27" iMac hard drive noise

OMGuan,

Sorry to be a pest, but is it possible for you to provide info in relation to where you're from and any apple care contacts you had? I intend to use your case as an example so I can fight for similar service. For example, did you have 27 inch model with the 1TB seagate model ST31000528as before and was this making the 'grumbling' sound everyone is talking about on this forum?

Any info as to what happened in your case would be very useful as I can then use this when I contact the senior apple care member who is refusing to acknowledge that there is a problem. However, if apple have given in and provided you a new 1TB HD (and not a seagate) then this is a change in policy.

Regards,

Derek.

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I spoke to an apple care assistant and explained the situation. She did offer me an extended warranty for £139 or the option to take an apple store (35miles away) or to an authorised repairer.

When My hard drive was loud it also made the mac run slow and freeze..

The lady at apple was called Teresa. She gave me a Case ID to give the shop.

The nearest authorised repairer is about 7 miles away so I have taken that option.

Its called Solutions Inc in the centre of Bournemouth. The guys in there were great when i took

it in today. The whole shop is pure apple and they are fully authorised.

They checked for the hard drive replacement scheme straight away so its obviously quite an issue.

(Which mine is not part of)

However after explaining to their technician the symptons they have agreed it sounds like the hard drive is

faulty.

I have got to collect on Friday so I will keep posted what happens.

southcoastweb,

Thanks for keeping us all posted.

I've apple care and I've been told by many apple care people that mac will not allow my seagate to be replaced by another make and model under apple care. I've been told this over the phone and at a genius bar in my local mac store (Glasgow).

So, eveytime I've had a replacement it's always the ST31000528as seagate, and that's the noisy model. It will be intersting to see if you're given another HD make and model or just another seagate ST31000528as. If you have apple care and all of this is getting done through them (at no cost to you) then it will be interesting to see if the shop replaces your ST31000528as seagate will something different. If this happens this is a change in apple policy and gives me a strong case to get another HD make and model free of charge through apple care. If you don't mind, I might need to ask for your case number and the name of the repair shop so I can quote your experience and provide proof that they apple care will replace the seagate ST31000528as with another make. This is what I want but apple won't give in no matter how much I complain.

I can of course pay for an apple authorised repairer to put in another make HD (which is whay I'll probably do once apple care has ran out) but I just don't see why I should have to pay well over £100 for this if I've paid for apple care. I must admit that I don't think my HD is slower, it's just far far too noisy.

Many thanks again for your help. I have been fighting this issue for well over a year now and it is very much appreciated. If you have the time, you can let me know the outcome of your situation and provide any relevant details such as the apple care case number and repair dealer information.

Regards,

Derek.

Apple finally released 2012 iMac with 2.5'' laptop hard drives inside. Surely that will reduce the noise ALOT. they also offer more SSD options. So a guy who bought an obsolete iMac recently did a great mistake ever.

Guys got this email from apple this morning. Looks like they have finally acknowledged the problem with these drives. i have a 1TB seagate drive in a 2010 27"iMac

Dear iMac owner,

Apple has determined that certain 1TB Seagate hard drives used in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac systems may fail. These systems were sold between October 2009 and July 2011.

Our records show that you have an iMac with an affected 1TB Seagate hard drive. Apple will replace your hard drive with a new one, free of charge, under the iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program.

Please choose one of the following options to get a replacement hard drive.

•

Apple Retail Store - set up an appointment with a Genius.

•

Apple Authorised Service Provider - find one here.

•

Apple Technical Support - contact us for local service options.

Apple recommends replacing your affected hard drive as soon as possible. Before you go in for service, please back up your data. Learn more about backup options.

Additional Information

You will need to have the original Mac OS installation discs that were supplied with your iMac in order to reinstall your operating system, other applications and any backed up data after your hard drive is replaced.

This worldwide Apple programme does not extend the standard warranty coverage of the iMac.

Apple will replace affected 1TB Seagate hard drives, free of charge, for three years from your iMac's original date of purchase or until 12 April 2013, whichever provides longer coverage for you. Apple will continue to evaluate service data and provide extensions to this programme as needed.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,

Apple Inc.

Hi all,

I too got the email today. I've booked my mac in to a mac store on Sunday for a replacment.

