Anyone else have a hard drive pinging sound?

A little after I got my Macbook Pro, it developed a strange pinging like sound (similar, but not quite like the sound of a broken hard drive) coming from the hard drive area. It sounds like a metal on metal pinging, is very faint and only happens once a minute or so. That is, a single ping occurs about once a minute, but not every minute. Sometimes it is more frequent.

I thought the sound went away after a little bit, but it came back yesterday after I rebooted the computer for the first time in about 2 weeks.

Also, I think the sound is more frequent when the battery is charging.. not sure if it has anything to do with that.

Just a few minutes ago, I was working on battery and didn't hear the sound a single time...

This doesn't affect performance at all, but being an IT professional, I always associated sounds similar to this coming from the hard disk to be signs of a dead drive.

Any ideas?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Jun 13, 2006 6:56 AM

17 replies

iVmichael

Level 6

13,740 points

Jun 27, 2006 8:48 PM in response to chinoLatte

FWIW - since I installed 10.4.7 I've not heard this sound.

Jun 28, 2006 10:15 AM in response to iVmichael

Mine still makes the sound after 10.4.7.

Also, not sure what the technical definition of "idle" is (as someone said theirs doesn't do it when their MBP is idle, but if I'm not doing anything (no typing, scrolling, etc.) I can still hear my HD do that sound. But an app is usually open (i.e. I'll be reading a webpage or word/pages document, but not be touching the mouse or keyboard. I know this isn't technically idle as a program is running, though.

I have the 100GB 5400RPM HD.

As long as it doesn't give out on me for another 12-18 months I'll be fine. Whenever 7200RPM 2.5" SATA drives become more affordable (and/or have higher capacities like 120-150GB) I will be replacing my HD anyway.

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Anyone else have a hard drive pinging sound?