27" iMac hard drive noise

Hi all. Just bought a new 27" i3 on "tax holiday weekend" in MA with a 1TB drive. Set it up on Sat. and the rattling began! It had a WD Black Caviar drive. It was especially loud when I ran any disk benchmarking software. I packed it back up and brought it back to the Apple Store tonight (after making an appointment of course). The very friendly gentleman at the Genius bar took it in the back and heard the same noise I did. He swapped my machine for a new one. I set it up tonight and no noise! Absolute silence. It has a Seagate Barracuda drive and I am very happy.

killhippie wrote:
I hrve a 21.5 Inch iMac (late 2009) with a Western Digital WD1001FALS I cannot hear the drive at all, it is very quite, yet I have heard the 27" version which sounded very loud, I was very disappointed. I was wondering if its acoustics, has the 27" iMac got maybe a greater amount of space inside for noise to be amplified so the same drives can sound so loud, I know we cannot be sure but is that possible? I am just throwing this in as I want to buy a 27" i7 for myself and pass this 21.5 on to my wife but after having a near silent iMac I am just wondering if its that simple, acoustics of the 27" is bad an amplifies the sound through the larger body. If they are all that nosey it looks like waiting for next year to see what Apple bring out otherwise.

There is a space around it that could amplify the noise. For now happy with the Green Drive. I will wait till Apple admits a fault and maybe provides an update for the firmware of the drive.

A Firmware Update should definitely be a feasible and possible solution for Apple. If we make more noise, will they listen?

Oh and: 45.000 views! This must be an issue.

Message was edited by: Gymnae

This is the first time I have used the forum, but felt I needed to provide my personal experience concerning the seagate 1TB hard drive issue. Originally purchased 27' imac in July of this year and will have returned three for exchange by the middle of next week due to the incessant rumbling noise from the hard drive which is highly annoying when quietly surfing the web.

I have reported this to Apple UK support on every occasion but their response is this has not been identified as an issue and I have just been unlucky! When I visited a local apple retailer and listened to a display imac, this was perfectly quiet so I am continuing with exchanging until I hopefully receive a "quiet" hard drive.

Maybe 4th time will be lucky

I just talked with Apples tec support.
They told me that this noise is normal.

I read in some forums and review about the SG hard drive and it's seems that is not a "first class" HD.
In one review they compare it to WD black (Apple using this model?) and the WD was better but this is not the issue for me, I really don't care about 1 sec more or less in the HD read / write, I care about the reliability of the HD.
Some guys from the forums I read says that the SG baracuda is low quality HD drive and SG using low quality parts from Maxtor (Made in China).

what you think about this information?

Message was edited by: Avi Tzur

Hi,
But in the replacement will also come with the SG hard drive.
Can I ask for WD hard drive? (I'm not from the US).
If they will tell me that they will replace only the hard drive should I agree?

Thanks.

"
recorded this one this afternoon
http://pieter-1asfz.posterous.com/9152957

And I'm a noobie too so neither do I have any idea of its normal.
Windows computers don't make noises like these
"

I have the same noise.
Apple says that it's OK/

what you think?

I take the computer from apple today after they say that it's good.
the noise that this HD is makink is so ANNOYING, I hope that Apple will make a software update soon to allow AAM or some thing else solve this ANNOYING problem.

Message was edited by: Avi Tzur

Hi,
I know that HD making noise, but my HD is making some taping noise like "pak... pak pak.... pak pak.... pak pak".
it can be silent but some times it's starting with the "pak pak" for no reason. even when the computer is't running nothing.

