# Arch specific:
# add to /etc/rc.local:
#
#   # lower 'parking' threshold for  hard drive power management
#   hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda

Hard Drive Ticking every few seconds

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=39258
and 
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=331418&highlight=hard+drive+noise

REASON

The heads in the laptop hard drive are parking. The kernel's default setting causes them to do it in about 5 seconds of inactivity. In windows for what ever reason it is set to something more like 60 seconds of inactivity.

Since the heads are parking when they are not supposed to it will wear out within a year or so. The hard drive is only rated for so many parks.

SOLUTION

  # hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda    # lowest settings
  # hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda    # apm disabled entirely

This will only set the value for the current session.
Save one of the above to /etc/rc.local to make the change permanent.

- 1: The most aggressive, the HD spins up and down every few seconds
- 128: default value, but also very aggressive, the click is heard every few seconds
- 254: the clicks stop completely
- 255: apparently no power management, but the clicks can be heard at the same rate as with 128