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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Hitachi travelstar drive noise

Hitachi travelstar drive noise
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solar servant
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: AZ
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Mar 2, 2008, 08:31 PM
 
I replaced the stock 120gb drive in my MBP with a 250gb Hitachi 5k250. The swap out and transfer went pretty smoothly and everything is working as before with the notable (and noisy) exception of the racket coming from the new drive. It is a clicking sound that is most regular when the computer is awake but not really active (such as reading a web page or just sitting on the desktop). A search online seems to indicate that this is an issue between the power management of the drive and the operating system.

So far I have tried leaving the isight camera on to keep the harddrive from parking itself. Next I installed and ran the utility HDAPM which allowed me to set the drive in terminal so that it wouldn't park itself. Finally I tried using Hitachi's Ftool, which I booted into in XP via Parallels, but it wouldn't allow me to change any of the settings (acoustic and power managment).

Any suggestions other than the obvious one of pulling that hunk of ^#*$(@! out and replacing it (or even putting the original back in)?

Thanks
MBP 2.16 - 3GB, 250GB, 10.4.11, XP SP2
MB 2.0 - 1.5GB, 120GB, 10.4.11
iMac 700 - 512MB, 40GB, 10.4.11
     
Cold Warrior
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Mar 2, 2008, 08:46 PM
 
I've always had a lot of noise from the Hitachi drives in my computers. From my experience there's no way to avoid it.
     
amazing
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Mar 4, 2008, 11:49 AM
 
as I recall, tomshardware would list the stats for how noisy particular brands were. I think Seagate came in as quieter, along with slightly faster.

You get used to the noise in the end (I also had a noisy Hitachi, luckily enough in a Ti, where it's easy to swap it out.) It's the transition to the new drive that's the shocker.
     
markponcelet
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Join Date: Feb 2005
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Mar 4, 2008, 03:04 PM
 
It seems that the Travelstar series has always been noisy in one way or another. Back when it was owned by IBM, I had a drive that simply made loud whirring noises.

I post only to say this: it's true that the noise really isn't that bad. BUT! Once you notice it, once it starts to bother you, it gets worse and worse and worse. I didn't even realize my drive was making noise until I read someone else on a forum complaining about it. Then it began to bother me in quiet rooms, so I'd play music. Then it bothered me whenever it made noise of any kind.

My advice? Transfer that puppy to an external enclosure and buy a drive that specifically mentions quietness. It'll save your sanity.
17" Rev. A MBP (ATI X1600 256 MB, 2 GB RAM, OS 10.5, Parallels Build 3214)
     
   
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