Seagate NAS drives constant clicking noises when idle

[BatmanSynology]

There is no firmware update for Seagate IronWolf 6TB. https://www.seagate.com/support/interna ... /ironwolf/

So the Seachest recommendation seems to be pre-DSM 6.1 update for other drives.

So I have tried it with the DSM 6.2 Beta. It appears to be better. I am monitoring the situation.

[BatmanSynology]

The 6.2 Beta seems to work.

Synology support said it was a SeaGate issue.

How do you explain that one? I don't know.

[tomasisko]

I updated to DSM Beta like yoou but it didnt help with my WD Red 6tb. I sent ticket to synology support so I hope they will provide some info.

[Max1979]

I updated to DSM Beta like yoou but it didnt help with my WD Red 6tb. I sent ticket to synology support so I hope they will provide some info.

Did you get an answer? My two WD reds 8TB do the same. I sent Synology a ticket a month ago, no answer. Western digital answered my ticket, but they have no answer, and the drives are working properly (I ran the tests WD recommended with no issues). Still, the offered a rma, but reading here, I do think the problem is with the nas, not the drives.

I also reinstalled everything from scratch. A first the clicking behavior did change (less frequent), but not it’s back to every two seconds. It driving me nuts. I will eventually have to relocate the nas, if I can’t solve the issue.

[BatmanSynology]

I updated to DSM Beta like yoou but it didnt help with my WD Red 6tb. I sent ticket to synology support so I hope they will provide some info.

Did you get an answer? My two WD reds 8TB do the same. I sent Synology a ticket a month ago, no answer. Western digital answered my ticket, but they have no answer, and the drives are working properly (I ran the tests WD recommended with no issues). Still, the offered a rma, but reading here, I do think the problem is with the nas, not the drives.

I also reinstalled everything from scratch. A first the clicking behavior did change (less frequent), but not it’s back to every two seconds. It driving me nuts. I will eventually have to relocate the nas, if I can’t solve the issue.

When I put the my Seagate Ironwolf 6TB into my PC it was mostly silent.

So I think it is the Synology NAS.

Support needs to do something.

[tomasisko]

Did you get an answer? My two WD reds 8TB do the same. I sent Synology a ticket a month ago, no answer. Western digital answered my ticket, but they have no answer, and the drives are working properly (I ran the tests WD recommended with no issues). Still, the offered a rma, but reading here, I do think the problem is with the nas, not the drives.

I also reinstalled everything from scratch. A first the clicking behavior did change (less frequent), but not it’s back to every two seconds. It driving me nuts. I will eventually have to relocate the nas, if I can’t solve the issue.

"Answer from support:
Good afternoon Tomáš,
thank you very much for contacting us. We are very sorry for delayed reply.

from the mentioned video we can hear only the usual HDD sound. This sound depends from disk construction (every disk model is different, so some drives can work more silent).

If you would like to have more silent disk, please refer to disk specification (look for noise level there) or contact HDD manufacturer to get more detailed information."

So I will soon sell my synology because that noise is annoying.

[BatmanSynology]

Did you get an answer? My two WD reds 8TB do the same. I sent Synology a ticket a month ago, no answer. Western digital answered my ticket, but they have no answer, and the drives are working properly (I ran the tests WD recommended with no issues). Still, the offered a rma, but reading here, I do think the problem is with the nas, not the drives.

I also reinstalled everything from scratch. A first the clicking behavior did change (less frequent), but not it’s back to every two seconds. It driving me nuts. I will eventually have to relocate the nas, if I can’t solve the issue.

"Answer from support:
Good afternoon Tomáš,
thank you very much for contacting us. We are very sorry for delayed reply.

from the mentioned video we can hear only the usual HDD sound. This sound depends from disk construction (every disk model is different, so some drives can work more silent).

If you would like to have more silent disk, please refer to disk specification (look for noise level there) or contact HDD manufacturer to get more detailed information."

So I will soon sell my synology because that noise is annoying.

Their response makes no sense. These are NAS drives. Made for NAS services. They run silent in a PC.

How can they be running silent in a PC and create a clicking noise every so often in a Synology.

It is ridiculous that they have lost you as a customer. These systems aren't cheap. $300

[BatmanSynology]

Update

Try this. It might help a bit. It worked for me.

Pull out the drive tray.

Check the fastening panels that secure the drive in place. They came out when you put the drive in. There are two on the left here -> https://techgage.com/wp-content/uploads ... -Caddy.jpg

Make sure there are four black rubber bungs inside the frame where the screw holes are. -> https://techgage.com/wp-content/uploads ... Mounts.jpg

These aren't screw holes. The fastening panels attach back on by slotting into the bungs and into the HDD holes.

These hold the drive in place more securely the tighter it is. Mine wasn't as tight as it could be.

