Like any other pet, the computer publishes its own. Squeaking noise when loading, humming of power supply, processor and video card coolers, crackling hard drive- everything lets you know that this “organism” lives. When everything is normal, the level of these noises does not cause discomfort, but there is probably nothing more annoying when crackles HDD , creaks, squeaks - few people have the patience to survive this.
In principle, it is impossible to completely get rid of the sounds made by a hard drive, since this device contains mechanical components that move in contact with each other, and therefore make noise. Unlike silent solid state drives, a hard drive consists of magnetic disks on which information is stored that is read by magnetic heads. Most noise occurs when the magnetic head moves over the surface of the platter.
The level and nature of the noise emitted by the hard drive depends on the case material, assembly features and quality of components, and, of course, the age of the hard drive itself. An important component in the overall noise level of a computer is the case of the system unit. Made from metal of sufficient thickness, a precisely fitted and well-assembled case is unlikely to cause you irritation due to constant noise, especially if the hard drive and other elements containing mechanics are installed on sound-absorbing pads. Conversely, a poorly assembled lightweight and thin-walled case with poorly fitting elements will serve as a resonator and only amplify the sounds made by the hard drive.
Also, with age, the noise level from a hard drive tends to increase due to increasing wear and tear and physical deterioration of parts in motion.
Taking into account all the factors described above, we can sketch out a list of possible measures to reduce the noise level of the hard drive:
- Make additional noise and vibration insulation of the hard drive, install it on sound-absorbing pads.
- Carry out (this will reduce the number of movements of the magnetic head for a certain period of time, but this measure is temporary and will need to be repeated periodically).
- Adjust the AAM to the minimum noise level.
- Replace the hard drive with a new one with a obviously lower noise level. Read.
Since everything is more or less clear with the first two items of this list, and the last item involves significant financial costs due to problems with the hard drive, we will consider the third item in more detail.
Reducing hard drive rattling using the WinAAM program
All hard disks with ATA and especially SATA interfaces, they have in their settings a tool for controlling the level of noise emitted - Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM for short). The principle of operation of this option is based on reducing the speed of movement of the magnetic heads, and accordingly, the level of noise produced is reduced. It will not be difficult to guess that this also reduces the performance of the hard drive, but everything here is very individual for each user, everyone has different priorities. But you shouldn’t make yourself too critical of this tool in advance; perhaps you won’t even notice changes in the speed of the hard drive, but you will definitely get rid of the annoying noise.
Since the AAM option is disabled by default, for greater simplicity of the operation we will resort to using a small WinAAM utility written specifically for this purpose. I’ll say right away that this tool is completely free and does not require installation; it can work directly from the archive, which is available via . After launching this program, in the very first dialog, do not touch the security settings and click “Continue”.
In the next window at the top we see a message about noise control being disabled and therefore click on the “Quiet/Standard (128)” button.
The utility will configure the hard drive accordingly and automatically shut down. By running it again and clicking on the “Continue” button and then on “Check”, we can observe a window with information about the movements of the magnetic head of the hard drive and draw a conclusion about the noise level with the new parameters - indeed, the operation of the hard drive has become much quieter.
The hard drive remains one of the noisiest components in a computer. Moreover, one should distinguish between the noise due to the active operation of the hard drive during reading/writing and the noise of the motor, which comes from the disk almost constantly. Naturally, we should not forget about vibration noise, which is greatly amplified by the computer case. For example, often disks rigidly mounted in the metal case of the system unit transmit their low-frequency vibration (100-120 Hz) to it, and as a result, a noticeable unpleasant hum appears, which completely disappears with a non-rigid mounting.
Silent mount
The main source of noise in passive mode is the spindle bearing assembly. Being rigidly fixed in the computer case, the hard drive, with its low-frequency vibrations of small amplitude, causes the elements of the case to vibrate. The large surface of the computer case becomes a kind of amplifier for the noise produced by the hard drive. Note that three-inch bays for installing hard drives in modern cases are often made in the form of a loosely fixed basket, which is a good oscillating system. In this case, it is better to completely remove the basket from the case and install the drive in a 5.25-inch bay in a container or using a mounting slide. Several mounting methods are offered to reduce the noise of a hard drive.
