I can confirm that I have the same issue with a brand new MacBook Pro 13-inch, mid-2009 model. The clicking sound is quite disturbing, I never had a SMS+head parking that was so loud. The drive is Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02 and I'm using the latest software available.
Another issue that is even worse, is that sometimes it fails to shutdown, just stays with the wallpaper for minutes until it turns the screen off (standby), as moving the mouse wakes it up in the same state. I can move the mouse and see the various shutdown modes by pressing the power button. I eventually have to force a shutdown with a long press of the shutdown button. The weird part is that I cannot associate this issue with an application or an update and it is intermittent.
This is what the console log says:
04/08/2009 17:39:45 Disk Utility[587]
04/08/2009 17:42:45 com.apple.launchd[494] (0x1082c0.Locum[602]) Exited: Terminated
04/08/2009 17:43:55 Mozy Status[543] Exiting
04/08/2009 17:43:55 openvpn[557] Signal received from management interface, exiting
04/08/2009 17:43:56 loginwindow[24] DEAD_PROCESS: 0 console
04/08/2009 17:43:57 shutdown[611] halt by stefan:
04/08/2009 17:43:57 com.apple.loginwindow[24] Shutdown NOW!
04/08/2009 17:43:57 mDNSResponder mDNSResponder-176.3 (Nov 3 2008 16:52:57)[23] stopping
04/08/2009 17:43:57 com.apple.loginwindow[24] System shutdown time has arrived
04/08/2009 17:43:57 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon[41]) Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 512 PPID 1 prl
dispservice
04/08/2009 17:43:57 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon[41]) Exited: Terminated
04/08/2009 17:43:57 shutdown[611] SHUTDOWN_TIME: 1249397037 209048
04/08/2009 17:49:31 com.apple.launchctl.System[2] BootCacheControl: could not open /var/db/BootCache.playlist: No such file or directory
04/08/2009 17:49:31 com.apple.launchctl.System[2] BootCacheControl: could not unlink playlist /var/db/BootCache.playlist: Unknown error: -1
04/08/2009 17:49:32 com.apple.launchctl.System[2] launchctl: Please convert the following to launchd: /etc/mach_init.d/dashboardadvisoryd.plist
04/08/2009 17:49:32 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.usbmuxd) Unknown key for boolean: EnableTransactions
04/08/2009 17:49:32 com.apple.launchd[1] (org.cups.cupsd) Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
04/08/2009 17:49:32 com.apple.launchd[1] (org.ntp.ntpd) Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
04/08/2009 17:49:32 com.apple.launchd[1] (org.x.privileged_startx) Unknown key for boolean: EnableTransactions
I'd appreciate if someone more experienced could suggest a likely cause and maybe a fix. I'd hate to have switched from Windows exactly for these kinds of quirks and still have a crappy experience.
