imac hard drive noise

I have a 2 year old 27" iMac with 10.7.5 and the 3.4ghz i7. it used to be quiet all the time unless it was working hard (transferring large files, rendering video etc) now it sounds like its working hard all the time. no external drives connected, no programs open. ideas?

How about defining "working hard"? Loud fan noise? Hard drive growling? Slow? All the above?

Check this out:-


Apple - Support - iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program

its the rattling noise (don't know how else to describe it) the hard drive makes, not a fan noise

Check the serial number with the link?

I dont have the seagate hard drive, it's a 2 tb Hitachi. Computers been running really slow lately as well. What about this mackeeper program that pops up every once in a while? I'm fairly computer illiterate so any advice would be welcome. thanks

Honestly, diagnosing a noise is kinda hard over a forum, best suggestion is to bring it into an apple store they can power it up right there and tell you what they think. But with my experience, hitachi hard drives do get noisy over time, at least laptop drives, not familiar with desktop drives, I usually stick with seagate.

As you look at the screen, get close. Is the sound more pronounced from the top left?

Whatever you do keep well away from macKeeper which is crapware. Do a Google. You can use Lion Recovery to run Repair Disk and see what is reported. Also you do need at leastv 15% free space on the hard drive for it to work anywhere near its peak.


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718