[oflorey87]

I've had my 12" Rev. C Powerbook for about five months now, encountering no serious problems. However, recently, I have noticed my hard drive has started making clicking sounds. They're fairly regular (sometimes one or two a second, then a short break, or a steady one click every second) and occur constantly. It's easily audible in a quite room and is really quite annoying.

Is there anything I can do about this (It sounds like a slightly quiter version of the noise made when you press the button below the trackpad)? I'm not sure if it's to be expected with notebooks or if my computer is about to die :S

[Dr.Michael]

If it is a clicking sound that is different from the normal head movement during read/write cycles your harddrive IS going to die soon. Soon means in the next minutes or hours.

Do the following:
Make a backup of everything you don't want to lose. Make the backup INSTANTLY. Your hd can stop operating at any time. Don't overwrite an old backup because you never know if your hd is going to make it through the whole process.
If the backup is done, open disk utility and check the smart status. If it says verified your hd might be ok and the clicking sound was a normal operation sound (I doubt it is).
Get a new hd on warranty. Apple once has replaced my iBook hd because the sound has changed. Clicking sounds come from the heads when they stop operating in a controled way. Thats a complete hd failure (= a total damage).