# A lot of noise, vibration, and high temperatures with a Seagate SkyHawk Surveillance 8TB 7200 RPM ST8000VX004-2M1101



## MikeSnow (Nov 30, 2020)

Yes, I know, what possessed me to buy that, especially since I read buyer reviews complaining about unbearable noise.

I bought it this weekend, and it was delivered in a small envelope with bubbles inside that seemed to have received a bit of abuse, as they didn't even bother to mark it as fragile. But the drive looked fine, no obvious damage. I bought a similar 5400 RPM Baracuda 8TB drive this summer, delivered in a similar envelope, and I had to return that one, as it was working for only 2-3 minutes before disconnecting. And it was also making a lot of noise, while it worked.

As for the new drive, it seemed to work fine for the first day, I ran a full test on it, and there were no errors. Noise was significant when seeking, but I can live with that, as I only plan to use it for backups.

But today it seemed to make more noise than usual, even when idle with no seeking. It's continuously making an annoying hum, and the entire computer case vibrates. And it is also quite hot, 40 degrees Celsius when idle in a 25 degrees room, with an open case that normally provides reasonable cooling even when closed. That doesn't seem normal to me.

Hoping it will reduce the noise, I put the cover on the case, which I usually keep open. However, that made it worse, as the cover started to vibrate in resonance with the drive. Then I tried to set Windows to turn it off if it stays idle for more than one minute. But this drive seems to ignore that setting, and remains running continuously, even when it's not accessed. That's unacceptable.

Now I opened the case again, downloaded the Seagate tools, and started a 14-hour test on it. After a few minutes of testing the temperature has now reached 48 degrees Celsius. I went to the Seagate site, they say temperatures up to 50 degrees are OK, or even 60 degrees with the "newer drives", whatever that means. I still don't like it. I can't even keep my hand on it since it's so hot. And I'm starting to develop a headache from all that noise.

My old hard drive, a 2TB 7200RPM Seagate, stays at 29-30 degrees Celsius when idle, and except when seeking makes no significant noise or vibration. So, I'm not getting it. Was I just unlucky, or did Seagate start to make poor quality drives recently?

I really hope it dies soon. I could return it even if it doesn't fail, but I don't want to get on some blacklist at that retailer for returning too many products.


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## Rei (Dec 1, 2020)

Well, your issues is to be expected when you buy a surveillance drive. They are meant to be stored in places where noise isn't an issue such as a server room. Suspend the drive on rubber or foam dampener so it won't vibrate your casing. Prolly also get a rubber sleeve casing for the drive to reduce noise output.

As for temperature, for a 3.5 inch HDD, 40-50C seems pretty normal working temperature to me. 60C or 70C should be the limit at full load depending on the drive.

If it becomes too much of a hassle for you, then you should prolly return it & get a normal drive instead such as a Barracuda or even better: a FireCuda.


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## MikeSnow (Dec 1, 2020)

Thanks for the suggestions. The pins holding it in the tray are already isolated in rubber, and I don't want to do more to isolate it for the time being. And as I said, I don't mind noise when there is activity, I was expecting that. But it's strange having that vibration even when it's idle. I don't think a rotating disk should normally vibrate so much, unless it's unbalanced. I'm still suspecting it might have been damaged in transport. And, regardless of my comfort, I don't think that vibration can be good for it. It was behaving like a car wheel that was not balanced properly.

Not sure if the vibrations were higher as the temperatures increased, or the other way around. Now I set it up to spin down after one minute of inactivity, which seems to have helped with the noise even when it's spinning. I used the HDDScan tool to play around with that, it has the option to set idle spin down timers on each HDD individually, and even trigger a spin down manually.

Now I'm running a test on it again to heat it up, to see if it does it again as the temperature increases.  Later edit: as soon as it reached around 46 degrees it started vibrating again. I interrupted the test, but it kept vibrating. I waited for a while, and after it cooled down a bit it stopped vibrating. Heating it up again started the vibration, cooling it down stopped it again, so it seems that's what triggers it.

