chirping hard drive...

RCory · Post by **RCory** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:41 pm

For some odd reason, my G4 dual 1.25 started chirping. I think it's one of the three hard drives inside the machine...

How can I tell which drive it is? Or is it something else??

C

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:10 pm

you can open the side panel of the G4 to see if you can tell what's happening. Otherwise, you may want to shut down and remove your newest drive first-- chances are if it's the drive, it'll be the oldest one. Boot up again with the side panel open to determine the source.

If there's a CD in the tray, take it out to see if that was the case.

The only other moving parts would be the fan...

Could be mice..!!

RCory · Post by **RCory** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 2:05 pm

I opened up the Mac and cleaned off all the dust that had collected over the fans and exhaust vents... There was a TON of crud.

The chirping has all but disappeared!

C

ps - backed up all the drives anyway...

midiw · Post by **midiw** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 2:25 pm

I would consider replacing the oldest drive and so on. The cost of drives are really down these days. You may even consider adding a fourth drive. That's what I did last year. Replaced the original and brought it up to 4 drives.

RCory · Post by **RCory** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 2:32 pm

Hey midiw -

I went and bought a huge drive to back up everything. I put it in a external firewire enclosure, copied everything to it, and put it back in the box and on a shelf.

C

sdemott · Post by **sdemott** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 3:41 pm

Open up disk utility (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility) and as you select each drive you will get a status report on the bottom of its S.M.A.R.T. status. Anything other than a green "Verified" is a dying HD.

RCory · Post by **RCory** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:39 pm

sdemott -

Thanks for this. One of the drives shows up as "Not Supported"

Is that bad?

C

midiw · Post by **midiw** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:35 pm

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/ ... setup.html

twistedtom · Post by **twistedtom** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:29 am

No problem you should be able to use the drive utillity program < aplications - drive utility > and format the drive. You will select "erase". This will put the info on the drive you need.

sdemott · Post by **sdemott** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:29 am

RCory wrote:sdemott -

Thanks for this. One of the drives shows up as "Not Supported"

Is that bad?

C

As twistedtom said - the S.M.A.R.T. drivers are not installed, reformatting the drive using disk utility will add all necessary drivers. Just be sure to backup the drive first.