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11-29-2022, 06:41 PM
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#1
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Member
Registered: Dec 2013
Location: Pacific Northwest, USA
Distribution: Debian Linux, FreeBSD, macOS
Posts: 37
Rep: 
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Hard disk drives 'clunking' regularly during idle on Linux Debian x86_64 server
Greetings everyone,
I recently turned a donated Acer Intel Pentium desktop into a local file server (Samba + SFTP) running Debian 11 x86_64. I have two Western Digital Black hard disk drives installed, one for boot/home and one strictly for served data. ext4 is being used for all non-swap partitions. Both drives were completely zeroed using `dd` before partitioning. Both drives are connected using internal SATA.
During idle (when no one is accessing the server) there is a regular 'clunk'...'clunk' sound coming from the server's disk drives. It's roughly every four to five seconds, and just keeps repeating. Every once in a while it pauses but then continues not long after.
I also observed this behavior on an external hard disk drive connected to a Raspberry Pi running Raspian or whatever the current name is for Debian on the Pi. I even moved the file server functions off of the Pi and the connected external hard disk thinking it was a Pi issue.
The clunking sound has been happening on a four-year-old drive and also a brand new drive (both WD Blacks) so I'm pretty certain it's not a failing drive. I checked the SMART data from both disks and nothing appears to be wrong. I've also viewed `dmesg` and don't see anything relevant there, either.
Some might think it's from 'lazy' ext4 formatting, but that actually finished a few weeks ago. The OS install is very basic (on purpose), just the bare necessities for Samba sharing, rsync and that's about it. I have not installed any file indexing utilities, don't use a locate database, etc.
Besides being annoying to listen to, I am concerned that this constant activation of the read head mechanism is going to wear out my drives prematurely.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what this could be? Are there any kernel or fstab options I should try to stop this behavior?
Thank you in advance! 
Last edited by willbprog127; 11-29-2022 at 07:09 PM.
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11-29-2022, 07:10 PM
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#2
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Member
Registered: Oct 2022
Location: Central Eastcoast Australia
Distribution: EndeavourOS, MXLinux
Posts: 114
Rep:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by willbprog127
Greetings everyone,
I recently turned a donated Acer Intel Pentium desktop into a local file server (Samba + SFTP) running Debian 11 x86_64. I have two Western Digital Black hard disk drives installed, one for boot/home and one strictly for served data. ext4 is being used for all non-swap partitions. Both drives were completely zeroed using `dd` before partitioning. Both drives are connected using internal SATA.
During idle (when no one is accessing the server) there is a regular 'clunk'...'clunk' sound coming from the server's disk drives. It's roughly every four to five seconds, and just keeps repeating. Every once in a while it pauses but then continues not long after.
I also observed this behavior on an external hard disk drive connected to a Raspberry Pi running Raspian or whatever the current name is for Debian on the Pi. I even moved the file server functions off of the Pi and the connected external hard disk thinking it was a Pi issue.
The clunking sound has been happening on a four-year-old drive and also a brand new drive (both WD Blacks) so I'm pretty certain it's not a failing drive. I checked the SMART data from both disks and nothing appears to be wrong.
Some might think it's from 'lazy' ext4 formatting, but that actually finished a few weeks ago. The OS install is very basic (on purpose), just the bare necessities for Samba sharing, rsync and that's about it. I have not installed any file indexing utilities, don't use a locate database, etc.
Besides being annoying to listen to, I am concerned that this constant activation of the read head mechanism is going to wear out my drives prematurely.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what this could be? Are there any kernel or fstab options I should try to stop this behavior?
Thank you in advance! 
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Hello @willbprog127
That brings back horrid memories, it's not just that the clunking the harddrive is irritating it's that noise it's worrysome that it is this thing trying to tell it's dying out, mine was a Western Digital Black hard disk drive 4 or 5TB had to be plugged into mains power to work at it's best and not be a drain on the computer, all fine except for the noise,
at the shop they assured me no no no problem it's because whatever don't remember, Ive got exact same and does same noises HE said, well about 3 weeks later it's stopped clunking on computer startup yeah it died the little sod,
I have always maintained a strict backup routine for 10 years a least, yeah I have been told personally and online that I over do the backup routine 0Oh yeah,
lose all your data all of a sudden doesn't very strict or overdone doesn't sound so bad when there NO data on your machine anywhere and NO way to restore,
got backup so then there is no panic if one or more harddrives or SSD die.
