# Good, Quiet Hard drive?



## DaveHigh (Aug 13, 2006)

Can anyone recommend a good, QUIET hard drive? We have a TiVo in our bedroom and the "whine" from the hard drive is driving me nuts. It is a WeakNees system (thier forums are down so I cant ask there) and I doubt it is still under warranty, however I doubt a noisy hard drive would be a warranty deal anyway. Looking for something 300GB or so. I have heard the 7500rpm drives are the noisiest, but I cant find any 5400rpm drives anymore. 

Anyone have any suggestions before I head to Frys? 

Thanks, 

dave


----------



## lafos (Nov 8, 2004)

If you do a search in this forum, you can find plenty of comments from peoples' experiences with drives. I've had very quiet drives from Seagate (DB35 series only, the others are noisy), and the Western Digital AV series.

If you hear a whine, that suggests that a bearing is going bad, so the drive may no last much longer. Most noise complaints are due to the head movements, and is more of a clicking sound.


----------



## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

Silent PC Review's recommendations on quiet HDDs.

They don't believe any 3.5" HDD is quiet enough, and they prefer 2.5" laptop HDDs for silence-critical applications.


----------



## fred-vo (Jan 31, 2004)

I recently replaced the original 20-hour HD in my HD TiVo with a Western Digital 750GB HD and the drive is unacceptably noisy. The noise is not a whine. Rather, it's an intermittent clicking sound. Fortunately, I have 2 HD TiVo's, one in my living room and one in an exercise room. This one is only acceptable in the latter.

Has anyone else had this problem???

I intend to upgrade the HD in my 2nd HD TiVo. I am very hesitant to obtain a WD drive as a replacement.


----------



## Mars (Sep 13, 2001)

If you are hearing drive seek noise, try running acoustic management utility from Hiatachi. It will work on most brands, not just Hiatachi. I used it on a Western Digital 250g with good results. You will have to pull your TiVo drive and put it into your PC to run the utility. Does not change any of the data on the drive, just toggles a firmware setting.


----------



## chrispitude (Apr 23, 2005)

The 750GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 drive is now on sale for $140 shipped at the 'Egg:

Samsung Spinpoint F1 at the 'Egg

It's a fast, virtually silent drive - just as quiet as the famed WD GP drives. It runs a couple watts higher than the WD GP, but it's a 7200rpm drive (versus the GP's 5400pm) and has very good performance. My first choice for the S3 would have been a GP, but in practice this is likely just as good (and perhaps a bit snappier under heavy drive activity).

Credit goes to Fatwallet (this thread).

- Chris


----------



## Pauli (Mar 1, 2004)

Mars said:


> If you are hearing drive seek noise, try running acoustic management utility from Hiatachi. It will work on most brands, not just Hiatachi. I used it on a Western Digital 250g with good results. You will have to pull your TiVo drive and put it into your PC to run the utility. Does not change any of the data on the drive, just toggles a firmware setting.


Mars is correct. WD drives are much quieter when AAM is set to quiet mode on them. It is very easy to do and will definitely help with quieting the seek noise. If you do this and it is still not quiet enough, you can further reduce the seek noise by placing the drive on soft rubber or gel pads -- this decouples the drive from the case and reduces any vibration noise.


----------



## Mordred (Oct 6, 2003)

chrispitude said:


> The 750GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 drive is now on sale for $140 shipped at the 'Egg:
> 
> Samsung Spinpoint F1 at the 'Egg
> 
> ...


You can get a 750GB WD GP for the same price at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136150


----------



## chrispitude (Apr 23, 2005)

Mordred said:


> You can get a 750GB WD GP for the same price at Newegg:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136150


Hi Mordred,

You are quite right (I posted that drive deal in the S3 forums). Unfortunately, it doesn't work as an internal drive in the Series 3 due to an incompatibility. It does work as an external drive, and it works as an internal and external drive in the Tivo HD. I wanted it bad enough that I ordered and tried it in my S3 anyway. No dice.

- Chris


----------



## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

chrispitude Seagate drive that can work in the S3 posted here http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=386402


----------

