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Maxtor DiamondMax Pus9 200GB clicking noise

A

andyjamesnelson

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 24, 2003
286
0
Jacob's house
hi, i just got a new Maxtor DiamondMax Pus9 200GB from dabs - one of the reason i bought this drive was because:

"All DiamondMax Plus 9 drives are equipped with FDB motors. This technology allows the drive to operate with very low sound output for performance users who are concerned about acoustics"

but this thing makes loud clicking noises? the noise apears (and is very audible) when i transfer data between the two partitions within the disk. it stops when the transfer is done. doesnt happen with small files but when i try and move say 700mb files thing noise is really loud? anyone know whats goign on here? andy.
 
It sounds like a failing drive. I had one, too. I'm currently trying to get it replaced by Maxtor. Their website allows you to request an RMA to send it back. My advice: back up everything on that drive and get it replaced under warranty.
 
But this HD is brand new!

I only just got this from dabs.. its brand new.. can it still be failing? why would it only make such clicking noises when transfering data between partitions? if it was failing wouldnt it make noises whenever it was doing something?
 
Could've been just a bad apple in the bunch. Could be poor manufacturing. You should get it replaced to be on the safe side. I've heard of plenty of HD clicks that result in HD failure.
 
applekid said:
Could've been just a bad apple in the bunch. Could be poor manufacturing. You should get it replaced to be on the safe side. I've heard of plenty of HD clicks that result in HD failure.
Click to expand...
HEY that hurt my feelings...."bad apple in the bunch?" dang say something else like bad tree in the country side!
 
andyjamesnelson said:
I only just got this from dabs.. its brand new.. can it still be failing? why would it only make such clicking noises when transfering data between partitions? if it was failing wouldnt it make noises whenever it was doing something?
Click to expand...

It is still possible that it is failing. Call up Maxtor and get it replaced. That shouldn't be happening.

Good luck,
JOD8FY
 
andyjamesnelson said:
I only just got this from dabs.. its brand new.. can it still be failing? why would it only make such clicking noises when transfering data between partitions? if it was failing wouldnt it make noises whenever it was doing something?
Click to expand...

I have heard the infamous clicking sound a few times before. It always means the disc is about to fail. In the early stages the drives in my experience would only click sometimes but it can only be a matter of time. BACK UP your data. Hopefully your drive has a warranty.
 
Noise is normal

Maxtors make noise, even with FDB. I think those fluid bearings are in the drive motor, not the arm motor, so when the head moves: noise.
Now you might have huge noise, I can't tell, in which case there may be something wrong with the drive, but I have a pair of 80GB maxtors here with FDB, and we use maxline plus II drives at work in a bunch of Linux servers... they all make audible clicking noises when doing something big. It's not that loud, but audible over fan noise.
If you were expecting no noise, then sorry, they make noise.

The quietest drives I've heard (or haven't heard) are the Hitachi Deskstars (used to be IBM), now those are quiet (minus the quality problems they had a few years back), and the drive in the 17" Powerbook... I can't even tell it's working... whereas my Pismo would creak and chatter.
All Maxtor's new drives come with ioctls for acoustic settings, but I've only set these using hdparm in linux... I'm not sure if OSX has an equivalent... I think it makes a difference in Linux... but I'm not sure. They still chatter.

-Wyrm
 
Just an update...

Just checked the Maxtor specs on their site, for the DiamondMax Plus 9:
specs

The FDB motors are on ALL motors in the drive...
Seek max sound is 35db, which is very audible.... somewhat like a loud whisper.

-Wyrm
 
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