Laptops :: MacBook Hard Drive Beeping And Pausing
Aug 11, 2009
There has been an ongoing issue with new MacBook and MacBook Pro computers where the system will pause for a second or two and make a clicking sound, and then continue functioning normally. This problem has to do with models containing a 7200RPM 500GB hard drive from Seagate, where the drive randomly stalls and beeps, causing a pause in the active system processes that can last up to 10 seconds. As reported in this CNET article, Apple is looking into the problem and a fix should be out shortly.
Both brand-new and slightly older models of the Unibody MacBook computers may be affected, and currently there does not appear to be a fix; however, if you are experiencing this problem, the best course of action is to wait for a fix from Apple. Some people have recommended reinstalling the operating system and performing PRAM and SMC resets, but this issue appears to be a firmware incompatibility so changing the operating system setup or firmware settings will not help.
Keep in mind that this behavior is not the same as when a hard drive is dying, where regular clicks and pauses happen, followed by spinning beach balls when the system cannot access the storage media. This AppleInsider article links to a couple of YouTube videos that show how this behavior manifests itself, so check them out if you think your system has this problem. When the fix is released, it should be in the form of a firmware update so keep an eye out for one in the near future. Read this Apple Support Discussions forum thread about beeping, clicking, and freezing hard drives.
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Jun 20, 2009
I recently purchased a new MBP 15, 3 Ghz, 500 GB 7200 rpm hard drive, build-to-order. The hard drive appears to be a seagate ST9500420ASG. I am experiencing a strange hard drive click followed 80% of the time by a beep. It is definitely not a beep from the speaker. Additionally, it happens at any time, even when the computer is sitting on a perfectly still table. It is exactly the same sound as what is documented at [URL] and mine too appears randomly approximately 15-20 times per day. It does not appear to matter if the computer is under light or heavy use and it seems truly random when it occurs.
Another user on youtube has also experienced this with their new MBP 15 and sent me a wav file with the same sound mine is making. So far, his experience is that it does not occur under bootcamp. This leads me to believe that it is something specific to OSX. Turning off the "put hard drive to sleep when possible" does not seem to make any difference. I have not personally tested bootcamp on my machine to confirm that mine is the same, but the original poster of the youtube video linked above also seems to think it is OSX specific.
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Aug 16, 2009
Got a new MBP 17" 500GB 7200rpm about 2 months ago. Recently It's starting to make this weird clicking and beeping noise more and more. It used to do it every once in a while and I didn't think too much of it, but recently it's started doing it more, quite a bit actually. Is this something I need to be worried about? I'm thinking it is the Hard Drive, is that true? if so, then what? I am also getting the spinning beach ball a lot more often, for a good minute at a time. I am currently on the latest build of SL, the one right before release.
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Apr 13, 2010
Today I was transferring files from my unibody Macbook Pro over to my 1TB 7200RPM SATA 3.0 Gb/s Hitachi external hard drive. The files were almost transferred when I accidently knocked the drive off of my bed and onto the carpet floor which disconnected the drive's USB cable from my laptop.
Now when I turn the drive on it continuously clicks and beeps and my macbook won't recognize it. I found this video on youtube and it shows exactly what my external drive is doing.
[URL]
I have a ton of important data on this drive and I really don't want to lose it. What should I do? Could I take the drive to my nearby Apple Store?
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Feb 7, 2012
hard drive makes a beeping noise and won't mount. Also has the word purged stamped on it
Info:
PowerMac, No OS on computer
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Oct 18, 2009
I have a Early 2008 White Macbook with a 160GB 5400RPM Fujitsu drive that is driving me mad. it is far too small and i have nowhere to store my RSS feeds and podcasts from iTunes anymore. also, it boots really slowly because of all the applications and HD podcasts on the drive. I am considering getting the Seagate Momentus ST9500420AS ( the one without G-Force Protection ) because it is a 7400RPM drive with a 500GB capacity. Has anybody had any problems with this drive in their macbooks or in general? Would the vibration/noise be an issue? I'm also considering the Scorpio Blue and Toshiba MK5055GSX because they're very power efficient, but at 5400RPM, they are slower. I'd love to see boot times in particular improve. There is already 2GB of RAM in the machine, so that isn't the problem.
