New MacBook Pro HDD Clicks When Idle

[adamlbiscuit]

I've heard a lot about Hard Drives clicking, and many say it means impending doom. So as you can imagine I was worried when one of the first things I noticed when powering on my new MacBook Pro 13" is that its hard drive makes quiet clicking noises at random intervals.

Despite feeling uncertain, I continued to use it for a few days and it's been fine overall, but in some applications - Yahoo Messenger in particular - I noticed a few minor performance issues. (Sluggish when sending instant messages.)

I've been paying more attention to the clicking as the days have gone by because it's really starting to get on my nerves - and through doing so I noticed something:

While using the mac, the HD only clicks when it's idle. If I'm playing music or something that requires constant HD access, the clicking stops, and so does the sluggishness in Yahoo Messenger for that matter.
What exactly does this mean? I've turned off "Turn Hard Disk to sleep when possible" and the problems still remain.

What should I do from here? Live with it? Or take it back to the shop where they'll most likely tell me theres nothing wrong and send me on my way (knowing my luck, that is.)

 

[RaceTripper]

Open Console and do a search for "I/O error." If you see any associated with diskXXX you are in trouble. Backup your drive and prepare for impending doom. If you do not see any of the errors in Console that still does not necessarily mean things are OK.

 

[adamlbiscuit]

Open Console and do a search for "I/O error." If you see any associated with diskXXX you are in trouble. Backup your drive and prepare for impending doom. If you do not see any of the errors in Console that still does not necessarily mean things are OK.

When I put "I/O error." into the search field it returns no results. Also in Disk Utility it says the S.M.A.R.T Status is verified. I can tell things are abnormal considering it shouldn't click like that. I accept that computers make noises but I understand this noise isn't normal. But its quiet, at least.

 

[RaceTripper]

When I put "I/O error." into the search field it returns no results. Also in Disk Utility it says the S.M.A.R.T Status is verified. I can tell things are abnormal considering it shouldn't click like that. I accept that computers make noises but I understand this noise isn't normal. But its quiet, at least.

Disk Utility isn't really very useful for determining the health of a drive. I had a drive go bad with multiple faulty sectors by the time I realized it and Disk Utility was none the wiser.

 

[adamlbiscuit]

Disk Utility isn't really very useful for determining the health of a drive. I had a drive go bad with multiple faulty sectors by the time I realized it and Disk Utility was none the wiser.

I've got everything backed up anyway and I'm going to get apple care, should I just wait for the HD to become unusable and get it replaced when the time comes or should I nip it in the bud now and take it to apple?

 

[nippyjun]

I've got everything backed up anyway and I'm going to get apple care, should I just wait for the HD to become unusable and get it replaced when the time comes or should I nip it in the bud now and take it to apple?

Take it in sooner than later.