New HDD strange problem

[DarkZen]

hey,

Ive bought a new IDE harddrive Maxtor 40 Gb 7200 RPM.
When the HDD is "Idle" , (example while im working in the BIOS of the computer) My Hardddrive makes some little ticks. You almost cant hear it. It sounds like its writing something to the HDD. But the LED's of the HDD are not burning then.

Does anybody what this is?

I tested the drive with a maxtor tool, it didnt find any errors

[embj]

Hmmm...Sounds very weird. I have a Maxtor 4D040H2 HD which is 40gb and 7200rpm's. It doesn't make that noise. I figured that I would say this cause once someone replies you usually get more people to say stuff quicker.:) :t :cool:

Just to make sure. I will take off the cover and go into the BIOS in listen to if for you. Who knows. I might hear it too. It might be normal.:D

[BipolarBill]

The head parks when idle - don't sweat it.

[embj]

Yeah, I didn't think that it was anything serious.:t :cool:

[Psycho Logical]

It could very well develop into something serious, if you ignore the noise or just accept the statement that it is caused by parking the heads.

The read/write heads and actuator assembly do not park when the drive is "idle" -- if by that you mean not reading or writing, but still under power. To park the head that often would unnecessarily increase the mechanical wear and tear on the drive, and also drastically and quite adversely affect its access time.

The parked position (landing zone) is most often located toward the center of the platters, but drives "fill up" from the outside in, because the logic circuitry and most OS file systems write data by starting at the outermost tracks/cylinders first. If an "average" drive is 50% full, and if the actuator and head had to start from the park position every time a read or write command was received, that's a lot of real estate to pass over to get to where the data is.

Parking only happens when the drive loses power, either accidentally because of a power outage, or on purpose because of power management settings or a normal shutdown. The head/actuator assembly is usually working against spring pressure or a magnetic force that pulls it toward the center whenever power is lost.

[BipolarBill]

I think that the main clues here are the low audibilty of the clicks and the fact that they occur when the HDD LED is dark.

[DarkZen]

Thank you for the great answers!!!

Mhmm, is this bad for the drive?? or is it normally?
so i dont need to worry?

I Started de HDD without IDE cable. so the BIOS said harddrive failure. I listened too the sound of the HDD, but without IDE cable it still makes the same sound. I thought it will stop because the drive is without IDE cable not able to communicate with the motherboard.

So this is normal?

Sorry for my Bad English.......

[BipolarBill]

Why don't you contact Maxtor and ask?

http://www.maxtor.com/en/index.htm

Choose your International support option from the top.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry - but I'm not you! ;)

[Spazzy]

I have a Maxtor 20 gig D740X 7200 rpm drive and it "ticks" too. I was told that is a mfg deal caused be the servo something or other inside... and as long as it is not MOTOR noise, I wouldnt be concerned. Mine is fast as hell.. tick or no tick !