My Seagate Barracuda V is loud?

[KnickNut3]

Hello.

After designing a computer specifically to be quiet in my dorm room, I am now discovering this is suddenly not the case (2 months later). My main HD is a Seagate Barracuda V, apparently the quietest on the market. It was GREAT for the first 6 months I had it at home (could barely tell that the PC was running), and, IIRC, it has been fine here, although off the carpet and on a wood floor has increased the sound a bit.

Now, it seems that the HD is as loud as any other drive. Comparitively, it seems to be grinding. It's not LOUD, per say, as in there's a MAJOR problem, but it's as loud as a normal drive now. I double checked, and the only thing on my Maxtor 7200rpm 80GB ball-bearing drive is games and videos, and the paging file is on the barracuda, so I see no reason why I should hear all this noise.

Am I imagining things? May it be going bad? Is this normal? Thanks for the info...

[dunbar]

Age, I'd say. Sound is rated under certain test conditions, placed in certain orientation, etc.

You have always run this drive in the same orientation? I have a couple drives which get louder if I tip them a certain way, so I consider the orientation does have an effect yet the drive might still be fine.

Not to say that noise is never bad, this drive could be failing, certainly.

Just for grins and giggles, is there any discussion in the technical details of the drives rating about orienting the drive a certain way? Once upon a time there was a drive that would suffer bearing damage if operated in a certain position, or so I was told.

[KnickNut3]

Hmm... always been on flat ground in the same slot.

By orientation, do you mean on a certain side, or a shift of even a degree or two? I'll double check, make sure wires aren't under a corner of the PC (it's in a tight corner, so hard to tell)