I think I can live with it, if it doesn't get worse, now that I have the tools to spin it down when necessary. I think by default it ignores the Windows spin down commands, so I had to manually configure the power management on it with the HDDScan tool. I'm reasonably happy now, but I'll avoid surveillance drives like the plague from now on.


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## iuliug (Dec 1, 2020)

8 TB HDD have a lot of spinning disks (mine has 5). If they are air filled they generate a lot of heat due to friction especially if they are 7200 rpm.
You want to buy a helium-filled enterprise lvl one if you want lower temps. Noise wise - same thing -  lots of moving parts 10 heads seeking stuff it will always somewhat audible.


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## ZeroHz (Dec 1, 2020)

MikeSnow said:


> Thanks for the suggestions. The pins holding it in the tray are already isolated in rubber, and I don't want to do more to isolate it for the time being. And as I said, I don't mind noise when there is activity, I was expecting that. But it's strange having that vibration even when it's idle. I don't think a rotating disk should normally vibrate so much, unless it's unbalanced. I'm still suspecting it might have been damaged in transport. And, regardless of my comfort, I don't think that vibration can be good for it. It was behaving like a car wheel that was not balanced properly.
> 
> Not sure if the vibrations were higher as the temperatures increased, or the other way around. Now I set it up to spin down after one minute of inactivity, which seems to have helped with the noise even when it's spinning. I used the HDDScan tool to play around with that, it has the option to set idle spin down timers on each HDD individually, and even trigger a spin down manually.
> 
> ...



Just curious (and science of course!) and for your own peace of mind can you post a smart dump of the drive ie smartmontools seems some companies don't (package) handle drives well.


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## xrobwx71 (Dec 1, 2020)

Seagate was the first mistake. Now, before anybody jumps me for saying that, I am speaking from *my experience only*. I'm also only speaking from a Surviellence or NAS point of view. I'll never buy Seagate again.

I have a paint store and at that store, I installed a surveillance system. I went through 1 - 6TB and 2 -8TB Seagate drives starting in 2013 with the 6TB, then 2014 with one 8TB, 2015 with the 3rd 8TB.

I also have an 8TB - 2 X4TB - RAID 1 offsite NAS that I backup my server too. I've had 2 Seagate failures on it since 2013. Switched those 2 drives to WD Reds and have had zero issues since.

The failure was always the same, I set it up to email me if there was a drive issue. I'd get the alert and no drive was to be found(in the system software), I tried a format, nope, I tried putting it in another system and used mini tools on it, it would never show up or format. All I'd get from it is this click, click, click sound.

I switched to WD Purple 8TB and have not had a single issue since. The systems records 24/7 365.






						Backblaze Hard Drive Stats
					

Hard Drive test data from the Backblaze data center.  Backblaze is affordable, easy-to-use cloud storage.



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## MikeSnow (Dec 1, 2020)

ZeroHz said:


> Just curious (and science of course!) and for your own peace of mind can you post a smart dump of the drive ie smartmontools seems some companies don't (package) handle drives well.



Here you go:


```
C:\Program Files\smartmontools for Windows\bin>smartctl -a /dev/sdd
smartctl 6.6 2017-11-05 r4594 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-b19042] (sf-6.6-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-17, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Skyhawk
Device Model:     ST8000VX004-2M1101
Serial Number:    WKD36D5B
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0d4160a01
Firmware Version: AV01
User Capacity:    8,001,563,222,016 bytes [8.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-4 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Tue Dec 01 21:20:17 2020 GTBST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                                        was completed without error.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                (  559) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 719) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x50bd) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   079   064   044    Pre-fail  Always       -       84272676
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   080   080   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       80
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   068   060   045    Pre-fail  Always       -       5660756
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       62h+00m+00.000s
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       3
18 Unknown_Attribute       0x000b   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   069   050   040    Old_age   Always       -       31 (Min/Max 28/46)
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       216
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   031   050   000    Old_age   Always       -       31 (0 28 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   079   064   000    Old_age   Always       -       84272676
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       15h+49m+30.515s
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       1171110744
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       19303633602

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%        40         -
# 2  Vendor (0x50)       Fatal or unknown error        90%        12         0
# 3  Short offline       Completed without error       00%        12         -
# 4  Conveyance offline  Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 5  Vendor (0x50)       Fatal or unknown error        90%         0         0
# 6  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 7  Vendor (0x50)       Fatal or unknown error        90%         0         0
# 8  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
```

