miketoy

My MBP has a Seagate 7200rpm disk in it (ST910021AS).
In the last few weeks, there is a constant fast clicking noise coming from computer.
It sounds like the noise disk drive makes when accessing or writing to the disk, but in this case it is CONSTANT. I am pretty sure it is from the disk, because if I run something that accesses the disk constantly, the same noise becomes louder, and faster.

I tried to turn off spotlight indexing but that didn't help. The noise is there even with no user processes, ie. just the finder.

idialman

Doesn't sound like the sound a disk typically makes when it's about to die, but the recording isn't terribly good, so not 100% sure.

Any chance you could provide brand information on the disk itself by checking under profiler? Are you experiencing unnecessary lagging or hampered performance when you open up huge files or run programs?

1.) Double-check your S.M.A.R.T. status in System Profiler under ATA (or perhaps SATA?) and make sure it says "Verified."
2.) Be sure you have a backup of your files, just in case.
3.) Run Diskwarrior? Disk could be highly fragmented.

mariyaa

I got the 7200rpm option in my PowerBook as well and it is amazingly noisy as well. Although, I remember when I first got it that I have the Toshiba drive, and that it is a very noisy drive, but those lucky enough to get the Seagate should be fine because it is much quieter, so I dunno.

I'm inclined to think that it's just normal though and you are going to have to get used to it.

I'd definitely trade my 7200 noisy drive in for a 5400 quieter one though.

miketoy

SMART status is "verified". The disk is definitely a Seagate ST910021AS, and the performance is good. The speed is max 60Mb/sec, min 45Mb/sec
I installed Bootcamp to run the Seagate disk check program "Seatools" under Windows and everything seemed OK.
The strange thing is that after all that playing around with the disk last night, this morning the disk is ultra-quiet. I can barely hear the sound. It could be something to do with heat.
Fusion, I agree with you, I would prefer a quiet slower 5400rpm disk than a noisy 7200rpm

idialman

Try a utility like SMARTReporter to see the 20 or so actual S.M.A.R.T. values, rather than just one summary word.

mariyaa

I have the 7200 RPM HDD in my MBP too and it is indeed a 'loud' disk.

But the fast clicking noise you describe sounds more like something else to me. Are you sure the noise is coming from the HDD (under the left palm rest) and not from the right fan (roughly below F10)? I have such a fast clicking sound, as if the fan blades of my right fan were hitting something. Others have reported similar noises coming from obviously broken fans. This MBP is going in for fan repair as soon as I can get my hands on a Merom rev B MBP.

idialman

I put a 100 gb 7200 rpm Hitachi in my Powerbooik and am quite satisfied with it. It's quiet, very fast, and seems not to use any more power than the original drive.

miketoy

Thanks, that is might be the case. I have been assuming it's the disk, but it seems related to heat/usage time (which would agree with the fan fault)

Also if I generate some disk activity (with "find" cli command), the noise gets louder and FASTER.
I didn't think about it much, just assumed that it's the disk activity that increased the frequency of the noise, but now that you mentioned, the disk would have its constant 7200rpm whether under load or not, so the clicking noise would be at the same rate if it was the disk?
Whereas the fan would have its frequency increased with the temperature of the MBP.

I will wait for the next time the noise appears and check the location of the noise again.
Regards,

mariyaa

mactest, in my case the noise clearly correlates with the right fan speed. If I put load on the GPU the fan noise gets louder and the frequency increases. Maybe you could try something similar and see what happens.

The fan issue is noted on AppleDefects and there's a thread about it on this board.

miketoy

Thanks Simon and everyone, it IS the fan under the Delete/F10 key.

I maxed out two cores by doing "yes>/dev/null" in two terminal windows and it is like a jet trying to take off. Like the posts in other forums described , at low load the clicking is like a paper card touching the spokes of a turning bicycle wheel.

It is much more obvious when I held the notebook up, and put my ear in different parts to check the source of the noise.

I am reluctant to send the computer for repair, as I haven't got a substitute, and also I have heard a lot of bad stories about notebooks returned from repair (dent/scratches...)

Thanks again