I just chat with seagate:
take a look.. (I hope apple will look it)

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
Hello. How may I help you?
Abraham Tzur: Hi..
Erika M.: hello
Abraham Tzur: I talked to you or someone else 3 days ago
Abraham Tzur: sorry for the spelling
Abraham Tzur: ENG is not my mother Lang
Abraham Tzur: look
Abraham Tzur: I have new iMac with a SG drive
Abraham Tzur: and this drive is not stop clicking
Erika M.: ok, will I cannot find a case under your name so you will have to explain it again
Abraham Tzur: this clicing is dangerus?
Abraham Tzur: OK
Erika M.: when does it click? while it works (accessing data)?
Abraham Tzur: yes/
Abraham Tzur: but
Abraham Tzur: its also when it not work
Abraham Tzur: it's like "pak pak... pak pak...)
Abraham Tzur: it is not loud
Abraham Tzur: but is there/
Abraham Tzur: it's not every time
Abraham Tzur: the other tec supporter told me that it's a aggressive movment of the arm
Erika M.: ok, let me check the firmware on this
Abraham Tzur: and the HD is doing recallibration
Abraham Tzur: ok
Abraham Tzur: model:
Abraham Tzur: ST31000528AS
Abraham Tzur: s.n: 6VP449SW
Erika M.: here is the problem:
Erika M.: we know of the clicking
Erika M.: and have a firmware update for those drives to make it stop
Erika M.: however
Erika M.: your drive is an Apple OEM
Abraham Tzur: ok so what this problem is?
Erika M.: so you need to contact Apple because we cannot make sure the firmware is compatible- and this can hurt the drive
Abraham Tzur: all the HD making this clicking?
Erika M.: not all
Erika M.: but a good number before this was detected
Abraham Tzur: it is dangerus for the HD?
Abraham Tzur: so, you have an update but it's not suit to Apple computer?
Erika M.: correct because they modified the firmware
Erika M.: it no longer has ours
Erika M.: but apple modified firmware
Abraham Tzur: OK..
Erika M.: however, the clicking itslef on these drives is not detrimental

Hey guys, yesterday i bought a brand new iMac 21'5 with 500Gb SG hd and it was making the same pak pak noise ever couple of seconds, but i did an apple software upgrade and now it works just fine, no sound no anything.... so maybe they found a fix or something... i don't know

Hi everyone. I have this same problem with the 1TB Seagate ST31000528AS on my 2010 21.5/ i3 3.2. Quite annoying considering i bought and then quickly returned a practically silent (but very yellow screened) refurb 2009 27" i5.

So, I'm now deciding whether to get it replaced or wait it out for a firmware update (any chance?!)/ hope that with use it gets quieter. I hope the latter as attempting to do work in silence for Uni is a bit of a pain while trying to tune out these erratic clicks!

In response to the above post - tried a software update, I'm all up to date yet clicking away.

Hi,
My software is up to date but it making this PAK PAK noise over and over again,

I just checked the Disk Activity in the Activity Monitor and I see that every time that I hear the clicking there is an activity in the graph.
I hope that Apple will do something with that because it seems to be not healthy to the HD.

P.S, as you see in my post above SG has an update to stop this clicking, I hope that Apple will do the same soon.

mine is doing this too - brand new imac from last week but im typing this on my laptop as the noise from the imac makes it too annoying to use. Its my first mac and sooo not impressed. I got it from the education store any idea how i complain? how do i tell what hard drive it is?

I just bought 27inch i3 today with the grumbling hd sound right in the middle of the screen. I have owned the g3, g4,g5,duo core and now the i3 imac. Have to say this purchase was the most I have paid and the biggest disappointment because of that sound. I will have to get over it and turn up the tunes;)

when it started..
first thing i noticed when it was booting up for the very 1st time was a grumbling noise coming from the middle of the imac almost where there is a vent above the power input.... 😟
I can't believe apple is selling this model "flagship" device with a known problem. I guess for now I will play pandora in the background and get used to it. Nothing seems to be technically wrong with the machine.

I can only hope apple makes corrects this with HD firmware.

ST31000528AS:

Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Model: ST31000528AS
Revision: AP25
Serial Number: XXXXXXXX
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 7200
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
Writable: Yes
BSD Name: disk0s1
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 999.86 GB (999,860,912,128 bytes)
Available: 846.38 GB (846,384,455,680 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

<Edited by Host>