Is my hard drive supposed to be clicking so much?

[jmack549]

I'm guessing this is some sort of built in protection, but it seems like even when I slightly move my hard drive lets out a loud click. Gets annoying when I'm sitting on the couch and it clicks every 30 seconds.

 

[rkmac]

I would say it is the hard drive heads being parked by the sudden motion sensor.

More info is available on the Apple Support pages.

There are ways of disabling it, but its there to protect your data so I would probably keep it on.
However, it should only react to sudden changes in acceleration so if it is doing it at even the slightest move you might want to get it looked at

 

[fisherking]

you could try disabling the SMS, see if the problem persists (google it, it's a simple terminal command).

but...heard that sound before my previous macbook's drive failed, so...
backup, have it checked...

 

[Berius]

Mine clicks when I lift it up and tilt it. I have read that this is to help keep your data safe. I never heard it on my buddies 15" 2010 high end pro even though they have the same size and speed hard drive.

 

[neenja]

i had a similar situation awhile back and found out it was actually my superdrive and not the hdd