Don't trust anything mechanical especially if it clunks as it's working ( unless it's a pile-driver )
regards
artytux
Last edited by artytux; 11-29-2022 at 07:13 PM.
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11-29-2022, 07:14 PM
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#3
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Member
Registered: Dec 2013
Location: Pacific Northwest, USA
Distribution: Debian Linux, FreeBSD, macOS
Posts: 37
Original Poster
Rep: 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by artytux
I have always maintained a strick backup routine for 10 years a least, yeah I have been told personally and online that I over do the backup routine 0Oh yeah, lose all your data all of a sudden doesn't very strick or overdone doesn't sound so bad when there NO data no your machine anywhere and NO way to restore,
got backup so then there is no panic if one or more harddrives or SSD die.
Don't trust anything mechanical especially if it clunks as it's working ( unless it's a pile-driver )
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Haha, no, it's not (currently) a pile-driver.
Yes, I regularly sync my file server to another hard disk attached (but not usually mounted) to a different computer so I do have some redundancy. I also have an off-site backup too. While I don't want to lose a drive, I am always thinking about it and definitely not depending on only one copy of data.
Thanks! 
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1 members found this post helpful.
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11-29-2022, 07:51 PM
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#4
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Moderator
Registered: Aug 2002
Posts: 26,512
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FWIW from a bit of a search it is quite common with WD drives and I found according to WD tech support it is called Preventive Wear Leveling (PWL). A periodic head sweep to distribute lubricant and prevent wear in a particular place if lubricant were to build up in one spot which could happen every 5 seconds.
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11-29-2022, 08:00 PM
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#5
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LQ Veteran
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Australia
Distribution: Lots ...
Posts: 21,332
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11-30-2022, 10:36 AM
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#6
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Senior Member
Registered: Sep 2014
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 1,840
Rep: 
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Some distributions have a service which runs smartcl commands automatically, and it caused some of my WD to constantly tick like that.
Nothing wrong with the physical disk though, in my case the problem was just the service which casually enables diagnostics.
Personally, I've gotten rid of the service init script, the smartctl daemon, and just offed the thing according to smartctl manual:
Code:
smartctl -s off /dev/sdd
Disable SMART monitoring and data log collection on drive /dev/sdd.
Since then, the disk has been silent.
Now, I do have another "failsafe" system, where the service is enabled, in case I ever want it to start ticking again.
And needless to say, the ticking thing never happened on windows systems, even if official "WD tools" is used to run an extended test.
So, possible bug with either the kernel, the service, or smartmontools. Haven't bothered to report it.
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11-30-2022, 11:57 AM
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#7
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Member
Registered: Dec 2013
Location: Pacific Northwest, USA
Distribution: Debian Linux, FreeBSD, macOS
Posts: 37
Original Poster
Rep: 
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Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions. If disabling the SMART monitoring doesn't work I guess I'll just deal with it.
Thank you so much! 
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12-06-2022, 12:26 PM
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#8
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Member
Registered: Dec 2013
Location: Pacific Northwest, USA
Distribution: Debian Linux, FreeBSD, macOS
Posts: 37
Original Poster
Rep: 
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Just a follow-up for those finding this on search engines -- elcore's suggestion of disabling the SMART monitoring seems to have reduced the frequency of the clunking sound, although not completely gone. This server is only used by me, so there isn't any other user activity to explain frequent drive accesses, although I know that there's always logging and what is probably michaelk's suggestion of the drive 'wear leveling'. At least it doesn't sound like Enterprise D's warp core thumping in my room now.
Thanks again everyone! 
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12-14-2022, 12:41 AM
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#9
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Senior Member
Registered: Jul 2020
Posts: 1,369
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What does iotop show?
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