Louder HD accessing noises?

[MBX]

Hey is it normal that the new unibody 17'' features louder HardDisk accessing noises?

I didn't hear any at all on my previous (late '08) but now i'm kinda annoyed by them. It's not really loud but once you're aware of it and know the HD makes these noises in same intervals it's really annoying. Especially when it's really quiet and you're trying to focus reading articles and other things.

Anyone out with same experience? Any idea if there's a way to make it go away (i guess not)?

 

[gr8tfly]

If yours came with the same drive as mine, the Fujitsu 320GB 5400RPM, then you probably are hearing the same head seek sounds I did. I found it louder than any drive I've had in the last couple years (2.5"). I wouldn't call the sounds "loud", but in a quiet room, they were very noticeable.

You might have noticed the past tense in my descriptions above .

Last week I replaced it with the WD Scorpio Black 320GB 7200GB. Compared to the Fujitsu, it's silent. In reality: The spindle sound is slightly louder than the Fujitsu, but, of course, it's going from 5400 RPM to 7200 RPM. It's just a soft "whoosh" sound, not to noticeable. Head seek noise - virtually silent. The only way I can hear it seek is to put my ear up to the wrist rest. It does have a periodic, very light "click", but many other make have this too - it's a power save (and "safety") head load/unload cycle. I'll easily take that over the Fujitsu's "racket".

 

[MBX]

I have a 7200rpm disk. And i'm probably just sensitive to these light "click", "load/ unload" cycles you described.

 

[gr8tfly]

I have a 7200rpm disk. And i'm probably just sensitive to these light "click", "load/ unload" cycles you described.

Yea, I'm not too wild about that, but otherwise it's silent. There isn't too much that can be done - I've read reports about the same with both Seagate & WD. Maybe some are slightly noisier than others. I just received another WD, and I'm just about to boot up on it and see if it's any different than the one installed in my MBP. I'll update, if I hear a difference. I'm hoping not, actually, since I really don't feel like opening the machine up again (at least right now, it's really no big deal compared with the Al MBPs).