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Firefox35 · Apr 27, 2005, 08:18 PM

Hi I'm new to these forums and new to the Mac so go easy

I received my new 17" Powerbook the other day and have been loving every second of adapting to the new OS until tonight that is.

A friend of mine came around earlier with a new copy of the Tiger OS, he knows someone so managed to get his grubby hands on a copy early, To cut a long story short I have it on order from Apple but probably wont receive it until next week so thought what the hell I'll give it a go and install it.

See that was my 1st mistake, knowing nothing about Macs i foolishly took it upon myself to insert the DVD and reboot, then decided it would be a good idea to format the hard drive and start from scratch. So i erased the Hard drive and formatted it using the Mac OS Extended (Journal) option, there was other options but been as this was the default setting thats the one i went with, I know all about FAT32 and NTFS of windows drives but nothing about the Mac formats.

So i get Tiger installed quickly and everything is running fine when i notice the occasional clicking coming from the hard drive, strange i think as it never clicked until i decided to mess, Anyway the more i notice it the more it is really annoying me, its not a failing Hard drive noise, infact its the exact same noise every laptop i have ever owned has made (especially my previous Dell effort).

Bottom line is it clicks randomly like a program is accessing it, but i dont even know where to stsrt to look, i have disabled the Hard drive power saving feature but this did nothing, right i thought, its a Tiger problem, I'll just re-install the old OS and all will be well, Wrong! the darn thing is still clicking away at me

. I am convinced its something to do with the fact i partitioned and formatted the Hard drive, I am really hoping someone will come along and tell me i have formatted using the wrong setting all will be well again... Please someone , anyone Help.

Funnily enough its only clicked a couple of times while typing this out.

jdogg99 · Apr 27, 2005, 08:40 PM

Maybe spotlight is indexing? Did you check the activity monitor?

asodamiac · Apr 27, 2005, 11:34 PM

Originally Posted by jdogg99

Maybe spotlight is indexing? Did you check the activity monitor?

well he tried reinstalling panther.. and it still clicks so i dont think its spotlight. i dont know why it would click like that though. im new to macs too. good luck though.

jdogg99 · Apr 27, 2005, 11:57 PM

oops. Didn't read carefully enough

. The original hard drive in my Powerbook had to be replaced...it clicked quite a bit, but I didn't notice until the new, very quiet drive was put in. Maybe you should check SMART status in Disk Utility, just to make sure the drive isn't failing. Also, I still think checking the activity monitor might be useful; you'll be able to see if the OS is actually reading or writing data, or if it's some sort of mechanical non-data related noise. Good luck.

Firefox35 · Apr 28, 2005, 02:46 AM

Thanks for the replys guys, I have just checked the disk activity and when it makes the noise the drive is writing because it shows as red in the graph.

How do i check the smart status.? Also when i formatted the hard drive using the Mac OS Extended (Journal) option was this the correct option.? I noticed there was quite a few others

apart from the clicking its running fine, but the clicking is really starting to irritate

Thanks again

wunderkind · Apr 28, 2005, 04:30 AM

The SMART status is reported in Disk Utility in the bottom of the window after you click on a drive icon in the list on the left.

Several utilities (DiskWarrior, Tech Tool Pro) check SMART status automatically after every specified period of time and inform you of problems by message on a screen or email.

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is waht you need.

analogika · Apr 28, 2005, 07:07 AM

Everybody go out and install SMARTReporter (freeware).

It displays a little icon in the menu bar indicating SMART status of your ATA or S-ATA drives and can be automatically run on log-in.

Won't work on Firewire, SCSI, or USB drives (damn, damn, damn), but that's due to a limitation in Mac OS X's S.M.A.R.T. monitoring ability.

-s*

Firefox35 · Apr 28, 2005, 07:08 AM

The Smart status says S.M.A.R.T. status : Verified so i assume its ok

This powerbook has a Seagate momentus 5400rpm Hard Drive fitted, My last laptop was a Dell and i upgraded the Hard drive in that to a 100GB Seagate Momentus, funnily enough that made the same clicking.

The thing that is driving me nuts is it did not make the noise until last night when i decided to format and install Tiger, when it clicks something is writing to the drive according to the disk activity utility.

