Late 2009 iMac ticking sound

[sva]

Hello

Recently, I've been hearing some strange noises form my late 2009 27" iMac. it's a ticking of sorts, it's been sporadic for the past week but today it's just been constant while the computer is idle.

My gut says it's the hard drive, but from googling it could also be the PSU? If it helps, it sounds clearer when I put my ear right to the Apple logo. Here's a poor recording: http://clyp.it/qtva2lxd.mp3

I know that I was eligible for the hard drive replacement program Apple had, but I never got around to taking it in.

I'm due to install an SSD in the optical drive bay next week, should I pop in a new Hard Drive while I'm at it?

 

[cycledance]

Hello

Recently, I've been hearing some strange noises form my late 2009 27" iMac. it's a ticking of sorts, it's been sporadic for the past week but today it's just been constant while the computer is idle.

My gut says it's the hard drive, but from googling it could also be the PSU? If it helps, it sounds clearer when I put my ear right to the Apple logo. Here's a poor recording: http://clyp.it/qtva2lxd.mp3

I know that I was eligible for the hard drive replacement program Apple had, but I never got around to taking it in.

I'm due to install an SSD in the optical drive bay next week, should I pop in a new Hard Drive while I'm at it?

90% certain it's the harddrive that does it. it's probably failing and you should back up (twice) and change the hdd.

 

[seanemac007]

Did you end up swapping out the hard drive?

I have a similar computer and ran into the issue for just the late 2009 iMacs where you need to replace their hard drives with the same brand you had before. Curious if you made the change and heard of this issue.

From what I've read, this limitation is due to Apple at that point starting to monitor the internal temp of the hard drive using its internal sensors, so the cable gathered some of that info, but each manufacturer sends that info differently via the data port, so... and this is where I am not sure - if the drive is just not seen, or if the fans just run non-stop. I installed my new drive, but it was not the same brand as the original, and now I cannot even see the drive from the OS install disk application.