Macbook Pro (Mid 2009) harddisk noise?

Call Apple and get it looked at or possibly exchanged. That isn't normal--especially when you apply pressure. It should be real quiet. Something is kittywampuss.

Dave M.
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I just bought the 2.8 GHz model yesterday and am having the same noise. I plan to take it in to the Genius Bar tomorrow. I'll post what I find out. Sounds like an unbalanced fan to me...

For what's its worth, the 13" is deadly quiet.

What all of you are hearing is absolutely normal. The whirring sound is the hard drive platters spinning. They do that forever as long as the computer is turned on. The reason you can hear it is that there's just a thin piece of aluminum between the hard drive and the top of the case. Putting your hand on the right side next to the trackpad dampens the sound because it has to go through your palm before reaching your ears. You will be able to hear the hard drive in a completely silent environment; however, most ambient noise will drown it out easily. Aluminum resonates more than plastic as well.

We all want our computers to be completely silent, but these are not. You will get used to it. I had the idea of putting rubber dampeners on the underside of the hard drive (side that faces up towards the case when installed), but it didn't make much of a difference. The stock 500 or 320gb, 5400 rpm hitachi's are some of the quietest drives around. So don't bother looking to replace the hitachi with a "quieter" hard drive. I actually purchased two other seagate and WD drives to test this out. The only way to make that area completely silent all the time is to drop some serious $$$ for a solid state hard drive. Sound nirvana will be yours at at steep price 🙂 I hope that helps.

Hi, this is my second unibody 15in. I returned the first a few days ago because I bought it on the 7th of June and wanted one of the mid 2009 models. I am experiencing a hard drive noise. It's not as described as above though. Periodically the platters spin down and then the hard drive squeaks or beeps? I've never heard a hard drive make that sound before. This is the 500GB hard drive with the faster speed (the upgraded version of the standard HD).

Is anyone else experiencing this?

My mid 2009 17-inch MacBook Pro arrived about a week ago, with the same hard drive upgrade (from 5400 rpm to 7200 rpm, 500gb) as you. I also hear the drive spinning down followed by a squeaking/beeping noise. I will probably call Apple about it soon, and post the results here. Please share any information you come across in regard to this.

I can't remember where I read this, but I did a google search for the model number of this hard drive (Seagate Momentus 7400.4) against mac. In one of the forums I read that there was a built in anti shock feature (I think it's called G-Drive) which makes a beeping noise when it comes into effect. Someone in that forum mentioned that there's a conflict between Leopards anti shock feature and the seagate one. Obviously I can't corroborate this, but thought that the info might be useful. I've ordered a replacement from Apple, but unfortunately it has to be another CTO. My solution has been to buy a WD Scorpio Blue 500GB, and put the the Seagate in my PS3. So far, the WD is working great. It's not silent, but it's definitely quieter than the Seagate.

I've also got another question. Compared to the early 2009 models, this one seems to have a lot of vibration in the case when playing music. I don't remember the early 2009 model vibrating so much in the right palm rest region (where the HD is) at half volume. It's really really annoying. Are you finding this as well? I'm wondering if it's a design defect, or whether they forgot to put some dampening material inside this case.

Thanks

I have a CTO 15" MBP with a 7200rpm hard drive. It makes a squeaking noise sometimes every few minutes, can be when busy or seemingly idle. There's no optical disk in the slot; I don't think it's that. My 7th Mac, none previously made a similar noise. Here's a recording (turn the volume way up; was made on my iPhone, 33KB .wav):

http://www.bioneural.net/docs/mbp-hd-squeak.wav

It very audible in my quiet Office; the pickup on the recording is deceptive. Apple on the phone said take it to my Service Centre, which I did. The place was too noisy to hear it but I played the recording: they said it was normal. Not convinced.

I have exactly the same noise that you recorded. Note to earlier posters: this noise is very intermittent and very brief; best described as an occasional squeak.

It's not bothersome to me, but it seems weird. I've noticed it's preceded by a little burp or clunk of some kind. It can go a long time with no squeak, then it happens a couple of times in a few minutes.

Just happened again as I type this. I will be monitoring it; doesn't seem like a good thing. I have a 7200 upgrade to the 500gb drive, fwiw; model ST9500420ASG (Seagate Momentus).

PS I have a boot disk partition. I don't suppose that matters, but who knows.

There's a huge thread about the 7200rpm 500GB beep/ squeak (+/-) click) noise here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2049659&start=0&tstart=0

Apple released a firmware update http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3796

+"MacBook Pro Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0, which reduces certain infrequent noises made by 7200-rpm drives that shipped with the Mid 2009 MacBook Pro"+

Has anyone solved this? I've just bought a 15.4 2.66ghz 320gb (Mid 2009) and the 5400rpm drive is making a noticeable whirring noise which goes when a slight pressure is applied to the right palm rest. Compared to my 13.3inch Macbook Pro it is annoying loud. 😟