Clicking noises from hard drive

I have just bought an new mac mini and the hard drive is making random soft clicking noises.  Should this concern me?

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Similar Messages

  • Strange clicking noise from hard drive

    My drive just started making this noise in my MBP today. Never heard this before. My drive has always been very quiet. Now ever couple to few seconds I'm hearing this click-like noise. No performance issues yet but I work on computers for a living and noises like this are not good. I'm almost certain my drive needs to be replaced and I don't want to wait until it fails. That is not an option.
    Anybody have this problem and have their drive replaced to fix the problem?
    BTW, mine is also the Fujitsu 120 GB drive.

    Sounds like an issue i had with 2 other drives in my old comp.
    Bad blocks/sectors turned out to be the problem then.
    Fix: backup all your data, boot up from the OSX dvd and open Disc Utility.
    - Select the "Erase" tab and click the "security options" button below.
    - Select the 2nd option "zero out data" then go ahead and erase.
    This will mark all bad blocks on your drive and tells the OS not to use those sections of your drive. Once finished, if this turned out to be the problem, the drive won't make those noises anymore.
    Some people say once a drive failed due to bad blocks it becomes less reliable, some say this is not the case... I leave it up to you if you still trust this HD after (if) this has been fixed.
    Before doing this i suggest running maintenance apps like DiskWarrior and TechTook Pro to see if other problems might be the cause.
    Btw, the zero data procedure takes quite some time with large drives, you might want to go grab some lunch and a movie while you do this

  • Clicking Noise from hard drive_U410

    Hi,
    I hear regular clicking noise from the new Lenovo u410 (windows 8) hard drive.
    How can I fix this?

    weizhou12 wrote:
    HI,
    I  hear constant noticeable noise from hear drive_U410.  I have this Ultrabook for almost 2 years.  Is it still under warrenty?  Any suggestions to fix the noise?
    Thanks!!
    The noise you are hearing might just be the normal sound of the hard drive.  Most hard drives aren't 100% quiet.    The link below is for a Seagate article on hard drive noises for your reference......
    http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/174571en?language=en_US
    Are you experiencing any errors or problems with the hard drive ?  Seagate also offers a free SeaTools utility that can be used to check the health of your hard drive.  You can download that free tool at the link below.....
    http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
    As for warranty, the hard drive would be covered under your computer's warranty and that would have expired after 1 year. 
    As for fixing the noise, the only way to fix the noise would be to replace the hard drive with a new one.  Then again the noise you are hearing maybe just the normal sounds of the drive. 
    As with any hard drive it is always a good idea to have a back up of your important files on another media. Hard drives have been known to fail without notice.
    Owner & Operator of the following:
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  • Clicking noise from hard disk

    Hello forum,
    one more hard disk noise problem. My new MPB arrived two days ago and I immediately noticed a clicking noise that is presumably emitted by the hard disk. I've got the basic 250GB model, so it's unrelated to the 500GB noise. The sound occurs quite regularly every 20sec or so, but only when the disk is inactive. The system doesn't freeze. The noise appears regardless whether the disk power saving feature is enabled or not. Here is an amplified version of the sound without the normal background noise (fan, hard disk):
    http://www.filefactory.com/file/ah25f1h/n/ClickingNoise_wav
    I've learned that clicking noises are a certain sign of hard disk failure. So should I return it immediately and ask for a replacement?
    Regards

    MKG4 wrote:
    It sounds like you've got two clicking noises happening back to back, correct? I have the new 250GB drive as well (5400 RPM) and I'm hearing a periodic click similar to the second one in your clip.
    I can hear only the second click, too. Only if I mute the background noise and amplify my recording, I hear the first one. Could you perhaps take a record of the sound that your MBP makes so that we can compare the sounds?
    Haven't noticed any other problems with the drive, though. Is yours a Fujitsu? Mine is, and according to their web site, "if the drive is idle it will automatically move the heads periodically to prevent lubricant migration." I'm wondering if that's what the noise is.
    Interesting. Mine is a Fujitsu, too, and perhaps the two noises come from the disk head starting and parking.
    Actually, it sounds a lot like the 500GB noise, except without the beep. I've seen very few, if any, issues with the 250GB drive, but I'm holding out hope that a fix may come along at some point.
    I agree. Currently the sound doesn't seem to be harmful, but one never knows.

