Recently, I've noticed that my external Seagate (got it in September) is
exhibiting activity (its LED is flashing) seemingly more often than usual; I
can hear its platter spinning (not loud, but previously it was whisper-
quiet), and very rarely, I hear an occasional slight "click" (not sure if
it's the infamous "click of impending failure," since I have no idea what
that sounds like).

I probably wouldn't be too concerned, were it not for the fact that I recall
that some of the drives in the series (Barracuda 7200.11) reportedly had
been somewhat problematic, requiring in some cases a firmware update --
which, I understand, frequently actually ended up killing the drive!

There is software that Seagate offers that (supposedly) can help diagnose
the health of their drives. However, it's Windows-only -- there is no Mac
version.

1. Should I be all that concerned about the drive?

2. Is there any 3rd-party software available (perhaps similar to SMART) that
us Mac folks can use to check the health of external drives?

 
-- 
iMac (24", 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 320 GB HDD) � OS X (10.5.6)