Loud Hard drive suggestion

well... anytime a hdd reads/writes, youll more than likely hear it... turning off drive indexing helps to reduce constant hdd accessing, also using rubber washers (i believe thats what theyre called) on each of the screws holding the hdd will help to reduce noise levels from the hdd as well

check out the benchmark database at http://www.storagereview.com/ one of the benchmarks measures drive's noise.

In general, Samsung and some Hitachi drives tend to be the quietest.

HTH

Yeah the difference is this drive sounds exceptionally loud for read/write. You guys think this may be worth getting in exchange?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1682...

What's the performance difference compared to a 7200.10?

If you're concerned, download and test using seagates test tools on their website. I cannot hear my drive, but then I spent too many years on the flightline...

You might want to try and see if you can enable acoustic management, which makes the drive quieter. Of course only you can know if in your gut this seems like something that's only going to get worse. But it never hurts to try and it's defintely quicker than an RMA!  

-The String

I cannot hear my Seagates at all, but then I have three case fans (all set on low) and my case comes with rubber pads on the HD cages. I also, as one of the other posters recommended, have indexing turned off on all of my drives (the option is under My Computer, Properties).

Even so, I am suprised that yours would seem to be that loud. I would definitely think about an RMA. As you will note from these figures at a recent Anandtech article, the Seagate's acoustics are usually very good:

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2920&p=...

Use the following tool on it several times, its almost guaranteed to silence your hard drive:



I've read that the 7200.10 vibrates a lot so that's probably the noise you are hearing. The best way to reduce that noise short of smack it around with a mallet several times is to install rubber grommets. That way the rubber grommets absorbs some of the vibrations before they get transmitted to the case.

Yeah i'm not thinking it's the vibrations, It's only during the read/write and it sounds like rattling, only from the drive, not amplified by the case. (and I can hear it do it in little spurts while downloading stuff). It is a little different with the fact that I can hear it because I have an Antec Sonota II so the rest of the case is already quiet (and has the rubber mounts).

Test the drive with manufacturer's own tool. Without this there is even no talking about rma.
If the drive is not broken take it out of the case and put on a pile of books then run it again to make sure it really is loud on itself.
If it really is loud itself then you could get one of those small cases for silecning drives or other device ment for it (rubber thingies included).

I myself, took a plastic bag, filled it with sand (not too much) and wrapped it around the drive. I also took an old cd drive removed the guts, and put the hdd in the cd drive case. Sand muffles noises very good and it a good enough heat conductor not to make the drive overheat. The cd case makes it possible to install the sh*t in a 5,25in bay.

Also do a SMART test with Speedfan.
if it fails the test, RMA it.

Manufacturers tool includes all that is necessary for the manufacturer to consider the drive bad. This is the safest bet, because all drives include some redundancy (which is manufacturer-specific) and those tools take this into account. Third party tools cant do that because the drive internal specifications arent open.
Maxtor wouldnt even allow you to RMA a drive without an error code from their diagnostic program.

i have the same drive and problem, its so loud and anoyying liken 70% of the time, its only loud on the read write times when i actaully do stuff (which is all the time), i ran seatools and everything checked ok. also, for indexing, i dont know how to diable it in vista ultimate, theres a bunch of stuff

Speedfan has a very detailed SMART test. More than the manufacturer's SMART test. I like to check the results of the manufacturer with a third party "independent" tool. The manufacturer is interested in keeping to a minimum RMAs.
With Maxtor you can check that the hard drive is loud or completely dead and return the hard drive without a diagnostic code.