  • Macbook Pro 2010 Running Slow and Pulse/Click Noise (Not Hard Drive)

    Hello. My 13" Macbook Pro mid-2010 (7,1) suddenly began running slow and lagging on certain operations. There is also a light pulse/click noise coming from the center of the keyboard. I am sure this is not a failing hard drive. How, you may ask me, am I so sure??? Well, I originally thought it was a failing hard drive and so replaced the hard drive, and there was absolutely no change, and the lagging and noise still continues. This makes it very frustrating to do basic, low-memory-intensive things like browse on Safari or watch a movie.
    I have upgraded to Mavericks, and have 8gb Ram. This problem started suddenly about a month after upgrading to Mavericks. In fact right now my computer is lagging just typing this, Activity Monitor says I am only using 2.75 ram of 8gb.
    Steps I have taken with no resolution
    -Replaced the hard drive
    -Reinstalled OSX Mavericks
    -Verified and Repaired Permissions (I still get a message the the following item can't be repaired "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent". But I have read that this is a common thing and can be ignored.
    -Restarted the computer holding down left shift-option-control and the power key for 10 seconds (not sure exactly what this resets, but some type of system cache thing.
    -Reset the PVRAM stuff ( I restarted the computer holding down command-p-r. I'm not sure I did this correctly as it went to the firmware disk repair screen.
    Could there be a RAM issue? Does RAM start making noise when it goes bad? I bought my upgraded ram from ebay, it isn't the official Apple Store stuff. Could replacing the ram possibly help? My System Report tells me the RAM is OK.
    Putting a message on here for help is the last step before giving up. I can't do much with this computer because it is hiccupy and overall difficult.
    Thanks.

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  • Clicking sound from hard drive - Satellite U940-100

    Hi people,
    I bought a new laptop just 5 days back and I am hearing a clicking sound a few seconds apart. Here's what it sounds like: [https://soundcloud.com/user506186265/toshiba-u940-clicking-sound]
    Can anyone help me diagnose the sound, what is it and why is it happening?
    This happens every hour or so and is disturbing in a quiet environment. Since I plan to keep the laptop for more than a few years I fear the hard drive will fail very soon. If I cannot resolve this suitably before Nov 20, 2013 I plan to return the laptop to where I bought it.
    Thanks for your help!

    This clicking noise comes definitely from the HDD and this sound is produced by reading heads. On some models it is pretty quiet but on some models you can hear it clearly.
    In front of me I have U940-103 model and I don't hear such clicking noise, just normal HDD noise and it is not so disturbing for me.
    As far as I know you cannot control it somehow. Maybe you can disable some settings like automatic update, back-up or HDD scan to avoid such activity.

  • Constant Fan Noise from Hard Drive

    My power book runs with a constant 'fan' like noise from the hard drive (front left of pd)
    My friend has same machine and has No sound,
    checked with display models in Apple Store (ear right necxt to pb) - No sound
    I have had this low level noise from new.
    Anyone else have the same problem.
    John

    hello there!
    When I upgraded to 1.4.0 and I notice that ear piercing noise and it was quite annoying. I called Apple and they advised me to look into the activity monitor. And YES, it ws the anti virus that came with .mac that 1.4.2 for some reason did not like and the process was running for such a long time consuming the resources including of course HD. I removed the anti virus (which at this point was useless) and the machine was just wonderful again.
    I think what I may say is that you may want to look for a process (using the activity monitor) which is eating the cpu alive - if you can remove it the better, else try to deal with. Good luck - an OSX convert!

  • Chirping Noise from Hard Drive Causing iMac to Freeze Up!

    Hope someone can give me some pointers to figure this one out!
    The computer will begin making high-pitch, squeaky chirping noises from the upper left corner (near the hard drive I think):
    http://homepage.mac.com/adamntaya/.cv/adamntaya/Sites/.Public/Chirping%20Noise.m p3-zip.zip
    Then after a while it will totally freeze up and I have to reboot. It is happening more and more frequently. Already tried doing a Hardware Test, with good results. Already tried downloading MacJanitor. Already tried a PRAM Reset. Nothing has helped the problem yet.
    What can I try?
    iMac G5 20" 1.8 GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.4)   160MB HD, 1G Memory (1st Gen)

    I had this exact problem, (exactly the same sound) with an eMac I had about a year ago. Our situations were the same, and after many calls and hours talking to Apple I got wound up getting a new iMac to replace to eMac, just paying the difference. They first wanted to take the computer in, which is what will happen when you call, but I would say that you would like to have a new one sent to you, as I assume you ordered it offline. Your problem and the one that I had seem to be quite rare, but nonetheless you should get a new computer.

