The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/flossy_cake on 2024-05-25 15:10:11.
I have the 12TB WD Red Plus drive. It thumps every 5 seconds due to PWL. It is annoying. I was able to shut it up with this specific type of anti shock bracket which suspends the drive on rubber posts from all 4 sides. You will need a 5.25" bay in your PC case which are getting rarer these days.
Available at the usual places like ebay, amazon, aliexpress etc.
WARNING: do not necessarily expect it to be a miracle solution for you straight away. I have two 5.25" bays and if I mount it in the top one I can still hear the thump. If I use the bottom bay it is completely silent. I don't know why. I think it is something to do with resonation inside the case. In the bottom silent bay I can put my ear right up to it and I hear no thump at all. I can't explain it. There is some trick to getting the drive suspended in just the right way that makes it not transfer any vibration. I have read on some silent PC review site that people were suspending their drives in mid air inside the case with elastic bands. Maybe it's like that. When you are mounting the drive on the posts, inspect each post to make sure each one is making a perfect circular maximal contact patch on all 4 sides. If one of the posts is bending slightly its contact patch will be smaller. It is easy to be slightly off and I think that affects how much vibration gets damped.
Now for the alternatives: I have two Western Digital 8TB blues (current model) which seem to not have PWL thump that I can tell. Maybe they do, but I cannot hear it. Or maybe it does it so rarely and quietly that I cannot tell it is happening. But the 8TB blues have more platter spinning whoosh noise like "hhhhhhhhhh" so the 12TB red plus with silenced PWL is actually quieter.
I will keep playing around with my top bay to get to the bottom of why it's still thumping despite the rubber mount. Maybe one of the rubber posts went out of alignment or something. I have it in the bottom bay right now and I can tell you there is no thump at all, none. The drive has not gone to sleep.
I was going to buy a second 12TB WD Red Plus but then I thought if they both thump every 5 seconds there is no guarantee both their thumps would be in sync so it could actually result in a thump every 2.5 seconds! Imagine having four of them, it would be a thump every 1.25 seconds, oh my goodness!