Does anyone here own an apple with a noisy hard drive?

[keith ouellette]

My old I mac was having problems so I bought a 2.66 ghz 4gb i mac. It was either used or an over stock. I don't actually know which, I'll just say used for the sake of this thread.

It took 30 minutes to boot up with snow leperd but then worked great. I can tell its a little faster than my old one but my problem is the hard drive is so noisy. Does that mean the HD is on its way out or something? I read some things from a few years ago when this model first came out and people were complaining about some noise but I'm not sure if this is the same noise that i am hearing on mine.

[David Peterson MN]

My macbook has a loud noise which I had always thought had been the hard drive, but it ends up it is the fan. I have had it replaced once already but now the new one is noisy now :(

[Chuck Wintle]

My old I mac was having problems so I bought a 2.66 ghz 4gb i mac. It was either used or an over stock. I don't actually know which, I'll just say used for the sake of this thread.

It took 30 minutes to boot up with snow leperd but then worked great. I can tell its a little faster than my old one but my problem is the hard drive is so noisy. Does that mean the HD is on its way out or something? I read some things from a few years ago when this model first came out and people were complaining about some noise but I'm not sure if this is the same noise that i am hearing on mine.

i would say 30 minutes to boot up is a sign of a problem....probably 2 minutes is a more realistic time. as for the noise...if its the hard drive then it will likely fail soon. a hard d rive will make a tiny amount of noise...enough to let you know it is working...but a clunk or other noise is sign of impending failure....save your data if you haven't already.

[Mike Davis NC]

I just installed a new 500 Gig Caviar Sata Ii 7200 Rpm 16mb 3.5in / Mfr. no.: WD5000AAKS in my PowerMac G5.

It is the quietest HD i have ever had. I can't hear it accessing the drive at all. My original was 8 years old and still didn't have any problems but I knew it was time to replace, long overdue in fact.

The very first time you start up after installing the drive will take longer, but I haven't ever had one take 30 minutes. And the installer should have booted up and checked out the system after installing a new drive.

This noise you hear? Is it a strong irregular clicking sound or just a loud hum?

[keith ouellette]

I just installed a new 500 Gig Caviar Sata Ii 7200 Rpm 16mb 3.5in / Mfr. no.: WD5000AAKS in my PowerMac G5.

It is the quietest HD i have ever had. I can't hear it accessing the drive at all. My original was 8 years old and still didn't have any problems but I knew it was time to replace, long overdue in fact.

The very first time you start up after installing the drive will take longer, but I haven't ever had one take 30 minutes. And the installer should have booted up and checked out the system after installing a new drive.

This noise you hear? Is it a strong irregular clicking sound or just a loud hum?

I would say a strong irregular clicking. At times I think it sounds like a coffee percolator. If I'm reading its very annoying.

[Chuck Wintle]

I would say a strong irregular clicking. At times I think it sounds like a coffee percolator. If I'm reading its very annoying.

i would ask you at this point if the computer has a warranty because it does sound like the hard d rive is packing it in.

[keith ouellette]

i would ask you at this point if the computer has a warranty because it does sound like the hard d rive is packing it in.

90 day warranty. I can get an extended warranty after that but I am thinking I am going to return it.

The thing I don't understand is that it works fine. If the hard drive was going wouldn't it work poorly? Or would I not notice because I mostly just use i for reading, surfing and email?

[Chuck Wintle]

90 day warranty. I can get an extended warranty after that but I am thinking I am going to return it.

The thing I don't understand is that it works fine. If the hard drive was going wouldn't it work poorly? Or would I not notice because I mostly just use i for reading, surfing and email?

From my experience and your description it sounds like a failing drive. I had a drive that began to click once in a while...no performance difference was noted but it became noisier as time went by. It is possible your drive is just noisy and is normal...but for the model of computer you have...they are not usually noisy.

[Greg Peterson]

I would be surprised if there wasn't a drive utility in the OS that can test the HD.

[Mike Davis NC]

I'd buy a new $50 drive to put in it if you are happy with everything else.