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Jan 8, 2010
I have a MacBook Pro 15 (2006) 2 ghz core duo, 2 gigs ram, & 100 gig 7200 RPM hard drive. I would like to change the the hard drive out to a larger one, but I'm seeing all kind of reviews & I'm not sure which ones to put more weight on. I have been looking at a 320 Gig or the 500 Gig. Looked at the Seagate, WD, & the Hitachi. I want to stay with the 7200 RPM. I also know there can be an issue with the, shock or drop sensor on the hard drives not being compatible with the laptops shock sensor, as well as heat & noise issues. I will state that this is my first Mac since the late 80s. But that I have a several very good friends that are long time Mac users and that have done this type of switch out, so while I know that the switch out is more complicated than some I have good tech support on that side of this switch out.
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May 16, 2008
I have purchase a new hard drive for my MacBook Pro Intel 2 Core duo and know how to do it, but once it is installed in the machine, I want to know how to install the operating system. The computer now is almost empty (only a few photos I have backed up) so there is no need to transfer any data. Do I just use the discs that came with it? Please tell me how I restore the system with this new hard drive.
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Jun 10, 2009
I'm sure all of you heard about the new mac book more specifically the 13 inch. I however have the original macbook 13 unibody laptop. I want to upgrade my hard drive but I want to make sure there isn't a max space which my laptop can handle. Does any one if there is a max and what the specifications of the hard drive size is like the size?
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Feb 22, 2010
I'm fairly new to macs and am having some problems. Here's the situation:
I've got a 3 year old 13" Macbook - 2.1 Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.83 Ghz, 512MB memory, 60 GB hard drive - I bought it from
Apple directly - it was a ""reconditioned"" one from the factory.
It has worked fine for 3 years, but lately has been getting slower and slower (most programs), and even the home screen has been acting weird, and loading up funny, if at all sometimes, and I get the "spinning beachball of death" much more often and/or for longer periods. I have all my files copied elsewhere, and I just figured I would start over and reinstall the 10.4 Tiger OS that came with it - I have the original grey install/restore DVDs.
In case it matters, the two install/restore DVDs read:
mac os version 10.4.8
AHT version 3AA18
disc version 1.0
22691-5967-A
So here's what I've tried so far:
-I booted up with the install/restore DVDs and have run the hardware checker several times. It says everything is fine.
-Also through the Utilities on the restore disk, i checked/repaired the disks and the "permissions" which showed up in the Disk Utility as the "Mac hard drive" or something like that, about 5 or 10 GB, and the main part of the drive, the "55.9 GB Fujitsu MHV2060BHPL". That all seemed to check out fine as far as the computer could tell me.
-I tried installing Tiger from the restore DVDs, the first time with the "archive and install" option. It seems like everything is working with the installation, and it gets through the second DVD, but when its done, it states that there are "software errors" and to try to install it again. (And no it won't boot up at all on its own...) I tried it again with another of the install options, I think it was "Erase and Install" - same thing. I also tried the "first time install option" too - same thing.
Next, since I got all my info off the computer already, I tried reformatting. First I used the function that writes zeroes over everything, for both the "Mac HD" and the "55.9 GB Fujitsu" drive too. Then I tried all three different install options again, starting with the "initial install" one. I also went into Disk Utility and used the format (and/or partition?) function and the drive has been redone with the mac os "extended journal" format, always with the same result as before. The whole thing (including the DVD test that it runs) seems to go fine with the install, but at the end it always says there are software errors and to try the install again... Is this possibly a hard drive problem (even though it "tests" fine)?
What if I ordered one of these:
Would that work in my macbook? Could I just replace the drive and go for another "first install"? Or is it likely something else?
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Apr 11, 2010
My August 2007 MacBook runs OSX 10.4.10. It has performed flawlessly since my daughter bought it in 2007, and perfectly after I purchased it from her last september. The other night I was surfing the web while flying on a commercial airliner. (GoGoNet or something similar) Performance was kind of slow but I attributed that to the in-air wifi, which I had never used before. Then the browser started to hang with the spinning pinwheel. Option apple escape WOULD NOT force quit safari. After a few shutdowns using only the power button, the mac hung up on startup. I hear the chime, see the apple icon, the gear turns but it never goes past that point. It may be significant that the plane was flying through scary turbulence when my problems began.
When I boot up using the mac install disk 1, I can get it to start cleanly using the C key, the D key and NO keys. But when I run the hardware diagnostic, both short and long test, the mac comes up 100% clean. But i cannot see any test for the hard drive. When I try to run disk utility, the colored pinwheel arrives and it never goes away. When I go down the road of re-installing the system software, I cannot see the target drive.
When I put my ear on the deck, just to the right of the track-pad, I can hear the hard drive quietly spinning away with regular - not random - clicks.
I see that Apple is quietly replacing these hard-drives, but the affected computers seem to have a folder/question mark on the desktop on startup, not the apple/spinning gear.
I really would like to be able to recover my photos and some files if the hard drive is going to be swapped. But I am resigned to the situation that these un-backed-up files will be forever lost.
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Aug 23, 2014
My G drive External Hard disk is not recognised by windows laptops yet it works on my MacBook Air
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Aug 28, 2009
I don't play comp. Games, don't store pictures on my comp., and I don't need a lot of software. So how much memory and hard drive do I really need for a Mac laptop?
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Aug 9, 2010
I just put a Maxmedia 640 GB SATA HDD in my 2009 Macbook Pro and since then it's been acting wierd. From initial start-up it's really slow but gets faster over time, still there is a persistant lag that kicks in every now and then, mostly when Firefox is involved. I don't think the hard drive is acting up. I can hear the disk spinning and can hear it read and write. Like I said most of the lag is around Firefox but after a while of heavier use the whole system returns to normal.
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Apr 16, 2010
I recently inherited a Pismo, 400 mhz and a 6gb hard drive. Other than the tiny hard drive, the computer is in great shape and has a lot of service left in it. I was able to load Tiger on it, and it's working fine. I replaced the hard drive with a 100gb Seagate, but when I tried to format the disk,the new hard drive didn't show up during installation attempts. However, the volume was visible in the system profiler and the disk utility...I reinstalled the original hard drive, and that booted successfully so I guess that means I didn't damage the hard drive cable, which I had feared. Does anyone have an idea about this? So odd that that I could locate the drive in the disk utility but not at the installation screen.
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Sep 6, 2010
Just purchased a 2.4 GHz 13" MacBook Pro running OS 10.6.4.
Had run a data migration from a 2.13 White Macbook running OS 10.6.4, and all went well, every thing transferred, all running fine.
Today, the hard drive icon suddenly vanished from the desk top.
I went to the Finder, under "Devices" saw the iDisk and Hard Drive icons and transferred the Hard Drive icon to the desktop...it vanished in a puff.
So, how much of an idiot am I, what is going on, and how do I get the Hard Drive Icon back?
I will leave this laptop running and in sleep until I log in and digest your wise suggestions.
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May 17, 2010
About to change the hard drive and have some great software but not the discs.
What is the best method to lift them off onto a disc or thumbdrive?
Go to Applications and lift onto the disc icon on the desktop?
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Oct 3, 2010
I'm thinkimg of buying the samsung ln46c670 tv, and already have a free agent go flex hard drive, with a mac laptop. I want to play movies from my hard drive on the tv with out my computer being in the way. My question is how do I do that, and is it necessary to buy the freeagent go flex tv media device to play it through. Or should I invest in a bluray player that is wirless ready, or if I even need the c670 model tv with the internet apps. Which combo package would be the best?
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Oct 15, 2010
so i have a 2008 mbp and i noticed lately when im browsing the internet regardless of the side im on it will pause. When i mean pause i see that little rainbow circle. What can i do to fix this?
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Jul 20, 2009
I have a new MBP 2.53+4gb and it constantly is pausing. Even as I type this after 10 words I have to wait a few seconds for the next 5 to show up. If I'm scrolling it'll just stop scrolling and then jump half the page. I'm not using up too many resources as I'm only using firefox/aim/email. But the pausing occurs whether I'm just reading the news or using photoshop.
(Also about a month ago my hard drive crashed and I returned my computer to apple where they installed a new hard drive and OS.)
So my question is: Is this a common issue that has been addressed and fixable? If so please direct me. If not, is there anything I can try before taking it back to the Apple store...again?
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Apr 9, 2010
My Macbook 1.83 GHz needs a replacement optical drive. Will the one from my iBook 800 MHz G4 work and fit in?
