Strange HD noises

First post, although I've been trolling here here for a few months unregistetred. Thanks to everybody for unknowingly helping me choose a great laptop.

I Just recieved my DV6500t last Thursday and seems to be perfect, except for one thing that gets more and more anoying everyday...

My HD makes a really strange "click-clurk" sound every 30 seconds to a minute. Nothing seems to be triggering it, it'll make the noise while I'm just surfing the internet or when the computer is idling. I thought it was strange at first and ignored it, but then over the last few days it really started to bother me. I know that hard drives are supposed to make some noises, but this doesnt sound like anything normal. Last night I asked HP though a Chat session for help and I got this response today:

The hard drive may be physically damaged. We can try the following steps to check the condition of the hard drive using the built-in hard drive test on HP notebook PCs:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Press and hold down the F10 key before anything is displayed on the screen.
3. Use the arrow keys to highlight the Diagnostics tab in the setup menu.
4. Use the arrow keys to select Hard Drive Self Test from the menu.
5. Press the ENTER key to start the test.

NOTE: The QUICK Hard Disk test takes less than 1 minute to complete. A Quick Test Status is displayed when the test completes: Pass - The hard drive is not damaged. Fail - The hard drive is damaged and may need to be replaced.

The Long Hard Disk Test will take around 2 hours of time.

I'll try this when I get home tonight, but I wanted to see if anyone else has this noise.

BTW: DV6500t W/160GB HD

 

I bought the same model with the same configuration, more info in my signature, but I don't experience the strange hard drive noise. In fact my hard drive is pretty quiet, hardly notice it when it's running.

I assume a manufacture defect or could be the shipper that might have thrown the box around a bit.

 

I get the same sound from my 9500t, sound comes from the left front part of the laptop. Sounds almost like a creaking of plastic rubbing together very strange.

 

It might be possible that the sound you are hearing is actually come from the CPU, not HDD. I can't be sure since I do not hear it myself. There is many thread in the forum discuss issue regarding high pitch noise from Santa Rosa CPU that oscillates from time thru time. You can check out this thread for example : http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=85477&page=40

As far as I know, the solution is yet to be found. Again, this problem is from the CPU, not HP, so if u search around NBR site, u can also see other people complaining about this with their Dell or Toshiba.

 

One thing u can check, if noise actually does come from CPU, that noise should come from the top left part of your HP (that's where your CPU locates, u can also check where the fan is at the bottom of your laptop). HDD is located under the palmrest.

 

The sound is coming from the front-left, under the palm rest.

I'm hoping this isn't the first sign of the HD dying. I'll run the test that HP recommends tonight, but my instinct is telling me that this isn't a normal sound and something isn't right. The best way I can describe it is "Clunk-clunk" or "clink-clunk"...every 30 seconds or so.

Has anyone ever replaced the HD in this model themselves? I'm wondering how hard it would be to do it myself.

 

i've noticed this on my dv6449us...the sound is also coming from the front left or at least it sounds like it does...it doesn't bother me much, but a fix to it would be worth my time...

 

i just got my pavilion and im positive i heard just a couple of one clink clunks as i was usin it but that was it.. not anymore later on or nothin i noticed..hopin thats a normal thing tho

 

Try something like http://www.hdtune.com/ to look at the SMART variables. That might tell you something. At the time this is happening, is there disk access going on? Can you hear it when you are sitting at a normal position, or only when you have your ear to the laptop?

If it's very loud, I would replace the drive. You should not do this yourself but send it back to HP. You paid for the warranty and you should use it.

That noise is a high-pitched squeal. It sounds nothing like a "clunk" that might come from a hard drive.

 

If it's just the standard HDD clicking but it's going off all the time (or every 30 seconds, even if at idle), Vista has a ton of apps that run while while your system isn't doing much. Windows Indexer, Defender, etc etc...I ended up disabling pretty much all of it because the constant HDD activity drove me crazy.