PowerBook on my lap: Can I headcrash my drive?

[Beware of Doug]

I've recently noticed by Apple PowerBook G4 emits very soft creaking sounds whenever it's disturbed from a perfectly flat and level position — say, when I scrunch it around on my lap. I believe the machine (12" / 1.33 GHz) is a little bit too old and cheap to have the Apple Motion Sensor feature, introduced in 2005, which parks the drive heads when the unit is tilted to prevent a headcrash.

So my questions are: Am I right to feel a slight sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever I hear that very soft creak from my PowerBook? Can I headcrash my drive by normal scrunching around? And if I can't use the thing on my lap, where do they get off calling it a laptop?

[Shagnasty]

That doesn't sound like the hard drive. Hard drives click and maybe grind a little when they are in distress. The sound you describe sounds more like the circuit board bending or maybe just parts of the case.

I wouldn't worry about it much. You can indeed use laptops on your lap even without the latest protection fetaures.

[Q.E.D.]

The creaking is probably just loose case parts shifting around. I strongly doubt if normal fidgeting with the computer on your lap is forceful enough to crash the head. I've had running laptops slip out of my grip on occasion and fall a few to several inches to the hard desktop with a chillingly loud CLUNK, with no apparent drive damage. Much older ones than yours, too.