Brand New WD Black 5 TB continous intermittent clicking [VIDEO INCLUDED] Help Appreciated

otacon237 · Jul 10, 2016

Hello all, I recently bought the drive described in the title, and installed it. I did a quick NTFS format in Windows' disk manager per the WD instruction video on Youtube and everything seemed to be running fine. Disk is detected in Windows (didn't check in BIOS), completely clean except for one empty folder, I ran a write speed test using a videogame recording software (Dxtory) and it came back around 200mb/s so everything seemed promising.

I plan to record gaming videos to this disk, but I was going to do that later and settled down to play some Fallout when I noticed it starts to make this sound in the video. It sounds almost as if it's turning on and off, not sure why.

Attempted fixes: I went into the power options and enabled high performance mode and disabled the option that turns off the disk after a number of minutes of inactivity. I also ran the WD Diagnostic tool which is telling me the disk is fine. Another thing I ran across in my research is potentially the drive is not getting enough power from the supply. I am running a 750 or 850W (forgot which) EVGA Bronze certified, a GTX 950, Xeon processor, and 3 hard drives, so I think theoretically it should be enough but it's worth considering. I don't exactly remember all my specs but if anyone asks I will be happy to provide them.

I happen to notice it only seems to do it when I am playing a game (so far only tested with Fallout), which is weird because the game files and everything else is on the other HD, so the one making the noise is not "in use". Strangely even now when I alt-tabbed out of the game to write this, it is not making the sound anymore even though the game is running in the background. But when I go back into the game it starts again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Video for reference:
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2iGLcD3Xaw"][/video]

Shaun o · Jul 10, 2016

It`s because they cannot fit 5TB of storage space on a single disk platter.
The drive has multiple disk platters and read and write heads.

You will be hearing when the drive read and write heads switch to using the other disk platter and engaging ect.
Staked platters, multiple read write heads.
Picture link of platters.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/anton-shilov/western-digital-introduces-high-performance-5tb-and-6tb-hdds-for-consumers/

otacon237

Solandri · Jul 10, 2016

Shaun o :

Each side of each platter has a dedicated r/w head. The heads do not "switch" to a different platter. The head arms are all connected and move as one unit. That is, even if the data is on the top of the first platter so "only" head 1 (platter 1, top surface) has to move to read it, heads 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 also move along with it.

The increased mass of the additional heads may make the movements a bit noisier (and cause a bit more friction and heat). But wouldn't explain intermittent noises when there's no activity going on with the disk.

Unfortunately, the video is set to private so I can't hear the noise. Without hearing it, I can think of two possibilities.

■Do you have a pagefile on this drive? If so, remove it.
■WD has used a very aggressive head parking timer on their 5400 RPM drives. Something like 8-12 seconds of inactivity and it'd park the heads. It's possible they've added this "feature" to their newer 7200 RPM drives. There's no simple way to disable this via Windows. On their 5400 RPM drives, you can disable it by using CrystalDiskInfo, going into the APM settings, and moving the power management slider to FEh (max performance). Be warned that this setting may not "stick" and you may have to do it again after a reboot.

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

otacon237 · Jul 10, 2016

Solandri :

Shaun o :

Each side of each platter has a dedicated r/w head. The heads do not "switch" to a different platter. The head arms are all connected and move as one unit. That is, even if the data is on the top of the first platter so "only" head 1 (platter 1, top surface) has to move to read it, heads 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 also move along with it.

The increased mass of the additional heads may make the movements a bit noisier (and cause a bit more friction and heat). But wouldn't explain intermittent noises when there's no activity going on with the disk.

Unfortunately, the video is set to private so I can't hear the noise. Without hearing it, I can think of two possibilities.

