I have some 2002-2004 vintage WD JB/BB drives and they all seem to have loud spindle motors. Some are louder than others.

Since I can't remember how they were when these were new, is this normal for these units? Do they get loud with age or were they always that way? The WD drives that are 1-2 years old here are much quieter, but I can tell from the DCM that they've got different spindle motors.

All the drives pass their self scans and do not report any reallocations.

The spindle noise is my only concern with these and if this isn't a signal of impending death I would like to reuse some of them. Of course due to the age of the units they will be backed up on a regular basis.