Noisy Hard Drive.

[aimeeandbeatles]

The noise has gone since the computer got cleaned out for dust. Except when I open a folder with a thousand files, of course.

Can dust make a hard drive noisy??

 

[Cutlass]

Dust should not get into the interior of the hard drive itself. If it does, the drive shouldn't last long But it can make all the other fans noisy. And some of those fans are variable speed depending on the load on the PC.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

If dust is getting into the HDD, yes. But at that point, the HDD is screwed either way.
So the short answer is: no, it shouldnt. Its likely rattling around on the screws and in the HDD cage when its very active because the head goes back and forth. If you have the know-how, a good idea would be to make some isolation pads and washers. Stick the pads under the HDD if its at the bottom of a cage, so it doesnt rattle around there ( this shouldnt be really needed because most are actually suspended a bit above the cage ) and put the washers in between the HDD and cage at the points where you screw it in.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

It's also possible that the screws on the case were loose and it was rattling and making it sound louder than it was, and when we put it back, we tightened the screws properly.

I've got two fans, one on the side of the case and one in the interior (towards the back) which I assume is the CPU location.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I think I also found out a reason why the computer was noisy.

On the bottom of the case, there's four rubber pads, so the bottom doesn't scrape against the plastic. And one of the pads had fallen off along the way (only found out when we took it out to send to the shop), so I suppose the case was rattling a little more than it should have been. Also could explain the noise in the fan and the optical drives. does this make sense?