11-17-2010, 04:53 AM

Hi,

I've had my Macbook Pr 13 inch (mid 2009) for about 16 months and I've noticed it seems to make some noises when it's 'thinking' - ie when programes are being opened or pages loaded... It's not very loud, but loud enough to hear when I'm not playing music.

The sounds seem to be coming from the right hand side of the trackpad, and are a little hard to describe - they're not 'grinding' sounds, but they are a little 'crunchy'.

A friend of mine says it may be the first signs of hard drive failure, which, obviously, concerns me!

I mainly use it for internet, mail, itunes, and also a bit of music recording/production (I have the stock 160gb drive, with about 85gb used, 45gb of which is my music folder!). It had occurred to me that using iTunes and Logic a lot might be a little hard drive intensive, but that's just me speculating...

Anyway I have a genius appointment tomorrow but I'm guessing that, if there is anything wrong, they'll want a fair whack of cash to change the hard drive out - my friend says he could put a new hard drive in quite easily so I'm not too worried about that but how do I get my files back?

I use time machine to do regular backups and have all the original install disks still - would this enable me to get back to where I am now if I were to change the hard drive?

Sorry for all the questions - I'm not really that knowledgable when it comes to computers (hence why I went mac as it 'just works')...

Oh and it's the 2.26 model with 2gb ram... All current software updates too...

11-17-2010, 05:36 AM

Update: Just ran 'Verify disk' in disk utility and it said there were no issues...

11-17-2010, 05:41 AM

If you do regular backups, and have your install disks, you have nothing to worry about.
It is very easy to change out the hard drive if it comes to that, so if you do end up needing a new HD.
Ifixit has guides, and you can check out newegg and OWC for HD replacements for a fraction of the cost that you would get it from Apple.
If you have extended AppleCare, then Apple would more than likely replace the HD if it were to be found faulty.

11-17-2010, 12:40 PM

I have a 6 month old i5 15" and get the same noise occasionally. I dont think it's anything to worry about.

11-24-2010, 04:41 AM

Well I bought my girlfriend a Macbook this week (a white one) and hers is dead silent...

And last night I was listening to iTunes whilst doing some photo editing in preview (nothing too strenuous, just cropping) and the music started jumping and my computer started running very slow...

And it would seem the noises are getting louder and a bit more crunchy now - so I'm thinking about changing my hard drive.

Thing is I'm not 100% confident doing it myself - having looked at the online guides it seems easy enough, but is it really as simple as it looks?

If I did change the HD, can I get all my applications and files back from time machine as I've seen suggested, or would I only recover my files and then have to reinstall things like Logic?

11-24-2010, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by benmorganbrown

Well I bought my girlfriend a Macbook this week (a white one) and hers is dead silent...

And last night I was listening to iTunes whilst doing some photo editing in preview (nothing too strenuous, just cropping) and the music started jumping and my computer started running very slow...

And it would seem the noises are getting louder and a bit more crunchy now - so I'm thinking about changing my hard drive.

Thing is I'm not 100% confident doing it myself - having looked at the online guides it seems easy enough, but is it really as simple as it looks?

If I did change the HD, can I get all my applications and files back from time machine as I've seen suggested, or would I only recover my files and then have to reinstall things like Logic?

Easiest thing to do is to get a new HDD and an external USB case. Put the new HDD in the case, and plug it into your MacBook. In Disk Utility, format it in HFS+ Journaled and set GUID in the Advanced options.

Download Carbon Copy Cloner (it's free) and clone your old drive into the new one. When it's done, take the new HDD out of the USB case and install it in your Mac. You won't lose anything and won't need to install anything either.

11-24-2010, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by Wheeljack

Easiest thing to do is to get a new HDD and an external USB case. Put the new HDD in the case, and plug it into your MacBook. In Disk Utility, format it in HFS+ Journaled and set GUID in the Advanced options.

Download Carbon Copy Cloner (it's free) and clone your old drive into the new one. When it's done, take the new HDD out of the USB case and install it in your Mac. You won't lose anything and won't need to install anything either.

Why not just make a time machine backup of his current computer, install the new drive, throw in the OSX 10.6 restore disc, get it back to it's default and then restore from time machine?

I always thought that was easier than making a clone drive.

11-24-2010, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by whitehorse84

Why not just make a time machine backup of his current computer, install the new drive, throw in the OSX 10.6 restore disc, get it back to it's default and then restore from time machine?

I always thought that was easier than making a clone drive.

Well, Time Machine is not a real clone, you have to basically re-install OS X and restore from it which takes waaaay longer. It should work, however I always recommend CCC (or SuperDuper).