Growling hard drive - poltergeists?? Or something serious.

[madamez]

I hve an external (back up) hard drive for my Mac which has been sitting there happly for nearly 3 years. Today it started to rattle and growl horribly (I was advised that it's OK to leave it on even when I am not using the main computer). I've switched it off but has anyone any idea what might be wrong with it?

My pc has taken to revving up madly.

From my extensive investigations (ie a thread on here) I have concluded it is the fan going nuts, insufficient RAM or attention seeking. For now, I am ignoring it.

Might it be any of those?

I'd be starting to think about a new external hard drive to be honest.. ..if you're leaving it on all the time then even think about something in the Lacie professional range (which appear to have a higher 'mean time before failure') and generally have better cooling etc... ....growling hard-drives can be trouble to get your stuff backed up somewhere quieter... ;-)

LOL at attention seeking and ignoring. What if it continues, will you make it sit on the naughty step?

No idea, sorry, but my laptop fan gets a bit over-excited sometimes.

Geekboy: It does have the name Lacie on it (the software refers to it as Silverlining and/or Quantum Fireball). Basically I got it from my brother and I am a complete techno-wally.

nice.. ..it's a professional type affair then although slightly old. They generally run almost silently so if it's making noises it could be the first signs it's due to be put use as a book-end rather than a backup device. Can't remember whether those older things have a cooling fan in them... ..is it getting warm?

Actually, thinking about it, if it's a quantum fireball then it's a pretty old beasty - fireballs haven't existed for a good long time now.. ..time to buy a new one I reckon.

could be the motor on its way out so failure is on its way.. suggest you invest and replace while you can still get the data

But have nooooooo money. Better shove all the valuable data up on line and transmit to the PC then....

Once you've backed everything up - if it has a cooling fan take the cover off and see if its full of dust. Make sure that it is plugged in but with the power off to ground it - thats what dh tells me to do anyway. Don't touch anything inside with your fingers! Use one of those air canisters or a soft dry paint brush to remove the dust, particularly round vents and the fan.
dunno if it will help but its a free thing to try!

Lacie hard disk drives aren't too expensive - just over £100 I think. But it sounds like it is on the way out. Motors in fans have a life expectancy of about 3 years.