System beep and hard drive click

[jonlucpicard]

Hi, I am a newbie and I apologies if I've posted this in the wrong place.
I recently decided to give Linux Mint 14 a try and you'll be pleased to hear that I absolutely love it.
I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop with a 500gb hard drive installed.
Mint is installed on a 60gb partition, Win 7 on another 60gb partition and the rest I use for storage.

I keep hearing the system beep followed by a click which I think is the hard drive.
This seems to happens randomly and only once or twice a day. (I use my laptop about 4 hours a day at various times throughout the day and evening).
It only started after I installed Mint but this could just be a coincidence.

Has anyone any experience of this?
Is it something I should worry about or is it normal?
Is there a way of stopping it (please remember I am a total novice with Mint & Linux).
Does this mean my hard drive is on its way out?

Any help and advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Jon

[catweazel]

I keep hearing the system beep followed by a click which I think is the hard drive.

The obvious question is, does it happen when Windows is running, or is it only when Mint is running?

[jonlucpicard]

Good question. I'm now booted in Win 7 and testing it as I type this and will let you know.

[jonlucpicard]

I've been running windows yesterday and this morning and it hasn't done it.
Only does it when running Mint.