To prevent resonances, you can use elastic washers for the bolts securing the disk to the computer case, vibration isolators, or an elastic suspension. An interesting idea was proposed on the Internet by enthusiasts from Spode’s Adobe website (http://www.spodesabode.com/) a rather original and very cheap way to reduce noise associated with disk vibration. All you need to implement it are two pencils and a few rubber rings, with which you can secure a three-inch hard drive in a five-inch bay using guy wires (by the way, this will in a good way for quickly mounting a hard drive in a computer if all three-inch slots are occupied).
This is perhaps one of the cheapest modifications, but it will force you to look inside your computer from time to time and change the rubber bands, since over time they become unusable. However, you can use wider and more reliable harnesses. However, do not forget that an insecurely fixed hard drive can reduce system performance or even fail.
In addition, some hard drives get very hot during operation, so good thermal contact with the computer case is an indispensable condition for their reliable operation, and suspension or insulation from the case disrupts heat transfer. So, although in the most modern models energy consumption is significantly reduced, the danger of overheating due to difficult heat dissipation still remains.
For such hard drives, you can use devices like Mobile Rack (http://www.mobile-rack.ru/), which is a plastic container into which a hard drive is inserted on a slide. The container will also act as a vibration isolator and dampen some of the vibrations of the hard drive. Some cases are equipped with built-in fans for better heat dissipation.
A more radical method of reducing hard drive noise is to use special soundproofing containers such as Silent Drive (http://www.quietps.com/) with a heat-dissipating circuit.
How to make a hard drive quieter using software
Many manufacturers provide their products with the ability to programmatically reduce the head positioning speed. The owner of a hard drive can reduce the noise level using special utilities that should be searched on the website of a specific manufacturer. Naturally, the speed of data access after reducing noise may decrease somewhat, but the level of comfort when working with a personal computer will increase.
The fact is that many modern hard drives have a noise control function (Automatic Acoustic Management, AAM, which in Russian means noise level management), and therefore some hard drive manufacturers have developed utilities for managing various disk parameters, including AMM. Almost any modern hard drive that complies with the ATA/ATAPI-6 standard or higher supports this function. The only exceptions are thin, cheaper Maxtor drives and many modern Seagate drives, which have AAM support, but cannot be adjusted.
How does a hard drive regulate the noise it makes? Some believe that reducing the noise level is achieved by reducing the disk rotation speed, but this is incorrect, since the spindle rotation speed is a constant value for specific model maintained to within a fraction of a percent. But the speed of movement of the magnetic head unit (MMG) drive can be controlled. If you were to disassemble a modern hard drive, you would see that the BMG is driven by a coil located in the field of action of a strong permanent magnet. When a current of one direction is passed through the coil, the block begins to move in one direction, and when the sign of the current changes in the other. This whole design strongly resembles the design of a conventional acoustic speaker, which is why this coil is called an acoustic coil. The greater the amplitude of the current pulse passed through the coil, and the steeper its front, the greater the acceleration imparted to the block of magnetic heads, and, accordingly, the stronger the noise emitted by the BMG design, because it acts as a diffuser in this “dynamics”. The essence of the noise reduction method in this case comes down to smoothing the edges of the current pulse supplied to the coil, which, in addition to reducing noise, leads to a decrease in the acceleration of the head unit. This means that the search operation for a specific location on the disk will be slower.
According to the ATA/ATAPI specification, adjustment can be carried out in 126 discrete levels (values in hex 0x80-0xFE), but in practice only two adjustment levels are often supported AAM ON (noise reduction enabled hex values 0x80-0xA0) and AAM OFF (respectively maximum performance hex values 0xA1-0xFE). The operating principle of utilities that control the noise level of hard drives is to change the contents of a special Acoustic Management register.
As a rule, this function does not provide a smooth reduction in speed, but only switches between “fast” and “quiet” modes, but expansion of its capabilities is planned in future implementations. Moreover, the noise level of the disk can be changed at any time without losing the integrity of the disk, that is, without destroying the information on it.
On hard drives different manufacturers factory setting may vary and vary from batch to batch. For example, some Samsung models are produced either with the AAM mode enabled or with it disabled (that is, in maximum performance mode).
