So I own a 1TB MyBook Studio external hard drive that’s been dutiful in its service since 2009. I use it primarily as a Time Machine backup drive with my 2010 iMac.
Recently, I’d say over the last six months or so, it’s been making a loud buzzing noise when idle. It doesn’t happen consistently, but when it does, simply ejecting it from the computer causes it to stop, which leads me to believe that the computer accessing it is causing the noise.
That’s a problem, as the hard drive itself needs to be active & attached to the computer for scheduled backups.
I don’t think it’s the drive itself dying, as the handful of diagnostics I’ve run on it have come up with no issues. In addition, last night I restarted the Time Machine backup, which was around 700GB, and even though it took close to six hours to copy, even over Firewire 800, the sound didn’t happen at all during the procedure. However, I did wake up to hearing the buzzing sounds this morning after the backup had completed successfully.
I’ve already ordered a new 2TB drive to replace it, as I’m outgrowing the 1TB drive anyway, but I was wondering if there is any known solution to this issue, so that I can safely resell the drive without worrying that the customer purchasing it believes they have a dud.
Thanks
