Boot priority in hd drive failure

Hi,
I have mac mini server and i use CCC to make bootable backup.
What i'm wandering is what would happened if my first drive fails and can't boot?
I have on the other drive full bootable copy , but is the OS going to try starting from another bootable drive in case of failure of the default?
Would i still have access to the server via VNC or SSH in order to boot from the backup?

If the sole primary boot disk device fails, you will have no access to the system via ssh (until it's rebooted).
There's no default failover at boot. Not that I'd trust to always work, given failures can have weird behaviors. You will be left to alter the boot device selection via KVM or equivalent into the box; hold the option key at power up.
You could consider configuring either software RAID or (external) hardware RAID as an option, or there are folks which suggest dual Mac Mini systems configured for software RAID using Target Disk Mode; basically, the second Mac Mini is used as little more than a disk enclosure until and unless it is needed to boot.
More reading here and here.

Similar Messages

Boot priority among SATA Drives

Is it possible to set boot priority among SATA drives with K8T Master2? I want to use the controller as a straight SATA controller rather than RAID controller.
Kaz

Hi
use boot sequence in bios to set preferance, SATAs usually start BB1...
cheers
jocko

IMac Drive Failures and Boot Camp - large install experience and question

We have a large 24" iMac install, purchased in August of '08, 49 machines spread across 6 offices. All run Windows Vista in Boot Camp as their primary (and mostly sole) operating mode - I will be happy to explain why after we get this cleared up, but that is not the point of this question.
We have had 11 hard drive failures, a rate of over 22% in one year. No machine has failed twice. The equipment was purchased in different groups so a bad lot is unlikely. I am aware that there is an HD failure issue with the iMac's but this seems to be extreme. Personally I've been building apples and pc's since my first apple kit, have a mac plus in a box somewhere, and am fond of these machines (as is the staff) but I've never seen a failure rate like this.
It has been suggested that it is the use of Boot Camp that is causing these failures. While I have seen viruses over the years that can lead to hardware failure I've never seen validated (or even simply non-malignant) software have the same effect.
Any thoughts on this? Could BC be the cause? Is this failure rate unusual? Have folks heard of similar cases? Thanks.

no one has any thoughts on this?

Hard Drive failure - various boot modes won't work, HELP!

Hello all,
First of all, sorry for the essay, but I didn't want to miss out on possible crucial details that could help!
A couple of weeks ago, my beloved 27" iMac had a hard drive failure. It won't boot, but instead goes to the grey 'no entry' sign when booting up. I tried holding Cmd + V on boot and this message repeated itself whilst failing to boot:
"rooting via boot-uuid from chosen/: D94DA2D5-DB38-3517-B05D-70A97AC6EE5B
Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key><IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1"> IOResorces</string><key>IOResourceMach</key><string ID= "2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/AppleIntel5Serie sAHCI/PRT0@0/IOAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCBlockStorageDevice/IOBLockStorageDriver/Hitac hi HDS722020ALA330 Media/IOGUIDPartitionScheme
BSD root: disk0s2, major 14, minor 2
jnl: unknown-dev: open: phys_blksz 4096 does not match journal header size 512, and journal is not empty!
hfs: late jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 0)
cannot mount root, errno = 19"
I'm not sure how much of that is useful, but I thought I'd copy it all down anyway.
I googled error number = 19 and found articles on an invalid b-tree node and corrupt journals, leaving me to believe that because I recently deleted a Windows Vista partition and reformed the overall HD into a 2TB OSX volume, some windows data may have been left over and corrupted the journal?
So it fails to boot normaly, using Cmd V, and using the OSX install disk, as well as failing to boot from the DiskWarrior 4 DVD I purchased from my local Apple Reseller because I'd heard that it's very good at helping with issues such as what I think my HD is having. I tried Disk Utility whilst booting from the install disk, and tried to repair the drive, and each time I tried it said that invalid content was present in the journal but the disk repair had been successful.
Am I right in thinking that my data is on the drive, it's just that OSX won't register the drive's existence because of a corrupted journal? (the little I know of hard drives is shining brightly through at this point, I'm sure!)
I also tried to boot using target mode by connecting my iMac to a MacBook Pro also running Snow Leopard, but, whilst the iMac clearly went into target mode (bouncing firewire icon on screen), my HD never appeared on the desktop of the MacBook Pro, nor in Disk Utility.
Whilst I have AppleCare, I haven't tried taking it to a mac store yet because of two reasons; 1. The last time I did this I had HD failure on my old 2008 MBP and, whilst I told them to keep the data on it, the first thing they did was reformat the disk. Needless to say, it worked, but I lost all my valuable Data! The second reason is that it's bloody heavy, and I don't own a car!
Before people go on about the way I should have backed up my data, I did, and that's gone as well! D:
System Specs:
First generation of 27" iMacs
2.8Ghz Intel i7 quad core
2TB HD
ATi Radeon HD 4850 512mb VRAM
8GB DDR3 RAM
OS version: not the very latest snow leopard but the one before.
Thanks in advance, and once again sorry for the essay!
Westy

