On start up or from wake up

Question

Hi,
Just got a new mini and I've noticed that when I wake up the mini or start from being shut down it makes a kinda grinding noise. now, I know that they all make a noise on wake/start up but this seems a bit off a kind of stuck/metal grinding sound.
This only happens on wake or start up though.
Any thoughts ?
kindest,becca

Answer 1

This only happens on wake or start up though.
Assuming that you are not just being hyper-sensitive, the sound may be nothing more than the drive spinning up or down, or it may be something more significant, such as a bearing thrust face.
Many of these small drives make noises that have traditionally been regarded as alarming sounds which precede drive failure, but which are really quite normal for drives to make. In the history of hard drives, the larger they have been the more likely they were to obscure many of the common sounds we now hear from these small devices where there is only very thin casing components that tend to resonate at higher frequencies and thus actually help transmit the sounds rather than insulate against them. Consequently, you may be suffering nothing more than a different brand or model of drive in this mini making different noises than the previous one.
Try switching the energy saver to put the drive to sleep when possible and then running the system fairly hard for a week. If the sound is from the drive and related to spin up/down, you'll hear it every time the drive is put to sleep or woken, and after a week you should be able to tell if it's worse or not. By then, a fault would likely have begun to manifest itself by misbehavior or the noise itself changing. More than likely, you'll notice either no change or the sound getting a little quieter - in which case it would be safe to assume the drive is healthy enough.