[Max1979]

Update

Try this. It might help a bit. It worked for me.

Thanks for the input. I did already check the HDD supports. I also added some vibration absorbing material inside as seen on some posts, then played with HDD screws and tested all I could think of. It made a 10-20% difference
Moreover, I put the UPS (heavy) on top of the NAS. This made the biggest difference (about 50-70% less noise). Now I cannot hear it downstairs at all (I have the NAS in my attic).

Still, the NAS isn't that quiet, despite not seeing any process going on under SSH using the command top or similar (beside the "top" process itself, that is). I can't use it to watch movies where there are several quiet moments, it's worse than the people munching non stop in the theater
Luckily after reinstalling everything, the hibernation function started working properly (go figure why, I have the same packages and settings), so I get some relief when my studio is quiet and no one is using the machine.

The last resort is to shutdown the machine. I set up a wake up timer in the morning, so that when I'm out and about it's reliably always on.
I also found an old WiFi usb stick, I might simply put the NAS somewhere else, sacrifice some speed and be done with the noise completely.

I thought my workstation was noisy (4 disks, huge fan, real time AV, real time system backup on two destinations, plus whatever I'm doing) and yet the NAS in idle gets the crown for the loudest device.

BTW Synology never answered my message, and their answer above isn't satisfactory. I use WD reds, I can't hear a thing when I connect them to my PC, and I actually bought them BECAUSE they are supposed to be quiet.

[labambia]

I believe that 5 seconds click is somehow related to disk monitoring (i.e. temperature measurement).
I have 1TB WD Red in my PC and I'm using HWInfo software to monitor my CPU, GPU, motherboard temperature etc. And my 1TB WD Red did that "every 5s click/read" too until I disabled it from monitoring.
1TB unit is very quiet compared to 8TB (and it is mounted in very quiet case), so it wasn't an issue for me, but I noticed some reads noise and led blinking, so I disabled monitoring, because I was affraid that it will decrease my HDD life.
Unfortunately I have no idea how to turn off disk temperature monitoring in Synology...

[labambia]

Wel... That's not it.
I just connect my 8TB WD Red to PC, and it does the same thing - 5 seconds read/scan scratch noise. No matter if it is monitored by HWInfo or not.
So i guess, that's the "feature" of this drive...

[Max1979]

Wel... That's not it.
I just connect my 8TB WD Red to PC, and it does the same thing - 5 seconds read/scan scratch noise. No matter if it is monitored by HWInfo or not.
So i guess, that's the "feature" of this drive...

It's nice that the Tech Support guy I discussed the matter with doesn't have a clue about this "feature". He actually told me that I should file an RMA because the behaviour it's "not normal", but he himself pointed me to a WD help page ( https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/a ... spx?ID=568 ) where it is written the exact opposite: "occasional drive clicks occurring at 4 or 5 second intervals" are normal. Although I must say that in my case is more like 2-3 seconds. Still, the SMART test (or any other test I did on the drives) doesn't suggest any kind of issue and on the contrary, everything seems in perfect order.

I chose this drive model because it's supposed to be quiet, but it is not, by a long shot. Luckily I have a wifi range extender in the broom closet and I put the NAS there. I sacrificed some transfer speed, but I have enough bandwidth to stream high bitrate 4k video (without owning a 4k tv, in other words the transfer speed is still overkill for my applications) so there is no real drawback and I can finally enjoy my attic/man cave again without going nuts.

[telos]

Short of impending disc failure, often this clicking nuisance may be due to the disc's Advanced Power Management (APM) and automatic head parking. I'm not sure how you disable APM via the DS, but there are ways to do this w/Linux (though I have no clue how that compares with the Synology OS). For example:

Code: Select all

sudo hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

or

Code: Select all

sudo hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda

Maybe a visit w/MR Google can help here.

[Max1979]

Short of impending disc failure, often this clicking nuisance may be due to the disc's Advanced Power Management (APM) and automatic head parking.

This wasn't my case. The APM was off by default (WD red 8TB). I checked using SSH with # hdparm -B /dev/sda
Also, it shouldn't be head parking, as the load cycle count didn't increase in the SMART test.

[labambia]

Luckily I have a wifi range extender in the broom closet and I put the NAS there. I sacrificed some transfer speed, but I have enough bandwidth to stream high bitrate 4k video (without owning a 4k tv, in other words the transfer speed is still overkill for my applications) so there is no real drawback and I can finally enjoy my attic/man cave again without going nuts.

I put sound deadening automotive butyl mat inside my Synology case, and thick foam under the stands. This reduced noise from 46dBA to 36dBA (that means 1/2 of the noise level).
I measured that with smartphone app, about 1cm from the front of my case.
That's not the point of this topic, but it makes my WD RED 8TB drives barely audible from 1-2 meters.