Yet another ibook hd noise thread (plus spotlight)

[mopppish]

Question(s)-
My brand new 12" ibook G4 seems to make a lot of hard drive noise, even when I'm not doing anything. The noises sound pretty healthy- it's basically a constant, very soft whir (just the spinning, I'm sure) and an occasional clicking (not a "crap, I'm broken" clicking, but more like a "alright, let's kick these heads into place" clicking) every minute or so (sometimes longer).
I'm not trying to be goofy with my descriptions here, but after all I've read in these forums about clicking being bad, I wanted to mention that none of the noises mine are making sound deadly. Rather, I was thinking that maybe this is Spotlight's regularly scheduled indexing? If that's maybe what this is, does anyone know of a way to regulate Spotlight's indexing (make it less frequent or turn it off altogether unless you ask it to) in order to lessen hard drive access and in turn perhaps save battery life?
Any opinions that point to a faulty hard drive are also welcome, but I've had the ibook for a week now and have experienced no problems outside of both the hard drive and optical drive being noisier than I would have liked (seems like a common issue with these ibooks). The hard drive noises remind me of when my imac's hard drive kicks in from or settles down to a rest.
Thanks!

 

[mad jew]

To the best of my knowledge, that's not how Spotlight works. It indexes on the go such that if you make a new file, save it and quit, it'll instantly be in Spotlight. It doesn't go through and reindex periodically.

More likely, they're just random computer processes that are keeping the hard drive running. I think you're right in assuming the drive is fine, but keep regular back ups all the same, irrespective of clicking noises.

 

[OutThere]

My 12" PowerBook's hard drive whirs softly (audible from typing distance), but doesn't make any of the clicking sounds that my iBook used to make...my iBook made pretty pronounced grinding sounds when the hard drive was being heavily accessed. My iMac G3 couldn't be used if my roommate was asleep as the hard drive noises could wake a mountain.

The only time hard drive noise is bad is if it sounds like the hard drive is grating or grinding, or can't get going. This happened when my external hard drive had a head crash...it made a screeching, grinding noise, turned off, and when I turned it back on it made this weak clanking sound and wouldn't spin up.

I don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

[ortuno2k]

I too hear some subtle and intermitent clicking and whirring noises when the room is very quiet at night and I'm just browsing MacRumors
I guess it's normal. This is a new PB too, so the hard drive is new as well.