Unbibody HD sounds?

[MBX]

Just bought a 17'' unibody and i noticed the slight sound increase of the hard-drive. I'm hearing "accessing-sounds" (subtle "crackling sounds" that i imagine it would sound like that or should it be totally quiet?
Or is it now just more apparent than before because the hd is in a different place in the unibody?

 

[pnyc]

I think it's normal I could hear the stock HD in my 15" UMBP after a while. You should be fine unless it keeps getting worse.

 

[Nikos]

I hear the crunching sound a lot as well. At first I don't think it made the sound, but now it does it a lot. Pretty sure it's normal, just accessing data, but I do have a few drives that are always silent.

 

[gr8tfly]

I had the same thing with mine and the stock Fujitsu 5400 320GB. One of the noisier drives I've had in a while.

I fixed it with a WD 320GB 7200RPM. No head seeking noise at all, just a light "tick" once in a while. Spindle noise is about the same as the Fujitsu.

The Fujitsu now sits in a USB2 case - I'll use it as a mirror backup.

 

[dukebound85]

is it this?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/689930/

 

[gr8tfly]

is it this?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/689930/

The stock Fujitsu was just noisy during head seek.

As for the "tick" on the WD, I don't think it's related. It's not at regular intervals. I also have my system set to "not sleep" drives, so the OS shouldn't be parking. I've tried to find out exactly what the WD drive is doing, but I suspect it's normal. I'll have another one in a few days that I can compare it to - if it's better, then this one's going back.

Edit: I ran "smartctl". Interestingly enough, the sound I'm hearing IS the load/unload cycle. It's not happening at regular intervals, though. Glad it's nothing wrong with this drive, just the way it sounds (my Seagate 200GB 7200RPM wasn't as noticeable, but I also had the computer in clamshell mode 90% of the time, several feet away from me, so....). I might play around with the APM, just for my own knowledge, but in general, I'll leave the setting per Apple. Also, I haven't really spent much time in XP - I'd expect some difference, both because of APM settings and how XP accesses the HD. Thanks for the tip on "smartctl", too.