While I'm obviously glad that we've got some sort of resloution, this will be the 4th HD in my machine since a got it and that's totally unacceptable. We have been telling apple about the seagare issue for months and months and kept being told that there was no issue and now they're finally accepting there is in fact a problem.

Thanks thought to all that have contributed to this forum.

Regards,

Derek.

I collected my mac from the repairers today. They have changed the HDD under warranty. I have been running it since 9:30 this morning installing all my apps asd a fresh install, 'because its good once in a while to clear out' and so far not a sound.

It is running like a dream, i have just reinstalled adobe creative suite which made the last HDD come to a stand still, and the new one installed it without a glitch and I was running other software at the same time.

They have replaced the drive with a seagate st3100 1tb revision ap63.

I hope you all have as much success...

Kenny

Kenny,

Thanks for the info. It's good to know the make and model of what apple are using as part of this replacement scheme.

I'm going into Glasgow mac store tomorrow with mine. I hope I have the same result as you.

I'll post how I get on here. I hope I'll get some sort of closure over this issue.

Regards,

Derek.

Hi all,

After months and months of calling, emails, 2 replacement HDs and making many posts on this forum I finally got by 27inch imac back yesterday WITHOUT the ST31000528as seagate in it. All fine.

Yes, I can hear little clicks (not highly audible low thuds, grows and rumbles) from the HD, especially when it's busy but my mac is in a really quiet room and close to me. No different from previous imacs I have used before or the ones (with a WD drive) that I use at work. Just what you'd expect so I've no complaints. In fact, my mac HD s a lot quiet than the WD external I use for back up. Couldn't say that before.

Fan noise is really quiet too. Perfect so thanks to the apple store guys in Glasgow for doing a great job. It's only taking 2 years, but I now finally have the mac I thought I was getting in the first place.

Thanks to everone for posting their experiences. We finally got there in end.

Regards and best wishes,

Derek Johnston.

Got there in the end ey Derek?? Geeeeze!

I'm in a pickle since receiving the email from apple. I use my mac everyday as a tool for my only income source, so whilst everyone else was trying to get apple care to replace their HD's with like for like seagates (before apple acknowledge the problem) i held out cause i couldnt afford being without my comp whilst they we're 'repairing it'

My solution was to buy and install a SSD as my main OS drive and the noisy seagate and a secondary storage drive. Obviously this reduced the amount of times i was distracted by the noisy HD. But now i'm wondering weather i will need to remove the SSD to have the HD replaced or weather i can explain my situation to a understanding authorised service centre operative and have the replacement done without having my apple care revoked.

Basically will apple/ASC replace this drive without voiding my AC? I know the answer will be NO but just seeing what u guys think... i should probably just pull the SSD out and have it replaced.

Sorry if this isn't how to post something here, but I don't ever post on forums and am not sure how it works. I have, however, trawled through this thread after having problems with an iMac I bought in August and thought I'd add my story in case it helps anyone. I found this thread to be a great source of information so thanks to everyone who has contributed.

I'd been using my iMac for a few days before I went away for a further few... When I returned I turned on the machine and heard a low, but audible, grumbling noise. Until that point I hadn't even considered that an iMac would have an issue like this (my only experience of Apple products until that point was a perfectly silent 15 inch Macbook Pro I'd had for 18 months). It was only after I experienced the noise and searched online that I realised others were having a similar problem with the iMac. I too have the 1TB Seagate drive.

The grumbling noise wasn't as loud as some I've heard on youtube, but was loud enough to distract me when trying to work (in a quiet environment).

It was, more importantly, loud enough to put me off using my new £1,500 purchase.

I took it into the Apple store in Glasgow. A guy at the Genuis bar turned it on, had a listen, and said immediatley that it was normal HDD noise, and I'd simply not noticed it when I first turned the iMac on. I stressed he was wrong, it had been silent initially but, to be fair to him, he arranged for the machine to be returned and a refund offered, despite it being over three weeks since I bought it.

Becuase it worked perfectly in every other sense (and I thought I was perhaps being a bit anal given that the noise wasn't deafening) I decided to keep hold of the iMac.

Unfortunatley, however, I didnt get used to the noise and found I was using it less and less until, after a few weeks, I almost stopped using it altogether (I was also annoyed at myself for buying an iMac four months before a newer version was launched!).

