iceBook hard drive clicking, groaning, etc.

[Rick Blythin]

"Jucius Maximus" <juicy.anti@spam.graffiti.net> wrote in message
news:Xns93C41213065F5juicyantispamgraffit@199.212. 134.7...

> The hard drive (IBM 40 GB) on my iceBook started clicking loudly and
> groaning yesterday. I am aware that this probably means the drive is
> toast. Fortunately this started happenning right *after* I had finished
> burning my important files to CD. Furthermore, it is still under

warranty.

>
> After that I powered it off immediately, and I have only turned it on just
> now to FTP other files to my desktop. I have noticed that the clicking

and

> groaning is gone. It will probably start making noise once it gets hot
> again.
>
> Basically, my dilemma is, "How do I demonstrate this problem to a service
> tech so I can get the drive replaced?" If I can't get it to make the
> noise, they don't have a way of diagnosing the problem and justifying a
> warranty repair.
>
> Does anyone have any constructive suggestions?

While I'm not a Mac tech (yet anyway) I'm a certified pc tech. You are
correct in that the clicking is usually a sign of a serious drive problem or
a dying drive. The recommended course is to back-up all data as soon as
possible. If the drive is keep being used with the clicking it will die hard
at some point. With PC's it's usual to run a diagnostic drive utility from
the hard drive manufacturer to determine if the drive is defective and any
error code that comes up to help the tech. I assume Macs have something
similar, I haven't use one on a full time basis.

If I was the tech and a client came in and told me the drive was clicking;
I'd personally just swap the drive no questions asked. You can't do much to
demonstrate the issue, just tell the tech the problem and they will attempt
to verify the issue. If it's under warranty then they should swap the drive
out since it's a sign of a bad or failing drive.

I suggest you back up all your data or better yet transfer the files to
another 'healthy' system for burning. Take the unit in and explain the issue
to the tech and they should replace the drive.

Best of luck,
Rick
--
A+, Network+

[Jucius Maximus]

[drive clicked loudly in iBook but it's hard to reproduce]

"Rick Blythin" <mosguy@gosympatico.ca> wrote in
news:lPEUa.9465$1I5.1313595@news20.bellglobal.com:

> While I'm not a Mac tech (yet anyway) I'm a certified pc tech. You are
> correct in that the clicking is usually a sign of a serious drive
> problem or a dying drive. The recommended course is to back-up all
> data as soon as possible. If the drive is keep being used with the
> clicking it will die hard at some point. With PC's it's usual to run a
> diagnostic drive utility from the hard drive manufacturer to determine
> if the drive is defective and any error code that comes up to help the
> tech. I assume Macs have something similar, I haven't use one on a
> full time basis.

I'm a PC tech myself too so this is quite a familiar thing to me. I just
rescued data from 2 failing drives at work in the last week. (All failed
drives including mine were IBM too ... interesting.)

The data is fully backed up already, I have copied it off to my other
machine so all is good with that.

After that I ran the disk utility booted from the OS X install CD which
found no problems with the hard drive. After that I ran diskwarrior on
the drive and it claimed that it fixed 'critical values in the volume
information.' (So we know that the apple disk utility did NOT find these
'critical' problems.)

> If I was the tech and a client came in and told me the drive was
> clicking; I'd personally just swap the drive no questions asked. You
> can't do much to demonstrate the issue, just tell the tech the problem
> and they will attempt to verify the issue. If it's under warranty then
> they should swap the drive out since it's a sign of a bad or failing
> drive.

The main problem is that I have not been able to reproduce the problem
again so Applecare basically said that if it fails they will replace it
for sure, but it has not been determined for certain that it is failing.
It only clicked about 3 times before I shut it down and never again after
that.

I deliberately got the machine quite hot yesterday capturing video and
encoding it and there was no problem. Maybe it was an obscure problem
that diskwarrior fixed. Or it's a quiet time bomb. Either way my
material is backed up so I am safe.

> I suggest you back up all your data or better yet transfer the files
> to another 'healthy' system for burning. Take the unit in and explain
> the issue to the tech and they should replace the drive.

Thanks for your comments.

[Rick Blythin]

"Jucius Maximus" <juicy.anti@spam.graffiti.net> wrote in message
news:Xns93C5AF5B4DD37juicyantispamgraffit@199.212. 134.7...

> [drive clicked loudly in iBook but it's hard to reproduce]
>
> "Rick Blythin" <mosguy@gosympatico.ca> wrote in
> news:lPEUa.9465$1I5.1313595@news20.bellglobal.com:
>
> I'm a PC tech myself too so this is quite a familiar thing to me. I just
> rescued data from 2 failing drives at work in the last week. (All failed
> drives including mine were IBM too ... interesting.)

I can relate to failing drives; if they are all IBM drives then that is
interesting I bought a Maxtor drive it was dead had it replaced under
warrenty the second was a lemon as well. I didn't bother a third time. Only
paid $60 because they were at a discount, and I knew someone at Panasonic. I
guess I know why they were selling cheap!.

> After that I ran the disk utility booted from the OS X install CD which
> found no problems with the hard drive. After that I ran diskwarrior on
> the drive and it claimed that it fixed 'critical values in the volume
> information.' (So we know that the apple disk utility did NOT find these
> 'critical' problems.)

Yeah usually the built-in software especially in Windows isn't nearly as
good as third party.

> The main problem is that I have not been able to reproduce the problem
> again so Applecare basically said that if it fails they will replace it
> for sure, but it has not been determined for certain that it is failing.
> It only clicked about 3 times before I shut it down and never again after
> that.
>
> I deliberately got the machine quite hot yesterday capturing video and
> encoding it and there was no problem. Maybe it was an obscure problem
> that diskwarrior fixed. Or it's a quiet time bomb. Either way my
> material is backed up so I am safe.

Yes that would be a problem; personally I'd just swap the drive especially
if it was a fellow tech who'd be fairly sure what the problem is. It is
possible that D.W fixed the issue. I guess all you can do is keep an ear out
and keep track of when you hear the problem and record the times it happens.
It goes against the norm but maybe heating it up helped as well I've come
across far stranger fixes.

Cheers,
Rick

[Andy Mulhearn]

On Fri, 1 Aug 2003 5:17:50 +0100, Jucius Maximus wrote
(in message <Xns93CA362AA173juicyantispamgraffit@199.212.134.7 >):

>>> [drive clicked loudly in iBook but it's hard to reproduce]

>
> Just an update here ... a week has passed since the original 'clicks' and
> I've put it through 50+ hours of heavy use and there have been NO clicks or
> other issues. Here's hoping that diskwarrior fixed it.

My iBooks drive seems to chuckle to itself every now and then. Has done off
and on for four months without anything nasty
happenidajsdklsjflkjskdfjalkjff..

Andy