Any suggestions are appreciated

SEkker · Apr 28, 2005, 09:08 AM

Very strange. I have the same drive in my PB17, and it's absolutely quiet on this OS X 10.3.9 machine.
Maybe it is some form of Tiger journaling (for Spotlight function, etc) -- let it run overnight and see if it still 'clicks'.

Otherwise, maybe you need to try reinstalling Tiger when your personal copy arrives.

Firefox35 · Apr 28, 2005, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by SEkker

Very strange. I have the same drive in my PB17, and it's absolutely quiet on this OS X 10.3.9 machine.
Maybe it is some form of Tiger journaling (for Spotlight function, etc) -- let it run overnight and see if it still 'clicks'.

Otherwise, maybe you need to try reinstalling Tiger when your personal copy arrives.

I was thinking the same, its not the kind of noise that causes me to think the HD is going to die, infact its the same noise all of my other Windows laptops have made, its just the fact it wasnt doing it and now it is

Just got confirmation from Apple that my Tiger shipped today so will try a reinstall, dont think it will change a lot though, I am now running panther again and i am still getting the odd click from the HD, someone suggested defragging, Anyone know any free decent defragging software.?

Thanks again

CobraNT · Apr 28, 2005, 09:49 AM

I also just received my new PB 17". I haven't installed Tiger and mine does the same thing. I have talked to Applecare and they said it is normal with the PB's. I don't think Tiger had anything to do with it. It took me a day or two to notice it on mine, maybe the same thing happened with you.

Firefox35 · Apr 28, 2005, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by CobraNT

I also just received my new PB 17". I haven't installed Tiger and mine does the same thing. I have talked to Applecare and they said it is normal with the PB's. I don't think Tiger had anything to do with it. It took me a day or two to notice it on mine, maybe the same thing happened with you.

I'm starting to think you could be right, Like i have said its not a noise to worry about, maybe i just didnt notice it before and i was just paying more attention yesterday due to the new install of Tiger, its running beautifully no problems at all. Thanks for posting to let me know, I feel a lot better now

asodamiac · Apr 28, 2005, 05:30 PM

well after using a 15" for a week.. it hasnt made any bothersome noises. im not sure why the 17" would be any different.. you should try calling again and see if you can get someone else's opinion. or you could take it to an apple store and have someone at the genius bar check it out.

dialo · Apr 28, 2005, 06:59 PM

Did you try turning journaling off?

CobraNT · Apr 28, 2005, 07:08 PM

I just turned off Journaling, I guess we will see if it makes a difference. Excuse my ignorance, but what does journaling do?

CobraNT · Apr 28, 2005, 10:48 PM

Turning off journaling made no difference.

bimmerphile · Apr 28, 2005, 11:45 PM

You can talk to apple about it. They are extremely good about laptop repairs (Well all repairs in general actually). They send a box to you with foam and packaging instructions to your door via DHL next day, with return shipping prepaid. You just box your machine up, call DHL for a pickup, it gets to apple the following day, they repair it in 1-2 days, and then send it back next-day. I've had an iBook sent off Monday that I got back Thursday. It was awesome.

asodamiac · Apr 29, 2005, 12:07 AM

well the tech he talked to said it was normal.. but i dont think it is.

fleaplus · Apr 29, 2005, 02:44 AM

My friend has a 100GB momentus in his compaq, and it doesn't make noise or access the drive randomly like that. These drives are supposed to have a 5 year warranty on them, so see if seagate will advance ship you a replacement.

Boy I hope these aren't a loud and noisy drive; next week my friend is supposed to be buying one for me to replace the one he dented from my powerbook...

analogika · Apr 29, 2005, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by Firefox35

Just got confirmation from Apple that my Tiger shipped today so will try a reinstall, dont think it will change a lot though, I am now running panther again and i am still getting the odd click from the HD, someone suggested defragging, Anyone know any free decent defragging software.?

Yeah - Panther.

Panther automatically defrags every file smaller than 20 MB.

CobraNT · Apr 29, 2005, 09:44 AM

I am going to call them again. Normal or not, it is very annoying.

dialo · Apr 29, 2005, 01:45 PM

others have this problem

CobraNT · Apr 29, 2005, 01:50 PM

Timed it, yep, every 30 seconds it makes the noise.