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Sir Cecil

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 31, 2008
793
0
My new 17" Macbook Pro has arrived with Hitachi's 7K200. 200gb, 7200 rpm drive. I've checked reviews of this drive and they are almost entirely complimentary.

Judging from my experience of the (unknown) drive I recently heard in a 15" 5400 rpm MBP (Penryn), the Hitachi runs MUCH quieter, as far as constant background sound is concerned.

BUT... I'm hearing more intermittent "clickings" coming from the Hitachi than I've heard from other Mac drives, including the Fujitsu in my four-year-old Powerbook. Perhaps "clicking" isn't the right word... more like a mixture of a light click and whir, repeating itself about every 30 seconds while the computer is sitting idle (with say, an open web page but no scrolling or other activity going on).

It's noticeable enough to hear clearly from my seated position (I don't have to put my head close to the drive to hear it) and it's already getting on my nerves. Has anyone had similar experience with this drive? Would you say this is simply a general characteristic of this HD? In all other respects, the drive is very quiet with no hum or anything to draw attention to itself... except the intermittent (and very annoying) sound I've described. I could probably learn to live with it if I knew this was a normal mechanical trait of this particular Hitachi drive, but I'm more concerned about something being amiss.

Thanks in advance for any input.
 
I have this drive in a new MacBook Pro also as well as having had it in a previous MacBook Pro. These are normal sounds for this drive. I had my previous MacBook Pro with this drive from June 2007 to February 2008 and never had any problems with the drive.
 
These are normal sounds for this drive.

Thanks for that. I'll have to get used to the distraction then, but it's good to know it's apparently normal.

The quietest Mac drive I've had is still the Fujitsu 60gb that came in my 2004 Powerbook. It has taken me through to 2008 very consistently and without a single problem.
 
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