean "noticeable over playing music on headphones" or "just barely noticeable when you are in a sound proof room"?

 

Thanks for all the replies; it looks like a choice between the Western Digital Scorpio Blue or the Hitachi 7K500. At the moment I’m leaning towards the WD as the lower 5400RPM speed might help to reduce both noise and heat. I would rather trade speed for a quieter and cooler drive.

I am curious about suggestions to return the drive under warranty; can this really be done for a noise only issue? The drive is not actually defective, ActiveSmart software reports a 100% healthy drive.

AndroidVageta, yes the drive access noise is very noticeable in a quiet room at night with no background noise. It would not be very noticeable if playing music with headphones. I was spoilt for the last 4 years with the previous 80GB Fujitsu drive as that drive was virtually silent. This drive sounds like a miniature machine gun under enemy attack. Adjusting the AAM (acoustic) settings has not helped.

Does anyone have any warnings or had a negative experience with the Western Digital Scorpio Blue, otherwise I’ll likely order one next week.

 

I have three WD 500GB Scorpio Blue, two WD 320GB Scorpio Blue, and one Hitachi 7K500 500GB 7200rpm HD's. All of the drives are completely silent. I can only hear them running if I put my ear on the palm rest.

All the Scorpio Blue drives have been converted to external and my main laptop drive is the Hitachi. The Hitachi runs ever so slightly warmer than the WD's, about 43C max temp after doing heavy duty data transfers.

You can't go wrong with either brand of drive. The 7200rpm Hitachi is noticably quicker transfering data, programs open in a snappier fashion, but other than that the WD are an excellent choice.

 

Mine was quite quiet but it was very toasty... reaches 50C easily in normal CPU surfing.. i need my cooling pad to keep it cool.. also performance is quite average... 7K500 is still better...

 

And there in lies the dilemma: What's loud? It's one thing to be able to hear the hard drive, it's something totally different to have it's operation interfere with your work or viewing experience.

In my uses that's never been a problem with any HD, since I seldom use a computer in an anechoic chamber, or an environment that approximates it. Additionally, once my laptop's cooling fan kicks in, the HD becomes a non-issue (not that it ever bothered me in the first place). Still, I'd have to be pretty close to the keyboard to even notice it's running, let alone be so loud it causes a problem.

In an environment full of ambient sounds, there is always something that will be substantially louder than my computer HD. In my case, that's usually the computer fan, or my A/C blower.

Nevertheless, it is not silent; and if you're in a very quiet place (lucky you) it can be heard, if you listen carefully.

 

Try changing the power saving features and lower the seeking noise.

 

Hitachi 5k500

 

Lucky you. My Fujitsu sounds like a coffee grinder on steroids.

I would throw in the option for a Hitachi 5K500.B, as well.

 

but its 5400rpm and quite slow.

 

Update: I’ve recently purchased and installed the WD5000BEVT drive in my laptop, hoping it would be quieter than the Fujitsu drive.

The WD is indeed much quieter during even heavy drive access; in fact I can’t hear it at all. Unfortunately, the WD was also constantly clicking every 10-15 seconds due to it’s obsession with head parking. The constant clicking sound was very loud and extremely distracting. The WD was also powering up and down just as often, creating more noise and resulting in a 2-3 second delay in drive response time if attempting a task whilst powered down. Overall the WD was much worse than the Fujitsu it was meant to replace.

I tried several disk management utilities, but nothing worked. I then came across a program called Notebook Hardware Control (NHC) which allowed me to adjust the hard drive power & acoustic management settings.

Result: silence. No more clicking and no more powering up and down. Just a very slight and gentle whooshing sound which doesn’t bother me. There was no noticeable drop in performance either.

Why the hell does WD ship these drives with such terrible factory settings? The constant clicking & powering down would drive anyone crazy. I feel sorry for the many people who must buy these drives and then return them because of these issues, or unhappily just put up with the noise & power downs because they don’t know something like NHC can fix the problem. I would have returned the drive if I hadn’t discovered NHC. Good hard drive, but lousy factory settings.

Thanks also to all who earlier responded with hard drive suggestions.

 

There can always be a lemon drive by any manufacture which exhibits a problem. Sorry you seem to have got one. As I said in a previous post I have 5 WD HD's, 3 of them being the 500GB. All my drives are as silent as I suppose you could make a mechanical drive. Other than putting my ear on the palm rest, I can hear nothing.

Glad you solved your noise problem. I will keep NHC in my archive just in case, thanks.

 

I have 2 Toshiba MK5055GSX 500GB 5400rpm drives in my DV7 and they are quiet, cool and no headparking clicks. They are not the fastest drives but not the slowest either so i am very pleased with them.

 

I can only hear my 7K500 if I move very close to it.

 

I Agree.

For those in the USA Fry's is again selling the Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 500GB 7200RPM for $64 this week. FRYS.com | Hitachi. Terrific Buy.

 

wow i'm really jealous... here in UK , the 500GB version is 75 pounds which is about $110...

 

thats a sweet deal! I paid $90 on amazon and thought that was good price.

by the way, the 7k500 is quiet in my laptops. I've got two in my macbook and cant hear them... but I'm on the toilet with the bathroom fan on. lol. but seriously, they are quiet and I can't hear them even while in my office with no other noise.

 

Ugh.....

Fry's only will offer this deal if you buy it at the store. No shipping, damn!

Oh well, still picked up this HDD from Newegg for $89.99. Hope I made the right decision....