Stupid simple power supply question

[Diapason]

I bought an external hard-drive recently, but the wall-wart power supply whistles and buzzes and whines like nothing I've ever heard. Is there any reason why I shouldn't buy a replacement offering the same output voltage and current? Are there any pitfalls here whatsoever?

[nige2000]

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/STONTRONICS-T252 ... 20f54bde1a
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/STONTRONICS-S222 ... 20d66f9c19

5v for 2.5 inch drive
12v for 3.5

its prob 12v

linear type ive had good sq with the 5v type

ps: spinning drives arent great anyhow :)

place a brick on it for anti vibration ;)

[Aleg]

...

place a brick on it for anti vibration ;)

A few times ....., with some force ...
That will make it quiet :-)

[tony]

Good answers lads we don't want any of these pseudo computer audio heads clogging up this part of the forum.

A lump of brass would be more aesthetic Simon and has better anti vibration qualities.It will also be as effectuve as the brick for Aleg's suggested tweak

[Diapason]

It's not for anything resembling an audiophile application, it's mainly for movies n stuff in the sitting room, but God damn it's loud! Thank you all for the advice, I'll be ignoring the bit about the brick!

[tony]

Ah that happened to me also. WD drives I have got are fine. Got a verbatim for my son and it is dreadful.Like an airplane. Maybe changing the drive and using the noisy one as back up for stuff

[Diapason]

The drive itself is ok (well, as ok as a spinning HDD ever is) but it's the power supply itself that whistles and buzzes away. It's so bad I can't even leave it plugged in with the unit off. Anyway, I'll pick up a replacement and let the drive fight the Sky box for the title of noisiest.

[Diapason]

Sorry to bump this. Nige, I see that the 12V supply you've linked above has a current output spec'ed at 1A. The one I'm hoping to replace is 1.5A and I'm working on the assumption that going up would be ok but down possibly not? I actually have a few other 12V DC supplies hanging around that are all 1A rated, so I'm wondering if this is a bit of an outlier.

[nige2000]

its only one hard drive?

http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-con ... nents.html

states between 6.5 and 9 watts

9 watts is 0.75 amps it would need to be something prehistoric to use that

i wouldnt may much attention whats stamped on the cheap supplies that come with stuff

ive a mountain of them here they never do what it says on the tin whether its voltage or amperage

[Diapason]

It's a 4TB Samsung D3, which apparently has a Seagate ST4000DM000 drive inside and I'm pretty sure it was designed for low power consumption given its low spindle speed (5,900) etc. So basically I can't imagine this ever needing to draw 18W.

Actually, I've just googled it. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/des ... 494-6.html would suggest that its power draw is a very low 5.9W at peak, so it looks like I could stick any old power supply on there and it would be grand.

Thanks again! (Rest assured, if I ever plump for a serious CA application, I won't be using this drive...)