In order to adjust the noise level on your hard drive, you need, as we already mentioned, to use special utility from the disk manufacturer. If you don’t find such a program on the manufacturer’s website, you can use one of many free utilities for disk management. For example, there are special program AAMTOOL by Mikhail Mavritsin and universal MHDD by Dmitry Postrigan. The programs can be taken from our CD. The capabilities of MHDD can be found on the website (http://mhddsoftware.com/index.ru.php). AAM is easy to adjust run MHDD from a floppy disk and command line programs dial AAM. The hard drive will begin to crackle its heads, and the program will offer you a choice of several options: M (minimum noise level), L (medium), P (maximum), and the D key turns off Automatic Acoustic Management, thereby switching the hard drive to maximum performance mode.
Switching the hard drive to low-noise mode, although it leads to a decrease in performance by an average of 5-10% (in some search tasks the decrease can be up to 30%), but the hard drive in this mode is practically inaudible even when copying a large number of small files.
However, in household devices, the speed characteristics of the drive are less important than the noise it produces, with modern performance technologies hard drives more than enough and of particular importance for the user is the acoustic background created by the drive in the system. Recognizing this, many hard drive companies are investing heavily in the research and development of quieter drives and in improving system designs to minimize their specific noise levels.
However, we should not forget that such simple universal methods as regularly defragmenting the disk, timely archiving, removing garbage and keeping your data in order also reduce the noise level of the hard drive when searching for information.
And one more thing: buy devices for your computers uninterruptible power supply and cases with high-quality power supplies unstable voltage (not to mention the overvoltage of cheap power supplies) can also lead to malfunctions of the drives and not only increase their noise, but also damage them.
Modern drives are becoming less and less noisy
Drive manufacturers do not stand still and, when designing new models, they are using more and more new noise reduction technologies, including the use of shock-absorbing materials inside and outside the drive.
In principle, now for most hard drives a noise level of about 30-35 dB is considered acceptable (noise increases with active movement of the hard drive heads).
The rotation speed of a package of disks on a modern hard drive is 5400, 7200, 10,000 or 15,000 rpm. And the higher the disk rotation speed, the greater the access speed to information recorded on the hard drive. True, the most common hard drives nowadays have a speed of 5400-7200 rpm, since it is cheaper, simpler and more reliable. This is due to the fact that inside the hard drive case there is air at atmospheric pressure, so when too high speed rotation of the disks causes significant heating of the rotating parts, and this leads to problems with the reliability of structural elements. In addition, high-speed hard drives create a significant level of noise during operation, which does not contribute to comfortable work with the computer. For example, the noise level when reading data arranged in a random order can be so high that the operation of a hard drive sometimes resembles the roar of a tractor. For less fast hard drives, the noise level can be significantly lower, but now that hard drives household appliances (digital audio and video recorders, satellite receivers, Internet set-top boxes, etc.), the requirements for their noise level are becoming noticeably stricter.
Indeed, in the consumer electronics industry there are practically no devices containing fans, and the only source of noise in them is hard drives. Moreover, the requirements for the quiet operation of household devices are much more stringent than for desktop computers, A low level noise is often associated with high quality product.
Therefore, hard drive manufacturers today strive to bring their products to a noise level of 15-20 dB (at the background level of a quiet room at night) in passive mode and 2-3 dB higher in read/write mode. Of course, this level would satisfy even the most demanding user, but today there are practically no such disks, and noise reduction from existing disks must be achieved by additional means.
The simplest solution to get rid of motor noise is to take a hard drive with a speed of 5400 rpm. Such disk drive when idling, it has a noise level of 28-30 dB and will not be heard during the day (at this time, the background noise of a quiet room is at the level of 30 dB), especially if it is enclosed in a well-insulated system housing, which also muffles sounds. However, in the data search mode, the noise increases by 4-6 dB or more, which cannot remain unnoticeable to the user. But for consumer electronics (for example, digital video recorders), such a noise level is generally unacceptable.
Therefore, the noise level of hard drives is steadily decreasing. Now the spindle of a good disk is almost silent, and makes a characteristic sound only when starting or stopping. In addition, a characteristic crackling noise is produced by the head positioning mechanism, which is especially noticeable when copying many small files scattered across the disk (to reduce noise when positioning heads, regular disk defragmentation can be recommended). However, for some models the head positioning time is deliberately increased by the developers in order to reduce the noise level when reading/writing small or highly fragmented files.
