Sluggish & Loud Drive

[TTyylleerr]

Hey,

I'm having a small problem with my precious iMac. Essentially, the hard drive is running really loudly (and mildly slowly with frequent beach balls). It doesn't do this constantly, but seems to at random. One day it'll be quite, quick, in short, how I expect. The next it sounds like a jet engine taking off, and tends to perform much slow with occasional beach balls.

I tried solving the problem to the best of my ability, I began with reformatting/reinstalling OSX, reset the SMC, and also ran an extended hardware test which picked up nothing. I'm fresh out of ideas!

So, if anyone could be of help, that'd be wonderful.

I might add that it's a fairly new iMac (only 6 months old), so if all else fails I can take it to an Apple Certified store... but it's a bit of a drive so I'd rather handle it myself if at all possible.

Thanks for reading, and any suggestions!

Tyler

 

[chris98vf]

TechTool Pro 5 is a really good app that can do extensive hardware diag.

This is also a good diag to see the general health of your HDD and it's free...
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24875/smart-utility
Well, at least it's free for 29 days and 4 uses but it will let you know if any of the hdd's self tests have failed.

 

[TTyylleerr]

TechTool Pro 5 is a really good app that can do extensive hardware diag.

This is also a good diag to see the general health of your HDD and it's free...
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24875/smart-utility
Well, at least it's free for 29 days and 4 uses but it will let you know if any of the hdd's self tests have failed.

Thanks for the suggestion

I tried the SMART utility, it found nothing wrong and said I passed.
As for TechTool Pro, any idea if there's a trial/demo?

Tyler

 

[chris98vf]

it is on torrent sites if you're willing to break the law

 

[TTyylleerr]

it is on torrent sites if you're willing to break the law

Not exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks though.

 

[flipster]

Mine was doing the same thing, back it up, take it to apple and have them replace it. my new one is silent even at the most demanding things

 

[TTyylleerr]

Mine was doing the same thing, back it up, take it to apple and have them replace it. my new one is silent even at the most demanding things

That's probably what ill end up doing... the only thing I'm worried about is that it wont be acting up when I take it and that I wont be able to get the hard drive replaced.

Seeing as there isn't an apple store within 2 hours ill need to take it to an appear certified place of some sort.

 

[flipster]

That's probably what ill end up doing... the only thing I'm worried about is that it wont be acting up when I take it and that I wont be able to get the hard drive replaced.

Seeing as there isn't an apple store within 2 hours ill need to take it to an appear certified place of some sort.

Mine didn't act up when i took it, they couldnt even find anything wrong with it. i just told them id be a lot happier with a replacement, and they said sure and took it in. four days later i got a completely silent imac, and im happy.

 

[TTyylleerr]

Mine didn't act up when i took it, they couldnt even find anything wrong with it. i just told them id be a lot happier with a replacement, and they said sure and took it in. four days later i got a completely silent imac, and im happy.

Wow, that's lucky.

I'd be happy if they just replaced the hard drive, seeing as it's not an actual Apple store, I doubt they'd just replace it.

 

[mrparis]

Mine didn't act up when i took it, they couldnt even find anything wrong with it. i just told them id be a lot happier with a replacement, and they said sure and took it in. four days later i got a completely silent imac, and im happy.

Any ideas what make the hard-drive was they replaced? And what do you have now?

I've a Seagate that has the 'Stomach grumbling' noise which is extremely annoying. Apart from that I'm really pleased with my 27" Imac.

 

[gnasher729]

Hey,

I'm having a small problem with my precious iMac. Essentially, the hard drive is running really loudly (and mildly slowly with frequent beach balls). It doesn't do this constantly, but seems to at random. One day it'll be quite, quick, in short, how I expect. The next it sounds like a jet engine taking off, and tends to perform much slow with occasional beach balls.

I tried solving the problem to the best of my ability, I began with reformatting/reinstalling OSX, reset the SMC, and also ran an extended hardware test which picked up nothing. I'm fresh out of ideas!

So, if anyone could be of help, that'd be wonderful.

