Re: Hard drive noises

[Chuck Yerkes <chuck+obsd_(_at_)_2004_(_dot_)_snew_(_dot_)_com>]

Quoting Chris Zakelj (c_(_dot_)_zakelj_(_at_)_ieee_(_dot_)_org):
> My firewall box is currently using an old Seagate 700M drive.  Last time 
> I had this drive in use, it functioned flawlessly and silently.  Before 
> packing it away, I even ran Steve Gibson's SpinRite5 on it just to see 
> if it would be happy about the drive's health (it was).  Last week, the 
> old fw drive died, and I reinstalled using this 700M drive.  Only now, 
> about every 5 minutes or so, there is a clearly audible clicking noise 
> that's making me uncomfortable (think ZIP drive click of death).  
> fsck_ffs doesn't report anything amiss, so I'm thinking the the BIOS (or 
> drive itself) is attempting to go into powersave mode even though I have 
> it turned off, then oBSD turning around and saying "Oh no you don't!"  
> Ideas?

You skipped one likely candidate.
Physical failure.  As a drive head motor resets itself or any of the
stepper or servos age and die.

Far more likely than a software/firmware issue.  Old disks move, so they die.