New iMac with 1TB Drive - Weird HDD sound when spinning down/parking

Hi All,
Just got my 24" iMac and love it.
However after 1 day in operation, I noticed something weird about the hard drive (1TB Hitachi):
When powering down the system / putting it to sleep, the hard drive would spin down (obviously). The usual humming pitch would lower until there's almost no sound. However 2-3 seconds afterwards, there is this weird sound that scares me:
WOOOP... WOooop.... wooop... weeeep.. Sounding like the actual disc is unbalanced and slowly coming to halt... like a squeeking wheel only in much lower pitch.
The drive works fine in normal operation - speedy, relatively quiet (as to be expected with a 3.5" drive)... But this sound is really concerning me as I never heard something like this before.
Should I be concerned or can anybody confirm this HD model's behaviour as normal?
(I don't want to be stuck with a dead drive and lost data in 1-2 months)
Thanks,
Tom

I do not have the 1TB drive in my iMac so without hearing the sound it's hard to judge. I have heard drives make sound like you described and there been nothing wrong with it. It may just be the resonance from the drive spinning down. However like yourself I'd be a bit concerned as well. I would start by making sure you have your data backed up then run some diagnostics on the drive.
1. Verify SMART status- Open Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility select the drive on the left then look at the details down at the bottom. Or download and install SMART Utility: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32454
2. Verify the directory- Open Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility select the drive on the left then click on Verify Disk.
3. Surface Scan- If you have Apple Care install TechTool Deluxe from the disk provided. Run TechTool and select the Surface Scan option. This will check every block on the drive.
If it passes all of the above I would feel fairly confident that the drive is fine but you still might want to give Hitachi support a call and ask them about it. If the noise still really bothers you call Apple support and tell them that the drive is making abnormal sounds and see if they will replace it.
George

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