[Gatsu]

I picked up a couple of months ago a 1Tb WD My Book.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=320

Over all (after a false start...) it seems to work quite well. But when that fan powers up its like a jet taking off. I've applied the firmware update, but I did that early on, so I don't quite know what difference its made.

I was going to try a 12cm fan running constantly at low speed to try to keep it cool enough to not need the internal fan... but I won't know how well that will work till I get the chance to try it out.

Any suggestions on how to keep this thing quiet?

 

[mojo]

To be honest it just looks like the cooling system in the case is not that good.

Presumably you have two 500GB drives in there. If you want to make them really silent, get a better case, preferably a passively cooled one or at least one with a very quiet low speed fan.

The only other option that comes to mind is to get one of those network USB NAS devices, like the Linksys ones. They let you connect USB devices to your network, so you can hide the drives away from your listening area.

CHeck out Silent PC Review for much more info. The forums are very good, try asking there.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Check out these two journal posts:

Western Digital MyBook Pro 1TB review: as loud as a hairdryer

Western Digital MyBook Pro is finally quiet as a mouse

Of course, you can substitute much higher quality fans within the stated dimensions for even better results.

 

[Bizzel]

Completely OT but did you know that the vent holes on the MyBook drives are morse code? Clever, huh?

 

[Gatsu]

It doesn't surprise me the cooling in it isn't that good. These sorts of things are made to get the job done at as low a price as possible.

Thanks infinitesymphony, bookmarked, I'll be taking a look at that

Hmm... morse code... anyone actually taken the time to translate it?
I predict:
"Help! I'm stuck in this tiny box with all this **** and a really loud fan!"

 

[infinitesymphony]

From the Wikipedia entry about the My Book drives:
Quote:

"The Morse Code message written into the drive case is made up of a selection of the words 'personal', 'reliable', 'innovative', 'simple', and 'design'. The first occurrence of 'innovative' on the My Book Pro Edition has a typo and reads 'innovateve'. This typo appears on My Book World Edition too."

 

[Yesfan70]

I saw this post after doing a search. I just got my drive in today, got it hooked up and all but it seems to take forever to format!

For those of you that own this or the other 1TB My Books, how long did it take you to partition it? I'm using the USB connection (my 6 year old PC doesn't have Firewire).

 

[Gatsu]

I can't really remember how long it took to format my drive, but I don't think it was *that* long...

One piece of advice - DO NOT install the WD button manager software - It is a complete steaming pile of manure. I bricked my first drive when I tried to update the firmware because the button manager software screwed the update. It will also interfere with the WD format and partitioning software, if I remember correctly it causes the format/partition to never finish properly.

If you have installed the button manager software, uninstall it and try partitioning it again. It should work.

 

[Yesfan70]

Thanks, appreciate the info.

I don't know what I did earlier, but whenever I reformatted the drive it didn't take know where near as long.

The first time I did it by the book. The second time I went into Windows Explorer and right clicked on the drive and there was an option to format it. After I clicked that, that's when everything worked.

So far so good, it seems to be working ok. I had no troubles and (believe it or not) the button manager is working ok. I plan on keeping a close eye on it. First sign of a problem and it is definitely going back to Staples.

Fingers crossed (and thanks for the help).

 

[infinitesymphony]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yesfan70 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I saw this post after doing a search. I just got my drive in today, got it hooked up and all but it seems to take forever to format! For those of you that own this or the other 1TB My Books, how long did it take you to partition it? I'm using the USB connection (my 6 year old PC doesn't have Firewire).

Are you using Windows XP or higher, and are you sure that the computer has USB 2.0 ports (not just 1.1)? Both could be contributing to slow USB bus speeds.

Or it could just be an issue with the drive itself.

 

[anthonylei]

you can try installing Acousti Composite sheets and fan gasket to reduce the noise.... or you can try replacing the fan

go http://www.quietpc.com/ ... you may find something useful

 

[Gatsu]

I've managed to get the volume of the fan down to a much more realistic level now.

The first thing was to replace the fan. I can't remember which fan I replaced it with, I think it was pretty generic, but the shop I got it from let me listen to all the different suitable size fans in stock so I could find the quietest.

The other thing was to turn the fan around so it was blowing air out of the case instead of in. The fan takes longer to come on and doesn't stay on a long as it used to while at the same time being much quieter.

 

[jules650]

This is interesting; I have two external 320GB HDDs with my FLAC archived mirrored on both. I prefer using my Icebox to the MyBook. They are both noisy, but the Icebox has a higher frequency whine which doesn't intrude as much as the MyBook's lower frequency noise.

 

[Maverick0984]

The updated Firmware for the MyBook lowered the temp where the fan kicked on. If you do this plus flip the fan around (which I think cools better anyway) it hardly ever comes on, short of start up (which is again hardly ever). I haven't heard it in weeks and it sits in my bedroom.

 

[Gatsu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jules650 /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is interesting; I have two external 320GB HDDs with my FLAC archived mirrored on both. I prefer using my Icebox to the MyBook. They are both noisy, but the Icebox has a higher frequency whine which doesn't intrude as much as the MyBook's lower frequency noise.

Quite likely there are two different sources of noise you are hearing.

The high frequency is most likely the hard drive itself. Whereas the low frequency of the MyBook is caused by the fan.

If you can reduce the noise of the fan on the MyBook it becomes very quiet.