Optical drives aren't going to make noise except on startup or when you have a disc in them. Besides, the noise a DVD drive makes includes a clear "whirr."
I'd run a backup of your drive IMMEDIATELY. Drives don't normally make audible clicking in normal operation. SMART is a one-way indicator. If SMART says your drive is bad, it's bad. If SMART says your drive is good, it means nothing. Here's a way to figure out what is going on: Start your Mac Pro in transfer mode (hold down the T key at booting). Your drive will spin, but you are guaranteed there will be no OS-generated disk activity in this mode. Then listen to it for whatever period of time you need to wait before you hear the clicking. If you still hear the clicking, replace the drive. Again, this is a one-way indicator, as even if the OS is causing the accesses to the disk, the clicking noise itself on the access is still pathological. On Jul 19, 2011, at 2:15 PM, Dinse, Gregg (NIH/NIEHS) [E] wrote: > Hi, > > I have a Mac Pro that is making an odd clicking sound, which I assume is > coming from either a hard drive or a DVD drive. It seems to make noise for a > few seconds and then is quiet for about 10 minutes. This pattern (on for 2 > seconds, off for 10 minutes) seems to repeat itself all day, but there is > enough other noise in my office (and I often get distracted or I am out of > the office at times), so I can't swear that it never takes a break. > > I am not a hardware expert, but it sounds sort of like a "normal" noise that > might occur if the drive were trying to access something. The problem is > that there is typically nothing going on at the time, at least nothing that I > am intentionally doing. I looked at the Activity Monitor and did not see > anything, though usually it has stopped making noise by the time I can bring > that app to the front. > > I ran Disk Utility and did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I also > ran SMART Utility and all the hard drives passed. Is there an easy way to > check a DVD drive? > > Can anyone suggest a way to figure out what is causing this sound and how to > correct it? I have had this Mac Pro for a few years and this just started a > few weeks ago. I know that hard drives (and DVD drives) go bad, but if I'm > going to replace one, I'd like to make sure I replace the one that is causing > the problem. > > Thanks, > > Gregg > > _______________________________________________ > MacOSX-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk -- Macs R We -- Personal Macintosh Service and Support in the Wickenburg and far Northwest Valley Areas. http://macsrwe.com _______________________________________________ MacOSX-talk mailing list [email protected] http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk
