Clicking/clunking Ibook Hd

Hey guys-

This is just to see if anyone else has had this problem. Starting about a week ago, I started hearing my iBook's hard drive whir and make a (fairly loud) clunking noise, sometimes followed by an internal beep. A google search yielded little, except a guy who had the same thing happen on a Powerbook, with no ill effects. Anyways, I restarted and zapped the PRAM, which seemed to cure the problem- until tonight. Just a few minutes ago, I heard it whir and clunk twice, then it fell silent again, and hasn't made an unusual noise since. There is a bit of a system slowdown while this happens, but it's not bad. I have also noticed no file corruption or anything. Is this just a kink, or is my hard drive going to fail? Any help is appreciated.

Specs:

iBook 14" G3 800mhz

640 MB RAM

0S X 10.2.5

40 GB HD

-godpunk

#74186

doesn't sound too bad to me, my disks make weird noises like that all the time.

Back up your data and check how long until your warranty runs out though.

-fissy

#74188

Got an Apple store near you? I'd say go in and ask the tech guy there. They'd probably be the most likely person to set your mind at ease.

Just for the record though, mine does it every now and then too. No ill-effects yet.

#74198

So wait a sec, is this common with apple notebooks? I mean, for people who use both apple and non-apple notebooks regularly, do you notice this specifically with the apples?

#74208

My server HDD has been clicking away for 5 years.

Its not a problem.

If you hear a scratching noise though, you DO have issues, replace it quick.

You want the UNIX solution?

Boot into the OSX Console (not GUI!), and run as root:

fsck

If you have a lot of corrupted data, you may have a problem.

You may be able to run 'fsck' from the OSX CD. Check first, because its better not to run it on a mounted partition (which it is if the system is booted).

#74228

Well, I ran fsck and that seemed to do the trick (the disk had a damaged node or something like that). Let's hope there are no more problems!

-godpunk

#75733

Originally posted by godpunk@Nov 9 2003, 08:50 PM
Well, I ran fsck and that seemed to do the trick (the disk had a damaged node or something like that). Let's hope there are no more problems!
-godpunk

Yeah, I just found out that OSX does not enable the disk journal by defaul! (gasp).

So you should turn it on,so you dont get errors like that.

How you ask? I don't know. Ask Taha or google around.

#75750

My drive is already journaled with Cocktail. I had to do fsck -f to even repair the disk.

-godpunk

#75765

If you want to find out how to turn on journaling within OSX (rather than a 3rd party app) check out www.macosxhints.com It's a very good database of tips and tricks for tweaking OSX and a guide for some of the more complex Unix functionality.

#75926