chunky noise from G4...

[b16crx69]

I've been noiticing a lot more noise coming from my powermac lately. It sounds like a chunky clicking noise. The noise pulsates (loud,soft,loud,soft etc...) It's not extremely loud, but it's enough to cause worry. It's a 1.25 powermac g4. I understand that these types of noises can be related to the hard drive. I have an 80g native hardrive as well as a Western Digital 160 drive which I installed about 6 months ago. Not sure if this is related, but I was doing a lot of video editing a few weeks ago in Imovie and burning many dvds. I want to say that it became more noticeable after this, but not positive. Will a hardware test be able to identify the culprit? Should I maybe remove the WD drive and see if it still makes the noise (process of elimination)? I'm just not sure what I should do and any feedback would be appreciated. TIA

 

[PowerBookG4]

I would do a hardware test, then if nothing shows up, then it is probably not your hard drive but you should take it out and try the process of elimination any way... don't really know but if you were moving it somewhere, and dropped it/ put it down hard, this could cause a crack or break of a fan witch would make it sound like an uneven spinn and could cause some noise simular to the sound you are describing.

 

[b16crx69]

I'm noticing that it's not making the noise now. It seems to be intermitten. Maybe it happens more when running my mac hard? Not quite sure, but i'm a little worried. I have another question; seems appropriate if it is in fact my hard drive that is failing. Let's say that my primary drive (startup disk and home folders etc...) needs to be replaced. I will need to restore everything from this drive onto the new one, so that it has all the applications, settings, and so forth. Okay, can I make a back up/disk image of my this drive in disk utility, save the image onto my other drive, install a new drive and restore the image onto the replacement drive using disk utility restore? Would this return all my settings, apps, and so forth, virtually returning it to the identical computer it was before? Sorry if this isn't very concise, but i've never had to perform an archive/restore and want to be prepared. I've heard of applications that can perform this, but wouldn't disk utility do just fine? TIA

 

[PowerBookG4]

Yes it would restore to just the same computer you have now... no disk utility can not do this, it can not do it at the same time the os is running on the same drive, So you can either install osx on the other hard drive, boot to that hard drive and then create a disk image of the hard drive you think is failing, or you can find a third party application (i believe you can find one on versiontracker.com or macupdate.com) and do it that way.

 

[b16crx69]

After I copied the imaged drive onto the good drive, couldn't I boot up using the install disk and then restore image onto the replacement drive? I read elsewhere that permissions would could be problematic...is this so? Would a 3rd app. like CCC be better? I think using disk utility would be easier (and free) for me if possible. Or, could I just back up my home folder and applications, install the OS on the new drive from the install disc and copy my Apps and Home folder over? Again I apologize about all the confusion.