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Mac Pro: Drive just made a bzzzzzzzz sound

chipandegg

chipandegg

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 3, 2007
232
8
UK
I have heard this twice now, the first time I wasnt to sure that it was the drive; it has just happened again. I know now that it is.

Its a short bzzzzzz sound which is quite loud.

I think it could be serious, my mac works fine though.

If i need to change the drive and swap all the contents on to another drive, I would not have a clue how to do this, any tutorials on this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
A free method to copy the files: (found on another thread ;))
gnasher729 said:
Start from the Leopard Install DVD, start Disk Utility, and just drag the partition over. No need to buy or download any software. Alternative, if you use Time Machine for backup, restore from the Time Machine backup
Click to expand...
IIRC, Disk Utility can also be used to check the drive. Similar to chkdsk in windows.
I would think the drive is suspect. Is it still under warranty?
 
I've had the mac a year now and everything has been fine, until i heard this noise (twice).

I'm still using 10.4.11.

I dont really use disk utility as im not sure what to do with it, any advice on that.

thanks
 
When i bought it, i went for Apples 3 year scheme, so I should be covered.

Though, I'm still quite a newbie when it comes to the technicalities of it all
 
I think it's all about resonance of some metal parts. I had same with my MP 2008, but I'm not too much concerned about it because everything is working great.

L.
 
had you added any extra HDDs? or change your original drive at all?
since the original MP doesnt contain the dampers on the sleds it could be the contact of the drive and the sled and all that isnt tightly screwed in or might be too tight.

if the diskl has been working all this time, it just might to be tightened or loosened a bit.




if possible or anything else, take the OS drive (and others out...) and put them in an external case an dboot external if it doesnt make the sound whhile using it i suppose that could rule out that?


but definitely make a bootable back up copy.
SuperDuper (which i just used the first time a few weeks ago) is simple and straight forward.
 
As Applenewton said, could be an occasional resonance. It's not unheard of (ahaha) on the Pro due to the crap drive carriers. I'd suggest reseating the drives and checking the screws.
 
chipandegg said:
I have heard this twice now, the first time I wasnt to sure that it was the drive; it has just happened again. I know now that it is.

Its a short bzzzzzz sound which is quite loud.

I think it could be serious, my mac works fine though.

If i need to change the drive and swap all the contents on to another drive, I would not have a clue how to do this, any tutorials on this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

Are you sure you aren't hearing the disk spin up from sleep? You could try going into System Preferences, then Energy Saver and unselect "Put disks to sleep when possible". Then monitor for that sound over the course of a week or two.
 
To use Superduper would I need another HDD, to back it up to another drive? as I only have the on HDD.

Is superduper like Time Machine on Leopard? (im using tiger at the mo)

Though a bootable back up copy is....? sorry still learning the terminology.

If you were me, what would do in regards to backing up mac stuff, taking precautions etc

thanks
 
Trip.Tucker said:
Are you sure you aren't hearing the disk spin up from sleep? You could try going into System Preferences, then Energy Saver and unselect "Put disks to sleep when possible". Then monitor for that sound over the course of a week or two.
Click to expand...

I'll try that out
 
Mine used to buzz...sure pissed me off, I'd have to shake the Mac Pro too make it go away. But I knew it came from the way the sled was lined up and the hard drives vibration would make sound like a bee got stuck in my Mac Pro..

I haven't heard the noise in months now.
 
chipandegg said:
To use Superduper would I need another HDD, to back it up to another drive? as I only have the on HDD.

Is superduper like Time Machine on Leopard? (im using tiger at the mo)

Though a bootable back up copy is....? sorry still learning the terminology.

If you were me, what would do in regards to backing up mac stuff, taking precautions etc

thanks
Click to expand...

Superduper; yes it requires a second drive as it will make a bootable copy of the current drive.

What size drive do you have now?

I'd recommend picking up an OEM drive from newegg.com
match the size; so if its 250 get a 250 or bigger..
(its only going to copy what you have used...so if you have lets say a 250 for example and are only using 80GB of space...it will just copy that 80GB of space to that drive)

My recommendations are Western Digitals AAKS series; they all have good cache and speed.
I have a 2500AAKS for MBP backups, 5000AAKS and 7500AAKS for bootable back ups and media storage; completely invaluable!
And with prices lowering, you can catch a good deal too.


Making a bootable back up is good especially for OS drives; basically in simple terms atleast....lets say your drive starts acting funny, maybe its crashing alot or a power surge occurs and the drive doesnt seem to be working properly any more.
Having a bootable back up basically entails you to insert that drive into the system and start off from that Date you made that last copy and you can boot into the same OS and environment you had on your drive you were just using that stopped working or is having issues.


SuperDuper has functionality to do Timed/Scheduled back ups on the date of your choice (i think that costs 27-29$ ?? im not 100% but that is a fair price to pay for your data security)
So it in a sense it would be sort of similar to a TimeMachine for Tiger.
Which is what I tend to do with my 10.4.10 installation.

