Either Iomega Zip drives or IBM Deskstar 75GXP drives. Very characteristic click.

dionb wrote:

Either Iomega Zip drives or IBM Deskstar 75GXP drives. Very characteristic click.

That’s too fast of a ticking sound for me.
https://youtu.be/cz3iTEjFbTs

I read about that noise ... in the 90's I think.
It was considered a design flaw that existed because because technology hadn't found a way around it yet.
I don't like it because generally mechanical noises = more wear.
.

PCBONEZ wrote:

I read about that noise ... in the 90's I think. It was considered a design flaw that existed because because technology hadn't […]
Show full quote

I read about that noise ... in the 90's I think.
It was considered a design flaw that existed because because technology hadn't found a way around it yet.
I don't like it because generally mechanical noises = more wear.
.

Well, it is obvious that sound is some sort of communication.
That is why we have ears.
Like Morse code or music or drums or bird chatter or insects.
I read that some old native languages used ticking and clicking sounds too,

Videos:

1) https://youtu.be/-cU1gbcTaZk

2) https://youtu.be/gpjhI-eRE6c

3) https://youtu.be/qzF8VICWmqI

4) https://youtu.be/2_qQZ92onhU

5) https://youtu.be/wYPxbZMKnWs

Oh, your one of those too.

I took my tin-foil hat, shaved a horse, got some glue and made a toupee.
.

I have a IBM Ultrastar 9ES (aka DDRS-39130) that ticks like a typewriter when seeking, it also makes a soft whirring noise when idling. Only caveat is that it is a SCSI drive and is fairly noisy.

Also in terms of ticking hard drives I'd say the Seagate ST-251/ST-277R also holds its own, when it starts up it makes a hollow knocking noise, though it's a MFM hard drive, it's not probably what you are looking for.

I also have two IBM Travelstar 2.5" IDE HDDs and they're not too loud but definitely click a lot when doing long seeks, really weird. Unfortunately I have no idea of the models of each drive.

Yes, Old SCSI drives are usually loud with a spinning noise.
Same with old IBM 7200rpm IDE drives.
For quiet old IDE drive I like the WD ( western digital medalist ) .

The old Conner drives I am using are NOT as loud as the video posted above.
They don’t whine that loud but the ticking sound is distinctive.

I am looking for old IDE drives that don’t whine or spin loudly.
But just provide a clean ticking sound.

Definition of whine:
give or make a long, high-pitched complaining cry or sound

My favourite sounding drives are the old Seagate ST-225,238 and 251 (MFM and RLL types).

the 75GXP had a characteristic sound? The only character that drive had was when the glass platters shattered and your data blew into a bazillion pieces.

PCBONEZ wrote:

Oh, your one of those too.

I took my tin-foil hat, shaved a horse, got some glue and made a toupee.
.

Well the government and military believed in things like that along with decoding video from CRT emissions and reading the data stream from drive activity lights as just an example.

I believe the certification was called TEMPEST in the US for hardware that had been shielded\hardend against this?

Back on the real topic, the currently available (in UK at least) value range 4TB 3.5 hard drive from Toshiba is a clicky bastard for a modern drive, had to send a load back at work and exchange them for WDs as we got complaints from the desktop users...

Microdrives sound really nice. The head parking is clicky and the disk frequently spins up/down which sounds ... futuristic?

My next best sounding drive is an old 2.5" 4.3GB Toshiba MK4313MAT, made in Philippines! The head parking routine has various noises and a pattern. Klunk, click ..... click, klunk.

CarlHopkinsUK wrote:

Well the government and military believed in things like that along with decoding video from CRT emissions and reading the data […]
Show full quote

PCBONEZ wrote:

Oh, your one of those too.

I took my tin-foil hat, shaved a horse, got some glue and made a toupee.
.

Well the government and military believed in things like that along with decoding video from CRT emissions and reading the data stream from drive activity lights as just an example.

I believe the certification was called TEMPEST in the US for hardware that had been shielded\hardend against this?

Back on the real topic, the currently available (in UK at least) value range 4TB 3.5 hard drive from Toshiba is a clicky bastard for a modern drive, had to send a load back at work and exchange them for WDs as we got complaints from the desktop users...

Yes, The drives are WHINING and HUMMING and HOWLING and CHATTERING and SCRATCHING like a Chicken.

https://youtu.be/fTXkT7FcStw

Not very good engineering or if this is Alien technology it maybe some sort of distress call or warning of chaos.

CarlHopkinsUK wrote:

Well the government and military believed in things like that along with decoding video from CRT emissions and reading the data stream from drive activity lights as just an example.

I believe the certification was called TEMPEST in the US for hardware that had been shielded\hardend against this?

I know TEMPEST. It was part of my job way-back.
TEMPEST is about preventing spying by monitoring inadvertent emissions and preventing spys from using covert means of communication.
A hard coded message in a HDD firmware that couldn't be changed would be pretty useless IMHO.
.

Diamondmaxes

whiiiiir CLICK! whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr CLICK!!!! click click click WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRR CLICK

Well, it is obvious that as technology advanced and machining and engineering progressed the hard-drives have become more precise and quieter with precision.

The The 225's and 251's made that great hollow knock while the 3.5" miniscribes made that very familiar stepper motor whirr.

CelGen wrote:

The The 225's and 251's made that great hollow knock while the 3.5" miniscribes made that very familiar stepper motor whirr.

Plus, apart from whirring like a buzzsaw those good old ST-225's have that really nice chirping head movements. I really like that. The loud whirring, not so much.

CarlHopkinsUK wrote:

PCBONEZ wrote:

Oh, your one of those too.

I took my tin-foil hat, shaved a horse, got some glue and made a toupee.
.

Well the government and military believed in things like that along with decoding video from CRT emissions and reading the data stream from drive activity lights as just an example.

I believe the certification was called TEMPEST in the US for hardware that had been shielded\hardend against this?

It goes somewhat further than "belief" (which implies it's nonsense), since researchers have demonstrated both EM emissions and sound can be used to read the data processed by a computer. That includes the sound a CPU makes. 😎

It seems just a matter of time until the first SSD with integrated speaker, wavetable and configurable sound emulation of popular historic drives appears on the retro market.

Quantum Fireball
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yA9qwWlQRxE