Hard drive click + beep

Same problem here. 3.06 17" with the (likely culprit) 500 GB 7200 drive.

Quite frequently from the back left I hear the faint click, then loud beep everyone describes. Loud enough that the guy sitting next to me hears it as well. Definitely not a normal hard drive sound.

What's worse, it is affecting the performance of the machine. If I'm playing a game or intensive application, the whole machine seizes up for a brief moment until the beep finishes. It's a miniscule pause, but very annoying when doing a timing sensitive task.

Apple really needs to respond to this. May be a widespread drive problem

Hi all,

I've just taken delivery of a 17" MBP with a 500GB 7200rpm drive. I don't think it can be anything other than the drive making the noises. I believe the clicking noise is the head parking and the squeaking/beeping noise is the drive spinning up again. I think it is down to the power setting and the MBP's motion sensor that is causing the drive to stop/start and park the head. You could probably eliminate some of it by setting the drive to be powered on all of the time but sacrificing battery power as a consequence. However a drive should not be that noisy especially when you're paying for a premium product. Might be worth giving Apple support a call to see what their take is on it. Quite frankly it's unacceptable.

Brian.

I have the same sound and its definitely coming from the HDD, i think its when the HDD parks itself it the laptop get moved! its a tad annoying. but i'm relieved to hear other people are having the same sound.

Annoying to have two topics on the same issue but heres the thread that I started: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2042490&tstart=0

I don't think there is any question it's the hard drive that's making the "beep" sound. The optical drive is on the same side of the MacBook Pro as the HD, so perhaps that's confused a couple of posters, but it's the hard drive. I can also say for certain, in response to another post, that it is not caused by movement of the MacBook Pro. I get the beep with the MBP sitting on my desk, untouched.

My question is has anyone without the Seagate 500GB 7200 RPM drive (ST9500420ASG) heard the beep? I believe it is specific to this hard drive, but I'd like to know for sure.

FWIW: It's odd that Apple is using the G version (G-Force) of the Seagate drives. MacBooks already contain a technology called "SMS" (sudden motion sensing) that does the same thing the G-Force technology does in the Seagates (park the drive head immediately in the event of a sudden movement of the MacBook). My understanding from previous conversations with Apple was, that if you used a drive with its own version of SMS protection, you needed to disable SMS on the MacBook. However, a quick check of the terminal shows SMS is enabled in the new MacBook Pro.

I have been using a non G-Force version of the same Seagate drive in another 15" Unibody MacBook Pro (2.8 Ghz/4GB/late 2008) and it doesn't have the beeping issue. Apple told me (I called support and talked with them back when I was purchasing the drive for the other MBP) that if I purchased the "G" version of the drive (the non "G-Force" versions were very hard to find, hence the call to Apple), to be sure to disable SMS because they would conflict and cause issues. Odd then, that they didn't follow their own advice. Probably not related to the beeping sound, but I thought I'd throw it out as food for thought. I've not used a "G-Force" enabled Seagate drive, but perhaps beeping is indication of the technology?

If you're interested in SMS and how to check it's status and enable/disable it, read [this|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1934?viewlocale=en_US].

im glad i went with the stock 5400rpm, no beeps.

Same problem - New BTO MBP with 500GB 7200rpm. clicks then beeps. Sometimes quiet for a while, sometimes lots of clicks and beeps close together. Requested replacement, which is getting processed and getting sent out then can return this bleeping machine.

Until they isolate the issue, I don't think swapping machines is going to make a difference unless you're going with a different HD than then 500 GB 7200 RPM.

Another poster reports happiness with his non-beeping 5400 RPM drive, but I can state from experience that the 5400 RPM drive is significantly slower and the performance difference is quite noticeable in real world use. Especially with apps like Aperture, Final Cut, and Photoshop. For now, I'll live with the beeps until they've identified the issue. I expect will see a firmware update in the not to distant future for the drive.

yep just got off the phone with mac tech and mac sales they would replace it with a new one but Id have to send in the old one in and then wait until they got it then wait another week or two to get the new one. but, if people are having the same issue a now today with new ones whose to say the new one they ship me will have again the same issues too? Im ask apple why do we have to go threw 2-3 computers to get one that works!!!! I had the same problem 3 yrs. ago I had to return a total 3 mbp's to finally get one that work without any problems.... COME ON APPLE !!!! Start shipping quality controlled computers out and stop shipping this sh&)t out to us!!!!

now my mbp 17' 500g h/d 72rpm one week old today has a small vibration as it sits flat on my glass top desk like a humming vib. note it was not doing this before which leads me to believe its down hill from here with this h/d anyone else vibrating hum?

Just what everyone needs, another poster saying "me too!" -- but I can confirm that my computer is also 500GB/7200RPM, Summer '09. I'm glad I'm not alone.

I am inclined to believe it's related to the inertial-sensing head-parking feature for two reasons. I notice the noise mostly when I save a document, and I can sometimes hit cmd-S a little aggressively. However, I also noticed it while I was carrying my computer across the room tonight. I then discovered I can recreate the sound on demand by subjecting the computer to a modest jerking motion (nothing too violent). Can anyone else confirm this?

I would love a definitive answer from Apple, though. My old TiBook's 60GB hard drive ran 6 1/2 years without issue (and still works great), and I'd like to believe this new one won't crap out before 6 1/2 weeks are up. Has anyone's hard drive actually failed after making this noise?

ehh... I guess it could be the HDD (like I said earlier, I feel 80% sure about this).
If it is the HDD Apple needs to fix this...

Some posters say that they hear the click-beep when they "move" the uMBP... however, I get the sound just sitting here on a stable-table...

This *****... wish Apple would acknowledge this already and issue a fix...

My HD is chirping like a small bird is trapped inside my computer now

no Joke!

"Chirp chirp chirp chirp " evey 1-2 secounds!
this just started and its very very worrisome!