It's possible that the head is stuck, and thus the coil acts as a crude speaker. Some HDDs probably have a speaker that annoys you when the start-up diagnostics failed, though...

8bitbubsy wrote:

It's possible that the head is stuck, and thus the coil acts as a crude speaker. Some HDDs probably have a speaker that annoys you when the start-up diagnostics failed, though...

If this is the sound of a coil doing something, I'll eat my platters. http://vocaroo.com/i/s0tFmRPWFZKV

Well, more like a coil together with the stuck head on the platter, making vibrations. Also if that was supposed to be an error code sound, then it's the weirdest one I have ever heard. It's possible that you'll have to eat your platters after all. Why don't you remove the PCB from the drive and look for a speaker? And if it's not there, then open the drive itself. Obviously only do that if you don't care about the disk's content...

8bitbubsy wrote:

It's possible that the head is stuck, and thus the coil acts as a crude speaker. ...

Most likely this. Can you hear the drive spin up when you turn on the computer?

I've never seen an HDD with a speaker for error codes. Certainly no Maxtor HDD, for sure. Possibly some really big/expensive SCSI drives might have one, but yours isn't one of these.

I was testing out some of my fathers old drives recently.. seagates, caviar 3xxxx, fireballs, etc and some sure did play jingle bells the moment they powered on :p..sound is a combo of the head knocking and a coil squealing on and off.

Record the sound if you still have the drive in, I'd like to hear!

BeginnerGuy wrote:

Record the sound if you still have the drive in, I'd like to hear!

He linked an audio clip in this thread. It sounds like a beep that is drifting in pitch, which makes me believe even more that it's actually the coil, head and platter making noises from the drive trying the best it can to move the head. Almost sounds like a square wave, I wonder if those are high frequency pulses or something that went to the coil.

8bitbubsy wrote:

BeginnerGuy wrote:

Record the sound if you still have the drive in, I'd like to hear!

He linked an audio clip in this thread. It sounds like a beep that is drifting in pitch, which makes me believe even more that it's actually the coil, head and platter making noises from the drive trying the best it can to move the head. Almost sounds like a square wave, I wonder if those are high frequency pulses or something that went to the coil.

Doh! Sorry about that, I'm not familiar with vocaroo 😜

Wow, it does sound like a square wave changing pitch. Never heard a coil whine that structured and defined before, no wonder he thinks it's a speaker.. or maybe it is actually a speaker 🤣

BeginnerGuy wrote:

8bitbubsy wrote:

BeginnerGuy wrote:

Record the sound if you still have the drive in, I'd like to hear!

He linked an audio clip in this thread. It sounds like a beep that is drifting in pitch, which makes me believe even more that it's actually the coil, head and platter making noises from the drive trying the best it can to move the head. Almost sounds like a square wave, I wonder if those are high frequency pulses or something that went to the coil.

Doh! Sorry about that, I'm not familiar with vocaroo 😜

Wow, it does sound like a square wave changing pitch. Never heard a coil whine that structured and defined before, no wonder he thinks it's a speaker.. or maybe it is actually a speaker 🤣

I'm hesitant to crack it open because I want to be nosey and see what other documents the previous owner had on it. It did this a couple of times then powered up fine, but now I've tried to boot off of it about 6 times in the last 24 hours with no luck, hearing what you hear now. Lost cause?