Powerbook hard drive failing?

[phampton81]

Hi, I have a 12" 867mhz powerbook with the standard 40gb hard drive. About a week ago I noticed it was making a noise that I had heard elsewhere. I would say it sounds like a 'dink' and it happens at regular intervals when I am not accessing anything. I'd say it happens every 10 seconds or so. It's very quiet and it doesn't always continue to make the sound. The reason I am concerned is that I had a hard drive in my pc a couple years back make a similar sound for a month or so before it failed and would not boot. The drive was still accessible as a secondary drive, at least once or twice, but I never used it after that. Should I expect the same thing from my powerbook drive? Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks for your help, these boards have been very helpful in the past even though this is the first problem I have posted myself. I have had this computer for about 14 months just in case that helps, and I am the original owner.

[yoda13]

Hi, I have a 12" 867mhz powerbook with the standard 40gb hard drive. About a week ago I noticed it was making a noise that I had heard elsewhere. I would say it sounds like a 'dink' and it happens at regular intervals when I am not accessing anything. I'd say it happens every 10 seconds or so. It's very quiet and it doesn't always continue to make the sound. The reason I am concerned is that I had a hard drive in my pc a couple years back make a similar sound for a month or so before it failed and would not boot. The drive was still accessible as a secondary drive, at least once or twice, but I never used it after that. Should I expect the same thing from my powerbook drive? Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks for your help, these boards have been very helpful in the past even though this is the first problem I have posted myself. I have had this computer for about 14 months just in case that helps, and I am the original owner.

That doesn't sound good, but our pbs will make more strange sounds the older they get. I think that I would keep an eye on it, but I would be more concerned if it were doing it when I was using it heavily. But that is just my two cents.

[JOD8FY]

Go into Disk Utility and select the Hard drive itself (not Macintosh HD) and check the S.M.A.R.T status. It will tell you if it is about to fail.

Best wishes,
JOD8FY

[phampton81]

thanks for the replies. SMART status says verified, I don't have a clue what SMART is but I am sure that verified is good.

[JOD8FY]

thanks for the replies. SMART status says verified, I don't have a clue what SMART is but I am sure that verified is good.

It stands for something - I cant remember what :D . Anyway, that's a good sign that is says verified. That means it's in good shape. If it says "about to fail" then you know that it's going to die, but verified means everything is A-OK. I guess the ticking is something that you'll have to talk to an Apple tech about.

Glad to hear the good news,
JOD8FY