Clicking noise during sleep when external HDD connected.

[Rychy]

So I just got my Mac Pro a few days ago... and actually didn't get it setup until tonight (long story), but anyways I've noticed something rather odd.

If I have my external HDD connected to my Mac Pro it makes a clicking noise when it goes into Sleep Mode or even when I shut it down. It's kind of like "click, click" pause "click, click" and this repeats until I wake it from sleep. The HDD is connected by FireWire 400 and everything is fine when the computer is awake, and when I disconnect the HDD and put the computer to sleep everything is fine.

Anyone have any idea what's going on here? The sound seems to be coming from the top portion of the machine.

 

[theGTIguy]

I am having the same problem on my macbook. Can anyone shed some light on why this may be happening?

 

[Nillus]

I seem to be having the same problem....

Clicking is never a good sign. My Mac had gone into sleep mode for several days whilst I was out and about...the clicking sound would have started as soon as it went into sleep mode and continued until waking my system. At first I thought it was just a conflict with the sleep settings of HD itself but that didn't change anything. Clicking sounds from an HD is not a good sign anyway so I ran a diagnostic on my drive and so far it doesn't look good...I think.
The drive seems to be damaged, probably due to constant HD activity/conflict whilst asleep. I have backed up my data (I suggest you do the same) and am running some more diagnostic tests on the drive before taking it in for repair.

Perhaps the external does not allow the MAc to sleep or conflicts the sleeping of internal HD?

Can anyone help out here? Comments much appreciated!