I'm not sure about the DW disk. Check that out at Alsoft's website. Apple doesn't provide data recovery services.
Apple has records of your iTunes purchases. However, the licensing for music only permits you to download it once. I'm surprised that you don't have backups.
If you get an external enclosure in which to put the drive then you might try accessing it from the MBP as an external drive. If you have an external drive you could try using recovery software:
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.
Beyond this you would need to send the drive off to a data recovery service which will be extremely expensive.

Boot Priority with Raid and Single Drives.

I thought I would share something that I discovered yesterday after struggling to get a Sata Raid array to play nicely with a single sata drive.
Sorry if this is already widely known but I couldn’t find any reference to it.
Setup:
MSI K8N Platinum SLI
2x 160GB Maxtor DM10 Raid0 Array (Windows)
1x 160GB Maxtor DM10 Single Drive (Backup)
The main issue I was having was no matter how I setup the array and what I set as the first boot device windows would always try to boot from the single drive.
The array was set to bootable when it was created, and it set to be the first device under the hard disk boot priority sub menu.
If I tried installing windows with the single drive plugged it would always be seen as C: drive and would copy the boot files here even if I selected D: (array) as install location.
If I tried unplugging the single drive and installing windows, it install and boot correctly from the array.
But as soon as I plugged the single drive back in windows would look for the boot files on it and tell me there was an error and no boot files could be found.
When looking through the bios I noticed a setting called “Extended IDE Drive”, this makes the drive appear as an IDE drive so that there is no need to install the sata driver F6 on install.
Once I set this to No/None the drive disappeared from the bios but after a reboot windows saw the drive correctly and allowed me to install windows to the array which was now correctly drive C:
Once windows was installed, the drive appears under the raid controller same as the array drives.
The drive is fully accessible and working natively with the sata drivers installed.

Quote from: jarvo on 30-January-07, 04:38:13
Yeah, not matter what the HDD order is winxp always tries to boot from the single drive when its plugged in.
Not sure if this only happens to me or if other people have had similar issues.
IDE drivers becomes automatically as 1st HDD. you need to switch them.
have you arranged hard disk boot priority? (not main priority)
have a try to push "F8" or "F11" during post to popup menu, and choice correct HDD to boot from there.

What if computer run into "Bootmgr is missing" or "Hard Drive Failure"

Most of us have the experience of computer run into error,such as bootmgr is missing. The most common reasons for BOOTMGR errors include corrupt and misconfigured files, hard drive and operating system upgrade issues, corrupt hard drive sectors, an outdated BIOS, and damaged or loose hard drive interface cables. Hard drive failure is another frequent error,it is arouse by physical damage or logical error. Once this problem occurs to you, any data stores in it would be in danger. If you want to Fix Bootmgr Error by yourself. These following steps may be available for you to deal with the problem. Step one. Burn a rescue boot disc or USB drive. You need to download Fix Genius and install it into a computer ,then insert the CD/USB and run the program to burn it . Step two. boot your computer from CD/USB Enter into the BIOS and change the Boot Device Priority ,then save the changes and exit. Step three.Fix "Bootmgr is missing" or "Hard Drive Failure" Insert the CD/USB then you will enter into the WinPE system, and click the Fix Genius icon there on the desktop. After run up the program, config the parameter according to your problem. This rescuing process would last within minutes. It is the best one I can find among the solutions. As the time past, it is a time information refresh very quickly, Maybe there is a better one for you to fix bootmgr is corrupted and Hard drive failure if you have time to search online. please let me know if you find it, I will be glad with you.

