Can't write to hard drive Error -50

This is an external drive I have used for about 18 months. I have written lots of file to it. All of a sudden I get an error when trying to write to it. Error Code -50. I think the drive may have failed. If so, a few questions. I use Carbon Copy Cloner, so all of the data is safe...but can I reformat drive and use or is it shot? Could it be the housing, which is an OWC mercury elite pro, USB, eSATA, FireWire, etc. can I put a new drive in the housing? Is there anyway to repair this error code? Is it just a corrupt file or something? Any help is appreciated. Btw, tried on eSata and FireWire connections, same behavior.

Hey Miles,
I've found errors to pop up when a drive or a controller starts to go sour... naturally, controllers failing is almost underheard of (but it does happen) so always best to make sure its a drive acting funny first. Of course if the drive isnt yellow or red, apple wont really help you.. here's a way to see if a drive is the case and if so, how to speed up the process to make it trigger yellow or red:
Go to Raid Admin
Go to the drive conditioning option ( i believe this is raid admin 1.5 only)
start conditioning on the array in question and let it go...
You should see all the drives go blue.
First way to check is to see if any errors start popping up in raid admin (and apple would help you from there)
Second way to check is to see if one of the drive's blue LEDs is acting funny (stays solid all the time, blinks out of sequence with the other drives, etc)
If those happen, chances are that drive's gonna go soon and either a colored light or an error is more than enough for applecare to replace it if you have warentee/applecare.

Similar Messages

My Time Capsule is reporting hard drive errors.

Hi all,
My Time Capsule has been reporting hard drive errors. Unfortunately the problem started right outside of its warranty period. I formatted the drive twice, first time was a quick format, second was a single pass 0 write.
My question is: Now what can I do to make this unit reliable again.
I've seen a lot of these reports. This is exactly why I was hesitant to buy the Time Capsule. The sad thing is Apple advertised this as a server grade back-up device. After just over a year of service, I can no longer count on my Apple branded back-ups.
I'd like to see Apple step up to the plate and rectify this issue for those of us who are experiencing the failure. They've extended warranty periods before when it was clear the product had so many field failures. It's the least they can do.

Ring and ask them.. or go into the local store.
Their local store managers have some flexibility.
Especially if an item is just out of warranty.
You cannot buy applecare for a TC. But applecare on any computer will also cover the TC.. and if you want a cheap way into applecare to cover your TC, buy an Apple TV and buy applecare on that.. then Apple will replace your TC, and you can sell off the unopened ATV.
Total cost is pretty much just the applecare on atv which is cheap.
If you want to replace the disk yourself you can do it easily.
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Apple_Time_Capsule

Hard Drive errors after update attempt

I have a Macbook with Mac OSX 10.5.7. 2.2 GHz Intel core duo 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM Western Digital 320GB Hard drive
I attempted updating to the newest version and the computer froze part way through. When I tried to restart I got the daisy wheel running on the grey screen, but would not go further. So i put in the Install Disc, and hit power button and shift key. I got as far as Installer, but when I got the window that asked where to install the OS, there were no choices in the window.
I then removed the disc and tried to boot up, which it did. All the data is there, but I did lose my desktop customization. All applications launch OK (I have tried about a third) except Safari. Safari will not launch.
Based on another post in the forum, i went to Disk Utility and tried to Repair the disk. It failed due to a "Invalid Node Structure". So I tried to Repair Disk Permissions (also based on a forum post). That ran OK, but now the Repair Disk button is grayed out. And when I try to Verify Disk, I get the following:
SMART Status is verified, Partition Map Scheme is GUID.
In the History Window:
Performing Live Verification
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
Checking Extents Overflow file
Checking Catalog file
(the next three lines are in red letters)
Invalid Node Structure
The volume MacHD needs to be repaired
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed
I have also found that there is no longer an administrator for the computer. It is actually my daughter's, and both she and I have (used to have) administrator privileges. Now in Accounts we are both listed as Standard users. I tried to update software. When asked to give my password, it said I was not an administrator (Using the correct password). Neither would my daughter's password work. The laptop does not think we are administrators.
So now the computer is running, and all data is still on it. But I cannot launch Safari. And I cannot update software (as there is no administrator).
(I have seen some posts suggesting third party software which may fix my disk. But they cost $100 and I can buy a new hard drive for 60 to 80.)
Has anyone a clue as to what went wrong? More important- does anyone know how to fix it??
Many thanks in advance.
Mark

After I erase the hard drive (I assume one pass of writing zeros is good enough, 7 passes not needed?) do I turn off the laptop, then turn on and insert the Install Disk? Will there be a prompt telling me when to put in the disk? Or do I put in the disc right after erasing?
One pass is fine. If you've previously backed up your hard drive to an external hard drive using SuperDuper!, which is what I use and recommend, or another program, if it created a bootable drive, you want to boot off of it, bring up SuperDuper! and copy the drive back to the internal hard drive. SuperDuper also makes the drive bootable. When done, reboot, and you should be all set. If you're using Time Machine, you'll want to install the operating system, then restore the Time Machine backup. SuperDuper! is available from http://www.shirt-pocket.com/superduper/superduperdescription.html
Finally- should I update the OS? Is there a problem with the newest update that caused this crash, or was it just a spurious glitch/bad luck?
I've been running 10.5.8 for awhile with no issues, and would recommend moving to it.