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Nov 13, 2009
I just purchased a MacBook Pro running the latest Leopard OS. I hooked up a Lacie external HD using FW 800 to backup a bootable system of my complete HD. I used Intego Personal Backup. All seemed to go well and the backup showed up on my startup screen in Preferences. Problem is it will not boot my sytem up. Tried twice and cleared my Lacie prior to backup. The Lacie also showed up as a startup disc when I did an Option startup. Never had such a problem with Tiger but I always used FW which the MacBook does not have. I am now trying Carbon Copy Cloner to make a backup but it is not complete. Does the MacBook using Leopard have any special requirements for a backup such as a particular cable cable to use?
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Sep 1, 2009
Got a new MBP last month to replace my white MacBook - loving it as an upgrade but one gripe - if I'm sat using it on my knee I regularly hear the "click" type noise of what I imagine is the protection of the hard drive because it thinks it is being dropped.
I never heard this on my old Mac and while it's not a huge issue it is a bit disconcerting, as though I'm being told off for moving it in a fairly responsible way.
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Jul 27, 2009
I have an aluminum unibody macbook from October 2008. I'm looking to upgrade the 160 GB hard drive inside to a 500 GB one I'm considering from Newegg. Would it be possible to migrate/copy/clone the entire contents of my current hard drive to the 500 GB one? I also have a section of my current hard drive partitioned for Bootcamp. Would this affect my ability to transfer everything over?
If this is possible at all, how can I go about doing so? If there are steps laid out somewhere, I'd appreciate a referral. Sorry if my question is a little elementary, but I did a search on these forums and also google and nothing really came up
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Mar 31, 2012
Recently I bought 2 identical WD Scorpio Blue 1TB hard drives for my macbook pro 13 inch 2010. My aim is to replace the internal hard drive with one of the two I just purchased and use it as my system drive with Lion, Windows and Data partitions. And for the other hard drive I want to use it as a full disk back up for the internal drive (now 1TB hard drive). After I was done with setting up both windows and mac and data transfer, when I booedt into the recovery partition from the internal drive to clone the drive to the external drive, the disk utility gave me this error (Could not validate source - error 254). I also tried using Carbon Copy Cloner but it only could clone partitions, not the entire drive. Yesterday I downloaded a copy of Clonezilla. It worked fine until it had to clone an exFAT partition (my data partition). The exFAT partition appeared as 'RAW' partition in clonezilla. As a result, the whole partition appeared to be full and clonezilla had to copy every single blocks of data in that partition and the estimated time remaining was about 30 hours. So clonezilla is out too. Just want to ask if there is any program/application (bootable or not) which allows can do a full disk clone to an external hard drive.
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Sep 9, 2014
Macbook Pro 17" Early 2011Â
Notes. Failed HDD ASD Test.  A new hard drive was installed in September of 2011 after the previous hard drive failed. Having worked well until now the system seems to give the same problems as it had previously. I am wondering if this is a compatibility issue as others have pointed out. Â
I have been told by the technician my only option is to replace the entire hard drive again for the second time with a new one. However to my understanding a ASD test is very specific and this my not be necessary? Further I am attempting a final backup just in case. I don't have to take it in where I could just back it up myself without the system shutting down.
Info:
Mac Pro
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Feb 11, 2010
Recently iTunes has started randomly pausing, regardless of the song. Usually every few minutes. I have like 500 songs so it ain't the songs. What's going on?
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Apr 29, 2009
Every time I pause something in iTunes ( usually a longer file, radio show, podcast ) theres this horrendous freeze that happens...
This started after I updated to 8.1.1
Anyone else have this issue ?
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Sep 11, 2009
I'm replacing my old 120gig hard drive with a new 320gig hard driveWhen Ive got the new hard drive installed can I just put the old hard drive in a enclosure kit/caddy and copy my music/movies/etc across to the new hard drive?Or do I have to copy the data off before I remove the old hard drive?
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May 7, 2012
I've always had problems using my Canon MP560 with my MBP (13" early 2011).Â
The main problem I am currently having is that when I send multiple jobs to the printer, it enters pause mode between each job; I have to go into the printer queue and click Resume to print the next job.Â
I've removed and readded the printer countless times over the last six months and I worry that if I have to do the same again I'll just be confronted with yet another problem...Â
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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