On Fri, 2020-07-24 at 12:06 -0700, David Christensen wrote: > On 2020-07-24 11:49, Thomas Schmitt wrote: > > Hi, > > > > i got my new computer with a 4 GB WD Gold (WDC WD4003FRYZ-01F0DB0) > > and > > observe a strange behavior with a provisory Debian 10 LXDE > > installation. > > > > If the drive has power then i makes a plonking noise every 3 to 5 > > seconds. The plonk is louder when Debian runs, but can also be > > heard (and felt by direct finger contact with the disk) if only EFI > > is running. The sound is not really loud but well hearable when the > > room is silent. > > > > I began hearing it after about two hours of operating the computer. > > My hardware provider reports about two installation attempts. XFCE > > excluded him from using the screen after successful installation. > > (He's a SuSE/KDE user.) So he installed again with LXDE. > > During those (maybe 4 hours) he did not notice this sound. > > > > Did others here recently purchase a WD Gold disk and hear similar > > periodic single knocks. > > I see a matching report in > > https://community.wd.com/t/hard-drive-idle-sounds/199915 > > but cannot judge whether it was finally accepted as hardware damage. > > > > > > Have a nice day :) > > > > Thomas > > I assume your drive is 4 TB. > > https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-gold-hdd > > > I do not own that make/model of drive. > > > My guess is that your drive has the "click of death": > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death > > > If you can return the drive, return it. > > > If you cannot return the drive, I would download, install, and run > "Data > Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows": > > https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?DL#downloads > > > If the drive is within the warranty period and flunks the diagnostic, > contact WD support, get and RMA, and replace it. > > > If the drive is within the warranty period and passes the diagnostic, > contact WD support and describe the symptoms. They might let you RMA > it. > > > If the drive is outside the warranty period, recycle it. > > > David >
Hardly the "original" Click Of Death as that applied to Iomega Zip drives only. Anyway, sounds suspiciously like a poorly adjusted head returning to zero position. I'd backup my data before trying anything else, avoid writing new data on the drive and rely on smartctl's health report and self tests for diagnosis. A live USB- or DVD-image would be highly recommendable for that purpose.
