Hard drive constantly chattering away on new i7 iMac

Have you tried running disk utility to see if it says there is something amiss with the permissions? Hard to imagine on a new machine. Have you run the hardware test to see if it can identify a problem?

If everything checks ok, have you tried a reboot? Then if that doesn't work, a visit to your friendly Apple Retail store and the Genius Bar folks to have them check it out for you.

Go to the Utilities Folder and open the Activity Monitor app and see what apps are using the most CPU cycles, memory and causing the most Disk Activity. This should point you in the right direction and if needed post back with what the Activity Monitor shows.

Hi Navarro,

+*Know if there's any UNIX trick to see what processes are making calls to the HD?+*

Open a Terminal (found in utilities) and at the prompt type

ps -l (that is the letter p letter s space minus letter l)

That will get a long list of all processes that are running. You will then have to scan down the list and see what looks like it is taking a lot of activity.

In Bereley Unix (the Darwin kernel is based on FreeBSD) you get a list of attributes that includes the UID (user id) PID (process id) a lot of other info then TTY (the terminal teletype which can then be related to the HD) TIME and COMD (the command)

See if that helps you find the process.

Ralph

Message was edited by: Ralph Landry1

My Mac was purchased in Sept and operated quietly though I did have and still do have a number of unresolved issues that tech support is trying to help me with at this time.

However, in the past couple of weeks it seems like the computer is perking along all the time .... I hear the chattering you are talking about .... Right now I only have an Internet browser open. This makes me fear for my harddrive, yet all diagnostics show no problem. I have used the activity monitor and nothing seems out of the ordinary.

I have to say this is my first experience with a Mac and unless things radically change, it will be my last one.

Terribly frustrating experience,
Deb

Probably the best way to explain it is like I'm always running Repair Permissions or ClamX. Disk

Maybe it is ClamX that is causing the chatter. Disengage / unistall it and see if that alters things.

P.S. Repairing permissions is of little benefit and there is no need to run it constantly.

as a guess, the hard drive is going bad, slow performance
for no obvious reasons often means failing hard dive.

rainbow wheel also could mean hard dive issues, often failing drives will pass all the tests

Try having a look at the solution I posted at the bottom of this topic.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2713301&tstart=135&start=45

In my opinion, you have already been given the answer to your problem. I also think the HD may be going. It doesn't matter that you're running other software at the same time, the HD shouldn't make the noise you say but I can see an increase in fan speed. By adding extra ram is not going to alter the noise you say is coming from the HD. Increasing the ram can speed up the computer. I suggest you back up your HD, get in touch with Apple and have them send a technician to your home to check out the problem. Did anyone ask whether you used the disc that came with the computer to see if any error codes come up indicating hardware problem(s)? Have you cleaned up your HD and downloaded the OS from the disc that came with the machine-like new from the store? If the noise has gone away then the problem is software, if not then it is hardware.

Hi

I have just taken delivery of an iMac i7 2.9ghz Chattering drive noticed straight away when idle.
I phoned our Apple store and they understood the problem and have offered to exchange on Monday. I have an ST31000528AS (Seagate I think), which is a bit worrying!
I would go barking mad if I heard this noise all day. I could here it over my soon to be put up for sale G5 mac Pro

Does anyone know how to identify the DVD/CD drive Pioneer or Hitachi?

Go to the System Profiler and it will list all of the hardware in the iMac.

Click on the multi-color apple, about this mac, more info