Hello!
I've got a problem with my western digitall drive
Here it is: After every data transfer the drive produces loud seek noise( the seek noise is the same, regardless of the current Automatic acoustic management setting). It is something like parking the head (1-2 seconds after reading or writing operation). It irritates me very much.
I've tryed every setting of AAM, enabling/disbaling cache.
I've read this stuff about similar problems :
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... highlight=

And especially :
""The latest generation of our high-capacity drives have been programmed to perform regular off-line scans to test the drive's reliability and detect any possible malfunctions while the drive is still relatively new. These tests occur during times of system idle and are programmed to end after a certain number of power-on hours. They will stop after a cumulative amount of time.

We have been hearing from customers that are experiencing the same noise which you mention, while the drive is idle. The noise ends when an application is accessed or the mouse is moved. This is because the off-line scan is interrupted. I understand this noise is different from that to which most customers are accustomed, but it is indeed intentional,contributes to the reliability of the drive, and will end after a certain pre-programmed time."

Well my drive is old enough. It has 2200 power on hours. I tried disabling SMART operations with mhdd, disabling autoscan with http://private.peterlink.ru/tochinov/DTemp/DTemp.zip, nothing helps, still the same...
My voltages are OK, I think it is a firmware error.
Can someone give me a firmware update, or something that will tell SMART not to behave like that ?

Here are drive details:
Model: WDC WD400JB-00ETA0
Firmware revision: 77.07W77
Buffer size: 8192 Kb
----------------------[Device S.M.A.R.T. status]----------------------
Attribute Value Thresh Raw Flags
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Raw read error rate 200 51 000000000000h CR OC ER
Spin up time 91 21 0000000007BFh CR OC PR
Start/stop count 100 40 0000000002AEh OC EC SP
Reallocated sector count 200 140 000000000000h CR OC EC SP
Seek error rate 100 51 000000000000h CR OC ER
Power-on time count 97 0 0000000008E7h OC EC SP
Spin up retry count 100 51 000000000000h CR OC EC
Recalibration retries 100 51 000000000000h CR OC EC
Device power cycle count 100 0 000000000292h OC EC SP
Temperature 110 0 000000000021h OC SP
Reallocation event count 200 0 000000000000h OC EC SP
Current pending sector count 200 0 000000000000h OC EC
Off-line uncorrectable sector count 200 0 000000000000h OC EC
Ultra ATA CRC error rate 200 0 000000000000h OC ER
Write error rate 200 51 000000000000h CR ER


--------------------------[Device features]---------------------------
Maximal transfer block in sectors: 16, current: 16
Transfer modes:
PIO: 0-4
Single word DMA: not supported
Multi word DMA: 0-2
UltraDMA: 0-5
Current transfer mode: Ultra DMA-2
Drive features:
LBA supported, 48 bit addressing supported
SMART supported, enabled
Device status: Ok
Attributes structure revision: 10h
Thresholds structure revision: 10h
Pre-power mode attributes autosave supported
Attributes autosave after event supported
Temperature check capability found
SMART error logging supported
Log directory not supported
Summary SMART error log not supported
Comprehensive SMART error log not supported
SMART self-test error log not supported
SMART self test supported
Offline data collection supported
Suspend offline collection after new host command
Offline read scanning supported
Offline self test supported
Security mode supported, disabled
Master password revision code: unknown
Security locked: no
Security frozen: no
Security count expired: no
Security erase time: unknown
Enchanced security erase not supported
Security level: high
Write cache supported, enabled
Read look ahead supported, enabled
Host protected area supported, enabled
Microcode downloading supported
Power management supported, enabled
Advanced power management not supported
Automatic acoustic management supported, enabled
Recommended AAM value: 80h (minimum acoustic emanation level)
Current AAM value: FEh (maximum performance)
Media serial number not supported
----------------------------------------------------------------------

What mhdd scan says ?

well the sectors there are as follows :
<5ms 297689
<15ms 7452
<50ms 1390

the slower are in relatively regular patterns.

If you see something like "green/brown/red boxes" and it looks like a pattern, you have one head dying.
Also WD drives usually makes "clicks" during read/write when one of the head is damaged. Or just clicks on power on if you have completely dead one or more heads.