Normal HD Noise?

My mid 2010 MBP started making a noise yesterday that has me concerned. It almost sounds like a soft "playing card in the spokes of your bike" type sound.

Today I cannot hear it unless I press my ear against the back and then I can still hear it.

Is this normal HD noise and should I be concerned??

can anyone tell me if they can hear their HD's at all?? I've never heard mine before but then I never put my ear to the back of the laptop either. I'm assuming they are not silent but don't know if you should be able to hear it while you're using it.

Depends on the hard drive. Some drives are more quiet than others. I can barely hear any noise coming from my 2011 iMac but my 2008 MacBook definitely makes a whirring sound.

What you're hearing could also be the fan. Does it get louder when the machine is doing a lot of work?

Hi cjburr, Do not be concerned, this is very common. It is more apparent with HDD and also happens with SSD's. It's a mechanism that protects the drive heads, I experience the same noise on occasions just to the left of the trackpad where the HDD is located. This can be caused by overheating, sudden surge in power, high read/write etc. etc. If this is not compromising performance then you'll soon become immune to the noise however, if it is slowing processes down and idling for some time then present an Apple store with the problem and they will more than likely replace the HDD. My advice, as a precaution would be to back everything up now and monitor the noise for a week or so.

Thanks for the feedback. I've backed everything up to an external drive using Time Machine to be on the safe side.

I have the Hitachi 500GB drive but am going to upgrade to a OWC SSD as soon as I can get one here.

The noise occurred while the machine was idle so there wasn't any read/write load at the time. It happens then goes away then comes back almost like a cat taking a breath then purring again.

Nothing seems to have slowed down because of it and it's most likely nothing to worry about. However......as I am in Afghanistan and this is my only link to my family I will be doing the SSD upgrade to safeguard my link with humanity.

The kit from OWC will have an enclosure for the HDD so I will continue to use it to see how long it lasts and also to isolate the noise if possible. It doesn't seem to be a fan but I won't rule anything out.

Thanks for the help and I will document my upgrade with pics as soon as I get started.