Western Digital My Book external hard drive question (problem?)

I've had a Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB hard drive for about 3 months, give or take.

For a while now, I've noticed that when I rest my hand on the thing, I can feel a very-light, almost-clunky kind of thing happening inside (It may have been happening all along, but I don't know - I didn't check until after I had already been using the thing for a while). And if the room is quiet, I can hear it too. (For lack of a better explanation), it sounds like someone lightly-scraping a pick-axe along concrete from two miles away, if that makes any sense. It's not loud or anything, but I can certainly hear it if the room's quiet.

If this is how they're supposed to sound (and feel), then that's fine. But I'd like to be sure. I've put 300+GB of music on this thing (audiophile stuff that's VERY-important to me), and I don't have a backup external drive yet (I'm hoping to get one at the end of the month, but until then, this is it - I bought this thing because I had no room left on my PC's internal hard drive).

Money's very tight these days, so I can't necessarily just box it up and send it to a repair guy just for a diagnosis.

Can someone help answer this for me. Is this thing going to crash on me, or will I make it through the next month until I get a backup (at that point, it won't be as big of a deal if it crashes - as long as it's still under warranty, that is). This is my first external drive, so I know nothing about how these things are SUPPOSED to act. I can be a bit of a worry-wart, but I'd like to be sure. Thanks in advance.

 

I have TWO external hard drives. I expect one to fail. And don't worry about it too much.

My mybook 500g is farily quiet with no vibration, btw.

 

The thing is, I'm kind of stuck for the next 3-4 weeks until I CAN get a backup.

Also, I think the 500GB models use two plates, whereas the new 1TB model uses 3. I thought maybe that might account for what I'm feeling/hearing. But like I said, this is my first external drive, so I don't really know. I couldn't even tell you how a hard drive works. I still don't fully-understand the mechanics of it. Not much of a techie.

 

Gang Twanger- I've had my WD My Book 1TB drive for nearly 1-1/2 years and I have not had a single problem with it although I can remember when I first set it up I noticed the same kind of low level noise coming from it that you have described. Another thing that I noticed is that the drive is almost 30% faster when connected with firewire than it is when connected using USB.

~Maxx~

 

I don't think that there is any way to estimate the life of it. Some hard drives make some noise and go on for many years. There can be slight, consistent noise or only intermittent noise when moving rapidly to find particular data. Other drives can lock-up rather suddenly. I have only had one drive fail in all of mine if I am not mistaken. That one made one hell of a racket when it went. I got most of the data backed-up before it was locked-up too tight to try and recover any more. I don't think that I have ever had one that was completely silent. I mean, if you really try and hear one, you will.
-Bill

 

You can download diagnostic software from Westerndigital.com to test the hard drive for free. If the hard drive tests bad and your a month away from a backup. I would power down that hard drive and box it up until you can back it up and hope it allows you to get all of your data off...

 

Thanks for all the help, everybody. I'll download the WD software, and test it. I do a bit of downloaded (Well, maybe more than I'd like to admit), so that might be what I'm hearing as well. I'm trying to cover all the bases - I did a few searches, and asked around about what the best external drives were, so it would kill me if this thing were to fail on me). Anyway, I appreciate all the help.

 

I have a 500 GB My Book Studio and all I can say is that it's perfectly normal to hearing that clicking sound in a quiet background, particularly if you are downloading directly to the external drive. The hard drive is probably hard mounted inside the enclosure, without any vibration dampening, which makes the clicking more audible. I even have to keep mine on top of a neoprene pad to avoid feeling the vibration in my desk.

 

I have a 1TB (for over a year now I think) as well. It makes the noise you describe. Remember, HDD's have moving parts. I believe the design of the case on the WD externals is what allows you hear the sounds.

 

That clicking would make me nervous. I would unplug it until I could get another backup. Optionally, I might try an online backup like http://www.carbonite.com/

 

I have a couple 1 TB WD My Essentials and they make noise, but work fine.

