Hard dvive contantly spinnng

[cslogg]

Five days ago i switched to a very good condition iMac from 2010 running the latest OS.
This is after being a very long time pc user.One of the first thing I noticed is that the hard drive appears to be constantly spinning,indicated by the very quiet ticking noise.The machine is working fine but i am a bit concerned that there may be something wrong.

 

[chscag]

First... moved your post here to the "Other Hardware........ forum as it is not a switcher subject.

As to your question: Make sure before doing anything else that you backup your data. As to the hard drive spinning, it may be that Spotlight is indexing or that you have some other process running in the background. Go into your power settings (System Preferences -> Energy Saver) and check to see if you have selected the option to put hard drives to sleep when possible. If not, select it and then put your iMac to sleep to see if the hard drive turns off and sleeps along with the system. Let us know.

 

[RadDave]

Five days ago i switched to a very good condition iMac from 2010 running the latest OS.
This is after being a very long time pc user.One of the first thing I noticed is that the hard drive appears to be constantly spinning,indicated by the very quiet ticking noise.The machine is working fine but i am a bit concerned that there may be something wrong.

Hello - some more information will help - please go to the Apple (upper left menu bar) and select 'About This Mac' which will bring up the information shown below (first pic - my MBPro w/ serial# blanked) - if you can post your image, then will be of great help - also for more information on your computer, plug in its serial# at the lookup site of EveryMac, scroll down and tell us about the HDD installed on the machine.

Now, whether you have the 'latest' macOS, which is Sierra, will appear like in the first pic - if your computer is indeed from 2010, it just made the wire for Sierra compatibility as quoted below (Source). Finally, how do you know that the 'ticking noise' is related to the hard drive vs. say the fan(s)? Let me stop at this point for you to respond. Dave

Macs that are compatible with macOS Sierra
- iMac (Late 2009 and later)
- Mac mini (2010 and later)
- Mac Pro (2010 and later)
- MacBook (Late 2009 and later)
- MacBook Air (2010 and later)
- MacBook Pro (2010 and later)

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[cslogg]

I cannot post pics just yet,but software is macOS Sierra version 10.12.3
Its a Imac 27" (mid 2010) ,3.2 ghz ,Core i3, 16 gb 1333 ddr3 memory.1tb hard drive.
I am typing this while looking at the mac screen.
There was two boxes ticked in the energy section.
"Put hard drive to sleep and wake for network access"
As for the ticking noise it does sound like something spinning but it could be a fan.
As i type this i can hear no sound from the mac.

 

[RadDave]

I cannot post pics just yet,but software is macOS Sierra version 10.12.3
Its a Imac 27" (mid 2010) ,3.2 ghz ,Core i3, 16 gb 1333 ddr3 memory.1tb hard drive.
I am typing this while looking at the mac screen.
There was two boxes ticked in the energy section.
"Put hard drive to sleep and wake for network access"
As for the ticking noise it does sound like something spinning but it could be a fan.
As i type this i can hear no sound from the mac.

Hello again - as already requested, make sure that your HDD is backed up - as many do here, I use a combination to TM (Time Machine) and a cloning app (CCC - Carbon Copy Cloner myself). You also should check the health of your drive - Disk Utility can be used for that purpose - info HERE - also (if supported by your 2010 HD - not sure), you can also check its S.M.A.R.T. status (use 'About This Mac' -> System Report and scroll down to storage) - see the image below concerning the status on my 2013 MBPro. Let us know your results. Dave
.

 

[cslogg]

Smart staus is verified on my HD.