Looking for Quiet External HD...

01-24-11: Larry_s
SATA drives have an Acoustic Management option that is usually "performance" mode as shipped, not the quietest that drive can do.

Good point by Larry. Grant, see my post here, and the link provided therein.

Best regards,
-- Al

The noise I have with my current drive is a constant, low level grinding...akin to a CD spinning in a CD player.

I took a look at the SATA acoustic management link, and it's not something I'm going to mess with, but I appreciate the suggestion.

If you have any audible noise, especially in an enclosure, from an idle drive, something could be wrong. An idle drive, just spinning, will have some noise but nothing an enclosure won't muffle. Some enclosures have fans which create noise and don't have long life spans.

The noise you hear when I/O is happening is from the heads/actuator moving. This is what the Acoustic Management feature controls - how fast the arm moves, etc. It's a safe setting to change. Some drives that are marketed for DVR use may already have the Acoustic Management set to "quiet".

And, if your drive is mainly for playing back music files, you should not really hear any noise from the drive because most, if not all, of the I/O should be sequential. Keeping drives de-fragged helps.

01-25-11: Larry_s
An idle drive, just spinning, will have some noise but nothing an enclosure won't muffle.

Yes, I suspect it's the enclosure that's the issue: aluminum, essentially open at the front, and little if any sound deadening material or soft rubber bushings inside.

It's this DataTale model.

It's the drive supplied by Mach2 Music with their server package.

I decided to make my own quiet enclosure. I wrapped five sides in acoustic absorption foam intended to quiet the inside of computer towers. I left the back open, hoping this affords enough ventilation for cooling.

Ugly as hell, but it works.