My new Western Digital hard drive is loud?

Question

So, I had to buy a hard drive today, since my old hard drive of 6 years has failed. T.T R.I.P. HDD.
So, I did some research and found a great hard drive with plenty of space for me and 7200 RPM. The Hard drive is a Western Digital 320GB Internal Hard Drive for Desktops, if you want more details.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+Digital+-+320GB+Internal+Hard+Drive+for+Desktops/7821985.p?id=1142294266836&skuId=7821985

Anyways, this hard drive is awesome a huge upgrade from my old hard drive, with 100 more GB and 7200 RPM. Now, it says cool and quiet on the casing, but that is kind of not true. This hard drive is LOUD, while installing WoW, Starcraft, etc. It was humming like crazy! I heard it was because it runs at a very high speed, it does not rattle or vibrate, it just HUMS really loud, and I keep my case open, so that could be another factor to. I want to know is there any way to reduce the noise? I am willing to spend $20 for like a noise reduction, casket, or foam or something...

Answer 1

"Now, it is only loud when I put in my game install cd. When it idles, or when playing the game itself, it is SILENT. LOL!"



My DVD drive hums when I put DVDs/CDs in to install things/burn things. Are you sure this isn't the case? If it's silent when idling or when playing a game now does that mean you're not having problems anymore? O_o

Answer 2

It makes sense that it is quiet when you're playing your game, because programs don't run off the disk. Every time you run an application, the computer loads a copy of it into memory and runs the copy, so it's not actually using the hard drive.



You can buy shock dampers, which are rubber washers that go in between the hard drive and the case. They help absorb shock to prevent damage to the drive when moving the computer around or whatever, but they also reduce the noise immensely.

Answer 3

My 320 gig WD's are very quiet....and I have 3 of them in my desktop (yeah my tower is open too).



Are you sure you were not hearing your CD player/burner and not the hard drive.



Some CD burners are noisy as all hell.

Answer 4

some drives you get are louder than others... yet, a WD Raptor spins at 10k rpms -- Thats lots swifter than a typical hard drive(7200rpms) -- you would be conscious a distinction incredibly in a quiet room... different than that, its probable greater vibration.. attempt to get some rubber screw jocks or something to hose down the shaking