[DNA man]

Not so long ago I had made a post about my HD making a horrible clacking noise. Well, I had it investigated and things were said to be OK by Apple. However, a couple of weeks on, the noise is back. Loud but intermittent. I ran Tech Tools (came with Apple Care) and it said no problems were found. But thinking that there must be someting wrong, I ran Disk Doctor (DD) from Norton.

DD from Norton said that there were MAJOR problems with my HD in the final report and that the media was damaged but DD could fix it. So I went ahead and fixed it. While running Norton, the noise I heard from my HD was REALLY loud.You could hear it on the other side of the room. Like scary loud, scary HD is goin' to fly out of the laptop loud!!! Never heard this on any computer I have owned and used Norton DD with

My question is what the heck is going on?

1. Why should Norton DD come out with a different outcome from Tech Tools?

2. Isn't damaged media, damaged media and how come Norton fixed it ?

3.How could it have become damaged in the first place?

4. Why did running Tech Tools on the HD make no weird noises compared with when I ran Norton which made a hellish noise?

5. Is my HD wrecked? It's just over 1 year old (same as the PB), should I get Apple to send me a new one/ replace the old one? They were not keen the last time!!

Any advice on "other" tests/ things I can do/ run let me know.

The other thing is that I have OS9.2 and OSX on the same HD. Is this causing the probelm? When I shut down in OSX the HD clicks and stops real fast, it OS9, when I shut down, the HD slows down and makes no clicking noise.

Any advice is most welcome.
Cheers,
DNA man

[ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: DNA man ]

[Danni]

As far as I am concerned... if it is making any noise similar to what you are describing, you have a dying HD and you better back up your data now. Get it replaced ASAP! I had an HD with occasional clanging and Apple told me it was dying and they replaced it. Now the dead ethernet port was another matter...no logic boards available so after 4 weeks of me waiting, they are sending me a new machine! Yay!!!

Danni

[Drenn]

I agree with the above. Some times when you run norton it may be able to read the drive just fine. Even in a case where it makes horrible noises. The drive is most likly going south and you should indeed back up your data and send it in for repair!!

[himself]

By chance, do you have these problems typically when running off of battery power? This could be an issue with the HD if it is one of the IBM models that people were having trouble with before... it has some "power management feature" that seats the hard drive head during inactive periods, or when power to the drive is too low. Either way, you should definitely backup your data and get a replacement hd.

[PeteWK]

Sorry to tell you this but it's going to get worse. My then new Pismo with a 10 gig IBM drive started to make and amazingly loud clicking noise. It became more frequent and of longer duration and involved the computer freezing up during the episodes. It was as it the computer was pausing while the hard drive went into vibrate/clack mode. The drive became unusable and was replaced by Apple when the Powerbook was only 3 months old. They replaced it with a Toshiba.

I bought an IBM 20 gig from OWC for my external HD and every once in a while it gives me a loud clack for old time's sake. Dump the drive and get a Toshiba. I just don't trust the IBM for daily use anymore. (I can feel the hate mail a-comin).

PeteWK