Thus, the use of the latest generation of disks provides a more radical reduction in noise than all the methods described above, including during intensive operation of the positioning mechanism.
Modern drives use noise-insulating gaskets, SeaShield protective covers, Fluid Dynamics Bearings (FDB), and also use ties between the body and the engine; special materials and designs are selected that allow achieving 20 dB at idle and up to 28 dB when silently searching for data.
Thus, acoustics (that is, the noise that the drive produces during operation) becomes one of the most important parameters of modern hard drives.
Sometimes every PC user may encounter a problem. extraneous noise during the operation of the hard drive. The hard drive is a mechanical structure containing rotating disks. Reading information from a hard drive is carried out using magnetic heads, which, when moving, create some noise. Variety extraneous sounds depends on the hard drive model and the system case. If the computer case is made of inexpensive materials and the inside is poorly assembled, then unpleasant sounds will be emitted throughout the system unit.
The hard drive stores all the information on the computer. Therefore, you need to take measures to save data as soon as you hear noise during the operation of the device. Because this is the first “bell” that it may soon break.
However, sometimes the simple operating condition may be accompanied by noise. Here you need to figure out why the hard drive is cracking.
- Replace the hard drive.
- Modify the acoustic level using the AAM option.
- Take measures to soundproof the case or buy a better one.
- Secure the hard drive with soundproofing pads.
- Defragment the disk.
Apparently, the second option for solving the problem raises the most questions. Let's look at what it is.
Reducing noise from a hard drive using AAM
Any HDD has the function of regulating the level of noise it creates using the built-in Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) option. Its task is to reduce the noise of the device by reducing the speed of movement of the heads. But there is one negative factor here: using this option will automatically reduce the speed of the hard drive.
Which of these two options (speed or noise) will create more inconvenience, in which favor to give your preference is up to you to decide. You may not feel the speed reduction work hard disk, but the annoying noise volume will noticeably decrease. If you still decide to fix the noise problem using AAM, then you need to download the WinAAM application. It is available for download and is completely free. It has a Russian-language interface and works without mandatory installation. You can get this program by following the link: http://www.withopf.com/tools/aam/winaam-292.zip.
On the window that appears, click “Continue”. Correcting security settings is completely useless in getting rid of hard drive noise, so it is better not to touch it.
In the first line you can read that at this point in time the noise level control is not activated. Click on the “Silent/Standard (128)” option to adjust the silent AAM level. Its value can range from 0 to 255. It is noted that influential abilities are possessed exclusively by extreme levels, that is, “quiet” or “loud.” Most hard drives don't pay attention to the intermediate levels. This is most likely the reason that the WinAAM application allows you to solve the noise problem with a click on one option.
After adjusting the noise level, the application will close. Re-open it, select “Continue”, then “Check”.
A window will open showing the random movement of the read head.
At this moment, you will have the opportunity to hear the operation of the hard drive with the updated AAM option. The difference is huge. In order to compare with previous state hard drive, click the “Loud (254)” option. This action will speed up the hard drive and return the previous noise volume.
Mechanical methods for getting rid of HDD noise
When the application fails to get rid of the noise, you need to solve the problem manually.
- First, check the quality of the hard drive fixation. The hard drive must be firmly fixed and held securely in the grooves, all bolts must be sufficiently tightened.
- Consider which parts of the HDD mechanically touch the computer case. At the joints it is necessary to install special gaskets with an insulating function. You can move the hard drive mounting basket a little so that the part does not come into contact with the computer case. Doing this can help reduce noise.
- If it is possible to change the location of the hard drive, do so. It is necessary to ensure that the vibration of the hard drive does not transfer to the case.
If this fails to reduce the noise, contact technical support.
Many users have noticed noise while working at the computer. It can be created by either a cooler, a video card, or a hard drive. However, the noise from the hard drive is different from other sounds that come from the system unit or the bottom of the laptop. The noise of the hard drive is more like a crackling sound. It appears when you copy large files or play a game. If previously your PC worked stably and there were no extraneous noises, but now your hard drive is cracking, you should copy the entire important information and check.