But the free version allows you to do FULL COMPLETE Bootable back ups whenever you want.



Time Machine with Leopard basically copys over files, folders and that sort of Data. and that only copies the USED space, so for example a system running Leopard on a 320GB drive and only using 120GB of space, that will be transferred over to the Time Machine drive itself.
It is not "bootable" but its it makes it easier to recover files and data quickly.

Lets say you lose a few Word Documents or Photos from your library or even music..etc etc...you can go in there and goto a specific date you know you had it and can recover the files and structure of that Date so your files and such are as it was on MM/DD/YY you recovered from.

hope that made some clarity. :p:p
 
chipandegg said:
Bee is the perfect description lol!
Click to expand...
From your initial post, I thought it was an internal sound from the drive itself. :eek:

If it's a high pitch buzz/rattle, resonance would be suspect. Certainly cheaper to take care of than swapping out drives. :D So I did a search, and located a good thread on the matter. It may take a little time to read through, but it should give you an idea or two on how to solve it. IIRC, solutions used are easy and nearly free, as materials are inexpensive if you don't have anything lying around.

Hope this helps. :)
 
nanofrog said:
From your initial post, I thought it was an internal sound from the drive itself. :eek:

If it's a high pitch buzz/rattle, resonance would be suspect. Certainly cheaper to take care of than swapping out drives. :D So I did a search, and located a good thread on the matter. It may take a little time to read through, but it should give you an idea or two on how to solve it. IIRC, solutions used are easy and nearly free, as materials are inexpensive if you don't have anything lying around.

Hope this helps. :)
Click to expand...


http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5...on_Screws_-_4_Pack.html?tl=g7c113&id=rCMbWdDx

that solution may be alittle more easier and efficient. definitely not expensive either. has seemingly worked in most incidents.
 
AppleNewton said:
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5...on_Screws_-_4_Pack.html?tl=g7c113&id=rCMbWdDx

that solution may be alittle more easier and efficient. definitely not expensive either. has seemingly worked in most incidents.
Click to expand...
IIRC, most of the buzzing noises were due to sloppy stampings of the drive sleds. :eek:
Nice find, as they are quite useful, cheap, and can't hurt either! :D
rtrt said:
if you still suspect the drive itself - might want to consider this;

http://www.volitans-software.com/SMART_Utility_.html

i used it to verify that my non apple supplied drive had some bad sectors - initial symptom was an odd noise.

returned it for a replacement on the advice of others from this board - new one arrived the other day.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link. Seems very useful for drive diagnostics. :)
 
AppleNewton said:
Superduper; yes it requires a second drive as it will make a bootable copy of the current drive.

What size drive do you have now?

I'd recommend picking up an OEM drive from newegg.com
match the size; so if its 250 get a 250 or bigger..
(its only going to copy what you have used...so if you have lets say a 250 for example and are only using 80GB of space...it will just copy that 80GB of space to that drive)

My recommendations are Western Digitals AAKS series; they all have good cache and speed.
I have a 2500AAKS for MBP backups, 5000AAKS and 7500AAKS for bootable back ups and media storage; completely invaluable!
And with prices lowering, you can catch a good deal too.


Making a bootable back up is good especially for OS drives; basically in simple terms atleast....lets say your drive starts acting funny, maybe its crashing alot or a power surge occurs and the drive doesnt seem to be working properly any more.
Having a bootable back up basically entails you to insert that drive into the system and start off from that Date you made that last copy and you can boot into the same OS and environment you had on your drive you were just using that stopped working or is having issues.


SuperDuper has functionality to do Timed/Scheduled back ups on the date of your choice (i think that costs 27-29$ ?? im not 100% but that is a fair price to pay for your data security)
So it in a sense it would be sort of similar to a TimeMachine for Tiger.
Which is what I tend to do with my 10.4.10 installation.

But the free version allows you to do FULL COMPLETE Bootable back ups whenever you want.



Time Machine with Leopard basically copys over files, folders and that sort of Data. and that only copies the USED space, so for example a system running Leopard on a 320GB drive and only using 120GB of space, that will be transferred over to the Time Machine drive itself.
It is not "bootable" but its it makes it easier to recover files and data quickly.

Lets say you lose a few Word Documents or Photos from your library or even music..etc etc...you can go in there and goto a specific date you know you had it and can recover the files and structure of that Date so your files and such are as it was on MM/DD/YY you recovered from.

hope that made some clarity. :p:p
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice its a lot clearer now!

So in effect the bootable back up is really is just a copy/clone of the original drive completely including the OS itself from the date that is was copied. If the original drive is that messed up, you could it take out and use the other drive as you main drive?

Though, what is the disk image, is that kind of the same?

thanks again
 
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