my hard drive makes noises which sounds like super fast morris code. espescially when searching. the noise comes form hdb which is
the noise is not constant. and it still happens when my comp is idle. i imagine its just doing normal system tasks, which require hard drive usage.
i have heard a noise like this, which got much louder, right before my old drive died.

is there safe way to turn off my drives so i can limit the about of usage?
i dont want to use hdparm, because last time i was messing with teh power settings destroyed my journal and some data.

what do you guys suggest?
track the hd's activity, and minimize, or powerdown with some kind of acpi or apm(which and how)?

thanks

Turn off cron and syslog, but do not set your hard drive to go into standby or sleep mode. Either leave your hard drive on 100% of the time or power down your computer.

I also recommend backing up just in case your second drive goes. I have never have a hard drive fail on me yet.

Pre-cautions to take for hard drives
1) Always use ground shipping.
2) Never use air shipping. It creates more G than ground shipping.
3) Wait an hour after delivery before installing
4) Before and during mounting the hard drive. Handle it very, very carefully like handling a very, very unstable substance.
5) Never transport your computer. If you need to, wait an hour for it to cool. Do what number 1, 3, and 4 says.

The same thing happend to one of my disk drives. You should backup any important data as soon as possible.

I disagree that shipping by air is harder then by ground. Are you referring to g loads as in acceleration or vibration? A truck will rattle a drive much harder then an airplane. One of my jobs is testing aircraft avionics and I have used the same computers for several years. The computers vary from laptops to rack mounted systems. Not one of them has failed and they have been through several hard landings. Of course you can not control how a person will handle a package. Manufactures drop test there drives and they are supposed to handle falling from a standard desk height while still in the package. However you do want to handle them carefully when out of the package. I have destroyed several drives by droping them.

I also disagree with your statement on moving PCs. They are not as fragile as in the past and if you take precautions one should not have any problems.

ok backup in order, check.
but why not the acpi standby like windows????

The hardest thing for any electronic device is during powerup. So starting and stopping is really hard on a drive. If your going to keep the PC on 24/7 its best to let the drive spin.

I would backup immediately, no matter what is wrong with the drive.

I have had 2 HDDs fail (in 2 different machines) within 2 months. So I am very distrusting of all HDDs right now.

I will agree with MS3FGX. Drives aren't supposed to make rapid clicking noises (obviously) and that kind of abnormal behavior is a sign that the drive is likely to malfunction. I'd recommend that you back up any important data right away, and start shopping around for a replacement.

As for transporting drives, etc, I don't think it much matters. Drives aren't that fragile, and they don't need to be handled as if they are soap bubbles that will break if you breathe on them too hard. They do need to be handled carefully, but just use some common sense. As long as you don't handle them roughly, don't shake or drop them, etc, they'll be fine. -- J.W.

thanks for the advice. much appreciated