My passport for mac's fan keeps running at computer startup

Hello,

I got this passport 6 months ago, it was fine and quiet at every computer startup. But recently when startup my computer, the fan of the passport would run nonstop for at least a hour. It seems to run all the time. Is my passport defective? I did Disk Utility to repair the passport, but it didn’t help.

Thanks.

Disk Utility will check the File System, but the actual physical integrity of the unit requires a S.M.A.R.T. test which can be performed using WD’s Drive Utilities for Mac:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=218&sid=157&lang=en

Regards,