Noisy External HD


My Cavalry Raid 1 External HD works well but man, is it noisy. It seems to be the loudest when first turned on and settles down somewhat after about 5 minutes. Anyone else having this problem? Any suggestions for suppressing the noise apart from locking it in the closet?
puerto
I appreciate the suggestions. Since I just spent almost $200 on two new WD (Caviar Black) HDs for the Cavalry unit I want to figure out a solution other than buying new ones again. It may come to that nonetheless!
Please write the manufacturer.
Software solutions may exist to some of the clicky/ clack noises HDs can make.

Since a software update, my MAC's HD is very quiet.
It is a 1tb SATA drive.......
If what you are hearing is fluctuating seek noise, as opposed to a constant whine, you can probably reduce the noise significantly by changing the drives from the "performance seek mode," which they are probably set to by default, to the "quiet seek mode."

Western Digital Caviar Black (and other) drives provide both of those modes. Remarkably, however, as far as I know WD does not provide a means of changing which mode the drive is set to. In order to change it you have to use a third party software utility. WinAAM is one such utility, which you can find linked to and discussed here. You can probably find other such utilities by Googling "hard drive acoustic management utility."

For this kind of utility to be able to "see" the hard drives, you might have to temporarily remove each of them from the RAID enclosure and install it in a computer as an additional internal hard drive. I would not do that, of course, without first backing up any important files they may contain.

Disclaimer: I have no personal experience with WinAAM or any other such utility.

Regards,
-- Al
Almarg: Thank you for that input - I was not aware of any of that. The noise is not a fluctuating seek noise but rather a steady loud whirring noise that diminishes with time (maybe 15-20 minutes). It reminds me of an automobile starting in cold weather - it takes a few moments for it to settle out if you get my analogy. I will look into your other suggestions nonetheless.