Strange USB HDD noise connected to Asus RT-AC68U

[Nikolay Kiselev]

Dear all,

I am using Asus RT-AC68U (Merlin firmware 380.63) with a 500GB Western Digital USB HDD ("My Passport" series) attached to the router.

Transmission Download Manager through new generation Optware is installed (https://www.hqt.ro/transmission-download-manager-through-new-generation-optware/)

After I've updated firmware from 374 to 380.61 I've noticed that USB HDD at the idle time (i.e. when I'm not downloading anything through Transmission, etc) started to make a strange clicking noise approx. each 7 seconds. The LED on USB HDD is on, than that click sound occurs, LED blinks several times and then after some time the cycle repeats.

Does anyone knows why does that happen and is there a way to get of that clicking nosie? it is pretty irritating.

P.S. While trying to get rid of that sound, I've formatted USB HDD, reinstalled Transmission and restored factory default settings on the router - nothing helped. Also WD S.M.A.R.T. testing showed that USB HDD is in good condition.

Many thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Nick

 

[pete y testing]

disconnect all client devices ( ethernet and wifi ) so only the hdd is connect to the router , see if it still happens

it sounds like something is waking the hdd up , poss one of your clients is attempting to connect to it in the bg , disconnecting all clients will tell you if its a router issue or client access issue

 

[Nikolay Kiselev]

Pete y testing,

1) I've disconnected my only ethernet cilent (i.e. desktop PC), then
2) Turned off 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless modules in the router's web interfece (in order to disconnect all wifi client),
but USB HDD was still making that "clicking" sound.

Then I've turn off -> turn on the router, but after the router booted USB HDD started "clicking" again.

Anyway, many thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Nikolay Kiselev]

Any other suggestions?

 

[john9527]

Make sure you have a backup of your data. Repetitive 'clicking' noises can be caused by head recalibrations and may be signalling a disk fail.

 

[Nikolay Kiselev]

John9527,

Yes, I already did a back up.

However, I forgot to tell, that if I connect USB HDD to the desktop PC , than USB HDD stops "clicking"...

First thing I thought about was USB HDD failure.

 

[L&LD]

It sounds you may not be giving the drive enough power through the router's USB ports. Is it capable of being externally powered? Are you able to get a 'Y' cable for it (one for power and one for power and data)?

http://www.vantecusa.com/CMS/support/faq/question/59

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047AALS0/?tag=snbforums-20


The above link is just an example for you.

 

[Nikolay Kiselev]

L&LD,

Unfortunately, I don't have "Y" cable for testing. However, I did the following:

1) I've plugged in another WD USB HDD into router's USB3 port (not ext3, just NTFS; no Transmission installed) (the "HDD2") - the router is accessible other the LAN (i.e. it is working) and it just keeps constantly blinking. No "clicking" sounds;

2) I've plugged in the main WD USB HDD (which is ext3; Transmission installed) into desktop PC's USB port (the "HDD1"). HDD is working and does not click anymore.

However, I've mentioned, that whenever my Transmission server is down, the HDD stops that annoying "clicking" noise.

Maybe that cycles are due to the Transmission installed? Where can I get the latest Transmission?

P.S. As a simple solution I could just use HDD2 with my router - format it as ext3, install Transmission and see what will happen.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@Nikolay Kiselev Your problem sounds like the well known issue some Western Digital drives have with overly aggressive power saving.

Use smartctl to check the value of "Load_Cycle_Count" and see if it increases by 1 every time you hear a "click". WD Green drives are set to park their heads after 8 seconds of inactivity. This is fine for a PC but on a server it is a big problem because something like transmission repeatedly polls the HDD. This means that no sooner has the HDD parked the heads, transmission wakes it up again. The solution is to change the idle time to something like 300 seconds.

http://superuser.com/questions/7352...-hard-disk-showing-very-high-load-cycle-count

 

[sfx2000]

It sounds you may not be giving the drive enough power through the router's USB ports. Is it capable of being externally powered? Are you able to get a 'Y' cable for it (one for power and one for power and data)?

Hmmm..

Probably unwise to use a bus-powered spinning disk from any Router/AP that supports USB sharing - many USB ports are not up to spec power-wise...

I've run into similar issues with laptops, even with USB3 ports...

 

[Nikolay Kiselev]

ColinTaylor,

I think that your are right about the source of that "clicking" sound. "Load_Cycle_Count" value of my external USB HDD (WD My Passport) is very high (>563,455). And this value is increasing each time the HDD "clicks".

I've been googling the way to decrease the idle time to 300 seconds with help of WDIDLE3 tool. The problem is that this tools works only in DOS (i.e. I do not see my USB HDD in DOS). Also I've tried to use "idle3-tools" in Linux, but ended up with the same problem (the program does no see USB HDD).

Taking into account the "Load_Cycle_Count" value and impossibility to modify idle time, I think the only solution is to buy another external USB HDD.

What HDD you would recommend to be used with Asus RT-AC68U (i.e. for Transmission)?

 

[sfx2000]

Many USB drives do have Windows software to set the power management - back in the day, I had issues with an older MaxTor 250GB USB drive and that was sorted by the Windows support SW to disable power management.

Getting back to modern times - Seagate and a USB3 Backup Plus drive - their "desktop" software under Windows 10 has similar options, see below on the Power item...

That setting affects the USB controller in the drive, not the drive itself, and it's OS independent, so hooking it up to a Mac or Linux machine after the fact, it'll honor that setting - just keep in mind that the setting with the Seagate has do be done first... it'll stick until it's changed...

I can't imagine that WD would be much different with their dashboard/desktop SW...

 

[ColinTaylor]

I've been googling the way to decrease the idle time to 300 seconds with help of WDIDLE3 tool. The problem is that this tools works only in DOS (i.e. I do not see my USB HDD in DOS). Also I've tried to use "idle3-tools" in Linux, but ended up with the same problem (the program does no see USB HDD).

