The Western Digital whine

[Pope Mobile]

Alright...I have a Western Digital WD120JD. It's an SATA drive, 120 GB, 8 MB cache and 7200 RPM. This thing is amazingly loud in my case. It's only a month old, and it runs fine, but it's by far the loudest thing in my case. No other hard drive i've witnessed has come close to this level of noise, and that's including an 80 GB Western Digital IDE drive, also 7200 RPM. Should I be concerned about the functionality of this, or can others who have/have heard this drive cue me in about its loudness? I see some reviewers saying this drive is quiet, which I initially thought until I singled it out as a source of (obnoxious) noise. By the way, it is mounted into the case properly.

[Force Flow]

Are the screws on both sides of the drives tightened?

Try running WD's drive diagnostic tools.

[Pope Mobile]

By the way, it is mounted into the case properly.

Yes, the screws are tightened. Reviewing the diagnostic tools page, it seems that they are not applicable for SATA drives.

[Panama Red]

Maybe you're looking at the wrong diagnostic program. This from WD knowledge base:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1083&p_created=1064509186&p_sid=S86UWhhh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPXNlYXJjaF9mbmwmcF9 wcm9kX2x2bDE9OTUmcF9wcm9kX2x2bDI9JnBfY2F0X2x2bDE9MTMwJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9dGVzdGluZw**&p_li=

[Multiple_Personas120]

That should be a song..."The western Digital whine..."

I have to suggest the same thing, run some diagnostics and make sure there's nothing truely wrong with it. Then, if that doesn't reveal anything...well we'll think of sumthing there are plenty of members here in which the idea pool is limitless

Multiple Persona #23

[Pope Mobile]

I can't use the diagnostic disk because i lack a floppy drive. However, a thorough windows disk check didn't find anything wrong.

Here's another interesting piece to add to the puzzle. After turning the drive off for a few hours and then turning it back on, the whine is substantially lessened. It was only on a day previously, and with the exception of a few hours of gaming during that period, not very stressed. The hard drive rests on the second highest 3.5 inch bay, so it has a far amount of breathing room...
Edit: Ok, it's been on about five minutes and is already whining again...so confused.

If it turns out an RMA is necessary, will suppliers be understanding and send the replacement first, to allow for data transfer? I can't afford to lose the data on the disk, and have no where else to store it.

[glc]

You can usually get an advance RMA with a credit card for security.

I've quieted down whining WD Raptors substantially by putting them in Coolermaster DCD-4002 or Cooldrive 3 housings in 5.25" bays.

[Multiple_Personas120]

okay, just a suggestion, maybe it's just wobbling around in there, a thought. Try moving it to the bottom of the slot, it really shouldn't need all that much 'breathing room'. And man, get a floppy drive they're like ten bucks, c'mon it may be obsolete but sometimes you just need it(especially when encountering praprietar hardware...Perapherals to be more specific).

Multiple Persona #23