Strange HD Noises

[Cloudgazer]

My G4 powerbook is making some strange noises.

lately I've noticed the hard drive sometimes makes a whipsering sound, and when I perform certain tasks opening large files, rending iDVD clips or downloading stuff the HD is quite noisy.

Other times its almost silent.
Could it be becuase of the task I'm performing, or is my drive dying?

The machine still works like a dream.

 

[chrisbeebops]

It is normal for drives to become noisy as they get older (Or maybe they just sound noisier relatively to new drives? I don't know...). However, it can not hurt to back up your files just in case.