There are some caveats to be aware of when replacing the hard drive! While in theory any SATA drive is compatible, I have experienced problems with a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500GB and a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 640GB recently.
With my WD drive I have had to adjust the power management settings (using a command line tool called "hdapm") to prevent it from spinning up and down every 20 to 30 seconds, and which was also leading to momentary freeze ups. While this may kill my battery a bit quicker, I'm hoping the drive will at least live an average lifetime. (Batteries may be more expensive, but they're a lot quicker to replace than a hard drive).
My Seagate drive has exhibited far less frequent problems but the occasional noises it made have never sounded healthy and after 6 months is now being replaced under warranty. There were also a number of days where I would get excessive beachballing for no reason I could identify, and that I concluded must be hard disk related. I couldn't find anything here or elsewhere on the internet to indicate what the cause of that might be.
So my limited experience of hard disk replacement hasn't been a great success and I'm beginning to wonder if getting an official replacement from Apple might be a safer option in the long run, despite it being more expensive. I read somewhere that the hard disks supplied by Apple have custom firmware that works better with Apple's own power management strategies.

Data Recovery After Hard Drive Failure!

Ok, basically, I've got a 2 1/2 year old iBook G4 with a bombed hard drive, and unfortunately, the last time I backed up was around 3 months ago. Here's what happened right before the crash: some applications like Widgets and Safari were acting fluky, and it wouldn't let me open Word documents, so I restarted, because I thought it might have something to do with the fact that i had downloaded the new version of itunes not that long ago and hadn't restarted since. well, when i restarted, the gray screen with the wheel and the apple symbol went on for a really long time, and then the blue screen came up with the cursor, but nothing else happened, and the blue screen just stayed there. as far as i know, the hard drive wasn't making any unusual noises, just the usual occasional soft sounds that my hard drive has always made (there are usual sounds, right?) a piece of information that might be useful is that the hard drive was almost full (it only had about 5 GB left, which i understand is how much you should leave) could this have caused the failure maybe? anyway, i tried using the hard drive as a target and tried getting another computer to recognize it and pull the files off, but that didn't work. so, i brought it into the apple store, and they got it to boot up but using some external hard drive, i think. they tried disk utility, but that didn't see my hard drive. then the tried disk warrior, and that saw it and repaired it or something, but then it couldn't get the drive to mount. so, i'm assuming that because disk warrior didn't work and couldn't get it to mount, then other software like data rescue, etc... won't either. like all computer users, i've got some REALLY REALLY important data on there, and all the data recovery places i've gotten quotes from are pretty pricey. if the drive doesn't require physical data recovery, only non-physical, as i hope, the cheapest is still $350. even so, the person on the phone there didn't seem to know nearly as much as the people at the more pricier places. so, are there any other options besides expensive data recovery? i read something about using dd - a unix thing, but i don't know the first thing about it (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050302225659382) so i'm not sure i want to risk messing it up even more. and, if worse comes to worst, then i'll use a data recovery place... but can anyone tell me if they've used any of the data recovery companies below, and which ones are good?
(first three do evaluation for free, and then you decide if you want to continue based on more accurate price idea)
MacintoshDataRecovery.com
$500 non physical
$1100-1600 physical
Heroic Efforts
http://www.heroicdata.com/data_recovery
$350 non physical
ships to another (very expensive) place if physical
ACS Data Recovery
http://www.acsdata.com/index.htm
$600-700 non physical
DriveSavers.com
(recommended by Apple, probably the best, but the most steep, too)
could cost anywhere from $500-$2700 and $200 evaluation fee even if data is unrecoverable
Since this is our fourth hard drive failure in four different iBooks in 2 1/2 years, i am starting to become seriously disillusioned about the quality of the hardware Apple uses...not that i would ever get a dell or anything, but still....
THANK YOU in advance for any tips you might be able to offer, and also for reading this extremely long post!
katie
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I have read good reports concerning Data Rescue although I have not used it myself.
Once you get your data back, focus on a regular (even daily) backup routine, because as you know only so well, the question is not if a drive will fail, it's when.
My condolences, by the way.

Possible Imminent Hard Drive Failure?

