Thinkpads Forum

I have an X60 tablet, purchased in the summer of 2007.

The hard drive was making soft grinding/snapping sounds, just loud enough to drive me crazy. I ran multiple disk checks with a number of software utilities to scan for errors and there were no errors to explain the sound. It seemed to work perfectly, but that sound usually indicates some sort of mechanical problem.

So I RMA'd the drive. The one I got back does THE SAME THING, I swear it's even worse. I've been in IT for nearly ten years and I've never heard a drive like this before (I do know how loud it should be)

Has anyone else experienced this with IBM's Hitachi drives?

Hard drive noise is sort of hit or miss in my experience. I have had Hitachi drives that have been completely quiet while others were very noisy. Same thing with Seagates. I think so far you've just been unlucky.

FredGarvin, I'm with you on that one. I've seen noisy one last for years and I've seen quiet ones that are dead and vice-versa. Brand does not seem to matter.
slogged, I think you are just unlucky this time.

I have had two 80gb SATA Hitachi drives in RAID 0 for 2 years and I can clearly hear them 5 feet away, grinding...

So far they have been reliable *knock on wood*...

Does your laptop come with 5400 rpm drive or 7200 rpm?

I ordered two X61 in Dec, one with 5400 rpm and one with 7200 rpm. The one with the 5400rpm drive has the problem that you mentioned. There is nothing wrong with your laptop I guess... it's just that the harddrive itself is noisy.

Before I bought the two X61, I thought that being a faster drive, the 7200rpm harddrive must generate more noise... and I was wrong! The 7200 rpm harddrive is much much more quiet. It is a Hitachi 7k200 100GB. The 5200 rpm is also a Hitachi, but I don't remember the model #.

I also have a Hitachi 7k100 harddrive on another laptop, and it is as noisy (or slightly less noisy) than the 5200 rpm drive on one of my X61. So if you want to get a quieter drive, remember to get the newer 7k200 model.