Q. Is there anything "odd" that FreeBSD does when compiling the kernel which would cause the memory to make a scratchy sound? When compiling (and for a brief moment after recognizing the floppy drive upon startup, as well), a strange scratchy sound emanates from what appears to be the memory banks.
A. Yes! You'll see frequent references to ``daemons'' in the BSD documentation, and what most people don't know is that this refers to genuine, non-corporeal entities that now possess your computer. The scratchy sound coming from your memory is actually high-pitched whispering exchanged among the daemons as they best decide how to deal with various system administration tasks.
If the noise gets to you, a good ``fdisk /mbr'' from DOS
will get rid of them, but don't be surprised if they react
adversely and try to stop you. In fact, if at any point during
the exercise you hear the satanic voice of Bill Gates coming from
the built-in speaker, take off running and don't ever look back!
Freed from the counterbalancing influence of the BSD daemons, the
twin demons of DOS and Windows are often able to re-assert total
control over your machine to the eternal damnation of your soul.
Given a choice, I think I'd prefer to get used to the scratchy
noises, myself!