When you are dealing with a hard drive that has passed all the diagnostic tests but
still makes scaping noises - what is the technical term for this?

How come some drives that are only 1-2 years old sound like they are 10 years old, with the amount of scraping noise they make?

I have noticed it alot on HP Pavillion machines that are less than two years old with Seagate Baracude drives

The exact technical term is CRAP DRIVES. The definitive solution is called DUSTBIN.EXE.

Period.

Ok, thats one defintion :-0

anyone else?

What 'definition' and what do you want? It's you that should give yourself the answer or refer to manufacturer. With appropriate tools and knowledge - not the freeware mfg tools - it would be easy to diag and fix the drives. If under warranty simply RMA them and leave the problem to manufacturers.

The definition I am looking for is when the drive is only 1-2 years old but makes
the noise of a 10 year old drive i.e its a scaping, metallic noise as you access data on the drive.

The drive would be fully functional and would pass the manufacturers diagnostic but would still be very noisey.

What is the technical term for this?