Hard drive makes a clicking noise on Mac. (But still works fine on PC)
When I plug my external hard drive into my PowerBook G4, it makes a odd clicking noise, the light flashes, and it never appears as a drive in my computer.
This is a clear sign of a broken platter, but when I plug the same drive into my Windows laptop it works perfectly. All the files are there, no noticeable problems. (The hard drive is formatted to FAT32, so it should be working with both computers.)
The USB ports are working fine on the Mac laptop, as I have tried the hard drive in each port and have the same problem, while I have tried other things in the ports and they work fine.
Thanks!
I have a very similar problem with an external hard drive that I recently purchased. It makes a clicking noise but doesn't show up on as a drive on the desktop. I have looked in Disk Utility to configure the drive but it doesn't show up as an option as well. I went to the manufacturer website for support and it tells me that this is expected and that the recommended solution is to "initialize (partition and format) the drive with the Mac OS using the OS disk utility. Following the initialization, the drive will be identified almost immediately upon being connected to the system." (I don't need to use the hard drive on a PC for any reason.)
My question - is this safe to do? If so, how many times do I need to partition?
Similar Messages
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Dual G5 2.0 hard drive makes loud clicking noises after installing Leopard
I installed Leopard on my Dual G5 2.0, did a clean install. Worked fine for a couple of days but now it is unusable, the hard drive makes loud clicking noises and the computer slows down, can't even properly shut it down. All worked perfectly with Tiger installed.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks and happy new year!Ha... "Cheers" is not convincing coming from an angry man like you.
In English PC stands for Personal Computer:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=personal%20computer
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer
So a Mac and a Windows Machine can both be a PC. In fact I believe Apple coined the phrase PC, but I could be wrong.
I've been using Mac for 20 years, never had any issues. However my windows machines are very inefficient, it's difficult to get them to work with a printer, much less any of the multi media apps and equipment I use. My windows Machines are useful to me as test boxes and running some apps I don't have on my Macs. Sure Office works great on them, but I don't do spread sheets and such for a living.
I'm sorry that you are having bad luck, or are you making this up? You are a apple rep? Do they know that you are posting on the Apple site and advising users to buy a PC, hmm George Lelapinou the French Apple hater?
So, sorry old comrade but PC stands for personal computer, not Microsoft, and my PC is working 100% now, as my Macs always do, it appears it just needed to be cleaned. Now if only my crappy Peugeot would work after getting cleaned... I joke, I kid, iJoke. -
Hard Drive Makes a Clicking Noise
My Macbook Pro 2.53 Hardrive makes a clicking noise when I pick up my computer while its on. I know the disk is spinning but none of my other macs do this.
Hi mattzarr, welcome to Apple Discussions!
The clicking is just the sudden motion sensor in the computer parking the heads on the HD to protect your data from damage. When moving a spinning HD, there is always the possibility that the reading head (like the needle on a record player) may contact the spinning surface, causing damage. That clicking is the head parking away from the spinning disk, preventing it from damage.
It is only found on Apple's notebooks, and was introduced sometime around the 3rd last Powerbook G4 generation, if I remember correctly.
--Travis -
I just bought new-to-me mac mini running OSX mavericks.
Trying to migrate from old mac mini using simpletech external hard drive.
It still mounts on my old mac mini (system 10.5) but will not mount or show up when I plug it in to the new mac mini running mavericks.
Any ideas?BDAqua wrote:
What exactly shows in System Profiler>Hardware>USB for those drives?
Boot from the Install Disc & see if they show up, not grayed out in Disk Utility.
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
We were thinking along the same lines. While at home I dug up a firewire enclosure and put a bootable GUID formatted drive in it (that I had in one of the usb enclosures) and started her computer holding down the option key and then chose to boot from the external firewire. All usb drives are now mounting upon connection. I asume that her drive has bad sectors on it (even though the SMART status says it's OK) and is not loading all the drivers properly for USB to mount. I was suspicious from the beginning that the OS was corrupt when she first had me look at it. It was at that point that I booted it in target mode, connected to my Macbook Pro, and then CCC'd to a usb drive that I had. I then had a couple of difficulties installing the new OS. Should have known......
I am now going to put a new drive in it for her and she'll be up and running.
Thanks so much for your help and thoughts that got me thinking as well.
pax -
i just bought a new mac book pro 13'' and i bought a toshiba 1tb hard drive aswell, i formatted it to mac but it will not show up on my tv so i can watch movies? and solutions or reasons why?
TVs don't support "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", so you will probably have to use FAT32. To format the external drive, follow the same steps as you did to format it with "Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but in the erasing screen, select "MS-DOS (FAT)" as "Format". Note that FAT32 isn't compatible with files bigger than 4 GB. Also, you may have to format the external drive in a PC
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hello I have imac (27-inch mid 2011) 3.1ghz intel core i5 1tb serial ata hard drive, amd radeon hd 6970m
my problem is
imac works fine in safe mode,
but when you try to startup normal it's connstantly restart by it self.in safe mode works perfectly,soon as I try to boot in normal mode it's keep restarting.on screen I don't see any line vertical or horizontal picture look normal on safe mode.but unable to start normal it just restarting over and over.I try another HDD but same things happen,I replace memory but still same.works ok in safe mode but not in normal mode.I will try to post system error report.
