Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02 Hard Drive Clicking Sound?

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Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02 Hard Drive Clicking Sound?

I've got a Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02 250GB drive in my unibody MacBook Pro 13" (more details below). I notice that any time I move the computer, even gently, I get a soft clicking sound as if the drive head is moving away from the platter in some sort of g-sensitive protection move. I know plenty of drives do this to prevent platter collisions, but I've never had a computer (even my previous MacBook first-gen Unibody 13" w/ the 250GB drive) that is both (1) so touchy about activating this protection thing and (2) so loud with the click.

My question is if this is normal - should the drive be audibly clicking? Should it be doing it even if you gently move the computer, where "gentle" is defined as plenty slow enough that it isn't going to cause any drive damage at all (probably well under 1G of acceleration, for example).

[quote]
Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02:
Capacity: 250.06 GB (250,059,350,016 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02
Revision: PB2AC60Q
[/quote]

MacBookPro13.3/2.53/2X2GB/250/SD PartNumber:MB991LL/A, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Oct 5, 2009 1:37 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 5, 2009 4:18 PM in response to dsuchter

Yes, your machine should do what it is doing. The loudness is a function of the particular drive. Another brand might be louder or quieter.

Whether or not your Sudden Motion Sensor is too sensitive is not possible to tell simply by a description. However, it is not going to harm your drive if it is too sensitive. The opposite may not be true.

There are some real cool apps that can take advantage of your SMS. You ought to check them out. Here's one:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22137

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Answer 2

Oct 5, 2009 4:41 PM in response to dsuchter

My HTS545025B9SA02 makes a loud sound when the SMS is triggered (and the SMS does seem to be a touch sensitive, if I may say so). Also, when I switched it with a Seagate in an external USB enclosure and pulled the power, it made the same loud "clank" as it offloaded the heads. Safely removing power (ejecting the drive/shutting down/putting the computer to sleep when external, or a proper shutdown/sleep when internal) has a much quieter offload. The Seagate drive does not do this.

I guess Hitachi just wanted to ensure that there was no risk of the heads scratching the platter (or platters, for drives in this series with a greater capacity), so they have the mechanics yank everything to a safe position with more speed/more force in the above events than in a 'safe' power down.

Message was edited by: A. E. Wallace

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