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_sYes, 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've ordered an Oyen MiniPro 2.5" Firewire 800 portable drive. We'll see how the noise level compares to the DataTale 3.5" FireWire 800/400. The MiniPro spins at 5400rpm versus the 7200rpm of the DataTale. The MiniPro is approved for use with ProTools. Perhaps what's required for my installation is a sound insulated box or cover that can be placed over the drives. It could be open in back. |