I might add that it's a fairly new iMac (only 6 months old), so if all else fails I can take it to an Apple Certified store... but it's a bit of a drive so I'd rather handle it myself if at all possible.

Most important if you have _any_ problems with your hard drive (and also if you think you have no problems) is to have an external hard drive with a Time Machine backup. It will save your ass. Any cheap external USB hard drive, permanently plugged into your iMac, will do just fine.

The other thing is that you can buy AppleCare at any time as long as your Mac is still under warranty. I am not sure whether to recommend buying AppleCare on a brand new machine or not, but I highly recommend it on a machine that shows signs of trouble.

Any ideas what make the hard-drive was they replaced? And what do you have now?

I've a Seagate that has the 'Stomach grumbling' noise which is extremely annoying. Apart from that I'm really pleased with my 27" Imac.

It seems that Hitachi has an excellent reputation right now. Some data recovery company published their statistics which hard drives were sent to them for data recovery, and they claimed they didn't have _one_ Hitachi drive that just broke down on its own (only several ones that were mistreated in some way).

 

[TTyylleerr]

Most important if you have _any_ problems with your hard drive (and also if you think you have no problems) is to have an external hard drive with a Time Machine backup. It will save your ass. Any cheap external USB hard drive, permanently plugged into your iMac, will do just fine.

The other thing is that you can buy AppleCare at any time as long as your Mac is still under warranty. I am not sure whether to recommend buying AppleCare on a brand new machine or not, but I highly recommend it on a machine that shows signs of trouble.




It seems that Hitachi has an excellent reputation right now. Some data recovery company published their statistics which hard drives were sent to them for data recovery, and they claimed they didn't have _one_ Hitachi drive that just broke down on its own (only several ones that were mistreated in some way).

Yeah, Ive got until september to buy apple care, so yeah.

As for the stomach grumbling, that sounds exactly right. Perfect way to describe it. I'm hoping this is something that the Apple Certified stores will replace, not something they consider to be working.

 

[TTyylleerr]

Most important if you have _any_ problems with your hard drive (and also if you think you have no problems) is to have an external hard drive with a Time Machine backup. It will save your ass. Any cheap external USB hard drive, permanently plugged into your iMac, will do just fine.

The other thing is that you can buy AppleCare at any time as long as your Mac is still under warranty. I am not sure whether to recommend buying AppleCare on a brand new machine or not, but I highly recommend it on a machine that shows signs of trouble.




It seems that Hitachi has an excellent reputation right now. Some data recovery company published their statistics which hard drives were sent to them for data recovery, and they claimed they didn't have _one_ Hitachi drive that just broke down on its own (only several ones that were mistreated in some way).

Yeah, Ive got until september to buy apple care, so yeah.

As for the stomach grumbling, that sounds exactly right. Perfect way to describe it. I'm hoping this is something that the Apple Certified stores will replace, not something they consider to be working as it's making my iMac downright irritating to use.

 

[mrparis]

Yeah I'm definitely going to give Apple Care a phone re mine. I've had the Imac since December, the 'Grumbling' has always been there but seems to have gotten worse. When I'd first picked it up I'd done a Migration assistant from an older mac and had read this can cause trouble, I prefer clean installs but needed it up and running fairly quickly.

I'd tried one of the supposed solutions to secure wipe the drive with the Zero out data option and then do a clean install, but was more or less the same. Think the only way it will be fixed is with a new Drive.

 

[flipster]

Any ideas what make the hard-drive was they replaced? And what do you have now?

I've a Seagate that has the 'Stomach grumbling' noise which is extremely annoying. Apart from that I'm really pleased with my 27" Imac.

Yup. It was a seagate hard drive that was replaced. It was disgusting, loud, it sounded like a hungry stomach. They replaced it with another seagate *hold on, now lol* but the new seagate that i have is absolutely awesome. its quieter than my friends western digital that she has in her imac, and her imac is silent!! When im in a completely all quiet room, you can't hear it at all, even under the heaviest tasks

 

[TTyylleerr]

The grumbling on mine seems worse too. When I phoned apple they directed me to a certified tech/store... I just hope they'll replace the hard drive without too much trouble.