HDD spin-up 'power noise'

[AndriesClaes]

Hi all

I recently bought an iMac 5K with a 3TB Fusion Drive, a beast of a machine I'm very happy with. But coming from an SSD MacBook Pro I'm not very used to an HDD, known for being more noisy.
But what I noticed the other day, is that when I boot my Mac or wake it from sleep I can hear an almost electrical noise/buzzing coming from the HDD. After around 5 minutes it fully dissapears and never comes back unless I put the HDD to sleep and let it spin back up.

Is this normal? I've read that during spin-up an HDD uses more power, so is that what I'm hearing? The fact that there is being transferred more power to the HDD? And if so, is this normal or should I be worried?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Gav2k]

Hi all

I recently bought an iMac 5K with a 3TB Fusion Drive, a beast of a machine I'm very happy with. But coming from an SSD MacBook Pro I'm not very used to an HDD, known for being more noisy.
But what I noticed the other day, is that when I boot my Mac or wake it from sleep I can hear an almost electrical noise/buzzing coming from the HDD. After around 5 minutes it fully dissapears and never comes back unless I put the HDD to sleep and let it spin back up.

Is this normal? I've read that during spin-up an HDD uses more power, so is that what I'm hearing? The fact that there is being transferred more power to the HDD? And if so, is this normal or should I be worried?

Thanks in advance!

Yes it's normal and more so because it's side mounted.

 

[AndriesClaes]

Yes it's normal and more so because it's side mounted.

Could you give me a bit more information about why that is so?
You don't have to, I'm just interested

 

[Gav2k]

Could you give me a bit more information about why that is so?
You don't have to, I'm just interested

I worked in a server centre for some years and we always found that 4u racks with drives sideways made more noise especially during spin up than the 1/2u racks with drives in the horizontal position. Life expectancy was no different as they were all fan cooled. Obviously if there not then the horizontal position would be better.

 

[Command]

I worked in a server centre for some years and we always found that 4u racks with drives sideways made more noise especially during spin up than the 1/2u racks with drives in the horizontal position. Life expectancy was no different as they were all fan cooled. Obviously if there not then the horizontal position would be better.

More notably true since server drives were either 10k or 15k rpm but still the same principle. I've always loved that noise, personally...

 

[AndriesClaes]

Just to be clear: are we both talking about an electrical buzzing noise that only occurs during the first 5 minutes after spin-up? Or about the typical HDD noise?
Because on some websites I read that the electrical buzzing is something to worry about, so I'm not really sure if I should be worried or not
Appreciate your information/help btw.

 

[Gav2k]

Just to be clear: are we both talking about an electrical buzzing noise that only occurs during the first 5 minutes after spin-up? Or about the typical HDD noise?
Because on some websites I read that the electrical buzzing is something to worry about, so I'm not really sure if I should be worried or not
Appreciate your information/help btw.

A buzzing to start with is the spinning up then due to the nature of the fusion setup there is a lot of disk activity which is more like static

 

[WilliamG]

Second this. My 5K iMac 3TB Fusion makes a bit of noise when the hard drive spins up and is doing stuff. Heck, every so often the fan rattles, there's more coil whine noise than I'd like - etc, but it's all par for the course with electronics, and I try and tune it out (not always successfully!).

 

[AndriesClaes]

A buzzing to start with is the spinning up then due to the nature of the fusion setup there is a lot of disk activity which is more like static

Weird, sounds really electrical to me.
Heard about the fact that this could be because of the fact that it is a Fusion indeed, but every time it spins up?

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Second this. My 5K iMac 3TB Fusion makes a bit of noise when the hard drive spins up and is doing stuff. Heck, every so often the fan rattles, there's more coil whine noise than I'd like - etc, but it's all par for the course with electronics, and I try and tune it out (not always successfully!).

Interesting! Someone with the same machine! Does the noise also hold on for around 5 minutes and then dissapears? Would like to know more about your experiences 'noise wise' with the 5K. No fan rattle issues here so far.

 

[WilliamG]

Weird, sounds really electrical to me.
Heard about the fact that this could be because of the fact that it is a Fusion indeed, but every time it spins up?

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Interesting! Someone with the same machine! Does the noise also hold on for around 5 minutes and then dissapears? Would like to know more about your experiences 'noise wise' with the 5K. No fan rattle issues here so far.

Are you sure it's not more like 10 minutes, so the hard disk goes back to sleep? When you hear the noise again, put your ear to the top right of the screen and tell me if you hear any electrical sound.

 

[AndriesClaes]

Between 5 to 10 minutes, haven't timed it yet. But after that it fully dissapears, but my HDD is still active then. It also never comes back unless I let it spin down fully and spin back up. I don't have to put my ear up to the screen btw, I just hear it when I listen carefully

 

[WilliamG]

Between 5 to 10 minutes, haven't timed it yet. But after that it fully dissapears, but my HDD is still active then. It also never comes back unless I let it spin down fully and spin back up. I don't have to put my ear up to the screen btw, I just hear it when I listen carefully

I'd not sweat it. You're probably just sensitive to computer noises. That's about it.

 

[AndriesClaes]

I'd not sweat it. You're probably just sensitive to computer noises. That's about it.

I am. But if I know where it comes from and why it does it I don't care. Problem here is I don't know why it does it and if it is normal. I paid €3400 for this iMac, I'm not expecting unclarified noises coming from my Mac for that pricetag