High pitched noise

Synology
1

I have a Synology NAS DS1621+ with 4 Seagate IronWolf, 10TB, NAS.

Maybe after a week of use (that means all was brand new), it started to make a high pitched noise that lasts a couple of seconds at random moments during the day.
I have never been able to record it because I can’t predict when it will happen.

I have removed all drives and ran the NAS for a day without the drives. The noise was gone.
But when I put the drives back, the noise continues.
I suppose this may mean the problem is with the drives.
If that’s the case, is there anything I can do?

Synology and Seagate were not helpful.

If you can point me towards the right direction, that would be great.
Thank you in advance.

Ennio

P.S.: I’m not very NAS savvy. I watched all the videos from @SpaceRexWill on YouTube and that’s how I managed to configure everything.

2

So is there any consistency to the times that this is happening with the drives? Like if you put the NAS under a heavy load does it happen more often?

3

Hi Will, thank you for the reply.
I haven’t noticed a pattern but I didn’t think of observing how busy the NAS is.
I will try it on and get back to you.

4

Ok, one other thing you may want to do is disable HDD hibernation. (under power settings in control panel)

Another thing it could be is your drives hitting harmonic oscillation, you can add bits of soft velcro to keep them from vibrating as much. It’s hard to tell though, as the sound could also be a power supply

5

It took me a long while to be able to test the NAS, but it seems like the problem is mostly solved.

I did the following:

  • Shut down the NAS and remove the hard drives. Turn it back on without the hard drives. Put the hard drives back in place in the same positions as before. I did this twice and once I left the NAS running for 8 hours without the hard drives.
  • Disabled HDD hibernation

Then I tested by:

  • Moving 10gb of files between the NAS and my notebook and vice versa
  • Working from home for 3 days and paying attention to the noises

I only heard the noise once after that and for a very brief moment. Not as nearly as annoying as before.
Before these actions, I would hear the noise at random moments a few times a day. It would last a two to three seconds.

Thank you for the help and I hope this helps others as well

6

I bet that the noise you were hearing was the hard drive startup noise. Once you turned off hibernation it kept the drives from ever spinning down