[Ti] Weird noise

[Kynan Shook]

Christopher Owens <cwosigns at mac.com> writes:
> This morning I woke up and heard my Ti making a repeated clicking
> noise.  The screen saver was activated (password protected) but the
> cursor was a spinning beachball.  I couldn't do anything, I even tried
> force-quitting something, but to no avail.  I turned the machine off,
> then on again.  It took a long time to reboot (but not sure if longer
> than normal).  And it's been fine since.  I couldn't tell if the noise
> was the hard drive, or the combo drive (it was empty).
>
> Should I be worried?  Anyone else had this experience?
>
> BTW I am selling my 5 GB iPod with headphones and wired remote if
> anyone is interested.  Let me know.


Oh, good!  Another opportunity for me to remind everybody to BACK UP 
ALL YOUR DATA.  **NOW.**  This sounds very much like a common hard 
drive mechanical failure; they generally start out clicking like that 
for a little while but eventually work (often slowing down boot times 
significantly), and then eventually get to the point where all they do 
is click.  Probably at least 90% of the hard drive failures I see have 
this symptom.  Too bad, because I really enjoy the ones that start 
smoking when I plug them in.  ;-)

Anyway, if you don't have everything backed up already, do it NOW.  A 
good use for the iPod until you sell it, if you have no other means.  
Burning CDs (especially with Apple's Disc Burner) may be difficult 
because that uses the hard drive a lot.  Toast is probably more likely 
to succeed than Disc Burner because it doesn't make a disk image before 
burning, therefore it uses the hard drive less.  I'd recommend finding 
your absolute most important files and getting them off first, since it 
could die at any time.  Skip large files too, until you've gotten all 
your important smaller files.  Once you've got those, you can try 
backing up everything.

Or, if you've got a current backup already, you can just ignore all 
that.  ;-)  That's why EVERYBODY reading this list should back up any 
document that they wouldn't mind losing at the worst possible time.  
Data loss happens.  It's not a gamble; it's a little like buying life 
insurance.  You don't know *when* you'll die, but it's gonna happen 
sooner or later.

Anyway, once you've got all your data off, contact Apple if it's under 
warranty, or start paying attention to the Hard Drive recommendations 
thread that's going on; you'll need a new one.

Granted, I could be wrong with my diagnosis, but I'd still recommend 
making that backup.  I work as a computer technician, and I HATE having 
to tell people that their drive is fried and they lost all their data.



Kynan Shook
kshook at mac.com
http://homepage.mac.com/kshook/index.html