Spikes in Disk Acitivty in Activity Monitor when Macbook is Idle

[jsmith8674]

I just got a white macbook (2.16 ghz, 1 gb ram). I'm new to OSX and wanted to ask about an observation I've made:

When I go to activity monitor, I notice the Disk I/O and Data Written in Disk Activity usually spikes all the way upwards sometimes, even when my computer is idle, does this happen with you in OSX? and is it normal. I only ask, because I've been noticing a soft clicking sound coming from the bottom right of the keyboard that corresponds with these spikes, which I'm really not sure is normal or not, it's the same sound the hard drive makes (click) right before the computer shuts down. Anyways, is getting these spikes in Disk activity when your mac is idle normal? I'm getting random spike in the music program Logic Express on the Disk I/O meter as well, so I was wondering if OSX in general does this.

Thanks,
JS

 

[mad jew]

OSX does this to a degree as it writes from the RAM, but use Disk Utility to verify your drive all the same. The clicking is probably normal, but it's better to check it out now rather than to have a possible hard drive failure further down the track. As ever, keep everything backed up.