WD My Book 16TB Extremely Weird Startup Noise

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for Windows
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Hi all,

I’m getting extremely weird startup noise with my WD 16TB my book drive. I have 3-4 other wd external drive (all <= 6TB), but none of them makes such an extreme noise.

Here is the audio recording - Dropbox - Voice 001.mka - Simplify your life

Can anyone please tell me if this is normal? I need to get it replaced ASAP as it is just delivered.

1 Like
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I just want to know what sort of sounds you are getting . However, certain unusual hard drive noises are more concerning than others, such as:

  • Buzzing or vibration sounds

  • an obnoxious whine

  • constant or rhythmic tapping, grinding, or beeping that occurs repeatedly.

  • While connecting external drives, there may be some clicking or beeping (not from the computer), especially if the disc is not being correctly identified.

Do a complete backup of all your data on your hard drive as soon as you can, either online or on a different hard drive or storage device. You can postpone troubleshooting until you are certain that your data is secure elsewhere.

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I have already posted an audio recording of that sound - Dropbox - Voice 001.mka - Simplify your life

This sound is while starting up the drive from 0 power…It almost feels like something broken inside is trying to move.

Then once the drive is up and running. I hear a loud ticking at frequent interval.

NOTE: This is a brand new drive

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Initially, the CPU FAN may be the source of the buzzing or grinding sounds. An inbuilt FAN keeps the heated system from overheating and causing damage. There are computers built to operate all the fans simultaneously and at the maximum speed initially. This is to check if the fans are working properly and to remove the accumulated dust. The speed of one fan is not strong enough to remove the dust; hence we need multiple fans to operate simultaneously.
If there is anything preventing these PC fans from operating normally. Since they don’t always spin at the same speed, it could be that their blades are contacting one another. Thus, resulting in a grinding noise. If this is the reason, you can easily detect it. It requires you just to open your computer and check the blades of the fans, whether or not they hit each other when in running mode.
If it doesnt resolve your problem then try to replace it otherwise it cant cause issue in the future.

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I got an replacement from amazon and the noise is same on this same time…Initial noise is like something is stuck, then I get a small sound like someone is “tapping” from the inside at a regular interval.

2 Likes
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I have same problem. I hope it is not serious as i just bought my HDD one week ago.