About the ticking, both of my new Seagate HDD have that issue. I am really worry about it. My WD doesn't make ANY noice like that so far, and yesterday tried out a "Virgin" out-of package WD Green 1TB hdd, also, no noice too.

I will not getting any Seagate products until we ( user ) get a good answer from Seagate's Tech and confirmation on hardware stability.