# Problem with WD10EADS - It goes CLUNK



## lemonadesoda (Apr 7, 2009)

I have a WD10EADS-00L5B1 1TB "green power".

It's very quiet, it is low power, and it is cool. And it is also relatively fast. Yes, there are faster drives, but it is up there. Speed is quite fine for my purposes on this PC.

EXCEPT for one fact. It is NOT silent at all. The drive keeps going CLUNK. It is very irritating for an otherwise silent PC. The clunk is so loud it is like an old HDD drive from ten years ago doing a sector 000 search.

If I dont use the PC for 5 minutes (and my power settings are to idle the HDD at 5 mins) then the CLUNK goes away. However, if I start using the PC again, then CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK.

Does anyone else have this experience with the WD10EADS (-00L5B1)? I wonder if the heads are faulty.


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## Athlon2K15 (Apr 7, 2009)

i have the 750 GB version that did that...google wdidle.exe run it in dos and it should fix your issue


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## WhiteLotus (Apr 7, 2009)

oh i have a similar drive to that. not sure if its exact same model but will look in the morning. 

ie - subscribed.


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## lemonadesoda (Apr 7, 2009)

Thanks for the suggestion to search for *widdle.exe*. It seems that WD know of a problem in their firmware relating to "Intellipark". I'm not sure if it is the heads parking or the RPM spinning down from 7200 to 5400. Whatever it is, it is annoying, bigtime.

From what I have read so far (and I'm still looking...) there is an "unpublic" DOS patch that you need to run in the background, aka wdidle.exe. Oh man, what a h4ck. I guess this program just keeps the drive busy every 10ms to stop the thing parking. What an awful solution.

PS. No official downloads for this drive: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=608&lang=en


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## grak4me (Apr 10, 2009)

Read this forum:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=51401

From what I gather, by default these drives park they unload their head after 8 seconds of no use.  That's the "CLUNK".

Hope that helps.


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## lemonadesoda (Apr 10, 2009)

I have used Passmark Diskcheckup (free) to read the SMART data. The "load/unload" cycle count is just 51. Although the machine is only a few days old. But I'm not sure this is the full extent of the problem. The HDD goes CLUNK every once in a while if I am not doing something.

Only the new GP WD drives does this. Other machines with identical setups just different HDDs dont make this noise. It is irritating and annoying, even more so as this is a SILENT PC I have build.

It I had bought it in a local shop, I would return it. But the effort of going through an RMA and posting process is a PITA. I may just bin this drive.


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## grak4me (Apr 10, 2009)

The load/unload cycles have to do with the power down of the drive - it goes into a stand by power save mode.  That's the CLUNK.  That's when you get the CLUNK again when it spins up.

Its somewhere in that thread (sorry, I know its long - like 6 pages, but an interesting read if you have the time).  I think (of course) its mentioned somewhere in the middle - maybe the 3rd page.  Hope it helps.    I was thinking of buying 3 x WD10EADS drives myself to put in a RAID 5, but after that thread (sent from a buddy), I may just switch to the Black Edition.  Jury's still out.


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## lemonadesoda (Apr 24, 2009)

Stay away from this drive. This CLUNKING is driving me crazy. I have a silent PC, and it is very noticeable. I will be replacing the drive.


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## grak4me (Apr 24, 2009)

Thanks.  Just picked up 3 x WD1001FALS drives instead.


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## lemonadesoda (Apr 24, 2009)

Yes, what really annoys me is that we have been (recently) buying the samsung F1s... which are great. I went out on a limb to get the WD GP drive because I was building an über silent video workstation based off passive dual Xeons.  And guess what? This drive isnt quieter. It is noiser. Thanks for your previous links... I read that the power saving isnt through a better design, but by forcing the drive to keep parking and idling... and hence the CLUNKING and that the SMART features of the drive are masked by the firmware.  The jury is out whether this head parking trickery might even reduce the life of the drive.

This is one nasty drive and I wish I had stuck with the F1's.  I would love to go SSD, but for a video workstation I need oodles of working space, so need to stay HDD.

I'll get another F1 and mount it with rubber grommets to reduce noise.

Has anyone tried the F2 drive? It is a 5400 drive. Can anyone here vouch for noise levels?


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## lemonadesoda (Apr 29, 2009)

AthlonX2 said:


> i have the 750 GB version that did that...google wdidle.exe run it in dos and it should fix your issue



I when through the PAIN of installing a floppy, creating a DOS boot disk, running wdidle3.exe /d to disable the feature, reboot, and GUESS WHAT? No noticable change in this clunking. This is the noisiest drive I have owned ever! Goddamit, I got this drive for a silent video editting workstation.

Avoid this drive. WD10EADS sucks.


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## koce777 (May 1, 2009)

The clunking is most probably happens because your OS (windows i suppose) and/or other software constantly accesses the drive to do small reads/writes. I have a bunch of WD10EADS drives in a RAID5 setup ran by linux system and they do not produce _any_ sounds when they are idle.


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## lemonadesoda (May 1, 2009)

Yes, that's right. If you let the PC sit for a while, then there is no noise. But the fact remains, other drives dont CLUNK like this, so this drive is unusual and very noisey. I definitely cannot recommend this drive. Actually, the opposite. I recommend to avoid it. Why? Because HDDs are supposed to be used not left idle 100% of the time! Even if you only use it 1% of the time, for that 1% of the time it will CLUNK and drive you crazy. Repeat. Other drives dont clunk like this, and all those "noise statistics" suggesting how quiet it is are irrelevant.

What is more irritating? A (quiet) street with the sound of occasional traffic on it, or an empty street where every 1 minute a car alarm goes off. That's the analogy.


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