Weird squeaky noises.

[ArenaBoy]

Recently bought a new harddrive, it's a Seagate 500GB (Can't remember precise model specifications at the moment), running on an old 2006 Macbook.

Checked the Disc Utility and the Smart Status says "Verified."

Every now and then, it makes these weird high pitched low volume squeak noises, like a squeaky toy. It's intermittent as well. It's coming from the upper right corner, been reading somewhere that it could be a faulty powerchip.

Will post any further updates should I come across anything, I'm backing up my data right now in case the worst happens. (I hope not.)

[Alephcat]

does it sound like any of these? If so, probably time for a new drive.

[MadMike]

I had a squeaky noise that turned out to be coming from a cheap power supply. Funny thing, I thought it was a mouse for awhile. Apparently the cats did too, because they were looking for it.

[Chromatix]

Some drives do chirp at regular intervals when idle. It's a side-effect of some thermal calibration routine they run, and is perfectly normal.

The usual danger signs are if it has trouble reading something, starts screeching continuously, or simply doesn't spin up.

[lordlundar]

could also just be the read/write head moving. The click from it can happen so fast it sounds like a squeak, and is much more noticeable in laptop HDDs.