WD 10TB drives are supposed to sound like this?

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antioch18

New Member
Dec 17, 2018
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Hi, I have recently acquired several WD100EMAZ 10TB drives which make the following noise when being accessed: HDD Noise - Clyp (this is an example of what I hear when copying to the drives over network)

The drives have all passed a full SMART test, yet I am concerned -- is this noise expected?

The noise is rather irritating, particularly when trying to stream a video file from disk. My old WD 4TB Reds never made any noise like this when being accessed.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Sounds like the heads moving, each time it needs to read data and fill the buffer, if you copy a file local instead of stream it is that sound then non stop and no gap ?
 

antioch18

New Member
Dec 17, 2018
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Yes, pretty much.

However, as I said, my 4TB drives don't make nearly as much noise -- they're pretty much unnoticeable when active aside from the drives spinning.
 

Spartacus

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2019
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Sounds about right, I have the 8tb chucks and they're similar noise, however I have some vibration dampeners on the drive trays I have that reduce this noise by about 30-40%.
 

antioch18

New Member
Dec 17, 2018
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A few questions:
  • Do the WD Red 10TBs have the same acoustic characteristics?
  • Is there anything I can do programmatically to quiet the drives, perhaps through a utility such as WDIDLE?
Sounds about right, I have the 8tb chucks and they're similar noise, however I have some vibration dampeners on the drive trays I have that reduce this noise by about 30-40%.
Out of curiosity, what dampers are you using? I've got mine mounted using rubber grommets, but I'm beginning to think that this isn't nearly enough.
 

Spartacus

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May 27, 2019
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Austin, TX
They the same model WD80EMAZ I can't attest to if they are the exact same internals though, they were fairly noisy out of the case.
Fractal design has similar dampeners built into their drive trays, its rubber grommets with long screws from the bottom.
I like the style of this as the drive isn't vibrating in mid air basically, its mounted to the bottom and is solidly mounted to the base of the tray.
To be fair the FD case acoustics noise reduction helps alot with that.

 

antioch18

New Member
Dec 17, 2018
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I'm also using a Fractal Design case with those same grommets, but still the drives are quite loud and at times and produce a resonance that vibrates the shelf the case is on. :(

Rather unhappy with the large format HDDs, if they're all like this. The family is fairly annoyed with the new drives, not sure what to do.
 

William

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May 7, 2015
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So.. I have been running a WD100EMAZ 10TB (WD 10TB White label) in my NAS - QNAP TVS-951x, along with several other WD10TB drives. They make hardly any noise, in fact I mostly hear the fans. They certainly do not sound like that if I put my ear up next to the NAS.
 

antioch18

New Member
Dec 17, 2018
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So.. I have been running a WD100EMAZ 10TB (WD 10TB White label) in my NAS - QNAP TVS-951x, along with several other WD10TB drives. They make hardly any noise, in fact I mostly hear the fans. They certainly do not sound like that if I put my ear up next to the NAS.
I can hear this noise across the room. :(

Do yours not make that noise even during boot up?
 

antioch18

New Member
Dec 17, 2018
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That is interesting, because mine do, and Spartacus says his do, yet yours don't. What to do, what to do.

Leads me to suspect more that the white labels are cheaper than the reds for a reason.

Thank you for confirming, though!