Clicking sound with Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB

Update: A couple of weeks ago in the late afternoon, my NV+ started making the familiar metallic clinking noise. I checked the SMART readings on all the disks and everything was as it should. No later than the next morning, I had an email message saying, “Disk fail event occurred on SATA channel 2. If the failed disk is used in a RAID level 1, 5, or X-RAID volume, please note that volume is now unprotected, and an additional disk failure may render that volume dead.” I quickly removed disk two, and put the refurbished (or as Seagate calls them Certified Repaired) hard drive in that I had received from the first disk failure (see previous posts). I RMA’d the disk and within about five days Seagate sent me another refurbished hard drive. The failed hard drive never gave any indication of pending failure, just the metallic clicking noise identical to the previously failed drive. The drive had about 2, 300 hours of continuous operation with only three start/stop cycles. So that is two drive failures out of five hard drives. Not good. After the refurbished drive was running in the NV+ for several days, I did notice something worth sharing. The refurbished drive ran on average about five degrees Fahrenheit higher, and the NV+ was consuming about three watts more then with the previous drive. It appears to me that Seagate has made a firmware change in these drives, although the drive still shows firmware CC34. Not sure what change was made, perhaps others know.

I have been running for about three weeks now with the three original drives and the one refurbished drive. Yesterday, the NAS started intermittently metallic clinking noise. I couldn’t believe it. Out of frustration I called Seagate warranty today. I politely explained my frustration that two out of five disks had failed and now it appears a third is about to go. I told them I had no idea which one it was as all the SMART readings were fine. I also said I was not going to spend hours pulling each drive individually and test them. The warranty person did not hesitate; he said they would replace my three remaining disks. He said they were going to overnight me three drives at no charge. All I have to do is return the three existing drives in their prepaid shipping box. While Seagate has been very responsive each time I have had need of their help, I am sorry to say, that I am now wishing I had not purchased these Green Drives. I see now the Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 6Gb/s 64 MB are on the HCL; these were the drives I originally wanted but at that time they were not on the list. I would recommend considering these.