A question on quieting drives...

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 6:49 am

Okay, I currently have a Samsung 1213N, which is pretty bloody quiet. But, after shutting off the extremely noisy drive cooler and slot coolers, I can occasionally hear seek noises from the drive.

The thing is, I've been interested in getting either a No Vibes III or a Smart Drive 2002. But, while looking around on Google groups, I found some references that decoupling the drive from the case may be a bad thing. Supposedly, there were some IBM computers that had the drives on platic rails with plastix screws. The result was that there was no metal to metal contact with the case (even indirectly).

Apparently, these computers had a high RMA rate because of drive failure. IBM engineers eventually figured out that the problem was due to static electricity building up in the drives over a period of months. Apparently, the drives needed to be grounded to the case to get rid of the static electric charge.

I saw another post that said some drives need to be grounded to the case, and some do not.

I guess the question is, has anyone had any drive problems when decoupling from the case in one of these two manners? How long have you had it decoupled?

Harry Azol · Post by **Harry Azol** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:07 am

it's very easy to ground a hdd to your case...

just connect a wire to your hdd and a spot on your case..

Post by **Rusty075** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:13 am

I think the IBM problem was more a case of the engineers blaming it on static charge, rather than accepting that it was faulty drives.( IBM has quite the track record for not taking responcibility for bad drives. It took a lawsuit to make them admit the deathstars were junk)

Remember that 2 of the 4 wires in the molex are grounds, as are 40 of the 80 wires in the IDE cable. The static charge would also dissipate through the air anytime the drive was powered down.

I've had a Maxtor D740X that has been running suspended in one case or another for over a year, with no problems.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:34 am

it's very easy to ground a hdd to your case...

just connect a wire to your hdd and a spot on your case..

I figured that out... But part of the whole point of decoupling is to cut down on vibration... metal to metal contact kind of ruins that

Henrik · Post by **Henrik** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:45 am

I can't see why connecting a wire (HDD - case) should cause any vibration resulting in noise, try it, I bet you won't hear a thing!

Harry Azol · Post by **Harry Azol** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:50 am

Henrik wrote:I can't see why connecting a wire (HDD - case) should cause any vibration resulting in noise, try it, I bet you won't hear a thing!

unless you're superman..

Fastman · Post by **Fastman** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:52 am

Henrik wrote:I can't see why connecting a wire (HDD - case) should cause any vibration resulting in noise

If you use a large solid wire , #2 gauge (about 5 mm diameter), I am sure we could notice some vibration.

(this is meant to be humerous, as I hope nobody would consider this for their hard drive)

MikeK · Post by **MikeK** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:21 pm

If you're expecting a lightning strike, I definitely recommend the 2gauge, just make sure you have some more 2gauge going out from your case.