Hard drive click + beep

Carlo Laurenzi wrote:
Hi all,
I own a Mac Book Pro 2,33 Ghz 17" 2007 (previous version), I would like to replace my Hitachi 7k100 7200 rpm original drive with a newer, bigger and reliable one.
I was thinking to buy a Seagate momentus 7200.4 500Gb, do you think it can be a good choice?
Do the Seagates 7200.4 500gb drives (or 320gb) still have issues or problems?
Or maybe I should better go for a WD Scorpio Black 320Gb 7200 rpm?

What's the quietest one among these 500 or 320 7200 rpm drives?

Thank you very much in advance.

I've tried two Seagate momentus drives and the 500 GB WD drive. The Seagtate drives failed and the WD drive seemed to be intermittently laggy.

I'm currently using a Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 500GB 7200 RPM and have had absolutely zero problems.

Apple ***** really! They are not able to fix this issue. My load cycle count variable is increasing rapidly; therefore, my new hard disk will die much earlier than it should!

At least for me this issue has been fixed fine quite some time ago by the hard disk firmware update that Apple had issued.

It could be a specific drive issue. I have HDAPM installed and it's working just fine. Read below:

02/04/10 7:37:45 AM hdapm[59] disk0: WDC WD3200BEKT-00F3T0
02/04/10 7:37:45 AM hdapm[59] Setting APM level to 0xfe:
02/04/10 7:37:45 AM hdapm[59] Success

Permissions on the files:

(/usr/local/bin) rwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 34644 4 Feb 07:30 hdapm
(/Library/LaunchDaemons) -rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 692 4 Feb 07:36 hdapm.plist

Running 10.6.2 and installed HDAPM manually. Drive is a WD 320GB. So HDAPM works fine with SL. If it's unable to effect the changes, I imagine it's not compatible with your drive (or its firmware).

There is no new firmware for my device...

I am able to stop the increasing value temporarily, but it seems as if this setting is of a temporary nature only. When I checked the SMART value again after hours of use, I have noticed a increasing value again. Therefore, I have to run hdapm over and over again while watching the SMART values.

I would take the smartctl output with a grain of salt. I have a 697,586 load cycle count, but Tech Tool Pro 5 reports it well within prefail. There also doesn't exist any data that drives are failing due to the heads being parked ad nauseum.

I eventually turned mine off because I hate the noise it makes parking the heads, but the drive showed no signs of failure and I'm not worried.

I guess if your drive doesn't work, the only option is wait for an update from the manufacturer (which is probably not likely) or purchase a new drive that plays nice with HDAPM (they are dirt cheap). Or wait it out and in a year or so, SSDs will be expressly affordable to all 😉

Sadly, it looks like it's an issue no one seems to consider an issue. Still would be nice to have someone address it, formally.

Works just great with 10.6.2, maybe your permissions are wrong, my steps are:

1) Download hdapm from here: http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/


2) Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app).

-Type "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true;killall Finder"


3) Open the hdapm dmg. Notice that /usr/local/bin doesn't exist by default so you have to enter the following command in Terminal.app:

-Type "sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin"


4) Copy hdamp to /usr/local/bin


5) Copy hdapm.plist to /Library/LaunchDaemons

-However, what the official instructions left out is that Apple requires the .plist to have the correct permissions before it can function.

-Type "cd /Library/LaunchDaemons"
-Type "sudo chmod 444 hdapm.plist"
-Type "sudo chown root:wheel hdapm.plist"


6) Finish up by hiding all the hidden system files again.

-Type "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean false;killall Finder"

Although recently I've noticed that when my machine is left on for extended periods (>2 days ~) that SOMEHOW the HDD starts clicking again, that's when I need to either manually execute the script or restart.

Oh and I'm using WD's 500GB Blue (WDC WD5000BEVT-22A0RT0). Bought another one, same problem. Tested it out on my friend's 15" MacBook Pro Unibody, same problem. I guess it's drive specific.


