why is the HD making noise?

[1rottenapple]

Hey I have been noticing that my imac 800 megahertz G4 has been making a lot noise. Sounds like a "aaaaaaa" but is rally low and on all the time regardless if a cd is playing. It just on even when I have one Safari window open and nothing else, so nothing processor intensive. My computer has 768 megabits of RAM so it's not a low ram issue.

 

[iMeowbot]

You might want to shut down the system and clean out the fan outlet, there are probably dust elephants by now in a lamp that old.

If that doesn't do it to it, make sure everything is backed up really well, and start shopping for a nice new hard drive. There really aren't any other moving parts other than HD, fan and optical drive, so the noise sources should be pretty simple to track down.

 

[mpw]

Sounds suspiciously like your HDD is about to die. Backup, backup, backup and backup.

Then replace. And keep backing up.

*Goes home with intention of following his own advice*