Hi there. After 15 years of lurking these forums every so often, now I finally have an excuse to make an account!
First off, here's the video.
Backstory:
In October of 2018, my 27 inch iMac (2011) started occasionally making clicking noises every now and then. They were sparse, and I didn't pay much attention to them. My iMac would also sometimes wake itself up out of sleep mode, which I thought was weird, but performance wise, the iMac was still fine.
Over the course of a few weeks though, things changed. The clicking would last longer and become more rampant. In the span of a few days, my computer started freezing every time the clicking began, and I'd have hold down the power button to turn it off. Then I'd restart, and everything would be fine for 20 minutes, but then the clicking would begin again, and the cycle would continue.
On November 13th, the same day I took the video, I walked out of my room for a few minutes. When I came back in, my iMac was frozen and the screen was just the default iMac wallpaper. The file bar and my folders were gone. I freaked out, shut it down with the power button and I have not turned it on since.
I haven't had a computer for 8 months now. It's been terrible. I've just been living with the assumption that my iMac is probably dead, and any attempt to have it repaired or salvage my hard drive is far beyond what I'm able to afford. Worst of all: I'm an audio editing freelancer who depended on my iMac to create and edit, so as you can imagine, it's been very rough.
Now, about the noise: I have looked at so many YouTube videos about dying hard drives in Macs and NONE of them have replicated the noise that my iMac made. My clicking noise sounds like the initial clicking that happens when a Mac goes to sleep or wakes up, but on an infinite screeching loop. Is it really a dying hard drive? Could it be anything else?
The only unusual thing that I had done a few months before the problems began was when I inserted a disc, which the disc drive struggled with, and I had to force eject. Could that have caused something to malfunction within?
I guess even though it's been so long at this point, I'd still like to know what the hell is wrong with my iMac for cathartic reasons.
Maybe someday if I can afford it, I could have this fantastic machine fixed. My iMac gave me so many years of enjoyment. It was the best piece of technology I've ever owned.
Please let me know if you have any ideas on what the clicking issue could be.
Thanks for reading!
First off, here's the video.
Backstory:
In October of 2018, my 27 inch iMac (2011) started occasionally making clicking noises every now and then. They were sparse, and I didn't pay much attention to them. My iMac would also sometimes wake itself up out of sleep mode, which I thought was weird, but performance wise, the iMac was still fine.
Over the course of a few weeks though, things changed. The clicking would last longer and become more rampant. In the span of a few days, my computer started freezing every time the clicking began, and I'd have hold down the power button to turn it off. Then I'd restart, and everything would be fine for 20 minutes, but then the clicking would begin again, and the cycle would continue.
On November 13th, the same day I took the video, I walked out of my room for a few minutes. When I came back in, my iMac was frozen and the screen was just the default iMac wallpaper. The file bar and my folders were gone. I freaked out, shut it down with the power button and I have not turned it on since.
I haven't had a computer for 8 months now. It's been terrible. I've just been living with the assumption that my iMac is probably dead, and any attempt to have it repaired or salvage my hard drive is far beyond what I'm able to afford. Worst of all: I'm an audio editing freelancer who depended on my iMac to create and edit, so as you can imagine, it's been very rough.
Now, about the noise: I have looked at so many YouTube videos about dying hard drives in Macs and NONE of them have replicated the noise that my iMac made. My clicking noise sounds like the initial clicking that happens when a Mac goes to sleep or wakes up, but on an infinite screeching loop. Is it really a dying hard drive? Could it be anything else?
The only unusual thing that I had done a few months before the problems began was when I inserted a disc, which the disc drive struggled with, and I had to force eject. Could that have caused something to malfunction within?
I guess even though it's been so long at this point, I'd still like to know what the hell is wrong with my iMac for cathartic reasons.
Maybe someday if I can afford it, I could have this fantastic machine fixed. My iMac gave me so many years of enjoyment. It was the best piece of technology I've ever owned.
Please let me know if you have any ideas on what the clicking issue could be.
Thanks for reading!