Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

madmacgames · Mar 21, 2005, 06:09 PM

Alright, I know I have seen threads on this before, but the sound is so hard to exactly define, searching for previous threads is next to impossible.

Anyways, recently I have noticed my hard drive constantly making a funny sound. It is not the normal read/write/seek sound... I am quite familiar with that and have become accustomed to it.

This sound is actually quieter than the read/write/seek sound, but stands out a bit more because I have become accustomed to the read/write sound.

Anyways, it sort of sounds like a cross between the sound you hear when you sniff and the sound of your fingernail lightly scratching on something metal. It is a very light sound, and usually comes in pulses of 1, 2, or 3 with a small break before doing it again.

I've had the machine for about 1-1/2 years now and it definately has not done this before... this is definitely a new sound.

I am a bit worried, and am wondering if anyone else has encountered this?

f1000 · Mar 21, 2005, 06:40 PM

Backup and run the Hardware Test. A Disk Utilities scan is probably also in order, but I strongly recommend DiskWarrior instead if you have it.

Concentrate on preserving your data instead of saving a cheap $80 drive.

analogika · Mar 21, 2005, 07:08 PM

BACK UP NOW.

NOW.

f1000 · Mar 21, 2005, 07:13 PM

I should add that when you make your backup, do NOT overwrite any previous backups. If any of your data is already corrupted, you don't want to destroy whatever good copies you might have left.

madmacgames · Mar 21, 2005, 09:29 PM

in this 12" book with most of the critical components on the left side, it is soo hard to pinpoint where sound is coming from.

I found this thread:

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ratching+sound

basically, the consensus seems to be that on "Highest" performance, the CPU will make a weird sounds. (and also when typing you get a weird sound, which I never heard before [just ignored] but now I do after reading it. damn you power of suggestion!!!!!)

Anyways, turning my performance to "Reduced" automatically stopped the sound... if I put my ear next to the left side, I can still hear it very very quietly. Turning back up to "Highest" and it gets much louder is audible from a normal distance. I don't know why I've not heard it before... or perhaps I have just ignored it.

Running on automatic performance now seems to work well.

madmacgames · Mar 21, 2005, 09:35 PM

The sound also *appears* directly related to CPU activity. Opening Activity Viewer, every time it sounds, there is a small jump in User CPU usage, with the process "mDNSResponder" jumping near the top of the list each time it sounds as well.

f1000 · Mar 21, 2005, 10:23 PM

I realize that it's tempting to explain away a strange sound as being "normal", but I warn you that you're playing with fire if you don't backup your drive now. If you're wrong about your self-diagnosis and the drive goes belly up in a few days, weeks, or even months, you'll want to throw yourself over a bridge if you didn't make any backups. Data for many of us is FAR more valuable than a few hundred dollars worth of hard drives, and in your case a replacement drive isn't even worth $100.

That said, one does occasionally hear slight scratching sounds from the PowerBook that are electronic in nature.

madmacgames · Mar 21, 2005, 10:33 PM

I do backup my data. I'm not an idiot and nowhere did I come in flailing my arms screaming "I'm not going to backup my data"

romeosc · Mar 21, 2005, 10:37 PM

Originally posted by f1000:
I realize that it's tempting to explain away a strange sound as being "normal", but I warn you that you're playing with fire if you don't backup your drive now. If you're wrong about your self-diagnosis and the drive goes belly up in a few days, weeks, or even months, you'll want to throw yourself over a bridge if you didn't make any backups. Data for many of us is FAR more valuable than a few hundred dollars worth of hard drives, and in your case a replacement drive isn't even worth $100.

That said, one does occasionally hear slight scratching sounds from the PowerBook that are electronic in nature.

I partition a 250GB firewire drive with 2 partitions for each of my PBs. I carbon clone each drive once a week erasing the oldest backup of each of the drives. That way I have a one week old and a two old copy of each PB! Paid off last month when one of my PBs was stolen. When Safeware replaced it, I just cloned it from the data written 2 days before!

f1000 · Mar 21, 2005, 10:44 PM

Originally posted by madmacgames:
I do backup my data. I'm not an idiot and nowhere did I come in flailing my arms screaming "I'm not going to backup my data"

Oh, yeah? Then why are there bruises on your hands and cheeks.

madmacgames · Mar 22, 2005, 02:37 AM

Originally posted by f1000:
Oh, yeah? Then why are there bruises on your hands and cheeks.

no no, those are from a completely unrelated incident