First off I have an Early 2011 MacBook Pro running OSX Mountain Lion. Avast version 7.0 is running as my anti-virus software with current definitions. I'm a network administration student so I run 2 or 3 virtual machines simultaneously to replicate a domain environment for learning. With that I decided I need space for all these operating systems plus my music and pics, so 10 Days ago I purchased a new Seagate 750GB HD Microcenter and upgraded to 8GB from 4GB of ram while I had the case open. HD has worked like a champ and the computer has been faster for days until last night. I was on Facebook and suddenly I got the spinning beach ball of death. Giving it the mac 3 the mac version of the three-finger salute didn't help me so I went for the hard restart. After that I got the blank grey screen. I restarted with the option key and all I saw was my Windows Partition, but when I tried to boot to it I got a kernel panic. So I went and got the OSX Mountain Lion thumb drive I made (didn't expect to be needing that so soon) and used disk utility. Disk Utility could not verify the disk and told me to format the disk and reinstall OSX. Knowing that I have everything recently backed up with time machine and Winclone I went ahead and formatted and restored my time machine backup along with my Winclone backup. (My attitude was, what were my options)
During the restoration process of OSX I had zero problems, while doing the restoration of my Windows partition with Winclone I was watching the console log and saw this.....
9/19/12 7:20:44.653 AM Winclone[460]: 19.62 percent completed
9/19/12 7:20:57.674 AM Winclone[460]: 20.63 percent completed
9/19/12 7:21:10.989 AM Winclone[460]: 21.64 percent completed
9/19/12 7:21:13.000 AM kernel[0]: (default pager): [KERNEL]: ps_allocate_cluster - send HI_WAT_ALERT
9/19/12 7:21:13.000 AM kernel[0]: macx_swapon SUCCESS
9/19/12 7:21:25.018 AM Winclone[460]: 22.65 percent completed
9/19/12 7:21:26.489 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[368]: (com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication[479]) Exited: Killed: 9
9/19/12 7:21:26.000 AM kernel[0]: memorystatus_thread: idle exiting pid 479 [AppleIDAuthAgent]
9/19/12 7:21:30.768 AM Messages[379]: [Warning] Could not find transfer for guid: E1C93988-7FB6-46D9-949C-3D0F0A6A35FF
9/19/12 7:21:30.768 AM Messages[379]: [Warning] Could not find transfer for guid: 2E3B4C2A-007C-4877-A34E-9F2DDE148B18
9/19/12 7:21:30.768 AM Messages[379]: [Warning] Could not find transfer for guid: 3FDFED6A-9F52-4F19-ACAE-8802867CE8EB
9/19/12 7:21:30.768 AM Messages[379]: [Warning] Could not find transfer for guid: 21B6D0B5-DD7E-4442-A2FD-23C5572EB46F
9/19/12 7:21:31.848 AM com.apple.launchd[1]: (com.apple.iCloudHelper[468]) Exited: Killed: 9
9/19/12 7:21:31.000 AM kernel[0]: memorystatus_thread: idle exiting pid 468 [com.apple.iCloud]
9/19/12 7:21:33.241 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[368]: (com.apple.CalendarAgent[465]) Exited: Killed: 9
9/19/12 7:21:33.000 AM kernel[0]: memorystatus_thread: idle exiting pid 465 [CalendarAgent]
9/19/12 7:21:34.662 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[368]: (com.apple.pbs[444]) Exited: Killed: 9
9/19/12 7:21:34.000 AM kernel[0]: memorystatus_thread: idle exiting pid 444 [pbs]
9/19/12 7:21:35.822 AM com.apple.launchd[1]: (com.apple.audio.SandboxHelper[440]) Exited: Killed: 9
9/19/12 7:21:35.000 AM kernel[0]: memorystatus_thread: idle exiting pid 440 [com.apple.audio.]
9/19/12 7:21:37.244 AM com.apple.launchd[1]: (com.apple.xpcd.CA000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000[439]) Exited: Killed: 9
9/19/12 7:21:37.000 AM kernel[0]: memorystatus_thread: idle exiting pid 439 [xpcd]
9/19/12 7:21:37.598 AM Winclone[460]: 23.66 percent completed
I'm not a beginner Mac user but I'm not an all-knowing genius of the Mac either, but I know the GUID has something to do with the file structure of the hard drive.... Either way after I performed the restoration everything seems to be back to normal. The same fast computer I had before with no glitches and disk utility has even verified my disk on several occasions now and hasn't reported any issues.
So here is my ultimate question? What would cause this random failure in the first place if not the HD? Is the forum's consensus that I should take the HD back anyways even though all checks are passing currently? And, if not the HD how can I prevent this from happening again? Let's face it, I'm a college student, I need my computer. Luckily it died when I was going to bed and I could let it restore overnight. Also, It's lucky for me that I didn't have class this morning and have no assignments pending that are immediately due so I can complete the windows restoration in the morning.
I'll be looking forward to everyone's insight.