Later edit: I initiated a long SMART test as well, but it will take 12 hours to complete.


```
C:\Program Files\smartmontools for Windows\bin>smartctl -t long /dev/sdd
smartctl 6.6 2017-11-05 r4594 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-b19042] (sf-6.6-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-17, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 719 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Wed Dec 02 09:27:57 2020

Use smartctl -X to abort test.
```

Even later edit: Apparently the "spin down on idle" power management setting interferes with the background SMART tests, so I'll retry this later with the power management disabled, before I go to sleep. Hopefully I won't hear it from the other room when I try to sleep:


```
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Aborted by host               90%        62         -
```


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## Rei (Dec 2, 2020)

MikeSnow said:


> Thanks for the suggestions. The pins holding it in the tray are already isolated in rubber, and I don't want to do more to isolate it for the time being. And as I said, I don't mind noise when there is activity, I was expecting that. But it's strange having that vibration even when it's idle. I don't think a rotating disk should normally vibrate so much, unless it's unbalanced. I'm still suspecting it might have been damaged in transport. And, regardless of my comfort, I don't think that vibration can be good for it. It was behaving like a car wheel that was not balanced properly.
> 
> Not sure if the vibrations were higher as the temperatures increased, or the other way around. Now I set it up to spin down after one minute of inactivity, which seems to have helped with the noise even when it's spinning. I used the HDDScan tool to play around with that, it has the option to set idle spin down timers on each HDD individually, and even trigger a spin down manually.
> 
> ...


Again, what you expect from a surveillance drive. They tend to be cheap cuz they lack noise isolation, vibration dampener & heat management features & since they are suppose to be actively on 24/7, the spin down command might've been disabled. For that reason they mainly built more for durability & endurance.


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## timta2 (Dec 2, 2020)

Drives that come off the assembly line aren't all the same. I would send it back, as I have many times when drives have had obvious problems. I  also stopped buying drives that would be poorly packed and shipped several years ago. Mostly OEM drives from Amazon and Newegg. Retail boxes from brick and mortar FTW.


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## ZeroHz (Dec 2, 2020)

MikeSnow said:


> Here you go:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



The SMART log looks ok from here but the self test log? Why did the short tests report errors? How did the ext'ed test go?


```
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%        40         -
# 2  Vendor (0x50)       Fatal or unknown error        90%        12         0
# 3  Short offline       Completed without error       00%        12         -
# 4  Conveyance offline  Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 5  Vendor (0x50)       Fatal or unknown error        90%         0         0
# 6  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -
# 7  Vendor (0x50)       Fatal or unknown error        90%         0         0
# 8  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         0         -
```


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## MikeSnow (Dec 2, 2020)

ZeroHz said:


> The SMART log looks ok from here but the self test log? Why did the short tests report errors? How did the ext'ed test go?



Actually, all the short tests completed without errors. The conveyance test, which I think I initiated from the HDD scan tool, was succesful as well.

It took me a while to find the culprit, but the failed "Vendor (0x50)" ones with errors were initiated by Lenovo test tools, they seem to be some custom Lenovo SMART self test not supported by Seagate HDDs.

As for the extended self test with smartctl I started earlier, it just finished 2 hours ago, without problems, and I ran another short and another conveyance one since then:


```
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Conveyance offline  Completed without error       00%        89         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%        89         -
# 3  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%        87         -
```

So everything looks fine.

In the mean time, I used a rubber wine bottle cap between the HDD and the case, to reduce the vibrations further.

The only thing left is to run a long check from the Seagate tools, and I just started that. I'll probably have the result for that tomorrow, it currently estimates 14 hours and 23 minutes remaining. But I don't expect any errors from it either, at this point I feel I'm chasing ghosts. The HDD is probably fine, or has minor issues. It's under warranty for 3 years, and since I'll only use it for backups it won't be the end of the world if it fails, unless I'm really unlucky. I think I'll keep it, unless something catastrophic happens.