Sources:

http://bytecrafter.blogspot.com/2009/11/fixing-hard-disk-clicking-aggressive.htm l

http://dougitdesign.com/blog/2009/12/03/mac-clicking-hdd-hard-drive-noise-hdapm- html

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/914688.html

Last week my computer froze (not the first time, but the worst time), I got a window shade like screen that stated Cannot Restart - It Continued to come back to this message no matter what I tried: PRAM; SMC; Single user to the unix screen; verbose; install DVD -, memory checked, Nothing worked.- Kernel Panic issues.
I was able to get Apple Hardware Test: it Detected this Error.
4SNS/1/40000000:IDOR- 127.898

I Shipped Computer to Apple- Under Warranty they replaced the HD. The repair information says:
Item Number 655-1554B
Description HDD 500GB7200
Symptom: Drive- Bad Sector /Defective

The New Drive info on computer is this:
Vendor: NVidia
Product: MCP79 AHCI
Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.20 supported
Model: ST9500420ASG
Capacity 465.76 GB

Found out this is a Seagate 500gb 7200 rpm ST9500420AGS
My computer boot rom is MBP52.008E.B05

Concerned this is another Bad Drive- and will continue to have problems, - Can anyone tell me?
I am willing to do the HDAPM if necessary. I also have Snow Leopard to install.

Apple stated NO, they would not put in a drive with known issues. They cannot tell me anything about the defective drive model, or if it was other issues.
I am very disappointed Apple did not proactively notify me regarding my "new" computer having known HD Issues. I would have been more proactive in backing up. I can get most of my information back, but the time wasted, I cannot. They also did not send the defective HD back with the Computer even thou I requested it. I have the service tech ID#, but Apple states I cannot talk to them and the HD is gone.
Computer Configuration: Purchased June 15 2009
3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRM-2X2GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive@7200rpm

Hi, I recently bought a MBP 13' 2.53Ghz, 4gb ram,500GB hdd, and from the moment I turned on i noticed a click from the hard drive, also is heating very much but on the apple site they said is normal. Now my computer is freezing every time, my macbook pro is very slow, it has the 500gb hard drive, fujitsu of 5400rpm, I contact the Apple service and they order a new hard drive. I made the apple hardware test which found an error 4HDD/11/40000000:SATA(0,0)
I'm very dissapointed with Mac computers, I heard people said that they are the best, but My pc never freeze so many times as my first Macbook Pro did. I'm a new mac users for time being, Maybe I go back to Windows is the problem is not solved.

Well the ST9500420ASG is apparently no longer available. I did find an ST9500420AS and was going to put it in my 13" unibody MBP but now it sounds like I shouldn't try.

Has there been any movement or any 'fix' that works? I visited the Seagate forums and found a lot of carping about getting a firmware update out of Dell of all places to fix some issue with the drive clicking and stalling the OS. Is that the issue that folks here are writing about?

I guess the bottom line is will the drive work as expected or not? I did upgrade my really old MBP with a Seagate 500G drive and it rocks but I don't know what model/version of drive it is. I just figured that I'd have the same luck as before...

So, what about it? Is there still an issue and are there workarounds and if I really need more space, what do I do?

Thanks for any followups.

I'm going to buy the ST9500420AS drive and started looking around for user experience reviews and stumbled upon this thread. Further search resulted with a solution: upgrading drive's firmware using Dell's upgrade tool. Here's a link to discussion at Seagete forum:

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Internal-ATA-and-Serial-ATA/Momentus-ST9500420AS-Fi rmware-Update/m-p/43002#M17652

And here's a link to Dell download page:

http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&relea seid=R250679&formatcnt=0&libid=0&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=366463

Shame on Apple for not requesting such upgrade for Mac users.

Message was edited by: zzMarecki

I recently upgraded my brand new MBP 15" 2.66 with the ST9500420AS. I have had no issues with this drive since installation about 10 days ago.

I bought my MBP 15" last year around July. Since the beggining I've had poblems with the click and beep, until Apple supposedly fix this problem (with the 7200rpm drive) and suddenly out of the blue, my HD crashed yesterday. When I boot my MBP I get a white screen with a folder icon and a question mark. Lovely, now I'm screwed because most of my data and pictures were recent (not backed up).
Does anyone know if there is a way to recover this data?? Or am I simply wasting time and should send it to get the **** hard drive changed?

Never mind, Just replace your hard drive if it enjoying its guarantee period.

Thanks and regards
Portable hard drives

Hello,
Is this discussion post still alive?

I have a 500GB Seagate drive (ST9500420ASG) in my MacBook Pro 17" Early 2009 (I just purchased this used).

I noticed a beeping/clicking from the hard drive when I changed my Energy Settings/Graphics to Higher performance. When I switched back to Better Battery Life, the beeps and clicks stopped.

Anyone else notice this connection?

-Steve