Thanks for the info.
I just bought Techtool Pro last week when I my hard drive directories got chewed up the first time. The box has a "Tiger Compatible" sticker on it so I imagine it's at least v4.0.4 on the CD. (Although I will check now)
However, I think now the problem has progressed. Now the hard drive goes into a 1-2 minute cycling routine a couple times per day even if the computer is idle. Out of nowhere it starts up and it makes this repetitious reading/writing sound. It lasts 1-2 minutes and during this time the computer is hung-up (round-rainbow animated icon) and can't do anything, just have to wait it out.
At this point I'm thinking of calling it quits and I'm just going to take the machine in while there is still a warranty on it as I'm really starting to believe it's drive failure and not a problem with software.

Having hard drive failure every year

Trying to find out why the hard drives on our computer HP TouchSmart 310-1124F keeps failing. Purchased this computer new in 2011, in February of 2012 the hard drive failed, message was "Hard desk failure is imminent have it replaced" so I did. Now in 2013 I'm getting another message " we strongly recommend that you back up your computer to avoid potential data loss ... contact your computer manufacturer to determine if the disk with errors needs to be repaired or replaced." The computer is attached to a good battery backup, it's not used for extended Internet work, No new programs have been downloaded, it is not used to download or upload information and although it's not our main computer it is used daily. What is going on, is anyone having same issues. I feel the computer itself is a lemon. This will be the 3rd hard drive in 2 years on this machine! By- the- way I did contact the Tech. department telling them the error message but was only told this computer was "not in warranty now" and that ... "you'll need to purchase a new hard drive" No offer or indication as to a possible repair could be done. Yeah that dosen't make me feel that great about this product. I just want to find out why the hard drives installed on this machine only last one (1) year! Any advise would be appreciated, thank you.

WRI-Jupiter,
Your computer may not / most likely doesn't have anything to do with the hard drive failures you have experienced. Drive manufacturers have been reducing the warranty period on drives for years. Also, as drive density has gone up, it appears that quality control has gone down.
Was the first drive replaced under warranty by HP or did you do it yourself??? Have you kept the computer free of "dust bunnies"??? What is the average temperature where you live???
By the way, the "we strongly recommend that you back up your computer to avoid potential data loss ... contact your computer manufacturer to determine if the disk with errors needs to be repaired or replaced" message was primarily just for your information. Because the warranty has expired, HP will no longer repair the machine without you incurring additional costs.
Your best bet is to;
1) Follow the advice of the message above and back-up any and all data you wish to save before the computer encounters a major hard drive issue.
2) Run the hard drive diagnostics from the boot menu or DOWNLOAD and run the HP Vision Hardware Diagnostics CD Image.
3) Also consider downloading and running the hard drive manufacturuer's diagnostics routine and see if it generates an error code. If the drive is still under warranty and you receive an error code, contact the manufacturer for an RMA.
4) When replacing the drive make sure to blow all the dust out of the computer and continue this practice about every three months.
Please send KUDOs
Frank
{------------ Please click the "White Kudos" Thumbs Up to say THANKS for helping.
Please click the "Accept As Solution" on my post, if my assistance has solved your issue. ------------V
This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I don't work for HP.
HP 15t-j100 (on loan from HP)
HP 13 Split x2 (on loan from HP)
HP Slate8 Pro (on loan from HP)
HP a1632x - Windows 7, 4GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6130y - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6320y - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240
HP p7-1026 - Windows 7, 6GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6787c - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240

Envy 14 - Hard Drive failure imminent

I have an Envy 14-1110NR laptop and am getting a Hard Drive failure imminent message every time I boot up. Having run the HP diagnostics, the hard drive check fails so I'm guessing I have to replace it.
The hard drive is a Samsung HM640JJ which has gone obsolete. Does anyone know what I need to do...?
Thanks so much...
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
The error message would indicate that the Hard Drive is failing and needs to be replaced.
If your notebook is still under warranty, contact HP and arrange to have the drive replaced - you can check your warranty status Here.
If you live in the US, contact HP Here.
If you are in another part of the world, start Here.
If you are out of warranty and would like a guide on replacing the Hard Drive yourself, please let me know.
Regards,
DP-K
****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
****I don't work for HP****
Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Satellite A10 - boot priority needs to be changed

