Cricket sound in my computer

Until you find out what it is for sure, back up your data and keep it backed up. One of the things that can make noise is your hard drive, and it's usually not a good sign. What does it say about the S.M.A.R.T. status in Disk Utility?

For a further check on your S.M.A.R.T. status, there is S.M.A.R.T Utility:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32454

You can download a demo of this and run it several times for free. If your iBook still has it's original hard drive, the drive could be starting to get pretty long in the tooth. The average useful age of a hard drive is 3-5 years.

Good luck!

OK. When hard drives start to fail, they can make strange noises, and since the hard drive is one of the few things that spins, that is one possible source of the chirping sound that you hear. The warning about backing up your data is just so that if the hard drive were to suddenly fail completely, you would not lose your data.

I don't know if your hard drive is the original one or not, but the average useful life of a hard drive is 3-5 years. How old is yours?

There are other, more innocuous things that can make weird noises, like some widgets. But usually the prudent thing to do is to check out the hard drive first. Since a dying hard drive could well make the sort of noise you describe, and the noise could be picked up and magnified by your sound, it is the first thing to worry about.

Good luck!

Barb:

Do you have anything like the frappie widget installed?

😉 cornelius

Where would I look to see.

There should be a Folder named Widgets in your Documents folder. (Home > Documents > Widgets).

😉 cornelius

Barb:

The issue is likely not related to frappie widget, since you don't have any widgets that you have downloaded or installed. The most likely cause is the Hard Disk Drive. These drives have an average life of 3 to 5 years, and your iBook is at or near that age so that will not be unusual to have a failing HDD. The S.M.A.R.T Status reading is not conclusive and a Failing report is more reliable than Verified. The one thing that puzzles me is that the pattern you describe does not fit a failing HDD, which would be either constant or more random. For the time being, be sure to keep your backup current in case your HDD does, indeed, fail. I am not sure what you do by way of backup, but the most efficient is to use an external firewire drive and make a bootable clone of your entire HDD using a utility like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Then, if you need to, you can boot the computer from the external HDD.

😉 cornelius

I have same problem and i downloaded smart utility and it said for last test status read failure what does that mean? Overall status says failing what is failing help?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

"Failure" means that the hard drive is physically dying and that there is nothing you can do to fix it. The only cure is to replace it with a new one. First order of business is to back up the data on it before it dies completely.

If you want to replace it yourself, there is a lot of help and good tips available on this forum. However, it would be best to post a new topic, as hard drive replacement can be pretty involved in an iBook--much too involved to be in some one else's thread.

Good luck!

For a bootable clone using Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner, the external drive just has to be as big as the internal drive for the cloned copy. If you have a small internal drive and would like to have some extra space for storing large media files or something, you could purchase a larger external drive and partition it, with one partition the same size as your internal drive, and a second partition any size you like.

The drive does have to be a firewire drive--your iBook won't boot from a USB drive. You can find firewire external drives at places like OWC and Newegg and even the Apple Store.

I use Super Duper, and it is far easier than dragging and dropping. You just select the source and destination volumes, select what you want to back up, and then hit "copy now". It asks for your password, asks you once more if you are sure this is what you want to do, and then makes an exact copy of your internal drive on the external.

You might visit the Super Duper site and read about how it works. But it is very simple and easy to use.

One note about external drives. Many of these come formatted for Windows, and will need to be reformatted for Macs. This is very easy to do in Disk Utility.

There are many choices for hard drives--both portable and desktop. If you would like some specific suggestions, please post back. I use a 250 GB Western Digital notebook drive in an OWC Mercury on the Go Firewire enclosure for example because I want a portable external drive for my iBook.

No chirping? Maybe it was a real cricket and he moved out.

Good luck!

To back up the whole system what size drive would I need to purchase.

You will need a drive at least as large and your internal HDD. If you are buying an external drive, I suggest you get one a minimum of 250 GB; 500 GB would be even better. Don't worry about the extra space, it's not expensive and could come in handy.

Can you use any external hard drive?

I think an external Hard Disk Drive will be your best bet.

Will I be able to boot from this external hard drive?

Yes, if two conditions are met:
1. Your external HDD must be a firewire HDD, as PowerPC Macs cannot boot from USB devices.
2. You create a bootable clone using a utility like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner

I haven't seen one using firewire, just usb drives.

Again, you cannot boot your iBook G4 from a USB device. If you get a firewire HDD, be sure you get one with the more reliable Oxford chipset. Here is a line of very good external firewire HDD at good prices.

Would I need to use this CCC to copy my computer onto the new drive.

Either of the utilities I linked earlier will do a great job. They are the best.

Won't dragging work?

Dragging will work for data files, and for some other files. However, you cannot copy OS X by dragging. In addition, CCC and SD will make the cloned volume bootable, which you cannot do by dragging. Besides, these utilities make the job a lot less onerous. You just get them started and they do the rest. You can then continue to use the utilities to make cumulative backups and keep your backup current. If you need an explanation of the differences and advantages of both utilities, please ask, as well as if you have any other questions.

😉 cornelius