[keith ouellette]

I'd buy a new $50 drive to put in it if you are happy with everything else.


Is that all it cost to buy a drive? Why are these computers so expensive? Is it hard to put a drive in and does $50 buy a really good drive (or at least as good as what is in the computer now)?

[Mike Davis NC]

I just bought a new 500 gig drive that is super quiet and much faster than I had, but you wouldn't notice unless you open and save large files.

In a G5 they were extremely easy to install, and there is a utility called Carbon Copy Cloner that duplicates you files on the new drive, just a few clicks and it does all the work. 150 gig took about 3 hours and I did e-mail while it copied everything..

Shop around a little and you may find an even better deal.

[Tim Morton]

I have replaced a few hard drives in the aluminum iMacs....totally easy to do...find a video on you tube to walk you thru it...and go to owc to buy a new HD. Check with them for whihc one is the most plug in play for your particular iMac. My guess is if you do a seach it will not even require a phone call.

Does it take 30 minutes every time you boot up? Try running "repair permissions" and then boot from an install disk and repair hard drive from "dish utilities".

[John McClanahan]

We have a Mac Mini Server at work. Besides the server OS, it lacks an optical drive and has 2 hard drives. The "box" is completely silent.

John

[Bryan Morgan]

I would say a strong irregular clicking. At times I think it sounds like a coffee percolator. If I'm reading its very annoying.

Thats known as the "click of death". Back up your info and replace it ASAP. The long bootup time is a pretty good indication that drive is on its way out. Its not an uncommon problem. All brands and drive types do this (other than SSDs of course).

[Bryan Morgan]

We have a Mac Mini Server at work. Besides the server OS, it lacks an optical drive and has 2 hard drives. The "box" is completely silent.

John


Its not THAT quiet. I've had one running on my desk at work for about a month. :)

[Ruhi Arslan]

Is that all it cost to buy a drive? Why are these computers so expensive? Is it hard to put a drive in and does $50 buy a really good drive (or at least as good as what is in the computer now)?
I've just recently replaced the hard drive on my five years old PowerBook as soon as it became "noisy". 250GB replacement drive which is three times larger than the OEM drive was $70 from Best Buy. I am sure I could find it cheaper but I could pick it up right away from the store.

If you have not done so yet, using Time Machine, make a bootable copy of your entire drive. If yo do not have an external drive already, this will be a good reason to get one. Get something like a Passport Drive which doesn't even need power supply. Costco, for example, now has a 750GB for $70. Since I don't know how much you know, I will assume you need step by step how to... Go to Apple menu and choose "About This Mac", then choose, "More Info", then "Hardware". You'll see the drive in the list. Take a look at what type of drive it is. It can be SATA, ATA, etc. You can find the right one by going to otherworldcomputing and entering your model of computer to find out which drives you can replace yours with. It is an easy job. Most difficult part will be opening the case which you can find how to instructions if you search. Don't wait till is is too LATE.

[Douglas Clark]

+1 on Ruhi's response.

I haven't read all the responses, but I'm just gonna say, from experience, If in doubt, always take hard drive noises seriously. Make a backup immediately. I started having concerns about the one in my old iMac about a year ago (it was about 5 years old at the time) so I did just what Ruhi suggests and then I put in a new drive. The old one probably still works fine, but I wasn't taking any chances.

[Tom Esh]

..I'm just gonna say, from experience, If in doubt, always take hard drive noises seriously...
Most definitely. No idea what the Apple equivalent is, but on Win systems I'd check the system log for disk errors plus run the diskcheck utility and check it's log too. Anything from either one is usually not a good sign.

[keith ouellette]

I contacted them and I sent it back. I was told they would not have sent out a computer that took 30 minutes to boot up and that made a lot of HD noise. I am not certain If I believe them or not. I told them I would take an exchange. It is a pretty good price. the problem is they ship out for free but I have to pay for return shipping so if the next one isn't any better i have top waist another $30 to return it.