■Do you have a pagefile on this drive? If so, remove it.
■WD has used a very aggressive head parking timer on their 5400 RPM drives. Something like 8-12 seconds of inactivity and it'd park the heads. It's possible they've added this "feature" to their newer 7200 RPM drives. There's no simple way to disable this via Windows. On their 5400 RPM drives, you can disable it by using CrystalDiskInfo, going into the APM settings, and moving the power management slider to FEh (max performance). Be warned that this setting may not "stick" and you may have to do it again after a reboot.

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

I changed the video to "unlisted", let me know if you still can't see it and I will set to public.

Thank you for the suggestions! I am a bit tired now but I will try those in the morning and report back.

otacon237 · Jul 11, 2016

Solandri :

Shaun o :

Each side of each platter has a dedicated r/w head. The heads do not "switch" to a different platter. The head arms are all connected and move as one unit. That is, even if the data is on the top of the first platter so "only" head 1 (platter 1, top surface) has to move to read it, heads 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 also move along with it.

The increased mass of the additional heads may make the movements a bit noisier (and cause a bit more friction and heat). But wouldn't explain intermittent noises when there's no activity going on with the disk.

Unfortunately, the video is set to private so I can't hear the noise. Without hearing it, I can think of two possibilities.

■Do you have a pagefile on this drive? If so, remove it.
■WD has used a very aggressive head parking timer on their 5400 RPM drives. Something like 8-12 seconds of inactivity and it'd park the heads. It's possible they've added this "feature" to their newer 7200 RPM drives. There's no simple way to disable this via Windows. On their 5400 RPM drives, you can disable it by using CrystalDiskInfo, going into the APM settings, and moving the power management slider to FEh (max performance). Be warned that this setting may not "stick" and you may have to do it again after a reboot.

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

Sorry if this is newbish but could you help me out? Afraid i'm not familiar with all of this stuff. How do I find out if the pagefile is on the HD? Regarding the Crystal Disk thing, I downloaded the standard edition of Crystal Disk 7.0.0 then went Function > Advanced Feature > AAM/APM control but when I select the appropriate HD the controls are greyed out...

Solandri · Jul 11, 2016

Listened to the video. That doesn't sound normal at all. It sounds like the R/W heads moving, but they shouldn't be slapping over to one side like that every 5 seconds.

Are you sure it's the new drive making the noise? Sometimes we only notice a noise that's been happening all the time after we install something new and are paying attention. Try disconnecting the new drive, and playing your game which causes the noise, and see if that makes it disappear. If it really is coming from the new drive, there are a couple WD reps who hang out in these forums. You could PM them to ask for their advice.

Pagefile setup can be found under:

Computer/This PC -> right-click -> properties -> Advanced system settings -> Performance -> Advanced tab -> Change (virtual memory)

If the APM controls were greyed out under CrystalDiskInfo, it probably means either WD prevents you from tweaking it entirely, or the drive model is new so CrystalDiskInfo doesn't yet know how to change the settings.

otacon237 · Jul 11, 2016

Solandri :

the weird thing is, I recently bought a Seagate drive that was doing the same thing. I RMA'd it because it ended up being the wrong RPM speed but it did the same exact thing. I assumed it was the drive but now the new WD is doing it too, so maybe it is some sort of system issue.

I am fairly sure it is the new drive, but I will try disconnecting it and listen for the noise. I only say that because this is my first build and I am super sensitive any weird noises it might make, lol.

The old drive makes kind of a "chattering" noise which I can post a video as well, but they sound like normal "computer" noises, happens most frequently when running games or resource demanding software like video editors. come to think of it, it does sort of make a short buzzing sound sometimes, I think I will post a video of that just to have all my bases covered.

Do you think it might be a power supply or connector issue? I have a few other SATA cables I could try swapping out. Also I have 3 total HD's on the one cable "string" (sorry, I don't know the technical term) so maybe connecting it with its own cable might help? Or is that unlikely?

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Brand New WD Black 5 TB continous intermittent clicking [VIDEO INCLUDED] Help Appreciated

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Solandri

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