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Comment by VTimofeenko

1 month ago

You can't just drop this without examples. What OSes and what were their tells?

Not that poster but I can also tell the difference in sound between filesystems, likely due to how they store their metadata and the resulting seek patterns. This is my subjective experience:

Linux ext* series - mostly silent, but even periods of high disk usage tend to be on the quieter side - probably due to lots of caching

MacOS - continuous, low-pitched "gritty" sound

Windows FAT - periods of silence punctuated by occasional intermittent groans

Windows NTFS - low rhythmic grunting, more continuous than FAT

Windows 9x - rather quiet, although periods of heavy activity can produce quite high-pitched seeking sounds

It's not something that can be easily written out in text form. More like a pronounced version of how an iPhone feels when you're force rebooting.

  • Not an iPhone person, however when I force shutdown a laptop I am hacking away on, I do feel like I am strangling it with a pillow to ease it's suffering. But that feeling comes purely from my side, the machine shows no signs of life at that point anyway.

    Are you referring to something like the GPRS staccato coming from speakers catching a cell phone call or the almost imperceptible flyback whine of a CRT?