My HD is making load clicks all the time

[eskalation.dk]

Hi, I just got my MBP last friday (17" C2D), i love it, but imo it has started searching the HD alot more than it did when i got it, you know, making that typical harddisc clicking sound... mainly after i installed bootcamp..

But it does it an awful lot, even everytime i load a new website in safari... sometimes a lot, sometimes very little.. but it always has small bursts of HD clicking.. also when its just idling...

what can be wrong? I isnt slowing down my machine, as far as i can feel, but it annoys me as i believe that it has been more silent than it is now...

My Macintosh HD has 64,4 Gigs free, the Windows HD (FAT32) has 4,41 Gigs free (only a 20gb partition)

I have the 160 GB HD

 

[killmoms]

Dying hard drive, almost certainly. Back up your files NOW before it fails entirely, sending your data up to the big bit bucket in the sky.

 

[PlaceofDis]

open up disk utility and check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your drive, noises from a hard drive are never good.

 

[eskalation.dk]

Dying hard drive, almost certainly. Back up your files NOW before it fails entirely, sending your data up to the big bit bucket in the sky.

Any way that i can check for this? Its not making any more noise than my old pc was.. It doesnt feel like its dying :/

 

[eskalation.dk]

open up disk utility and check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your drive, noises from a hard drive are never good.

It says Controlled (translated from danish)

 

[killmoms]

Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about those boot-up type "Click-whirrrr" noises. If you start getting a lot of those, I'd say it's dying.

Sounds like what you're describing is just normal HD access. Maybe it's just a little louder than you're used to? OS X tends to use virtual RAM even if there's plenty of physical RAM free—it's just the nature of its memory management. So you're probably just noticing more HD activity re: the page file than other PCs.

 

[eskalation.dk]

Oh and while im at it, when i lift my MBP, and kind of rub the battery, i can actually move the battery around very little, can you do that too)

 

[eskalation.dk]

Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about those boot-up type "Click-whirrrr" noises. If you start getting a lot of those, I'd say it's dying.

Sounds like what you're describing is just normal HD access. Maybe it's just a little louder than you're used to? OS X tends to use virtual RAM even if there's plenty of physical RAM free—it's just the nature of its memory management. So you're probably just noticing more HD activity re: the page file than other PCs.

nono its is just HD access i think, its not louder, it just does it a lot more than when i first got it, its probably because i have installed stuff on it now.. hehe

Im actually more worried about my Superdrive, god ****ing damnit that makes a lot of noise

 

[killmoms]

nono its is just HD access i think, its not louder, it just does it a lot more than when i first got it, its probably because i have installed stuff on it now.. hehe

Im actually more worried about my Superdrive, god ****ing damnit that makes a lot of noise

Keep in mind that OS X automagically defragments files over 20MB while it's idle, so that's some HD activity too.

And yes, the SuperDrive is similarly the loudest component in my Mac Pro. Good thing I'm rarely using it.

 

[eskalation.dk]

Keep in mind that OS X automagically defragments files over 20MB while it's idle, so that's some HD activity too.

And yes, the SuperDrive is similarly the loudest component in my Mac Pro. Good thing I'm rarely using it.

Wow awesome, thats why theres no defragmentation utility, thats probably it then.. and thanks ... i guess im just overprotective, i dont want my baby to get hurt

 

[ghall]

Um, so if the hard drive makes a loud noise when it starts up, that's bad?

 

[killmoms]

Um, so if the hard drive makes a loud noise when it starts up, that's bad?

No no, it's bad if it starts doing that over and over during normal operation and you start getting beachballs. That means it's hitting a nasty read error and resetting the heads to their default position over and over. It's normal to do that once during startup—that's how the drive "resets," so to speak.

 

[ghall]

No no, it's bad if it starts doing that over and over during normal operation and you start getting beachballs. That means it's hitting a nasty read error and resetting the heads to their default position over and over. It's normal to do that once during startup—that's how the drive "resets," so to speak.

Okay, thanks for clearing that up. I was scared there for a while.

As for eskalation.dk's problem. Back it up immediatly, and take it to an Apple Store, or call Apple to set up a repair. I was at an Apple Store a while ago, and someone came in with a failing hard drive, and it's appearantly not cheap to recover data from a dead drive.

I know it's probably nothing, but I'd have it checked out,

Good luck.

 

[jtown]

Since you just bought it and put a bunch of stuff on it, spotlight will be indexing for a while.