The trick is to go into the BIOS and change the SATA Mode from AHCI to IDE, boot into DOS to do the changes and then switch back to AHCI afterwards (otherwise Windows will not boot).

 

[john9527]

Second trick...most (all?) USB implementations don't provide the necessary api to be able to set this parameter in the drive. You need to remove the drive from the case, then hook it up via SATA. Then proceed as per @ColinTaylor

Possible problem....some WD Passport drives are 'special' and they removed the SATA interface in favor of an on-board USB controller. In that case, you are stuck.

 

[sfx2000]

In many cases, check the SW that comes with the drive - the spin down/energy settings are generally set there.. see my post above.

 

[Nikolay Kiselev]

sfx2000, ColinTaylor, john9527,

To tell the truth, while googling the way to decrease the idle time to 300 seconds with help of WDIDLE3 tool I saw posts at other web-sites regarding changing the SATA Mode, removing the drive from the case and checking HDD's software. I didn't try all of the methods, but after you draw my attention to all of them, I've decided to spend a a couple more hours in order to try all of them.

I. WD software named "WD Drive Utilities"

I've downloaded a program named "WD Drive Utilities" from the following web-site: http://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?&lang=en

I think, that this is the only relevant WD software in my case.

In the "Settings" tab there is a switch named "Sleep Timer" (see Screenshot 1), which was set at "30 minutes". I've turned "Sleep Timer" off (see Screenshot 2). After that I've formatted my WD HDD using GParted program in Kali Linux and created a single ext3 partition.

Then I went through the standard Transmission installation procedure:

• plugged WD HDD into the Asus RT-AC68U router;
• installed New Generation Optware (https://www.hqt.ro/how-to-install-new-generation-optware/);
• installed Transmission Download Manager (https://www.hqt.ro/transmission-download-manager-through-new-generation-optware/);
• made Transmission Download Manager WAC accessible;
• modified "services-start" script with "arp -i br0 -s [LAN IP] [MAC]" line (in order to make sure, that I can boot my desktop PC via WOL magic packet even after I've rebooted my router).

After that I've downloaded a sample file via Transmission (it was working properly) I listened to WD HDD -> which started to "click" again.

In other words, turning off "Sleep Timer" in "WD Drive Utilities" didn't help.

II. Removing the drive from the case

I've googled several tutorials on YouTube regarding how to open a "WD My Passport Ultra" case. I've used a simple knife and a credit card.

John9527, you were right - "WD My Passport Ultra" is one of that "special" external HDDs which do not have a "normal" SATA interface (see Photo 1 and Photo 2).

I saw an article describing how to "fuse" resisters on the HDD's electronic board (in order to turn USB interface off) and "solder" a SATA adapter on external WD HDDs. However, I think, that I won't be able to "refuse" resistors on the WD HDD (i.e. will just "kill" the device).

In other words, I couldn't connect WD HDD through the SATA to my desktop PC's motherboard.

III. Changing the SATA mode in BIOS

I used my Asus laptop for modifying BIOS settings. I found a "SATA Mode Selection" switch and chose "IDE" (see Screenshot 3).

Then I googled for a DOS 7.1 image (*.gho image for Norton Ghost32) (http://old-dos.ru/index.php?page=files&mode=files&do=show&id=4591) and extracted that image on a 8GB USB stick.

I've also downloaded (found a link here: http://fobosworld.ru/jelezo/raznoe/69-wdidle3) and copied wdidle3.exe to that USB stick.

I've booted into the DOS environment (using High Memory option) and executed wdidle3.exe. The program doesn't see a WD HDD connected to the laptop through the USB port (see Screenshot 4 and Screenshot 5).

In other words, I couldn't modify decrease the idle time to 300 seconds with help of WDIDLE3 tool.

IV. Temporary solution

I found my old 500GB Hitachi HDD from the Asus laptop and a KINGSTON case for 2.5 HDDs with a USB 3.0 interface. Then I just formatted this HDD into ext3, installed Transmission and started to listen to the "external HDD".

Even though I could hear the Hitachi HDD to decrease and then increase spinning speed from time to time (8-15 seconds), it was not that annoying as clicking" noize of the WD HDD. I think, that this is a temporary solution of my problem.

But anyway - could I please ask you to recommend me a 1TB external HDD (to be plugged into the router), which could be used for downloading files through the Transmission and which would not make that annoying "clicking" sounds? I think, that it is the best solution in my case.

Best regards,
Nikolay Kiselev

 

[Nikolay Kiselev]

Screenshots 4 and 5 are attached to this post.

If you see, that I did something wrong at any stage and that mistake could have impacted the result of my testing - please let me know

 

[Nikolay Kiselev]

ColinTaylor, john9527, sfx2000,

To cut it short - any recommendation of a "non-clicking" (modifiable in this respect) 1TB external HDD (to be plugged into the router) is highly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Nikolay Kiselev

 

[sfx2000]

Even though I could hear the Hitachi HDD to decrease and then increase spinning speed from time to time (8-15 seconds), it was not that annoying as clicking" noize of the WD HDD. I think, that this is a temporary solution of my problem.

That sounds very much like a power issue...

 

[ColinTaylor]

Sorry @Nikolay Kiselev I don't have anything to recommend. I use a HDD enclosure that allows me to plug in any spare 2.5" drive I have lying around. Even then I usually have to use the SMART utilities to adjust the power management settings of each drive (regardless of manufacturer).

Some of the "packaged" USB 3 solutions I've seen advertised need 900mA from the USB socket. I don't think I'd feel comfortable leaving something like that plugged into my router 24/7. So it's worth checking the specs before you buy.