I have an old 27G Maxtor at home.
A while ago it was taking a while to spin up and making little beeps.
A couple of times it would not start until I hit reset.
I ran out and bought a CDRW and backed up my stuff.
About then it stopped misbehaving.
I suspected the problem was due to a bad connection.
I wonder now if the beeping is Maxtor's way of kick-starting a stuck drive.