Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware

This is a followup to the question posed by the following person:

In article <By0725.5M1@cs.uiuc.edu> tgao@cs.uiuc.edu (Tong Gao) writes:
>I just bought a new Western Digital Caviar 2200(212mb) hard drive. It makes
>big noise when the head is moving comparing with my old Western Digital 2100.
>Also, when I use Norton Utility to check the disk, I found initially I can
>hear some (week) sound coming out of disk. After half of the disk is checked,
>the sound disappears. Since I do not know anything about this drive, could
>somebody tell me if all these things should happen with this drive? Also, in
>general, is this a good drive? Thank you very much.
>
>Tong
>tgao@cs.uiuc.edu

To which I wrote:

In article <4015@hpwala.wal.hp.com> mikew@hpwarha.wal.hp.com (Michael Williams) writes:
>I recently purchased a WD 340 MB drive, and it's as noisy as the old 42
>MB MFM drive that came with the 386 SX I bought in 1988 (and much
>noisier than the silent Toshiba 100 MB disk that I replaced that with).
>Every disk head movement generates a thunk with the Western Digital.
>
>I had thought that the drive was defective, but perhaps that's just the
>way they were designed.  I'm going to call Western Digital just to make
>sure.
>
>As noisy as it is, I think I can live with it as long as it's not a
>manufacturing defect.  As stated here, it is incredibly fast; the
>difference that it made in my system was remarkable.  (The extra 200 MB
>of space is nice, too!)

Well, I finally got through to Western Digital to ask about the drive (but
see below about Western Digital technical support).  After discussing the
drive noises with technical support, I'm relatively certain that the WD
drive is simply a (relatively) noisy drive, and there's probably nothing
wrong with the drive.

The technical support manager (Bill) gave me sound measurments for a
correctly operating drive in two different states:

	Idle: 38 dba
	Seeking: 42 dba

These are both at 1 meter away from the drive.  (Perhaps someone with a
"loud" WD drive and the appropriate equipment can verify these numbers.)

Bill recommended that I do some performance tests on the drive, and he
summarized by saying that unless the noises were obviously "unusual" or
the drive was experiencing read errors or poor performance, the drive is
probably doing just fine.

* About Western Digital Technical Support

I do want to make note of a frighteningly unusual case of poor customer
support from an employee of Western Digital.

When I called them (it was a toll call), I got through after about 15
minutes on hold.  I explained the situation to someone named Laura, and
she basically said that the only thing I could do is send the drive back
and try a new one to see if it was quieter.  I explained that I would do
that if she thought it was necessary, but I'd like to avoid the hassle
by getting her opinion on the noise, which I tried to explain to her the
best that I could.  I commented that the Toshiba MK-234 I replaced the
WD with was virtually silent both when idle AND when seeking.  The WD
340 was silent when idle, I told her, but made a lot of noise when
seeking (just like my old 42 MB MFM drive).  (Remember, "a lot of noise"
is relative--the Toshiba that I replace didn't make *any* noise at all,
even when seeking all over the place.  So relatively, going from no
apparent noise to any noise at all is an infinite increase.)

Anyway, she said that she couldn't tell me anything else to do but send
it back.  Thinking she had experience with many disk drives, I asked her
what her experience with the drive was as it relates to other drives.
Her reply was something like, "Some drives make noise and some don't."
(Obviously.)  I then asked her to compare the WD 340 to other Western
Digital drives.  She then rudely retorted that it seemed normal to her
and that the only thing she could recommend was to send the drive back
to where I got it and have them send me another one to compare it with.

At this point, I realized I was getting nowhere with her, and I asked to
speak with a different technician.  At this, she got angry and refused
to transfer me to someone else because, she said, they couldn't tell me
anything more that what she had told me.  I insisted, but she still
refused.

I told her that I thought she was being unecessarily rude to a customer
who had spent nearly $700 on one of her products, and I asked to speak
to her manager to let her know what I thought about their customer
support.  When she told me her manager (Judy) was unavailable, I asked
for Judy's address.  She refused to give it to me, but after a few more
minutes on hold, let me speak with the product manager (our friend Bill).

Bill (in contrast) was very helpful.  He knew what specific question to
ask me about the drive, e.g., when it was making noises (when seeking,
but not when idle), etc., and was willing and able to give me his honest
opinion about the drive.  He also suggested a course of action other
than just exchaning the drive--basically, running every test I have on
it to measure the throughput and to check for drive errors.  If these
come up clean, he said, then I should have a properly functioning drive.
He also said it was not unusual that the WD 340 would make as much noise
as my old MFM; that's just the drive's design, and I shouldn't worry
about it as long as the drive runs properly.  But he gave me some
objective measurements (displayed above) just to be sure.

Oh, and Bill also gave me the address of Laura's manager, to whom I have
written a letter about Laura's rudeness and technical ignorance.  Too bad
I didn't get Bill in the first place, but at least I can rest easier
about the drive.  I'd hate to have had to give up such a fast drive!

Happy holidays,

Mike

--
Michael B. Williams
Hewlett-Packard Company
Medical Products Group
Waltham, MA 02254                    Prodigy: Dumped it
(617) 290-3734                       CompuServe: 73667,3264
mikew@hpwarga.wal.hp.com             America Online: Mike W99
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware