27" iMac hard drive noise

Just got back from the Apple store.

Moved the new iMac out to the living room a few days ago to watch a Netflix movie. When I went to boot up, instead of my usual desktop I got a screen that was empty except for a small box in the center with a "Macintosh HD" icon with a green arrow on it. Below it was the mouse cursor, but the machine was not responsive to the mouse. I shut it off and pressed the power button again and it booted up fine.

Later when I moved it back to my bedroom, I started hearing the HD noises. Yes... exactly like a stomach grumble. Quite audible from a machine that was ghost quite just before this occurred. Called Apple support and was told to run Disc Repair, but it wasn't a software issue. They said to bring it into the Apple Store.

I made a onetoone appointment and brought the computer in. It was a zoo and I couldn't get to the Genius Bar after. I was very concerned since I haven't bought an external drive yet. My old Mac had an extra WD internal, so I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. When I sold it to a friend, I deleted all my personal files, so if this drive went I was cooked. At the Apple Store they seemed very concerned about this and wanted me to buy an external drive and back up my files, then bring the machine back to them. I wasn't about to pay Apple Store prices for an external, so they told me to buy one from them and just return it when I got one cheaper elsewhere. Unbelievably considerate, I think.

They really seemed to want to resolve this issue, so I figured it was a well reported problem. When I got home I got online and, sure enough, it is.

My drive is an NVidea ST31000528ASQ. Didn't even know NVidea made HDs. NVidea optical drive, too (which is very noisy).

I ran Time Machine and backed up the drive onto an Iomega eGo through the Firewire 800 port and it only took about half an hour (less than 200GB). Now that I am backed up, I think I am going to wait to see if the drive crashes before I bring it back. Maybe more info will come forward by then. They seem convinced that a hardware scan will show that the drive needs replacing if it is making noise. The onetoone teacher listened with a stethoscope and couldn't hear it, but the place was a zoo, so it's not surprising. What was surprising was that they actually had a stethoscope on hand for him to use in the first place. lol

BTW, this is my second 27" iMac. First one quit after two days and the optical drive kept spitting out the OS Install DVD, so I couldn't do anything with it. Then, after migrating my files from my old Tiger machine, the thing went berserk and started letting just about every program hog up all the system resources. Even the Activity Monitor was hogging up over 80% of the system resources at one time (have a screen capture to prove it). Over 8 hours on the phone with Apple technical support and nothing was fixing it. Then two days later they came out with 10.6.2 and the problem vanished.

Ok I got my 27 I have to return it cuz it's was flickng and making this anoining sounds that everybody is talking about . So I got my new 27 but after 1 week start making this sound again just like the other. I don't know what to do.

What week number was it made? Find out by putting your Serial Number into www.appleserialnumberinfo.com . Week nos 45-47 seem to be the worst affected. Mine is a 45.

Because you have a years' warranty (more if you have AppleCare) you could wait for a month or so for new batches to become available that hopefully will not have these issues, and then replace your iMac again.

Also, what hard drive is in your iMac? The noisiest seem to be the Seagate ST31000528ASQ's. You can find the drive you have by clicking on Apple Logo -> About this mac -> More Info -> Click Serial-ATA in the Side pane, see if the model number ST31000528ASQ matches anything.

Drives made by WD seem to be the quietest, but only a lucky few have iMac's with them in.

Just an update. Had iMAC picked up by repairer under Applecare and they have advised that it is too noisy and have ordered new HD from Apple. Should all be back with me at end of the week. Fingers crossed.

Hi

Apple replaced my original Seagate 1 TB drive with a Hitachi 1 TB; the new drive is just about as noisy as the old one, although I know some people have had better luck with their replacements. I think we're stuck waiting for a firmware fix, perhaps having to do with the new method of thermal sensing on the iMac 27 inch models. The good news is that very nice people at Apple Support said it's a known problem, so at least Apple isn't in denial for a change. How that will translate into getting their engineers working on the fix is anybody's guess.

well add me to the now crappy hard disk camp 😟

swapped my faulty imac which had a western digital hard disk which was beautiful and quiet and fast now the new machine has a cheap crapgate hard disk which makes it sound like the imac is hungry when its accessing data on it!

apple, youve cocked up in just about every aspect of this imac big time!

Hi guys,

Just collected my iMac 27inch today and discover that it has the hard drive noise issue.

After checking, discovered that mine was built in week 51 which is very recent but yet Apple hasn't solved the issue. I wonder if Apple is listening. 😟

My i7 have the same sound like a hungry stomac. And it`s my 3. The 1. had a screenfault and the next one I replaced becouse of the hardware sound. But it`s the same...Så dont try to get a replacement, it will have the same problem I supose.

Mvh. Carsten

you wont get an i7 in store in the uk bud!!

i had one machine with seagate, was loud and grumbly, horrible shabby drives!

my 1st and my current 3rd imac have had western digitals and their perfect! and even seem faster

edit: in respons to frenzied not brookzy sorry

Message was edited by: sparkie1984

I received my iMac last Friday, and everything is fine apart (touch wood) from the grumbling noise from the Seagate 1TB hard drive that I can hear if no audio is being played, and I am actually using the computer.

How easy is it for the hard drive to be replaced with one of the Western Digital ones under the Apple warranty? Can the hard drive be replaced by itself, or would the whole computer have to be replaced? Also, how do I find an authorised repair centre? This is my first Mac, so I have no idea what to do.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Err, yeah probably.. This only happens during disk activity which won't occur at the login screen..

If you want to see what kind of disk activity, simply type any of these commands in terminal:

sudo iotop
ps wwaxr -o pid,stat,%cpu,time,command | head -10
iostat -w 1 disk0
sudo fs_usage -f filesys

I am considering buying a new 27" imac and I wonder how widespread this problem is currently.

Is it happening in most new imacs and only certain people who use their system more notice the noise?

Or is it only happening to very few defective new imacs (or certain options)?

Just curious if this has been documented. Can anyone explain how loud it is, as a PC user I am use to some fan noise from below my desk. Is this annoying/loud since it is near your ears?

Thanks

Personally, I can't hear any fans whirring, but I can hear the odd clicking (described as grumbling in most of the posts I believe) of the hard drive, but it's certainly more quiet than my previous PC which was bought in 2002/3. I'm not sure if it's a fault, as I've never had a Mac before, or what sort of noise level Apple advertised for the iMac.

My iMac is a week 51 I think, and it was only delivered last Thursday (but I only picked it up and switched it on last Friday). I have one of the Seagate hard drives.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why Apple have decided to make it a lottery when it comes to what make of hard drive we get when we purchase one of the iMacs.

Message was edited by: coss9
Added more detail

My i7 drive is a Hitachi 2TB drive. It's fairly quiet. I bought a raid drive and 4 of the same drives. One of them is making a rumbling sound once in awhile when I first got it but quieted down after a couple of weeks. A friend bought four for the same raid drive I got and one of the drives didn't work properly. So don't blame Apple for noisy drives.

As for the fan in the i7 is was quite noisy out of the box but after 2 weeks is now nice and quiet. Like another post says sometimes it takes a while to break drives as well as fans.

Hm, but which drives are known as noisy?

1TB Western Digital
1TB Seagate?

2TB Hitachi?

If the last one is the most quiet I do want to buy it because some extra hard disk space never does any harm, does it? 🙂