drive ? hard drive , is it like a knocking (tap tap sorta deal), thats the hdd heads ...
new ? take it back
whirls , well yeah they do spin , thats how they work, so you do get a bit of a whirling noise, but it's obviously excessive for it to draw your attention , as you describe powering up is the time hdd's come under most load pressure , take it in to an apple shop if you live near one , they will tell you if it's normal or not. my macbook doesn't make a sound though.
tell you what you could try , "disk utility" , check permissions , perhaps it's under load because of missing files, so it's working over time on start up looking for them. wont hurt .
or , have you got a disc in the optical drive, slot loading optical drives on macs also self test on power up.