Hi everyone,
I've got an old Satellite A10 here, and I'm supposed to put a new operating system on it.
Problem: It doesn't let me boot from CD/DVD!!!
In BIOS (APCI BIOS version = 1.30), I cannot change the boot priority, that is I cannot set the DVD drive as first boot device.
Pressing F12 or "C" when switching on the notebook doesn't show boot options either.
In another thread I read that one can change the boot device by selecting the boot devices' images that can be seen below the TOSHIBA sign when the notebook's power has just been turned on. How do you do that? Arrow keys and TAB dont work for me....
In the windows startmenu, there's the TOSHIBA utility HWSetup that is password protected. In the manual it says that you can change boot priority there (from inside windows!), but unfortunately the owner does not remember any password he might have set, so I cannot change boot sequence from there either.
but anyway it must be possible to boot from CD without accessing windows, in case windows doesn't work any more...
Is there still another possibility than using a "Parallelport wraparound connector" seeing that I don't know how its made or used?
Who's got ideas?
Thx

Hi R2D2,
as I wrote in the problem description above, pressing C and F12, or any other of the F keys, or even all at the same time ;-) does not show me the boot sequence.
And of course I do use the right buttons in BIOS, as the "manual" is even on the same page, on the bottom. It just doesnt let me select and thus change the boot priority!!
Knowing or not the right buttons is really not my problem here - except you know how to toggle the different boot devices shown below the TOSHIBA start up screen (cf above)? Know what I mean??
I SUPPOSE the problem is that TOSHIBA notebooks use this utility called HWSetup accessible from inside windows to change the vital boot functions, but the password for that tool is lost! And my best guess is that this tool blocks the BIOS functions.
The only solution I have come up with is to build and use this thing that deactivates any system passwords, this Parallelport wraparound connector, but as I dont know how to build it, I was looking for another solution as I still dont want to believe that TOSHIBA actually made it impossible to formate this notebook without an operating system on it (or access to this HWSetup from windows respectively)!!!!!
Message was edited by: parisien85

Multiple Hard Drive Failures

I purchased a MacBook Pro just before last Christmas and in late January or early February the hard drive failed and had to be replaced. I was told then that it was a fluke and not to worry about it that the chances of it happening again were very slim. Well, yesterday it happened once again.
That is now 2 hard drive failures within 4 months of each other, and within 6 months of being purchased new. This is simply unacceptable for a computer that costs nearly $3,000 with an extended warranty.
Until Macintosh figures out this problem, I would advise everyone to stay away from the MacBook Pro. From what I was told by the "Genius" at the Apple Store yesterday when I was having the hard drive replaced once again, "Apple knows about this problem". Well, they may know about it, but apparently they are not doing anything about it because the problem still exists.
I guess they assume its cheaper to just keep replacing hard drives every 2 or 3 months than to fix the problem and have a satisfied customer.
WARNING - Do not buy the MacBook Pro unless you do not mind spending several days reloading your software and files onto a new hard drive every 2 or 3 months.

Even with a backup, that does not reinstall all of the software onto the new hard drive, only the personal files and data. I have over $15,000 worth of software that I have to painstakingly reinstall each time this happens.
You are mistaken. If you've backed up by cloning the entire hard drive, everything on it is backed up and can simply be cloned onto a new hard drive. Nothing at all needs to be reinstalled from any other source. If you clone to a portable hard drive, you can take it with you on location. If your primary drive fails there, you'll be able to boot to your portable drive exactly as if it were the internal drive, and keep right on working without missing a beat. A 250GB Seagate FreeAgent To Go portable USB2 drive containing a clone of my MBP's internal drive goes everywhere I go, and is ready to step into the place of my internal drive in moments if ever it should go pear-shaped.
Believe me, I am not making this up, and there is no Catch-22. This is what cloning software is for, and it works beautifully. You may have good uses for other kinds of backups too, but a bootable clone of your primary internal hard drive would be invaluable to you as an additional protection against lost time and work in the field.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
I've used both, and I prefer SuperDuper. It's simplicity itself to use, and costs under $30. Carbon Copy Cloner is free, offers more selective-copying options, and in the versions I've used, it presented more inscrutable messages that I didn't know how to interpret, leaving me wondering what had and hadn't happened. I'm told those rough edges have been polished off in recent versions, but I haven't tried them. SuperDuper works very, very well for me and never leaves me puzzled.