I thought I'd found a solution when I deleted large video files (as suggested by someone in another forum) that can sometimes become fragmented. This seemed to work for a day or so, but soon the low grumbling noise returned.

The idea of fragmented files on Macs, it seems, is negligible, but because it seemed to work for a short time after I removed the video files, I stuck with the idea, eventually buying a copy of iDefrag as a last throw of the dice.

Now, I need to stress I have no technical 'know-how' when it comes to Macs, so please take this description on face-value. What worked for me might not work for you. I'm not endorsing the iDefrag program, nor am I affiliated with it in any way. Also, I don't know what harm, if any, defragging an iMac may cause. All I want to convey is my own personal story. I had an expensive machine that made a low grumbling noise which, touch wood, has been running silently since defragging the HDD.

After a few weeks of silent usage I recently added quite a lot of music. The HDD started making the low grumbling noise again. I defragged the drive, and it once more operates silently.

In short, my personal experience is that after defragging the iMac the low grumbling noise disappears. It won't help, I imagine, with faulty drives, etc, but it has helped me. I now use the iMac more and... on a side issue... sometimes, quite sadly, pat it affectionately on the top when I'm sitting in silence working on something.

The only good thing to come out of weeks of frustration is that I now appreciate the silence all the more. Despite continued ribbing from non Apple using friends I find pleasure in sitting in front of an elegant, fast, and user-friendly machine that now delivers a level of performance that justifies my hefty investment in something which, for me, is used as nothing more than a typewriter that needs a printer attached to create a hard copy of what appears on the beautiful screen.

Thanks for your contribution. It sound like you had the same experience as a lot of us.

The only thing I can't work out is that, if you have the seagate drive, you should by now have had an email from apple saying you are to get a free replacement drive. They finally acknowledged there was a problem with the Seagate 1TB drive about a month ago and there is an official replacement programme in operation.

As I said before, I took mine into the Glasgow mac store and got a replacement and I'm now happy with the noise. Yes there's a small level of noise from the HD, but nothing like before.

One final point, when I was going through my problems with apple and was complaining about this (before they acknowledged the issue) I kept being told that 'they hadn't heard of this issue before'. I kept being told this from the Glasgow genius bar people and was made to feel the problem was with me alone. This was clearly rubbish and not good service from the company.

Although the Seagate model number of the HD in my iMac is ST31000528AS, which - seemingly - is listed amongst the faulty drives, the revision number on mine is AP63, which, apparently, is not. I'm assuming that's why I haven't had an email yet. I'm backing up regularly, however, because I won't be surprised if I recieve an email in the future telling me the HD ***** after all (as most on this thread will testify to, perhaps).

Had the defrag not worked (and fingers crossed it's a long term solution) then I would've been stuck with a £1,500 headache. I agree with you Derek, Apple seem to have decided to sweep this under the carpet whenever possible. I assume that's why the guy from the genuis bar was willing (after consultation with his manager) to take my iMac back, even though the two week return date had passed. He didn't acknowledge there was a general problem, but was willing to be flexible with their returns policy because I was so unhappy with what they considered 'acceptable HD noise levels'. I've searched online widely since and, strangely, cannot find anywhere in Apple's advertising that the iMac will grumble in your face whilst you work.

After reading some posts I have decided that the best thing is to replace my noisy hard drive my self. Before starting this, however, I'd like to comfirm that is is my Hard Drive making the noises and not my fans, or another component in my computer. Is there, and if so what is the best way to make sure the noises your computer is making is the hard drive. Thanks.

I have Imac mid 2011, 21,4" (2,8 GHz, 16 gb ram, Apple 256 GB SSD-hd + 2 TB serialata-HD (Hitachi) and use the Imac as no 2-screen and Eizo CG223w as mainscreen.

I have to say that the noise is making me crazy.

I have been in contact with apple support, but their suggestions (restart etc) did not help. So they adviced me to send the machine to service. Support told me it was fan-noise, but i dont know, sounds more like HD.

Tried to download smcfancontrol, did not help.

So the terrible sound as many of you in this tread describe seems to come from the right side of the Imac. So it seems that it not helped change the Seagate-HD.

By the way: Where is the hd placed it the imac?