2011 Macbook Pro Hard Drive noise.

I have two 15" MacBook Pro Early 2011 2.0Ghz. And the one with a Toshiba Drive is pretty loud, and the other has a Hitachi drive, thats not as loud, but you can hear the clicks when the drive is reading/writing. But its definitely a lot more tolerable than the Toshiba drive.

Here is a list of some other threads discussing our awful noise issue too:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13243759#13243759
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2768864
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1107642

I've posted there a link to this thread.

My MBP do same noise. I get MBP 15" (2011) with TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF Harddrive.

i have exactly the same thing with mine its very audible but quietens down once i apply pressure, very annoying, has anyone asked apple about this??

Hello everyone,

As I said before, I received a new drive and changed the default one. Result : the problem was fixed ! My guess is that the problem was the drive itself, not the case or the MacBookPro.

Here are the details :
Apple drive is a TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF (750 Gb 5400 rpm)
Replaced with a Western Digital Blue WD7500BPVT-22HXZT1 (750 Gb 5400 rpm)
Optical drive taken out to use an SSD OWC Mercury Extreme Pro
MacBook Pro 15" i7 2.2 GHz

My system, applications, pictures and all are on the SSD drive. The classic drive contains only mu iTunes Media folder. When no access is done to the drive, it doesn't spin and is very quiet. The Apple drive was spinning all the time, even when not accessing the disk.

Hope this helps.

Cédric.

Any positive development ?
Were you able to get feedback on noise resolution ?
Kindly share.

I picked up a new 15" MBP yesterday and I have the exact sound as yours.

I also have last years i7 2.66 sitting right next to it and that drive is dead silent.

Hi, thank you for your report.
Are you saying changing the Hard drive to WD only to solve the noise problem?
Because you also install SSD, I am not sure which change is responsible for the solution.
Thanks

You're right diamondsky, my "solution" needs a little explanation.

I removed the optical drive to get an SSD (I wanted to do that from day one).
Once I did that, even with the default 750Gb drive empty, I had this annoying noise : the disk was spinning all the time, wether or not I was accessing it. Having the SSD made the noise even more audible since the SSD is, by definition, silent.
That's why I changed it for a low power drive. I've put all my iTunes library in it and now it spins only when I use iTunes. It doesn't mean it doesn't make noise at all. It only means it is not constant. The noise is still here, due probably to the unibody case.

Cedric.

CedricWithC , Thank your for the quick response.

I do not need a SSD, so if I change the default hard drive (Hitachi HTS545050B9A302 in my case) to " low power drive "(WD for example), will it make the annoying noise less noticeable?

Thanks again.

diamondsky : Yes it would be less noticeable, but there is a downside to it : the speed.

If you choose a low power drive, it will be not as fast as a regular one. To sum up, since the drive doesn't spin when you don't access it : on the first access it will have to "start" which means maybe one or two seconds before you can actually access the file you want. For example, when I access a movie in iTunes, i get the multicolor "wheel of death" that spins for a while before the movie actually starts (and I can hear the drive "starting").
At least that my case with the WD drive. Maybe not all the drives are the same. But mu knowledge in hard drives is limited 🙂

Cedric.

I have the same issue on my MBP 2011 as well, especially when I open a project from XCode or Compile something...., Even more, I can hear some noise when I browse web.
And I checked the provider of HD Drive, it is HITACHI, I think it is common issue with MBP 2011.

I have the same problem and it is driving me crazy. Is Apple's answer really just live with it? That seems crazy. I've never worked on a laptop or computer with a constant noise (yes, it's low, but it's constant and completely distracting). I don't want my new computer. I'd rather work on my old laptop. Applying pressure with my right wrist seems to help, but really? How can I tell if I have a Hitachi or Seagate hard drive?

There are a number of ways to get to the info which will tell you which hard drive you have. Here are 3 routes to the same info:

Apple Menu -> About This Mac -> More Info -> Hardware -> Serial ATA - the first drive listed is your hard drive

Go Menu -> Utilities -> Disk Utility - the first drive listed in the left hand column is your hard drive

Go Menu -> Applications -> Utilities -> System Profiler -> Hardware -> Serial ATA

Is the 2011 HDD noise going to be able to be fixed with some type of software update? Or could i bring this computer to someone that is an apple dealer and let them rig it so I dont hear it? When i apply pressure the noise go away. This is my 2nd MBP 2011 13 inch, I dont want to spend that large amount of money on a SSD. Any ideas?