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External HDD makes scratchy noises under Lion OS

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jimbo75

jimbo75

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Hi,

since i got my hackintosh working i am hearing weird noises coming from my external HDD (Verbatim USB3 1TB 7200rpm 3,5"). Never heard these scratchy noises before. They are quite loud.
I also tried to use it with another Computer (Windows 7). No noises anymore.

Is it possible that Lion cannot handle external HDD's out of the box? Do i have to make any settings? Because these noises sound really terrible.


thanks!
 
Check the brand of hd in the verbatim box. If it is a seagate, a firmware update may help. Go to seagate website and check for your drive. This seems to be a problem with seagate drives and osx. I had the problem with my seagate 1tb and upgraded the firmware which helped but didn't eliminate the noises. I get nervous about noisy hard drives so make sure your backup is current or, in your case, don't use the drive for anything critical.
 
Ok. i will check if there is a firmware update.


I really hate HDD's. I must do something wrong. I got my new internal HDD, because the previous was obviously damaged. Really weird scratchy noises. Now i have the new one and again some scratchy noises. It sounds a bit like those old modems, when you started the computer. But just pretty silent. And it seems like this HDD is working 100% of the time in full power mode.

This shouldn't be right?


EDIT: The internal HDD is done now. Got bluescreen, because the HDD turned itself of when booting. I have no luck with HDD only my SSD is working properly.

Do I have to be aware of something with Lion?

btw. i couldn't find any firmware update for the Verbatim Model 47658 (1tb 3,5")? What can I do else?
 
Does no one know what to do?

I plugged in a USB 2,5" Western Digital External HDD and it worked fine. Could it be a problem with 3,5" HDD's? Because my internal and my external 3,5" HDD's make scratchy noises when plugged in.
 
On Windows (on another PC) i hear just a noise when plugging it in. But then it works like it should. I can hear the disk spinning. But not with any noises. I hear the internal disk from the laptop more than the external HDD.

On my Mac it is like someone is taking a screwdriver and touching it while spinning.

I am not sure which drives Verbatim uses. But it is making horrible noises.
 
I suspect that the verbatim uses a seagate drive, W7 or osx should name the actual drive. There is a lot of chat on the seagate site forum about this prob and it seems to be the power management parking the heads frequently. Seems that you can turn off the apm if you wish but I am not sure how to do this. I am sitting right next to my open hack and the noise is now quite low after the firmware update. I have the same model drive booting w7 and it is totally quiet so it might be a quality control issue. I used to use samsung drives, too bad they're gone.

ps; seatools from the seagate website will tell you all about your drive.
 
Could be yes. But i really don't want to plug in my external hdd too often in my mac. It's not that old and i don't want to get a new one soon. Maybe i just use it under windows. Its only for backup anyway.

Where could I find a firmware update and how do I install an update? When it comes to driver, firmware and that stuff i get really confused on mac. Windows was easier with that stuff (at least the access to these things was easier to find)
 
If you were to use seatools you would have to be in win anyway. A firmware upgrade is easy to perform as all the software and instructions are on the seagate website and while you're there, have a read of the forum. As you say, the prob seems to be confined to osx so using the drive in win only, is a simple solution.
 
You probably don't have the problem I'm thinking of, but it's worth mentioning.

Is it an external drive that is being powered by the computer's USB? Sometimes I've had problems where the USB power isn't enough and you get that type of sound. When I add the power supply to the external drive, it seemed to fix the issue.

It's probably NOT likely in your case, but thought I'd mention it.
 
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