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    WD5000BEVT and clicking noise

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by athos, Nov 14, 2008.

  1. athos

    athos Notebook Geek

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    I put in this WD Scorpio Blue 500GB today in my 2008 MBP, and it's fine but every once in a while I get a whacky CLICK that is fairly loud. Like the heads are doing something.

    What is that? It's pretty disconcerting when it happens.
     
    athos, Nov 14, 2008
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  2. dlhuss

    dlhuss Notebook Consultant

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    I'm interested in this too. For those out there, I'm wondering, is it normal?

    And would you buy it again, after experiencing this noise?

    I'm tracking the price at newegg (now $139) on this and was going to buy one.
     
    dlhuss, Nov 14, 2008
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  3. WilliamG

    WilliamG Notebook Deity

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    It's normal. OS X has VERY aggressive head-parking, so you're hearing the heads park. In a quiet room it drives me nuts sometimes. :)
     
    WilliamG, Nov 14, 2008
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  4. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    In Windows there are a couple of ways to handle it, in OS X I don't know.
     
    Phil, Nov 14, 2008
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  5. athos

    athos Notebook Geek

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    But it's clicking while I use it -- maybe while I'm on a website, so perhaps it thinks it needs to park it, but man do I not like that sound. It's pretty unnerving.
     
    athos, Nov 14, 2008
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  6. mtbush

    mtbush Notebook Consultant

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    WD drives are notorious for that **** "clicking".
    Regardless of price/performance it kills the deal for me.
     
    mtbush, Nov 14, 2008
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  7. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    I understand. It is indeed the head parking. And in Windows I know it's possible to change the AAM value.

    In OS X I don't know how to do it. Should be possible though.
     
    Phil, Nov 15, 2008
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  8. WilliamG

    WilliamG Notebook Deity

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    Yes, it's possible in OS X. I made a post on it a while back, with instructions on how to "fix" it.

    Read this thread:

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3899642#post3899642

    And it's NOT just WD drives that have this problem. My old Fujitsu 160GB 5400rpm was a noisy parker, so was my old 200GB Hitachi Travelstar 7200rpm drive, so don't blame WD! It's just aggressive head-parking by OS X, and all drives will be audible to some extent.
     
    WilliamG, Nov 15, 2008
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