Time Capsule can't backup external hard drives connected to it. Got that.

Hello Apple Support Communities! This is my first post. Hope this finds you all well My first year as an Apple user. I bought a 2-Tb TC and am running my first backup to my MacBook as I write this.
Problem statement: TC can't backup external hard drives connected directly to it, but the ones connected to the Macs that are connected wirelessly to it. Duly noted. However, the Spotlight will reindex the hard drives connected to the Mac and that will take hours; the whole backup will take days. Thus, excluding the hard drives at "System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy tab" will probably help reduce the time of backup, or just ejecting them will do too. That itself has not proven effective coz it's still taking forever (50Gb in 2 days, still going).
Questions:
1) Do I wait until my first backup to my MacBook's internal hard drive is done before I connect my hard drives to my MacBook and attempt another backup? If yes, how do I go about the excessive time Spotlight reindexing takes if I intend to backup my hard drives connected to my MacBook?
2) Is there any other way of speeding up the first-time backup?
*Note: All versions of OS and firmwares are up-to-date. TC is connected to an external wireless router. TC is intended to be used as backup device and / or file server only.
P/S: Apologee if this has already been discussed before, thus, a link to previous discussion thread would highly be appreciated)
- Shook Hashem, Malaysia.

How do I backup the externel hard drives connected to my MB. I was under the impression that that has already been done, because I've read it somewhere in a discussion that said it's done automatically unless I exclude it from a backup, which I didn't. So it's supposed to backup the external hard drivestoo because I had them connected to my MB the entire time during the backups.
By default an external drive is excluded.. the list is odd.. if I plug a drive into the mac.. it immediately is listed as excluded.
This is not the list of included.. this is the list of excluded.. remove it from the excluded list to include it.
It is kind of reverse polish notation in backups.
If I want to enter the Time Machine, should I enter it with the TM turned on or off?
Not sure what the question means. If you use the star wars display and want to recover files then use TM off.. but read up pondini.. how to do restore etc.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
15A in particular on the how to use TM.
When do I uplug the ethernet and use the wireless connection instead?
Once you have finished the main backup you can go back to wireless. The incremental backups are mostly very small.

Time Machine can't copy my hard drive

Time Machine can't copy my hard drive, it says that it can't complete the safety copy because an error occured when files were copied to the safety copy. Does anyone recognise this problem? All I could find in System notifications about Time Machine is this: "localhost kernel[0]: Security policy loaded: Safety net for Time Machine (TMSafetyNet)"

John Galt wrote:
... Are you unable to select the external HD as a backup device?
pres92 wrote:
that's the problem -- my hard drive ("startup disk) is not listed, so I can't select it.
The reason is that the startup volume is not a valid selection for its own Time Machine backup.
The only drive listed is the Time Machine external drive. Obviously, I don't want to back up the time machine drive.
By default, a Time Machine backup volume is excluded from being backed up.
The appearance you describe is correct, otherwise I'm completely misunderstanding your problem.

Data recover from a hard drive error 301

Can anyone advise me of how to recover data from a hard drive error 301. I have a pavilion dv7-4177 and i received the hard drive error code 301 two weeks after the warranty expired. I back up my data so I though but when tried to reload that data on a new hard drive it would not take. The damage hard drive will not load the OS now even in safe mode. Is there any way to retrieve this data from that hard drive.

Hi,
One possible way to try and retrieve your files from a non-booting drive is to follow the process detailed in the link below. The Ubuntu operating system CD you create can run from the CD alone ( ie it doesn't have to install on the Hard Drive ) and I've often found it to be successful in retrieving data even from a failing Hard Drive. When you've created the CD, follow the instructions and see if you can back up your files.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windo...
Regards,
DP-K
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

T60p Hard Drive Errors in Diagnostics Test

I recently started having problems with my internal hard drive. It is just over 1 year old, a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 320GB 5400rpm, 8MB cache.. While trying to extract a few zips, I started getting an I/O Device Error message. I ran a CHKDSK and fixed all the bad sectors. However, even after running the checkdisk, I am still getting errors in the ThinkVantage Diagnostic Tool.
I have a T60p, model 8743-CTO. Running Windows 7 with 2x1GB RAM.
Here are the hard drive errors I found with the diagnostics tool.
FAILED: Targeted Read Test - Error Code WHD20-P5V
Error while reading sector 6033483899
FAILED: Surface Scan Test - 2: Error Code WHD08-HMV
There were over 10 sectors with errors
Is my hard drive really failing? Like I said, its a WD Scorpio Blue that I bought just over a year ago, I think they should last longer than a year.
Any thoughts?

