Hard drive "beep"

[FrankieShakes]

Hey all,

I've started to notice an odd "beep" sounds eminate from my machine every once in a while. It's a quick beep, and then a "click"...

Anyone have an idea what it may be? I've checked the SMART status of the drive, and it says "Verified", so I'm not sure what else it could be (or whether I should trust the SMART indicator).

I'd appreciate any info anyone can provide.

Thanks,
-fs

 

[Foxglove9]

Hey all,

I've started to notice an odd "beep" sounds eminate from my machine every once in a while. It's a quick beep, and then a "click"...

Anyone have an idea what it may be? I've checked the SMART status of the drive, and it says "Verified", so I'm not sure what else it could be (or whether I should trust the SMART indicator).

I'd appreciate any info anyone can provide.

Thanks,
-fs

Try this. Boot up from the System CD and do a disk verify and repair if necessary. Then see what the status on the drive is. It doesn't sound good if its clicking, and sometimes the SMART indicator warns you when it's too late.

Be prepared in case you need to quickly back up something things in case of a HD failure.

 

[briantology]

Definitely check it out and back it up. You would be extra angry if it failed AND you had a pre-warning

 

[livingfortoday]

Well, my Maxtor drives beep when they get too hot, so maybe it's a warning mechanism, like it's going to fail, or is overheating? Is there a particular time it beeps, I mean, are you doing some particular task when it happens, or is it completely random?

 

[FrankieShakes]

I should look to do a backup...

livingfortoday: I've got a hitachi in my PB... not sure if it has the same feature... although I notice it does happen when doing intensive work (photoshop, etc.) and usually when I'm sitting with it on my lap.. Though I can say it has happened before when _not_ on my lap.

I sometimes get a click, that sounds like something snaps... coming from the lower-left side of the machine (by the palm rest).

Any ideas?

 

[Kalmia]

The beep is definitely a bad sign--my sister's iBook G4 has a broken hard drive that beeps. The computer will boot with the regular startup chime, but it goes into a dead spin before the OS begins loading, the fans kick on, and it begins to beep intermittently.

I'd run an Apple Hardware Test off of the CD. The Extended Test, not the other one. (The short one shows no problems on aforementioned iBook, but the Extended Test does spit out an error message.)

And definitely back your files up if you still can! Is your PB still under warranty? My sister's computer is being mailed in to MacService tomorrow, so if your warranty's run out, they might be an option. I'll hopefully be able to report back on how they do shortly.


~Kalmia