It's this exact sound most of the times but it sometimes can do other similar but less distinctive soft clicking sounds as well, also while only idling.
It's a brand new drive (3.5'', 1TB). The SMART data reports a very high number of raw read error rate and seek error rate, but that seems to be characteristic for Seagate drives. However I cannot interpret that data.
I've never had a harddrive do this. Does anyone recognize the sound?
Best Answer
Whilst the recording is not very clear, I suspect that the issue is down to the read/write heads parking frequently when the disk is idle. Most modern drives support a feature called Advanced Power Management and when enabled this can cause the heads to be retracted when possible in order to save power and reduce the chances of platters being damaged if the computer is knocked or suffers power issues. It's more useful on laptops than desktops.
Looking at the SMART data, it shows that the load count is 18880 after 628 hours of use which equates to heads parking/unparking on average about 30 times an hour. This would be consistent with having APM enabled.
You can test whether APM is indeed causing the noises by disabling it. There is a tool called hdparm which can do this, but bear in mind that the affect is only temporary and it will be re-enabled if you restart the PC. Once it is installed it should show up in the Start Menu with shortcuts to change the APM mode.
It's possible that you have some tool like the Intel Rapid Storage Technology installed which is enabling APM. Also, make sure that your Windows power plan is based on High Performance.