Sony :: Vaio FW Noise / Fan Control

I've recently purchased Sony Vaio FW21E (European model) and to my surprise, I find it quite noisy (contrary to what you can read in many reviews).

The first problem is HDD - I've owned 3 notebooks so far and no one had such a noisy disk. I almost thought that there is some kind of motherboard or GPU fan in there until I opened the case to confirm that the noise really comes from the HDD. It is quite unpleasant in a totally quiet room (like in the night) but I can hear it even during evenings when the room is relatively quiet. Vaio owners with Toshiba MK3252GSX disk (320GB), do you experience the same amount of noise? (On the upside, the performance is really nice compared to my older laptops, Windows Experience Index being 5.4.)

The second problem is the main fan (which I understand is the only fan on this Vaio). It is quiet for the first hour of usage or so but then it always turns on for about 5 minutes, then it's quiet for another 2-3 minutes, then it goes off again etc. etc. I really find this annoying because the fan speed is changing frequently and rapidly (i.e. from zero to high spinning, then it slowly goes down to what I would call acceptable level, then it stops rotating immediately; then it goes of for 100% again etc.)

When you combine these 2 noises, the notebook is quite unpleasant to use in quiet conditions. From the right hand side where the disk is placed, you constantly hear a whisper-like sound while from the left side, you are distracted by the main fan which tends to be turned on and off in a few minutes intervals..........