Getting rid of hard drive crackling
If your hard drive is cracking, fix it this problem can be done in two ways:
- Reduced speed of head positioning (as they crack);
- Reliable fixation of the hard drive inside the system unit.
Each hard drive has an option such as Automatic Acoustic Management. It is responsible for the rotation speed of the magnetic heads of the hard drive. It is impossible to change its parameters and reduce the speed of data reading using normal settings. A special program is required. You can find many of these on the Internet. QuietHDD software is popular. However, it is worth warning that by reducing the speed of rotation of the heads, the speed of reading information decreases. The disk starts to work slower. This is a negative factor. Here you have to choose: speed or a working hard drive.
We remove the crackling sound of the hard drive using quietHDD in the following way. Download and run the utility as Administrator.
Open the “AAM Settings” tab. Move the sliders to the minimum position, reduce from 256 to 128 revolutions. Then click “Accept” and “Ok”.
To avoid running this utility every time before starting to use programs and applications, you should add it to the system startup.
If you are the owner of a PC and not a laptop, the hard drive must be securely secured in the system unit. You can do this in three ways:
- Fastening with bolts. Often the hard drive is secured with only two bolts, although there are more connectors. In the “sled” the disk “feels” freely and because of this it creates crackling and noise. It is worth stretching the device and securely securing the hard drive to all the bolts.
- Use of gaskets. Soft rubberized pads dampen noise and vibration. You can buy them or cut them yourself and install them in the place where the disk comes into contact with system unit. However, the material should not be too large so as to interfere with the ventilation of the disc.
- Mounting using twisted pair. Typically, 3-4 small pieces of wire are used for this purpose and secured as if the disk were located in a slide. However, in this case it will be difficult to move the body. There is a risk of damaging the device.
Using the above methods, you can fix the hard drive so that it does not create noise or crack.
A hard drive, also known as a “hard drive,” is an important component of any computer. It is installed not only operating system, but also important documents and files (music, video, photos) are stored. Like any other component, it wears out and breaks down over time. And the main symptom of this is the appearance of noise and humming of the hard drive. In this case, the first thing to do is to help avoid sudden breakdown.
However, this may not always be the reason. Increased noise levels also occur in new drives of some brands and models, and this is their normal operating condition.
Below we will look at several options for reducing hard drive noise: manually and programmatically.
A.A.M.
Newer HDDs support a special function " Automatic Acoustic Management", with its help you can adjust the speed of movement of the read heads, thereby reducing the noise of the laptop hard drive.
Default this function is disabled, so to enable it we use a utility called “WinAAM”, it is free and very lightweight. You can find and download it on the Internet.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that after setting the quiet mode, the speed of the drive also decreases. However, this is very difficult to notice by eye.
CrystalDiskInfo
If for some reason the previous program did not suit you or did not help, the hard drive is still noisy under load and because of this, then I recommend using this utility. With its help, we will configure the AAM function more flexibly. But it also has other useful features, for example, you can view detailed HDD parameters, Current state and check for errors.
So what to do:
After which the hard drive will start working with the new settings in quiet mode.
There may be several reasons why CrystalDiskInfo may appear:
- The HDD is old and the utility simply does not support it
- Physical or logical malfunction
How to spend HDD diagnostics, stated at the beginning of the article.
Defragmentation
Another method that can help you if the hard drive of a laptop or computer makes a lot of noise or buzzes during operation. As mentioned above, this is due to the moving mechanical heads, or rather their speed.
To do this, we will reduce the distance they need to travel to get to the desired section of the disk and read information from it. This is done quite simply, using regular defragmentation. It will arrange clusters with information in order, reduce the distance between them, thereby increasing the speed of access to them. Simply put, it will be easier for the hard drive to read necessary information, the load on it will decrease, and after this the noise and hum of the hard drive will decrease.
But you can also use the utility built into the system:
This way we will get rid of the humming and buzzing of the drive.
Manual method
If you have a desktop computer and not a laptop, you can use one of the methods suggested below.
Now you know what to do when the hard drive starts making foreign sounds during operation (noise, buzzing and humming) and you can solve this problem yourself using the methods discussed above.
