So a few days ago I was transferring some big folders to an external hard drive and watching some youtube stuff, when there was a loud clicking sound and the system froze. I hit the power button quickly and restarted and everything started fine. I did update my Time Machine backup as searching through a few topics made it sound like the hard drive could fail soon. Haven't heard the clicking noise since that one time but other problems have popped up.
Now when I play music the sound is strange, with some crackling or static in the background (its the same with games or anything else that uses the speakers) then after a while there was a big long crackling sound and I think the computer froze again. It booted up again fine, but I think there's still some crackling sound whenever I use the speakers.
I'm not sure if the clicking sound from earlier is a sign of impending hard drive failure (unless it was just from trying to move too much files at once), but after searching other topics its probably a bad sign, and I think I've backed up everything I could so now just waiting (although moving my Windows stuff from its partition will be a hassle), but haven't seen any other topics about the music oddity, I think, so just asking.
I have a 2010 Imac still under Applecare, so if it doesn't boot up eventually, do I just take it into an Apple store or call Apple first? Its a 27 inch model, so moving it is a bit troublesome, but taking it into the Genius Bar would probably be the simplest. If its a hard drive problem, would they just replace the hard drive there or send it away to be repaired or replace it with a new model? Or it'll depend on the circumstances? I'd prefer not to lose this Imac, as it still allows hdmi in (with an adapter) and the 2012 Imac model isn't out yet either so don't really care for a new model yet either. Just wondering if anyone else had similar experience yet.
Now when I play music the sound is strange, with some crackling or static in the background (its the same with games or anything else that uses the speakers) then after a while there was a big long crackling sound and I think the computer froze again. It booted up again fine, but I think there's still some crackling sound whenever I use the speakers.
I'm not sure if the clicking sound from earlier is a sign of impending hard drive failure (unless it was just from trying to move too much files at once), but after searching other topics its probably a bad sign, and I think I've backed up everything I could so now just waiting (although moving my Windows stuff from its partition will be a hassle), but haven't seen any other topics about the music oddity, I think, so just asking.
I have a 2010 Imac still under Applecare, so if it doesn't boot up eventually, do I just take it into an Apple store or call Apple first? Its a 27 inch model, so moving it is a bit troublesome, but taking it into the Genius Bar would probably be the simplest. If its a hard drive problem, would they just replace the hard drive there or send it away to be repaired or replace it with a new model? Or it'll depend on the circumstances? I'd prefer not to lose this Imac, as it still allows hdmi in (with an adapter) and the 2012 Imac model isn't out yet either so don't really care for a new model yet either. Just wondering if anyone else had similar experience yet.