A:AnswerIt doesn't seem to make an amount of noise that's more noticeable then a regular mechanical hard drive. It does make the normal whirring sounds all mechanical hard drives do at lower RPMs. if absolute silence is what you want then I highly recommend a SSD only configuration.
A:AnswerI'm just an average consumer, I noticed the difference in warranties as well with all manufacturers. This is a drive meant for Desktop PC's, meant for the average consumer/business that wants better performance for home or office. There's higher levels of hard drives meant for different situations (like server farms, surveillance), and they usually cost more money, so the longer warranty would make sense. Hard drives meant for Desktop PC situations are (usually) not going to be under the same duress as hard drives used heavily in server farms or the like. That's why there are different levels of hard drives (my guess, anyway). Even Western DIgital and Seagate have different levels of warranties, and with those companies also, the hard drives aimed at average consumers using Desktop PC's or laptops, it's usually a two year warranty.
It does not mean a hard drive with a two year warranty will not last as long, most hard drives will fail very early on if it is a bad hard drive, within the first 90 days usually, sometimes the first day. I've had a 3TB Western Digital My Book fail in the first week, they honored the warranty, and the replacement has lasted 6 years. I've had a 3TB Toshiba X300 hard drive that has had no problems with regular use for the past 7 years (in a home computer situation), and same for a portable Western Digital drive. I'm finally replacing them, but only because they are very old now in hard drive years, even though they still work. I just had a 4 year old Seagate external desktop hard drive crap out on me, and another 3 year old portable Seagate close to failing, which has made me start shopping for new drives, so I just picked up a 4TB Toshiba X300 and a portable Western Digital 5TB P10 Black (which surprisingly has a 3 year warranty). I also started using a hard drive diagnostic tool to keep track of how my hard drives are doing, so I don't get surprised if one's wearing out.
