MacBook Pro horrific grinding noise?

[qolol]

Hi, I have a MacBook Pro running on OS X 10.6.8. (not sure whether that's relevant)

I was recently (about 2 days ago) on my mac, when suddenly it just made this horrid sound, the only way i can describe it was a chainsaw or a lawnmower within the mac, on the right side. To me, it sounded like either the fan or the disk drive. I did have a disk in at the time so I immediately ejected the disk, but the noise continued and the disk came out fine. I then manually shut the computer down. In the 5 minutes it was making this noise, the computer continued to run fine even though it was making a horrid noise??? The noise stopped after i shut down the computer...

I decided to leave it and see if it did it again, and that evening i was using it for 2/3 hours without it doing it once again? I also searched all over the internet for this problem, and had saw videos people had uploaded of it doing it. Some people said after a few months of this happening their mac just died. Which i obviously do not want to happen...

Anyway, since then i have re-opened my mac twice and loaded it up/ took it off of sleep and it has made a strange noise both times, which sounds like it is coming from the disk drive? It makes the usual disk noise when starting up, but then makes this kind of quiet/ medium sounding almost grinding noise? But it stops after about 20 seconds. Then the mac runs fine.

I just don't know what to do, because it makes this strange quiet grinding sound and then it's fine, but at the same time i don't want to just completely ignore it as it could result in something worse. And it's only done it since the chainsaw noise from the other day, so i'm presuming it's linked.

I got the mac at christmas as a present, so it shouldn't be doing this after just 6/7 months of use. I would take it to apple, but they would probably tell me things need to be replaced maybe when they don't, and charge me stupid prices :/ I just wanted to get a second opinion of whether it could be potentially machine-ruining or not?

If you successfully read all of that and understood my rambling, Thanks!

 

[asdad123]

If you only had it for 6-7 months, just take it to apple. They will take care of everything under apple care.

 

[specik]

I can tell you that if your computer is in warranty, Apple won't charge you a dime for any repairs on it. You get 1 year of warranty coverage included with every machine.

Secondly, grinding coming from the machine is usually one of the fans. 13" Pros have 1 fan, while larger sizes have 2.

It is unlikely to be your hard drive as when a drive is bad to the point where it's grinding really loudly, the machine wouldn't start up anymore because the drive would be completely dead.

I would take it to an Apple Genius Bar immediately. If it is your fan, your machine could be not getting proper cooling which could cause even more problems. And in the unlikely event that it is your hard drive, then you'll need to get that replaced.

Either way, definitely back up your files before taking it in, they'll ask you to do this before getting any repair anyway.

 

[qolol]

Thankyou, I will take it to apple. I did suspect that it may have been the fan.