Whining Sound?

[Shafra]

Just did a new build. Everything seems to be running well, until about an hour ago. I heard some loud whining from the bottom front of my case. I thought maybe the front case fan was rubbing against something so I just unplugged it, still hear the loud whine but it's just every once and a while, I can't figure out why it goes off. Only thing in that area are two HDD's. One 6 month old Western Digital 250GB and one 75GB WD IDE that's many years old. Is this one of the HDD's dying on me? If so, I hope it's the old IDE drive because I planned to replace it soon...... Before I take it out I'll ask here, not sure what else could make that sound. Not pleasant sound at all.

(Edit)Just wanted to edit and say the sound is almost like metal grinding on metal. I can't think of any other way to describe it.

 

[phucng_10]

Metal grinding on metal? That sounds like from inside the HDD then. The data disc inside is probably grinding against the reader. Can you confirm that it's the 75GB or the 250GB? Seems to be the 75GB correct?

 

[peterhuang913]

Whining noises usually means a hard drive is dying.

 

[veedubfreak]

Unplug both drives and boot up and listen. If there is no grinding sound, plug in the 250gb, listen, if no sound plug in the 75gb repeat.

 

[Shafra]

I analyzed both drives and the 75gb was insanely fragmented. I defragged it (which took over an hour) and I have not heard any more whining. However, to be safe, I have a 250GB Maxtor Sata I'm going to copy over the 75GB data to it and stop using it. If after doing this I hear any more whines it must be the 250GB WD. Which I hope isn't the case, as it's only 6 months old and currently holds my OS.

At least you guys confirmed that's a HDD failure. I kept trying to listen and I couldn't hear it coming from anywhere else and only the HDD's are in the front. With both of them right on top of each other, it was too hard to hear which one it was and the sounds were random, like once every hour or couple of hours.

I had no idea a HDD would sound like that when they were dying. I guess I've been lucky to never have one fail or die but I circulate the PC's every year to 1.5 years I've just kept this little 75gb WD for a long time to use for temporary back ups whenever I wipe my OS and do a clean install.

 

[phucng_10]

It can be the 75GB HDD that you currently have. Might want to backup the data into your new 250GB Maxtor HDD. Just in case if the 75GB dies out of nowhere.