chirping noise normal on seagate 500gb? audio files included

Computer Forum Storage Devices
1

Hi guys,

My drive:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Motherboad: asus p5q pro connected in AHCI mode, but used to be in IDE compatibility mode (same noise)

SMART values are normal. SeaTools under DOS passes all tests.

I found some audio files on seagate’s forum making the same sound as my drive. Unfortunetely, the thread is dead and no answer was given.

Here’s the drive with some read/writes (sound is more audible):

RapidShare: Easy Filehosting

Hd idle:

RapidShare: Easy Filehosting

Note: depends on your sound volume, but this is much louder that the actual noise. I think the person who recorded it had the mic right next to the HD.

Since I do not live in the US, RMAing is not possible. And returning the drive for and exachange is much of a hassle, so I want to be pretty sure what the problem is (if there is any) before taking the drive out and driving across town with a Hd suffering bumps on the road :smiley:

Any ideas?

Thanks…