Is my HDD Defective?

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thundagawd

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Nov 9, 2013
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When I first got my PC into working order, I didn't have the HDD for the first week or so (I had the OS installed on an SSD), and ever since I've received & installed the HDD (Seagate Barracuda 3TB) I've been hearing weird noises occasionally/with increasing frequency. Kind of like a very high pitched buzz/hiss of metal on metal (It's hard to describe). At first I though it was a wire somewhere that would occasionally get sucked into a fan and get bounced back into place, but my cable management was flawless (I went the extra mile and got individually braided cables to clean everything up behind the motherboard tray), I also came to realize that I only started to hear these weird noises after installing the HDD and installing a bunch of programs on it (Mainly Steam & Origin along with voice chat services and overclocking tools, it's primarily a gaming computer), and lastly, I was playing TERA a few hours ago and the game would lock up/freeze when I heard these weird buzzing/hissing noises, which was odd as I've been running every game flawlessly since I've begun to play on this PC (Literally everything I've played so far has had zero issues. I get an average 75FPS in Crysis 3 on max settings W/4x MSAA, to give you an idea).

I have no idea what the signs of a defective HDD are, so I'm hoping someone can give me some insight/confirmation regarding my assumptions, as I'd rather get this potential issue fixed ASAP (I don't have a whole lot of stuff on the HDD, and all the important bits are on the SSD, but unfortunately I have a monthly download limit and I'd rather avoid redownloading all my Steam games if something bad were happen).

Also somewhat related to the topic, I've heard that Seagate storage devices are prone to failure more than many other brands. If I have to get the HDD replaced what brand would be a good recommendation? I've heard a lot of good things about Western Digital, but if I could get some more opinions that would be awesome.
 
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I recommend testing the drive with Seagate's "Seatools for Windows". First, go to this page and D/L a tool to get your drive's model and serial numbers: http://support.seagate.com/firmware/drive_config.html
Next, go to this Seagate Downloads Page and put in your drive's previously acquired mod. # and SN: https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html
When finished, this will take you to a page to select downloads for your drive. As I said, you want "Seatools For Windows". Download it, install it, and run the "Short Drive Self Test", the "Short Generic Test" and the "Long Generic Test".

If your drive fails any of the tests, the test will issue a code with which you can return the drive for replacement under warranty, assuming...
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Bassim Ansari

Bassim Ansari

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Dec 18, 2013
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I haven't had problems with Seagate ever. That argument holds false, as people with preferable brands generally start dissing as the moment something of a particular brand fails.
E.g When AMD drivers come out, and they are not that well optimized for games, start blaming AMD and saying they always suck. When in reality, Nvidia has driver issues of its own too sometimes.

About your other problem, you can run HDtune Pro and perform a good test of your hard drive to look for bad sectors. That's what I can recommend for checking your hard drive for any problems.
 
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thundagawd

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Nov 9, 2013
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It seemed pretty great considering the price I got it for, but I have zero experience with HDD brands, so I just picked the one with the best specs & the lowest price (120$ compared to a WD Black at 250$, and they had the same specs: 7200RPM, 3TB, 64MB cache, SATA 6GB/s etc.). I'm not biased towards any HDD brands as I don't know them very well, I just go with what seems like the best deal

I'll check my Drive tomorrow with the tool you mentioned, gotta head to bed soon (Working a 9 hour shift at a toy store on Christmas Eve), thanks for the advice! If the problem persists after the tests I'll post the results and see what people have to say.
 
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Y0GI

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Jul 22, 2013
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I recommend testing the drive with Seagate's "Seatools for Windows". First, go to this page and D/L a tool to get your drive's model and serial numbers: http://support.seagate.com/firmware/drive_config.html
Next, go to this Seagate Downloads Page and put in your drive's previously acquired mod. # and SN: https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html
When finished, this will take you to a page to select downloads for your drive. As I said, you want "Seatools For Windows". Download it, install it, and run the "Short Drive Self Test", the "Short Generic Test" and the "Long Generic Test".

If your drive fails any of the tests, the test will issue a code with which you can return the drive for replacement under warranty, assuming that the drive is still within warranty.

I have a Seagate HDD in my system and I have found it to be very reliable, quiet and VERY fast! I have also found the Seagate Tech Support to be very good. If you are in the USA they can be reached quite easily by dialing 1-800-SEAGATE.

Good luck!

Yogi
 
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