27" Imac Hard Drive Noise my conclusion

[frenchie0101]

so i started the thread about the noise of the hard drives, particularly Seagate's making the grumbling. After having so many replacements and also trying the 2TB hitachi all made this noise, so i left the iMac for a while and used my 15"MBP and last month i decided to go for it again and also ending up with a seagate, i tried to live with it and couldn't so decided to crack the thing open and put in a 2TB Western Digital (had to wait 2 weeks for the sensor cable) swapping it over was a doodle and also getting SL back on was a breeze. THE VERDICT.... Still *@%*ing noises!!! to be honest not as bad as the seagate and i can definitely live with it better.
For everyone thinking they have faulty drives etc you clearly have not and i am now 100% convinced the aluminum backing is clearly making the noise and amplifying it.
on another note this Western Digital drive i have put in seems alot quicker than the Seagate, temperatures are very good and fan speeds normal, so i am a lot happier!

 

[John T]

Good for you! Enjoy

 

[product26]

Your drives are running and sounding exactly as they are supposed to. Enable AAM on a Western Digital drive and you won't hear much noise at all.

 

[frenchie0101]

Your drives are running and sounding exactly as they are supposed to. Enable AAM on a Western Digital drive and you won't hear much noise at all.

i thought you can only do that under windows? how do you do it on a mac

 

[fuchsi]

If you have a mid 2010 Imac i7 try adding an SSD in there and making that one your main HD (programms etc.) to also boot from.

I'm sure the noise disturbance will almost be gone since the WD2TB will only be used for basic Data stuff.
All the loud accessing when opening Programms will be gone

 

[CubeHacker]

i thought you can only do that under windows? how do you do it on a mac

You would probably have to stick the drive in a PC since the AAM tools usually run in DOS so even bootcamp will most likely not work. But yes you can lower the seek noise dramatically by running those tools.

Also note that some drives no longer support AAM, you should check around which do and which don't.

You can also mount a 2.5" drive in a 3.5" bracket, and install a 2.5" drive in the iMac instead. They tend to make less noise and vibrate less.

 

[flipster]

I can't agree with this. I had the same problem as you with my imac and after six months of dealing with the noise I had to get a new hard.drive. (it was a seagate) I really wanted a western digtal, but when they replaced it I got another seagate. I couldn't be more happier now though. eve under extreme loads, my computer doesn't make one sound and that's how it should be. literally, if you put your ear to the back of the imac it makes no noise. my friend also has an imac but she has a western digital drive and hers makes no noise either. I think its just a matter of the right hard drive

 

[frenchie0101]

I can't agree with this. I had the same problem as you with my imac and after six months of dealing with the noise I had to get a new hard.drive. (it was a seagate) I really wanted a western digtal, but when they replaced it I got another seagate. I couldn't be more happier now though. eve under extreme loads, my computer doesn't make one sound and that's how it should be. literally, if you put your ear to the back of the imac it makes no noise. my friend also has an imac but she has a western digital drive and hers makes no noise either. I think its just a matter of the right hard drive

thats your opinion, bear in mind i have had 10 versions 3 makes of hard drive and physically took this one to bits to put another one in i know its down to the chassis amplifying the sound, when you have done what i have done then i would agree with all with what your saying

 

[flipster]

thats your opinion, bear in mind i have had 10 versions 3 makes of hard drive and physically took this one to bits to put another one in i know its down to the chassis amplifying the sound, when you have done what i have done then i would agree with all with what your saying

I don't know, man because the truth is, is that there are quiet iMacs out there. I went from a really noisy, distracting seagate hard drive to an extremely quiet seagate hard drive. my old one you could hear from the other room but the one that i got replaced you couldnt hear even under extreme loads with your ear to the back of it. it doesnt make sense to me of why some macs make noise and others don't. like i said, my other friend has the same imac as me but she has a western digital drive and hers is totally silent too.

 

[frenchie0101]

You would probably have to stick the drive in a PC since the AAM tools usually run in DOS so even bootcamp will most likely not work. But yes you can lower the seek noise dramatically by running those tools.

Also note that some drives no longer support AAM, you should check around which do and which don't.

You can also mount a 2.5" drive in a 3.5" bracket, and install a 2.5" drive in the iMac instead. They tend to make less noise and vibrate less.

I have found a boot disk you create in windows and then boot it in the mac so I shall give that a whirl, that's when i can find someone with xp

 

[fuchsi]

I can't agree with this. I had the same problem as you with my imac and after six months of dealing with the noise I had to get a new hard.drive. (it was a seagate) I really wanted a western digtal, but when they replaced it I got another seagate. I couldn't be more happier now though. eve under extreme loads, my computer doesn't make one sound and that's how it should be. literally, if you put your ear to the back of the imac it makes no noise. my friend also has an imac but she has a western digital drive and hers makes no noise either. I think its just a matter of the right hard drive

Hey Flipster,
did the HD break down or how did you arrange to get a new one fom the apple guys?

 

[flipster]

Hey Flipster,
did the HD break down or how did you arrange to get a new one fom the apple guys?

I had called several times before on the phone with apple about it about six months before i actually got the hard drive replaced. i finally got sick of the noise and scheduled a genius bar appointment on apple.com and wrote a little note saying i was coming in for a hard drive replacement. i took my imac into the store and they ran some test things on it and said there was nothing wrong. i told them its noisy and i just want a new hard drive and without any fuss they agreed to change it for me. five days later i came back and my imac was as quiet as ever. the hard drive didn't break down it was just noisy.

 

[frenchie0101]

rite i have just done the AAM settings i used the BartPE windows boot disk with the aam tool on a USB stick, whilst i was in there i played with the loud and quiet setting and crikey it really makes a difference, obviously i have set it to quiet and the noise is a shed load better so if anyone wants to give that a go i can honestly say it works

 

[PurrBall]

My WD drive in my Early 2009 iMac is silent, Apple must have enabled AAM in the factory.