  • "Clicking" noise from CD Drive on 12"Powerbook

    My 12" Powerbook makes a horrible "clicking" noise when a insert a CD or DVD. After a few seconds the CD or DVD is ejected. This is pretty sudden thing as it was fine one day and now this. Can anyone tell me what may be causing this, or how to fix it?
    Thanks!

    gjortega ,
    Here's the troublshooting guide from the service manual:
    "Startup
    The computer will not power on
    1. Remove any connected peripherals.
    2. Try known-good power outlet.
    3. Try known-good power adapter and power cord.
    4. Remove battery.
    5. Reset the power manager by pressing the key combination Control-Option-Shiftpower.
    Warning: Make sure you do not hold down the "fn" key when resetting the
    power manager.
    Warning: Resetting the power manager will permanently remove a RAM disk, if
    present, and all of its contents. You will also need to reset the date and time
    (using the Date & Time control panel).
    6. Disconnect internal keyboard completely. Inspect connectors. Restart with keyboard
    disconnected.
    7. Remove any additional RAM and AirPort Extreme Card.
    8. Try known-good DC board.
    9. Verify power button is connected properly to logic board, if power button is not
    functioning correctly or damaged, replace the top case.
    10. Replace logic board."
    Now that #10 would be about U28 or the GPU. U28 is that site I sent you. The GPU sits under the option-Apple key and you can put pressure on it from underneath that area. There is a large heat spreader that sits on top so you have to come from underneath.
    Richard

  • New T500 Grinding Noise from Hard Drive

    My brand new T500 Hard Drive makes off and on very faint grinding noise. The grinding happens for 6 times and then goes away for 5-10 seconds and then happens again and so on.
    Is this normal or is my new hard drive defective, and should I ask Lenovo for a replacement hard drive? 
    I ran the lenovo hard drive diagnostic tool and it did not find any issues.

    Fortunately Dell has released firmware update DE17 for the following Seagate models that seems to work for my Lenovo:
    ST9120411ASG
    ST9160411ASG
    ST9200423ASG
    ST9250421ASG
    ST9320421ASG
    ST980411ASG
    http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R211337&SystemID=P...
    Save the download to your desktop, then extract the files. Save image of ISO file thru Roxio cd maker to a CD. Shut down the pc, restart, F1, goto startup and select CD0  drive, hit F10 

  • Clicking sound from hard drive?

    Does this mean my hard drive is failing?

    Does it sound like any of these?
    http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php
    You could also try running SMART Utility:
    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/smartutility.html
    It seems to be a little more critical than Disk Utility, and may detect impending hard drive failure sooner. You can download the demo and run it several times for free.
    Good luck!

  • Noise from Hard Drive

    I just had to have the Logic Board replaced at the Apple store in Madison. Seems to be working OK but the drive sounds like it's grinding.It's loud enough that it's no strain to hear it. I've never had any noise with this computer at all. My problem is that AppleCare only has 2 months left. Should I re contact Apple with this?

    HI George,
    Absolutely. Don't hesitate. That's what AppleCare is for.
    Carolyn

  • Start up issue with clicks from hard drive

    My Macbook Pro 17" with Maveric does not load beyond grey apple logo during start up and has intermittent clicks sounding from hard drive. I've tried the following to resolve:
    1. Removed and reinstalled the RAM modules followed by clearing the PRAM on restart... ineffective.
    2. Restarted holding the option key. This showed my 1 year old hard drive was still available. However, selecting it resulted in the same failure at the grey apple logo.
    3. My previous Snow Leopard Recovery disc also ineffective. The eject button does no eject the disc either.
    4. Target disk mode also fails.
    5. Remote Recovery start up (command R) hangs on spinning wheel.
    Please advise.

