So, after I finally replaced the backup drive on gumby...I noticed a strange whining sound, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, so I went on to other projects.
Later when I was going to bed, I found it really annoying...so I went to look for the source.
Well, it was emanating from TARDIS....I eventually decided it was probably the external drive, and tried to safe remove and power it off to confirm. I couldn't get it to disconnect, and TARDIS was wanting to reboot after having applied patches but also wanting to know if I wanted to update other stuff.
So, I ended up turning the external drive off hard. That stopped the whine. Eventually, I got things mostly patched and set it reboot and went off to bed.