27" iMac hard drive noise

I suspect there are different revisions of the same HDD model with different acoustics. I was listening to Seagate 1.5 TB drive in another computer of my friend and its grumbling sounds are very soft and there are no loud sounds - like many people report in 1 Tb Seagate drives, which iMacs use. I also saw some much older 7200 RPM Seagate drives and they are grumbling much more loud.

Derek, you can also try to change your drive's acoustics settings - search Google for AAM - that can make grumbling sounds not so loud. But it's possible not with every drive and most software is for Windows.

There is a tool from Hitachi which can be written on a bootable flash drive, maybe it will work for you.

Here's a recording of my HDD noise, obviously it's louder than the recording. The loud single clicks are just my trackpad as I open programs. Recording: http://goo.gl/DS3xs

Would this be considered 'loud'? It's louder than medium-loud iTunes music, and that's irritating! If I were to replace the HDD, any recommendations?

Andy91,

Thanks for posting your recording. This is indeed the noise that we're all complaining about and yes I think it's loud. It's loud because we all use or used imacs before that made virtually no noise at all and now we are being asked to put up with this. If I had known my new mac was going to make this noise I could have simply bought a PC and placed the tower away from my desk and bought a large monitor. I had no way of knowing my mac would have been this loud as other macs I have worked on are vitually silient. I had every right to simply expect the same!

I had a long coveration with a genius bar guy today in Glasgow who told me that they were not allowed to put in any other hard drive apart from the seagate, even if I wanted to downgraded to a 512 GB WD drive. This is the drive I have in my macs at work that are virtually silent. I explained to the guy that, as well as it grumbling away when I do any operational task it even goes 'pack pack pack' when I'm watching the sky go TV stream! Turning off spotlight does not work. You hear it packing and grumbling away above the TV stream audio.

I think what I'll do it take the mac into an apple approved repair place and get an SSD drive in the thing. Can't do that now as I need my mac for work and it'll cost me so I'll need to wait until I have the available cash.

I think we all need to get together and write to apple over this. If anyone can suggest who I write to that would be a help. I've emailed him a couple of times over the past 2 weeks but he's not got back to me. I urged him to look at these posts (sent him the link) but it seems that I'm just being ignored. Also, I have went on the BBC Watchdog TV programme website where there is an online form so that you can send them a possible story to investigate. I've given my details and my story of my 'grumbling mac'. I would urge people to do the same as the more evidence they have that there is a problem there might be a better chance that they'll take up this story. I can't begin to describe my anger at disappointment at apple over this. It's a discrace.

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The most annoying thing is after having a silent iMac and buying this one for twice more expensive I am dealing with this issue. The level of noise I hear is just not acceptable for something which should be on my desk so close to me. And especially for the price I've paid. Apple is obviously cheating its customers.

BTW they finally confirmed the issue with iPhone 4 bad signal and are paying back to their customers. I think they should do something similar with this issue. That is not Apple quality.

Derek, if you'd like to install something silent to your iMac instead of the main drive, maybe you'll decide to install some 1 Tb laptop drive (like this one http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=140 ) wrapped in 3.5'' enclosure. That should be fully silent and cheaper than SSD. I know some people were doing that on older iMacs.

So is this still the case in new iMacs you buy today? I'm finding it hard to understand how there's a complaint thread on the forums over 2.5 years old (and active), and Apple have done nothing to resolve it. Especially since it seems so simple - find a real HDD manufacturer.

I know they don't necessarily read the forums, but you'd imagine someone would have brought it up by now...

Andy91,

Yes and if you go to macrumors (link below) you can see it going back to 2009 too. It's simply unbelievable. I just can't work out what is going on. And every apple care member or genius bar member of staff says to me that I'm the only one to have complained and they've never heard of it before! Something really strange is going on here.

Also, why is it that 2 apple staff (one a genius bar guy and the other an engineer from an apple repair contactor) had a listen to the the noise of my mac and agreed that the hard drive needed replaced? If this was normal noise why did they replace the hard drive without question at expense to apple care? Did no good of course as it was simply replaced by another grumbling seagate and it's just making the same noise.

