Powerbook HD Problems?

[bursty]

I've had my PB for a good 2 years now and it has taken everything I have thrown at it. I use it pretty intensely with lots of Photoshop, video editing, media server, Office, and the basics (web browsing, Adium, Mail). Lately, it has been bogging down a little and during heavy use, it almost sounds like its defragging itself and then it bogs down. Lots of HD chatter. I am worried that the HD could be letting go. Should I just keep repairing permissions and other basic maintaince and wait for it to let go? Or should I just run out and grab a nice 100gb 7200RPM drive and do a swap?

Thanks for the help.

 

[CoMpX]

The first thing I would do is perform a backup of everything important IMMEDIATELY. Then open up Disk Utility and see what it says under "S.M.A.R.T. Status" on the bottom right for your hard disk. If it says "Failing", then you will probably want to look into getting that replaced.

 

[bursty]

SMART Status: Verified

Already did a complete backup so thats not much of a worry for me, I was just wondering if there some basic maintaince I could do to pick the performance up a little and/or extend the life of the HD just a little longer. I wouldnt mind switching out to a 7200rpm drive just for the speed, but then again, if it aint broke, I aint fixing it.

 

[mad jew]

Have you got much free space? I guess running fsck wouldn't hurt.