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## Smouser (Jan 10, 2021)

I bought the same drive and I have the same problem. VERY noisy with LOTS of vibration. I have a WD Purple 4TB drive in a Qnap Ts253BE NAS and that was quiet for all intents and purposes. 

However, once I added the 8TB Seagate the whole NAS started to vibrate and the seek/write is also very audible.

Not sure what I am going to do, but the NAS can't stay in our bedroom anymore. It is just too NOISY.


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## MikeSnow (Jan 10, 2021)

After I changed my computer case, my entire desk started vibrating from the HDD, as the new case had no rubber isolation for the HDD tray. Also, I have wooden floors, which in turn started to vibrate as well from the desk. I thought I could live with it by setting an aggressive power management to turn it off after 2 minutes of inactivity.

That was until when I went to bed in another room, which is separated by a solid wall and two wooden doors from the computer room. Unfortunately, I could still hear it, and it was keeping me awake during backups. So, I said enough is enough and I returned it.

Now I replaced it with another Seagate model, IronWolf NAS 8TB, 7200rpm, which is still quite noisy. But at least it vibrates much less than the previous one, and I can't hear it from the other room.

My plan for the future is to stop using HDDs completely at some point, as this is getting ridiculous. Or maybe switch to WD, if I really need an HDD.


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## Smouser (Jan 10, 2021)

I can't quite believe the amount of vibration the drive causes. 

There is not much I can do to 'insulate' it inside the NAS. This drive is ridiculous, like nothing I have ever experienced before.


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## biffzinker (Jan 10, 2021)

MikeSnow said:


> Now I replaced it with another Seagate model, IronWolf NAS 8TB, 7200rpm, which is still quite noisy. But at least it vibrates much less than the previous one, and I can't hear it from the other room.


The only noise I hear from a 8TB Western Digital MyBook during activity is when the head assembly is seeking. Otherwise no vibration from the spinning platters/motor.


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## Smouser (Jan 10, 2021)

biffzinker said:


> The only noise I hear from a 8TB Western Digital MyBook during activity is when the head assembly is seeking. Otherwise no vibration from the spinning platters/motors.


Thanks. Yes this hard drive is something else. I can hear the head assembly too but the main noise are vibration. Making the whole NAS vibrate, the table it is on and I swear the floor too. Looking online I do not see many complaints about this hdd .

I am going to try a couple of methods to reduce the noise. If all are unsuccessful I will have to get rid of the hard drive or move the NAS to the neigbour's garage .


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## bobbybluz (Jan 10, 2021)

biffzinker said:


> The only noise I hear from a 8TB Western Digital MyBook during activity is when the head assembly is seeking. Otherwise no vibration from the spinning platters/motor.


I have one of those and it's silent to my ears. I have 6, 8, 10 & 12 GB MyBooks and all are more quiet than the other noises here.



Smouser said:


> Thanks. Yes this hard drive is something else. I can hear the head assembly too but the main noise are vibration. Making the whole NAS vibrate, the table it is on and I swear the floor too. Looking online I do not see many complaints about this hdd .
> 
> I am going to try a couple of methods to reduce the noise. If all are unsuccessful I will have to get rid of the hard drive or move the NAS to the neigbour's garage .


RMA the drive if you can. It's not going to fix itself. Over time I've had far better luck with WD drives than Seagate and this is with several hundred of them.


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## windwhirl (Jan 10, 2021)

About this drive... It's literally the noisiest one on Seagate's Skyhawk line up.

A while ago I went through a bunch of datasheets and made a list about it








						Seagate: 20 TB HAMR Drives Arrive in December, 50 TB Capacities in 2026
					

i refuse to have noisy, slow mechanicals in my rig.   Then it would seem that you haven't owned a HDD in a long time. Most HDD's made in the last 5 years are VERY quiet, even the 7200RPM variants.  I have 3x external HDD, 3x 2.5" SATA HDD, 2x 2.5" PATA HDD & 2x 3.5 HDD & some range around a...




					www.techpowerup.com


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