[Asterix]

My computer's fans are very quiet, so if any component makes a noise I know about it. The bottleneck in my system is my hard drive. My computer scores 5.9 for everything in the Windows Vista Experience Index except for the primary hard disk, where it scores 5.3.

Now, my hard drive makes clicking noises. Not like when a laptop hard drive is overheating, but fast clicking noises, where it's writing information to the drive. Is this normal for all hard drives or would a better hard drive be quieter?

It's this noise: YouTube - noisy hard drive

[Ste]

The only thing you can do is have all important data backed up..

Or buy a new drive.

[Asterix]

I think you've completely misunderstood my post. I'm asking whether all hard drives make audible noise. My hard drive works very well, it's just a tad too noisy for my liking.

[Ste]

Older ones make more noise, newer ones that are on their way out make noise.

That noise isn't "that" bad, but still have all your data backed up.

[Mak213]

If that is the noise. I would backup and be prepared. That is a lot of noise. I know my drives make some noise when being taxed heavily. But nothing like that.

Either that is a really old drive. Or it is on its way out.

[Asterix]

It's a brand new drive. Literally a few months old and only used for the first time on Saturday. It's a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500 GB SATA hard drive. It's currently silent, but if I defrag or install a program then it makes more noise than I am happy with. Do they all do that?

[networkgeek]

If you are not sure if the drive is ok then you can download this

Download IBM - Hitachi Drive Fitness Test 4.12 - Quick, reliable method to test SCSI and IDE hard disk drives - Softpedia

and run a test

[Asterix]

My hard drive is fine; I know that for sure. I'm simply asking about the noise.

[networkgeek]

Some harddrives just make more noise then others. Shouldnt be anything to worry about.

[Asterix]

But would a top end hard drive be very quiet or do they all make audible noise?