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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > hard drive noise something to worry about?

hard drive noise something to worry about?
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Stuncle Eve
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Dec 5, 2005, 10:46 AM
 
My 12" G4 has recently started making a strange little noise - every 5 seconds the hard drive makes the subtle little whirring/clicking noise it makes when working, even when it's just idling, when it's not being asked to do anything. The noise lasts about 1 second, then a 5 second pause, then the noise again.

I recently upgraded to Tiger, & it seems to me that it didn't make the noise before. Could there be some connection here?

Is this a totally benign activity, or is it time to haul out Apple Care & get something fixed/replaced?
     
mduell
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Dec 5, 2005, 11:09 AM
 
That's generally not a good sound. What's the S.M.A.R.T. status say?
     
Stuncle Eve  (op)
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Dec 5, 2005, 02:02 PM
 
DW says: "This hard drive's built-in S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics indicate the drive is functioning normally."



So, now what...
     
Mojo
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Dec 5, 2005, 02:24 PM
 
Back-up your data just in case...
     
Stuncle Eve  (op)
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Dec 5, 2005, 02:40 PM
 
Just went from once a week to once a day...
     
seanc
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Dec 5, 2005, 04:33 PM
 
I think thats just the heads parking and could be sorted with APM Tuner.
I have no idea where APM Tuner is, every link i've ever tried hasn't worked.
     
irus
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Dec 5, 2005, 05:52 PM
 
UNIX-based file systems perform functions similar to defragmentation in PC world when the computer is idle. The noise you're hearing could possibly have something to do with it.

Frequent backups are never a bad idea.
     
   
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