HD 'clicking' noise

[bunkre]

So I'm assuming the world is about to end, or at least on my hard drive, but I wanted to see if anyone has encountered this before:

Sometimes when I try to open an app (Abode CS seems to be the worst) it pauses for up to 20sec until I hear a single loud 'click' from my hard drive and then it seems to load ok after that.

Other times it will make the same noise when the OS is trying to access it. Seems to be after the disk has't been accessed in a while maybe? I have HD sleep option turned OFF in energy savings prefs.

It's an older drive that came with the G4 733, so I've been trying to back things up and prepare for the worst. I'm running 10.3.7, but I don't think its related to the update.

Thanks!

 

[SteveC]

My old eMac made that same exact sound many times, but I know it was always because the hard drive had gone to sleep and was waking up.

 

[4409723]

Clicking can be the sign of a future hard drive crash.

Search the forum for some threads.

 

[grapes911]

9 out of 10 time clicking means dying. Make sure you back up all the time (even more than usual). You may get another year or two or it may die later today. Good luck.

 

[Jigglelicious]

Yep, sounds like the dreaded 'click of death'. Your hard drive is about to fail. If you want, you can go into disk utility, and see what the SMART status says. But either way, i'd still consider replacing the drive, because more than likely its about to fail soon.

 

[bunkre]

yeah, that's pretty much what i figured. fortunately i have a 2nd internal with enough room to backup my vitals. i'll go bug the boss for a new drive... or 20" iMac

thanks!