    You may have to resort to using something such as DiskWarrior or Data Rescue 3 to try an repair the drive to the point where you can recover some of your files.
    I assume that you have no backups?
    Clinton

  • Noise from hard disk

    Hi, everyone.
    I bought a new mackbook pro in this Jan. Recently, I hear some not continuously noise from hard disk, especially when i open a file in hard disk or verify the hard disk. Is something wrong with my hard disk?
    Thanks

    This hard disk clicking is a know problem for many laptops. If you search it on Google, you will find a lot of discussions about it in the Unbuntu Linux forums. In most cases, it is due to the Advanced Power Management (APM) feature of notebook hard drives. The default APM settings of these drives are aggressive so as to extend notebook battery life. As a consequence, the HD tries to park its actuator head to the ramp whenever it judges the system as idle. However, OS X or some third-party applications may access the hard disk quite often, resulting in a park/unpark cycle every few seconds.
    Every of these cycles is counted as one load/unload cycle. Most notebook drives support up to 600,000 load/unload cycles. If a hard drive parks its head every few seconds, it may shorten its life by "using up" the cycles more quickly.
    I had the same problem on my Powerbook with a Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 80GB PATA drive. I heard the frequent clicking sound right after I installed it into the laptop. The SMART status appeared to be Verified, and there was no problem with the drive itself. After searching on Google and Hitachi web site, I found the causes and solved the problem using the Hitachi Feature Tool. For other HD brands, I have no experience at all.
    Basically, Travelstar 5K160 drives have three idle modes, from which a user can set one as the deepest idle state:
    1) Active Idle: the actuator head is parked near the center of the disk, and power usage is 45-55% less than performance level. Recovery time to active mode is about 20ms.
    2) Low Power Idle: this is usually the factory default idle mode. The head is UNLOADED to the ramp and the power consumption is 60-65% less than the performance level. Recovery time is about 300ms.
    3) Low RPM idle: in this idle mode, the hard disk will spin down to a lower RPM speed. More power is saved but recovery time is much longer. (I can hear the disk spin down and spin up again a few times per minute. There is also a lag in system reaction time.)
    To get rid of the hard disk clicking, you need to set Active Idle as the deepest APM idle mode. To do it on a Hitachi hard disk, you need Hitachi Feature Tool, and a Windows laptop with the same HD interface as your drive (PATA or SATA). Sadly, the feature tool is only for Windows and Linux.
    You can download Hitachi Feature Tool 2.10 as an ISO image here: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool and burn it into a bootable CD. The userguide of the tool is available on the same page.
    Then, take out your hard drive from your Macbook and install it into a Windows laptop. Boot the machine using the Feature Tool bootable CD. Choose "Change Advanced Power Mode" from the drop-down menu.
    The default value is 128 (Low Power Idle). Just increase the value toward Performance, until you see the APM mode over the value bar becomes Active Idle (starting from 192). Click OK and Exit the feature tool. Switch off the Windows laptop and take out the hard disk. Install it into your Macbook. You will not hear the clicking sound again when system is idle. The lowest APM mode will be Active Idle and hence the drive will not park its head to the ramp during operions.
    If your hard drive is a Hitachi Travelstar 5K160, you can find the 5K160 specifications version 1.1 from Hitachi web site. On page 69 of the document, it explains the APM idle modes. On page 145 about the register values of the APM modes.
    To set Active Idle as the deepest idle mode may adversely affect battery life. (I haven't yet tested it myself) However, there seem not to be a big difference than the Low Power Idle, according to the datasheet of 5K160. For this model, power consumption of Active Idle is 0.8W, while that of Low Power Idle is 0.6W, on average.
    Hope this is helpful.

  • Question Mark  clicking noise from internal seagate HDD

    this morning, my six months old MacBook black (2.16Ghz) screen froze. After force to reboot, my MacBook will not boot anymore while hearing a repeated clicking noise from the hard drive.
    I tried Disk Utilities from Original Install Disk but the internal HDD is not recognized.
    Then run the Apple Hardware Test, 01 Error found with these code; 4SNS/1/40000000:TB0T.
    I don't know what that means.
    Boot up MB from Data Rescue II boot CD, still the internal HDD cannot be found.
    I know that the internal HDD is not completely dead because I still hear a repeated clicking noise from the hard drive. Is there any ways to recover data from the drive?
    Someone suggested me to create "image" out of the hdd by using "dd" command under Terminal.
    Would it be possible?
    I have Apple OEM (Seagate) *ST9160821AS Momentus 5400.3 160gb.*
    Any suggestions? Thanks!

    I've had my share of hard drive failures, and that repeated clicking sound is a telltale sign. Yours is not the infamous Firmware 7.01 drive which were all of the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 series. Sounds like a simple random crash. Unfortunately, these things happen.
    You might be able to recover it yourself. If you can't, any repeated efforts to do it yourself could reduce your chances of recovering data if there's something like a failed head.
    If your data is that valuable, you might want to bring it to a data recovery service. Most will give an estimate and only charge if they can recover data. Their services will typically be very expensive - around the cost of a new MacBook.

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