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Western Digital Scorpio 2.5" IDE hard drive upgrade soft clicking noise
Just replaced the original hard drive in my 17" Powerbook G4 with a Western Digital Scorpio 250GB 2.5" IDE drive, model WD2500BEVE. I notice a strange noise coming from the drive every minute or two, almost like the drive is going to sleep and waking up. I contacted WD tech support and this was their response:
Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. I apologize for the inconvenience. This issue is caused by a system initiated power management command being interpreted incorrectly by the hard drive. The sound is normal and as of yet, we do not have a fix for it.
Not sure if it is a larger issue with all WD 2.5" drives but if you have the noise, you are going to have to live with it or settle for a smaller capacity Seagate or Toshiba drive or hope that WD has a firmware update for MacOSX which is slim to none imo.
Anyone else have this problem or more importantly, are using a WD 2.5" drive and do NOT have this problem?dausone:
This is a known issue with these drives, although not all drives have the problem; indeed, I have seen only a few reports from the many people who have installed them. WD is aware of the issue and there is a fix for PC users of this drive, but not for Macs. I suggest that you call WD Tech Support, or Customer Relations and tell them you would like to have the drive replaced.
cornelius -
My internal hard drive is making "clicking" noises
Hi there,
I have not been around for a while and I see that everything has changed... anyway... for a while now my harddrive is making noises as if it was being accessed all the time. There is plenty of RAM available, but still...
Latterly I have been having problems with Firefox as it is sucking all my memory, but I believe my issue with the harddrive making noises is quite separate.
Not quite sure what other info might be usefuk... except from FF, I don't have any process taking up too much memory. The only thing is kernel_task that now is at 335MB (I don't remember it too be so high).
TIAAgain, make sure you have everything fully backed up. The AHT isn't considered all that reliable. If you get an error, it can be trusted. But no errors, not necessarily. Did you run it in Extended?
Smart Utility, linked above, may prove to be a more thorough check, and you won't be wasting time testing the memory. I would run that.
Also, open Activity Monitor in Utilities. Switch to System Memory. Down at the bottom what does it say for Page outs and Swap used?
It's also possible the noise is coming from a fan. Get iStat Pro to check the fan speeds and that they are running normally.
http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/
Can you locate what part of the computer the noise is coming from?
Message was edited by: WZZZ -
Why can't FaceTime verify my email address on my Mac but it works fine on my iPhone?
I can receive and make facetime calls on my iphone but it won't work on my Macbook Pro. It used to work fine and I haven't changed my email address or password. It has now automatically logged my out and won't verify my email address to log me back in. Does anyone know how I can fix it?
chloel18,
I have been troubleshooting this issue myself for over 3 weeks now. I have looked through 20+ forums searching for answers. I know your pain. Here's what you need to do:
You need to call Apple. The problem is NOT on your end! I spoke with an Apple representative and they said that it is a "registration issue" and that THEY need to reset security settings. I waited 14 minutes but the representative found the issue then reset it and I was able to sign in.
Call 1-800-275-2273 (It's free in the US or on Skype if you're in Europe!) When you call, you'll get the standard automated secretary. DO NOT SAY ANYTHING. If you say anything, you will be told that you either need to purchase a protection plan for $19.99 or literally "end the call". Just stay on the line until you're asked if you wish to speak with a representative. Do that and you'll be connected (for free). They will ask for you Macbook Pro serial number and a "Customer Code" if you have one. Tell them how long that you've had this issue and they'll confirm your Apple ID.
Once they confirm your Apple ID, they reset everything on their end and you should be set. Make sure that you are able to send messages/make calls before hanging up. -
Please Help!!
olliedog11
Is there a way to fix this?
Yes and no......99.9% NO however.
When a HD dies its like asking about "cleaning a used paper towell"..........no.
$70 for a nice 1TB HD replacement, very easy to do , see videos posted above for you on replacing your HD.
In the future ALWAYS have a HD clone!
HD clones
Advantages:
1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD). -
TS3276 gmail is rejecting my password on my mac but it works fine on iphone, ipad, & web google
Mail (gmail) on my apple cannot receive or send. Getting password rejected message yet it works fine on iphone, ipad, & google on web.
Try a Restart.
Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until the red "slide to power off" slider appears, and then slide the slider. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.
Resetting your settings
You can also try resetting all settings. Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings. You will have to enter all of your device settings again.... All of the settings in the settings app will have to be re-entered. You won't lose any data, but it takes time to enter all of the settings again.
Resetting your device
Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button together for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears. Apple recommends this only if you are unable to restart it.
Or if this doesn't work and nobody else on the blog doesn't have a better idea you can contact Apple.
Here is a link to their contacts with most of the information below.
http://www.apple.com/contact/ -
Machine will not boot; hard drive makes clicking noise
My G4 will not boot up.
Here are the symptoms:
It passed the hardware test;
Will not perform a safe start - so cannot run disk utility;
Hard drive makes a clicking noise.
