Weird pop sound after upgrading ram and harddrive

Question

I randomly got the pop sound after I upgraded my mac mini core 2 duo to 320 gb 5400 rpm harddrive and 4 GB ram (2GBx2GB).
The sound is like a plastic click (similar sound when I the wireless mice hit the aluminum wireless keyboard) and it's quite loud.
Everything works fine except the pop sound ,Im a bit worried.
First I thought it was the hard drive problem so I copied the 3 GB music from the CD to the newly 320 GB internal HD with no problem at all ,no pop sound or click sound.
Do you have any idea where the sound come from?
Please help

Answer 1

I will try to swap the 80Gb back .
If the clicking sound disappear then it's the HD.
No, that's not the best way to test it. Leaving the new drive in the system, try and copy a large file to or from it. What that will do is keep the drive busy for the duration of the file copy, and let you listen for the noise. If the noise continues while the copy is taking place, and particularly if it increases in frequency, it would suggest a problem with the drive that is not a simple matter of self-parking - in other words, would be suggestive of a faulty drive that you would likely be best not to trust at all (in fact return it).
If the sound disappears while the copy takes place, then it suggests the noise is the self-parking activity, in which case as much as the noise is odd and even disturbing, it wouldn't suggest a fault or any real indication of imminent failure.
It should be said that many drives used in early minis made the most alarming sounds, yet are still in regular use with no unusual failure rate. Indeed, one of the manufacturers concerned (Seagate) indicated at one point that over time the sounds would change and grow less prolific, which in my experienced turned out to be the case. In your situation therefore, I'd continue to use the drive, ensuring I had an adequate backup routine of course, and see what happens!