Andy, feel free to right to contacts I have given above (especially the senior apple care guy) and the Watchdog TV programme. In terms of dealing with apple, I feel on my own when I speak to these people. I tell them of the pages and pages of this complaint on this site and macrumors but I just don't get anywhere!

I would LOVE Watchdog to get its teeth into this so please people write in to them (http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/) with your grumbling mac stories!

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=825849

for some reason, despite multiple complaints, Apple absolutely did not bother to update or change the HDD models used in iMacs since 2009!

that's out of my understanding - maybe they just have a good long term contracts with good discounts. Anyway, that's not about customer's benefits from any side

I've contacted one Apple service and they told that the price for 1 Tb Apple HDD is about $450, which is just insane! Now I see why they made a proprietary cables and firmware there.

Apple does not know how to spend their accumulated billions, but is still trying to rip their customers off.

I have the same (silent) 21,5" at work. It's the aluminum casing of the new ines that amplifies the hd noise i think.

I'm using an external fw 800 disk with os x, long cable, tucked away from my workspace, and disabled the the internal noisy hd. Use it mostly to run Logic, works really well.

Not the proper way, but i can work without the distracting noise

Yes, using an external firewire is one of the optuons I'll have to look at.

The more of us that write to apple over this the more chance we've got of holding them to account for the product flaw. Also, you could write to the consumer TV programme stating what you've had to do to get rid of the distracting noise -

Again, the more stories the receive the more chance we've got to get apple to admit they've a problem here. Might be a small chance but unless we all write in together nothing will be done for sure.

I also notice that there's now a 'related article' down the right hand side of this page. However, this doesn't explain why some imacs are louder than others and why as previous mac owners, owning macs that have been virtually silent we can now be expected to put up with this incredibly distracting grumbling frenzy that our machines go into several times on a daily basis. The article makes out that the sound is like tapping or light raindrops - rubbish. The noise is a loud clearly audible growl or grumble and, as I use my mac for sometimes over 8 hours a day, I have to listen to it over and over again; when undertaking the music work I have to do I find it so, so distracting. Also, why are apple store staff confused when I mention this to them. They are all of the opinion that I shouldn't be able to hear anything from an imac, only when you place your ear close to the machine. You can hear mine grumbling away from the hallway next to my study.

Bottom line is this apple - I bought a mac thinking it would perform the same as the desktop ones I have at work and the ones I've used and owned for years. All of these have been or are virtually silent. Mine is not so I'm unhappy as I had no way of expecting my machine to make this level of noise. Explain that in a 'related article'.

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Just to let you all know my previous posts have been edited by apple and the contact details of the senior apple care member I've been complaining to have been edited out. So, at least we know apple are reading our posts but of course they're not doing anything the issue. We won't go away apple.

Their reading! first confirmation in years! haha.

I wish they'd start acknowledging this problem though, cause for people like myself who dont have any time to waste without their mac (used daily for work), leaving it with them for a week and it coming back with another noisy drive just doesnt make sense and will cost too much money in lost income. The nightmare stories over the years on here have held me back even complaining to apple care. I shouldnt have to feel like this. As soon as a solution is provided by apple i wont be able to risk my HD being replaced.

Onwards!

Tommy,

I know how yo feel but we need to act together on this. Below is the BBC Watchdog link to tell them your story. They'll only take on this story if we all write to them with similar complaints of our grumbling macs. I've also included the email address of the senior apple care guy that 'hasn't heard of this issue before'. Again, the more people that email him the more they'll realise that they have a serious customer complaint issue here and it's not going to go away.

Apple might edit this email information out of this post but I don't care.

Apple, as I now know you are reading this (they've edited some of my previous posts) this actually makes matters worse as you can see there are 32 (yes, THIRTY TWO) pages on this topic and you're doing nothing about it.

BBC link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

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I waited and waited and waited and finally made the jump from PC to imac only to send it back less than a week later totally and utterly disappointed with the whole Apple experience. Shame on Apple for letting me and all of you down.

I will never spend that amount of money again with Apple because it would seem that they simply don't care. We have created a monster that is untouchable. For now...