You mentioned a lot of DLing. Do you DL directly to your WD? I DL to my computer's HD drive then move it to my ext. HDs. Seems to keep the data together better - don't have to defrag as often. Not sure if DLing to an ext. HD works the same as DLing to an internal HD, but I know the data gets scattered all over my internal HD so there's more jumping around/searching for stuff. Seems like that would work a HD harder. I like to get stuff organized on my internal HD, then drag it to my ext. HDs.

 

Makes absolutely no difference to the HD or the computer whatsoever.

 

I too have (had) a 1TB Western Digital My Book Premium Edition.

Used it for about a year, and it started making faint noises (scraping) and month later it was dead.

I strongly urge you to back up to another drive, off-site service or DVD's asap.

I've lost all my data, and recovery services start at $600.00.

Btw, I had run all kinds of diagnostics and it always passed.

I'm now using two Iomega external 500 GB drives, which are a fraction of the size and make absolutely no noise - at the suggestion of our local Apple Mac repair guys.

 

You probably know more than I do about computers... could you provide more info? Which part makes no difference? If fragmented data makes no difference is there any need to defrag a HD?

 

Can anyone comment on Western Digital 2TB external drives. I just filled up a 750GB WD external drive and I'm debating on whether to get a 1TB or 2TB.

Thanks,
JD

 

Yes, they're fine. I have 3 of them. They're a slight bit smaller in footprint than the 1tb's. I've never had a problem with any of my WD external drives and I've had over a dozen of them. My problem with them is that I outgrow them. The 2tb's should hold me for quite a while as I'm just barely past 1.1tb of flac files.

I paid $169 for each of the 2tb's which is less than I paid for the 1tb's. I'd not hesitate to spend the extra money for the 2tb's, but I don't know your personal finances.

 

Doug

Thanks for the quick reply, I have some BB gift cards, so I'm on my way to get that 2TB model

 

Having second thoughts about the new WD externals. After reading some reviews,
seems a lot of people are PO'd with the Smartware backup software on these new units,
that you can't get rid of. I think I'll wait a little while.

 

This is not new. My 1tb WD's have it as well. It does not seem to be an issue to me. I don't use the software. People are upset that a drive letter gets assigned to the software share on each drive but for me it's a non issue. I wish it wasn't there but I don't see it as much of a problem.

 

From what I understand it is embedded in the firmware and you can't remove it, or decline to install it.
Have you done the workaround from the Western Digital site? or how are you dealing with it?
I'm really not interested in using this automatic update stuff.

 

Something to consider: I have a friend at work who insists that internal hard drives are made to stricter quality standards than self-contained external drives. I don't know if that's true, but I followed his advice, and my external drives are all Western Digital internal drives (1Tb) that run in separately purchased enclosures (Thermaltake Max 4s). The external boxes have built-in fans that keep the drives cool, and they handle both eSata and USB connections. I've never had problems with them.

I'm now hitting space limits, and I'm about to repeat the process with the WD 2Tbs.

 

I too have heard this mentioned before. But, getting enclosures for those internal drives is gonna take up up a lot more space isn't it? I kinda like the way WD externals can be stacked like books.

 

You can get thinner enclosures than the ones I have - mine are a bit thicker because of the side fans. There are plenty of boxes without fans that aren't much bigger than the drives themselves.

(Let me add that IMO, Newegg.com and TigerDirect.com are great online retailers for all things computer-related).

 

It sounds like normal HD read/write activity to me, the way you've described it. If you hear clicking or clunking, then it's time to worry.

 

I barely notice it as I don't use them for automatic update. All I notice is that each drive uses two letters. One shows up under Hard Disk Drives, and the other shows up under Devices with Removable Storage. The drive under 'Devices with Removable Storage' shows a total size of 442mb with 0 mb available. Under 'Hard Disk Drives' I show 1.81 TB total size with it all available until I fill it up.

I don't see what the big deal is. I surely don't have to use the SmartWare software and never will. As I said, I'd prefer it to not be there, but it doesn't seem to cause me any issues. That said, I've only had these drives for a few weeks.