I'd appreciate any advice about how to proceed.
pdhYes, as mentioned backup now. best not to use your Mac till you do. The drive may fail for good. Here's some tips on replacing your drive (they are pretty inexpensive now);
This is by SDMacuser,
Even if you have never installed nor pulled a HD from a Powermac...... trust me....it is not all that difficult.
I can actually switch internal HD's among 3 separate G4 Towers I own in a matter of minutes (often less than 10 minutes).
Simply power the system down and ground yourself (a grounding strap is recommended or at the very least touching the metal frame to discharge any potential static electricity prior to actually touching the HD or any internal components on your system).
Disconnect the power cable to the back of the HD, then the long ide connector on the back of the HD / cable (pull straight back while grasping the black connector with 2 fingers ... do not yank the actual ribbon cable).
All of my HD's are mounted or bolted to their own metal sleds (either single sled or a dual sled) with 4 screws.
Unscrew the small screw (philips) holding the sled in place on position one below the ide connector or cable. And gently remove the sled & HD from the Powermac without bumping / damaging other internal components.
Remove the 4 screws from the sled itself holding the HD in place. Be careful not to allow the drive to fall once all screws have been removed.
Install the new HD (and make sure to address proper jumpers on the back of the HD itself.)
Now reverse this process with new HD for proper installation into the G4 Powermac.
Any questions just post back.
btw ... there are a few QT demos on apples web sites showing how to do this.
Cheers! DALE -
Clicking sound that the iMac hard drive makes every 10 minutes or so when in Sleep Mode.
My iMac is 2 years old. I have noticed that when I put it to sleep, the hard drive makes a
clicking noise every 5-10 minutes. I had my Lacie hard drive set up for Time Machine, but
the iMac also seemed to be making the Lacie whir every so many minutes, too. I have since
temporariily shut off my Lacie, but the clicking sound persists. It also seems to me that at
times the hard drive also is trying to "run" or activate momentarily.
I never hear the clicking noise when I am using my iMac.
I read many posts about other iMac owners having a similar problem. One "suggestion" was that
the iMac is not really in sleep mode. I don't understand that since I use the Sleep prompt under
the Apple O.S. Icon. I read somewhere else that the clicking is the cooling of metal, or something
like that. That seems a "reach" to me.
Any suggestions (or directing me to a thread that specifically addresses this issue) would be
much appreciated.
In any case, if I need to call Apple Tech (I have 1 year left on my warranty coverage), I would like
to know if they have probably encountered this problem. Also, what would be a good way to explain
the issue, if you can advise me on that.
Thanks!I have since called Apple Support about the problem. They did not solve it, but did offer to call back. I was unable to be home for the call back. I will call them again, but they did not seem to be aware of any "clicking" problems the iMacs were having.
I timed the clicking noises while the iMac was in Sleep mode; it is every 2 minutes almost consistently. (Not the 5-10 I mentioned in my first post.) Also, it then has a slight "whirring" sound after the "click" or "ping" as if it is trying to process something.
My iMac does not make the clicking/pinging noise while not in Sleep mode.
I have searched the Net and these forums repeatedly trying to find someone who has had a similar "clicking" sound. One fellow suggested his hard drive clicked in Sleep mode because it was looking for a printer. That is not the problem I am having, since all printer jobs have been completed.
If any of you could help me on this or direct me to a thread that addresses the issue, I would appreciate it immensely.
Thanks. -
How much noise should the hard drive make on a MBP early 2011?
Had since May/June last year i5 13" and only since I applied all updates few weeks ago it seems to be louder than it was before?
It sounds like a fan but isn't... obviously. Right hand side of track pad, and covering it, in fact just touching it dampens it to barely audible. Is that normal or has something gone a bit weird? A constant fan noise, which isn't the fan is now there permanently.How much noise should the hard drive make on a MBP early 2011?
None.
The machine should only make noise if the Superdrive is being used or the CPU's heavily used, going by my Early 2011 17".
It sounds like a fan but isn't... obviously. Right hand side of track pad, and covering it, in fact just touching it dampens it to barely audible. Is that normal or has something gone a bit weird? A constant fan noise, which isn't the fan is now there permanently.
It's possible it wasn't installed correctly and/or the case is slightly off so it's resonating the hard drive vibrations.
Make sure you have a internet connection (don't move) and reboot the machine holding the d key down like forever and Hardware Test will run.
Backup your data off the machine, if the hard drive dies under 1 year or three years with Applecare, then go get a new one. else you can replace it yourself with a better one and not void your warranty if you don't break anything doing so. Add more RAM while your at it.
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/
As you know Mac's are made by hand by young Chinese women working 12 hour shifts performing the same function every 7 seconds for only $1.20 a hour. They live 7 to a box room and have to pay 70¢ a meal.
All in all I would say they are very tired, and it's possilbe a few defects made it to your machine. -
My touch pad of mac pro is hard and makes lot of noise
my touch pad on mac pro is hard and make noise
Do you have another mac to compare? Is it just yours, or you just find them hard and noisy in general?
You can enable tap-to-click, where you won't need to "press" it, you can just gently tap to click in System Preferences > Trackpad > Tap to click.
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