Do I need to RMA these drives?

[mapex]

I recently purchased a WD 150gb Raptor and a WD 250gb drive from newegg. From the start both drives for all purposes are performing fine, but the Raptor while idle will make a short noise indicating it's working and then back to quiet, when actively using the drive such as installing a program the drive will very audibly sound like it's working. I know people say that raptors are loud, but is this what they were talking about? The second drive was also working just fine, but just this morning when turning on the computer it failed the smart test. Would this be cause for concern? Should I consider RMAing either of these drives? Thanks for the advice.

 

[Mondoman]

... I know people say that raptors are loud, but is this what they were talking about?

probably yes.

...just this morning when turning on the computer it failed the smart test. Would this be cause for concern? ...

Yes. What exactly did it fail? I would make sure any important data is backed up.

 

[mapex]

[quote="Mondoman]
Yes. What exactly did it fail? I would make sure any important data is backed up.[/quote]
the exact message occurs during Boot with the message "3rd Slave Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and Replace Press F1 to Resume" the drive hasn't even been used yet as it just got installed other day so there's not really anything to backup and no settings were changed since it was working correctly after install. I can still get to the drive and place files on it or remove them without any problem.

 

[Mondoman]

If you can get a utility to read the SMART info it would be interesting to see exactly what aspect of the drive failed. However, SMART errors are not ones to ignore (since drives do sometimes fail even when brand new). I would go ahead and RMA that drive.

 

[440bx]

I second Mondoman's reply.

a S.M.A.R.T failure means your drive isn't working properly and is likely to completely fail in the near future.

Back up your data and RMA it.

 

[dagonoth]

From my understanding, once it fails one smart test thats a sign that its almost gone. Being that new if it fails the test then they will replace it no questions asked.