From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 15 11:06:11 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8BCC716A41F for ; Sun, 15 Jan 2006 11:06:11 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from soralx@cydem.org) Received: from pd4mo2so.prod.shaw.ca (shawidc-mo1.cg.shawcable.net [24.71.223.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 13C6B43D49 for ; Sun, 15 Jan 2006 11:06:10 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from soralx@cydem.org) Received: from pd2mr4so.prod.shaw.ca (pd2mr4so-qfe3.prod.shaw.ca [10.0.141.107]) by l-daemon (Sun ONE Messaging Server 6.0 HotFix 1.01 (built Mar 15 2004)) with ESMTP id <0IT400B16S69WZ80@l-daemon> for freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org; Sun, 15 Jan 2006 04:06:09 -0700 (MST) Received: from pn2ml5so.prod.shaw.ca ([10.0.121.149]) by pd2mr4so.prod.shaw.ca (Sun ONE Messaging Server 6.0 HotFix 1.01 (built Mar 15 2004)) with ESMTP id <0IT4004Q4S694OF0@pd2mr4so.prod.shaw.ca> for freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org; Sun, 15 Jan 2006 04:06:09 -0700 (MST) Received: from 192.168.0.251 ([24.85.63.128]) by l-daemon (Sun ONE Messaging Server 6.0 HotFix 1.01 (built Mar 15 2004)) with ESMTP id <0IT4005GMS699K61@l-daemon> for freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org; Sun, 15 Jan 2006 04:06:09 -0700 (MST) Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 03:06:04 -0800 From: soralx@cydem.org In-reply-to: <42EE531B.1060704@nurfuerspam.de> To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Message-id: <200601150306.04067.soralx@cydem.org> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-disposition: inline References: <42EE531B.1060704@nurfuerspam.de> User-Agent: KMail/1.5.4 Cc: tpen0010@hotmail.com, bsdfan@nurfuerspam.de Subject: Re: hard drive noises -- western digital wd800ve X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 11:06:11 -0000 > Michael Roberts wrote: > > i'm encountering something funny in a hard drive i just installed. > > issue is: the hard drive makes clicking noises sometimes when the system > > is trying to access the drive, and when that happens, there is a > > momentary (half or quarter second) pause in whatever the computer was > > trying to do. e.g., if i type in a partial path in a terminal, then try > > to tab-complete it, i hear a little tic-toc, accompanied by a pause, > > before the completed path shows up in the terminal. > > I once had a IBM hard drive which made such a noise right from the > beginning. According to the support people this was "normal" with that > series of drives. I've got a Seagate Cheetah (15000RPM) 18Gb SCSI HDD that makes seemingly random ticking and clicking noises. The drive appears to be in good health, though `camcontrol defects da1 -f phys -P|wc -l` shows 8191 lines of factory defects! In case somebody is still interested, I speculate that there are at least 2 reasons for such noises: 0. Motor bearings. The random, and quite audible, clicking noise may be emitted by motor's ball bearings on high-RPM disks. This noise sounds almost exactly like the bearing noise I hear in some aircraft gyro rotors. I'm not sure of its origin, but I think that it may be caused by dirt in bearings and/or bearings' race[s] surface[s] slipping over the balls' surfaces. More bearing preload helps, but usually does not eliminate the noise completely. These clinking sounds start to appear after ~10kRPM (lower is not unusual), and appear more frequently with increase in rotor's angular velocity. Lower quality bearing that are becoming more common seem to have this problem. I consider such noisy rotors still acceptable (they can be balanced, don't vibrate, although always have some harmonics); some factory-overhauled instruments have such noisy rotors too. 1. Louder ticking noise may be produced by some SCSI drives (esp. newer ones) that have the feature to continuously scan for bad sectors when idle, as a preventive measure. > However, I finally persuaded my supplier to have this drive replaced > with one from another vendor. I couldn't have a drive in my PC which > brings me cold sweat every day. > > As the others I recommend smartmontools and perhaps do a check with some > "drive fitness test" tools from WD. > > Markus Timestamp: 0x43CA1E1B [SorAlx] http://cydem.org.ua/ ridin' VN1500-B2