[Joshua]

I need some help/advice here. A few days ago I noticed a strange "whirrr-click" sound coming from my PowerBook. It seemed to come from somewhere near the left speaker, and it would repeat for 30-40 seconds and then stop. I didn't notice any change in performance, so I assumed it was just a gunked up fan or something.

Today, I had the same sound start up on two different occasions. The sound was the same, and in the same place, but this time the computer basically froze up for the 30-40 seconds of clicking. As soon as the sound stopped, the computer returned to normal.

Anyone know what kind of problem I'm looking at? If it's what I'm afraid it is (dying hard drive), how long do I have until it goes kaput?

[danny_gasperini]

The hard drive resides underneath the LHS palm rest - not far from the left speaker grill. Without hearing the noise it's difficult to guess, but it could be that the HD is on it's last legs. This would also explain why the computer "hangs" when hearing the noise as the OS tries to access the HD.