Trying to restore my Mac OS after a hard drive failure and my password is no longer recognized, however I can log in by double clicking on the Lion Icon? How can I reset my password

I am trying to restore my Mac OS after a hard drive failure and my password is no longer recognized, however I can log in by double clicking on the Lion Icon? How can I reset my password

First, make sure caps lock is not on.
Another reason why your password might not be recognized is that the keyboard layout (input source) has been switched without your realizing it. At the login screen, you can cycle through the available layouts by pressing the key combinationcommand-space or command-option-space. See this support article.
If the user account is associated with an Apple ID, and you know the Apple ID password, then maybe the Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
Otherwise*, boot into Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. In the window that opens, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window opens. Close the Terminal window to get it out of the way.
Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Follow the prompts to reset the password. It's safest to choose a password that includes only the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9.
Select
 ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.
You should now be able to log in with the new password, but your Keychain will be reset (empty.) If you've forgotten the Keychain password (which is ordinarily the same as your login password), there's no way to recover it.
*Note: If you've activated FileVault, this procedure doesn't apply. Follow instead these instructions.

Satellite C855-1GQ - hard drive failure warning

Hi
suddenly my laptop has started showing me "hard drive failure warnings" and I honestly have no idea what to do about it please can someone help me.
Symptom: The PredictFailure flag is set on the disk
Cause: A logical disk has the SMART Predict Failure bit set.
Details: This disk is experiencing a problem and predicts that the drive will fail
Symptom: Pred Fail
Cause: A device has reported a "Not OK" status.
Details: The device, Disk drive, is reporting a bad status value. This device will not be available until the issue is resolved. The Plug and Play ID for this device is \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0.

Hard drive failure can be cause of computer is bumped or jostled while it is running; the electric motor which allows the platter to spin fails due to bad bearings or other components; filter on your air intake gets too clogged or the filter isn't working properly.
Extreme heat while running causes the electronic circuit board to fail.
There is a sudden power failure while the disk is writing.
You can try the following solution:
Firstly, create a bootable CD/USB by Windows Boot Genius
Windows Boot Genius is a multiple windows repair tool which can be used to fix all computer errors, create bootable CD/USB, recover data lost and unlock windows password, etc.
We just need to insert a CD or USB flash drive and run the program, then click "burn".
Secondly, set the computer boot from CD/USB after enter into the BIOS menu.
Thirdly, start to fix Hard Drive Failure with the CD/USB created at the first step.
At this section, the wizard will tell us what we need to do according to our computer's issues.

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop Windows-XPsp3 OS - Need Data Recovery Help

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop - Need Data Recovery Help
HP Pavilion DV 6108 NR, RG365UA, purchased in late 2006 at Best Buy, with Windows XP, upgraded to Service Pack 3. It has a Fujitsu hard disk, 60 gigabyte, partitioned into C: and a Recovery D:.
Windows tries to boot up, but goes to blue screen with the message: "Unmountable Boot Volume" for one second, then just keeps recycling until I force a shutdown.
BIOS Phoenix, hard drive test result: " #1-08 Fail "
I ran a disk analysis/recovery program on the Cdrive and it seemed to show the directory structure intact, and it was able to recover some files. I was using the free one from Seagate (which only recovers small files). The second pass didn't run so well, and during the third run the program said I should not proceed further, and I should contact a professional disk recovery company.
However, the D drive seems to be intact, so, I wonder if the disk is corrupted or just some aspect of the logical C drive is bad.
How can I get the D: to run the recovery software on it? The recovery disks, made by Best Buy, only proceed to the R / F / Q option screen, and when I press R, I get a blue screen every time.
Tapping the F10 key during startup gets me nowhere. Ditto the F11 key.
I dont care about the hard disk; it is the data (files, docs, images, etc) that I want.
I contacted HP to order recovery disks but they are no longer available for my computer.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Jon
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View Solution.

Update...
I found a website that offers the following:
http://www.computersurgeons.com/p-13442-recovery-kit-435422-001-for-hp-model-number-dv6108nr.aspx
Recovery Kit 435422-001 For HP Model Number dv6108nr
Price: $27.00
Recovery Kit Set (An Entire Image of the Computer hard drive when the computer was new)
But I wonder how useful it would be. Early XP , no doubt. And if my hard disk problem is a mechanical fault, would any recovery disk even work? The disks made by Best Buy when I bought mine new in 2006 don't do anything more than go to the R /F/ Q screen and then goes to a blue screen when I press R (to recover the OS and apps and data files). And, as I wrote, it is the data that I want, not the disk drive.

Boot priority in hd drive failure

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