300 gb 7200.8 It makes a soft noise like a flat tire blump-blump-blump-blump
I noticed that on the back there is a chip about .75 of an inch square that says smooth on it and it gets so hot it burns my fingure. My other seagate 125gb 7200.7 just makes a hum and that chip does not get hot.
does this mean the 300gb is toast. or is there a fix. I read an artical that you can get an identical harddrive and swap the disks. Please help and send you suggestions to terryplys@yahoo.com

My best guess is the spindle bearing is going. I bet you'll be lucky to run it another half hour before it siezes up completely, or the Smooth burns up. If you've got data, get it quick. If you have important data, take it to a DR company. If you want to just fix it to use, you'll soon become a customer

would the bearing make that chip get so hot?

That chip drives the platter. If the platter can't spin, the chip overheats, and eventually burns out.