Hello,
Sometimes hard disk drives fail prematurely.
Just to verify the issue is with the hard disk drive, you might want to remove it from the ThinkPad and connect it to another computer. The data and power connectors are standard, so this should not be a problem, as long as there is another computer with available connectors. From there, you can check the drive further, as well as back up any valuable data which might be on the hard disk drive.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
I am a volunteer and neither a Lenovo nor a Microsoft employee. • Dexter is a good dog • Dexter je dobrý pes
S230u (3347-4HU) • X220 (4286-CTO) • W510 (4318-CTO) • W530 (2441-4R3) • X100e (3508-CTO) • X120e (0596-CTO) • T61p (6459-CTO) • T43p (2678-H7U) • T42 (2378-R4U) • T23 (2648-LU7)
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How can I erase my hard drive if the Installer can't find it?

Our iBook, 10.3.9, was pretty reliable for 5 years, but it started to work slower the past days (maybe thru too little free space or too many programs open at the same time), so we restarted a lot.. until it didn't restart but came up with the question mark; then with a black screen/white letters asking for a login. But what is my login? I only know my admin password.
I ran DiskUtility and repaired the permissions and wanted to repair the disk as well, but it said (in red letters): unable, could not unmount disk.
I tried Archive and Install, but it stopped halfway and said there was an error, try again later. I didn't try again, but managed to save most of my documents to another iBook (10.4.3) thru FireWire Target mode.
Then I was ready for Erase & Install.
When I first got this iBook, I had a big accident and had to erase and install, at which time an Apple tech person advised me to first install 10.1 and then 10.2 ('cause this iBook was first made with 10.1, it had 10.2 when I bought it). So this morning I put my 10.1 install CD in and selected Disk Utility to Erase the hard drive. This was recommended in another thread to erase all faulty blocks on a computer. I must say the hard drive itself (below the '27 GB OSX' thing with the triangle in front of it) was already greyed out, but I selected this triangle thing and said erase.
Then I went back into the Installer but... it can't find any hard drive to install OSX on. It shows just one blank space...
The strangest thing is that one time this morning when I opened the iBook, it started up just like normal! But it worked too slow, it wasn't fine, so I restarted and then the problems came back just the same. Now I'm back atthe black screen with white letters. It makes me think though that not all is lost with this computer, which my family hopes with me.
What can I do???
ibook Mac OS X (10.3.7)

Cornelius,
ask as many questions as necessary! I know it is a confusing situation.
Your profile lists OS X 10.3.7.
I believe I upgraded last year to 10.3.9.
Do you have a Full Retail Version of Panther available for re-install?
Yes.
What OS version(s) do you have a full retail version for?
For 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3.2.
Do you have an OS currently installed on your computer?
I don't know...
This morning I had set my mind to do the Erase & Install. I inserted the 10.1 disk, opened DUtility and selected "Erase" from the tablist. At that point the hard drive under the top-triangle was already grey I believe. I selected the top line, or the grey line, am not sure which was last. The computer started to spin. I can't tell if it erased anything at that point. But I know that once the computer stopped spinning its operationwheel, I quit DU and went on trying to install, but then there was no installation disc available. There was just a blanc field.
There was nothing else to do but restart, and at that point the computer opened up with a desktop like normal. I know it sounds crazy.
But it didn't work well. I could open a jpg-file in "Preview", but went in "Mail" and it took forever to open a message, at which point I restarted.
And since then, the normal desktop hasn't shown up anymore.
Whenever I restart, I keep getting stuck at 1. a flashing icon with the picture of a globe, which changes into
2. the question-mark, then
3. the window "Mac OS" with the blue stripe, filling up almost all the way and then
3. a black screen with white letters. If I type something and press return, it asks for password. If I type anything and press return, it says 'login incorrect', and then I see a new screen with "Darwin/BSD (X-3.local) (console)..... next line: "login: "
I don't know what my login could be.
I have since started up from the 10.3 CD, but also only saw a blank field where there should be an icon of my hard drive. (at 'select destination').
Since my post, I used my Apple Hardware Test-CD, and that gave a pass. It said "No device found" for AirPort and Mass Storage. "Device found" for Modem and "Passed" for Logic Board, Memory and VideoRAM.
In any case, what I want to do is still to Erase & Install, because something seems to be very wrong and my stuff is safely backed up.
Looking forward to your answer. Thanks a lot.
ibook Mac OS X (10.3.7)

Can the flash storage hard drives in the brand new 15inch Macbook Pro Retina Display laptops (10.22.13) be upgraded/replaced in the future?

Can the flash storage hard drives in the brand new Macbook Pro Retina Display laptops that were just released a few days ago (10.22.13) be upgraded/replaced in the future? I will need more than the basic 256GB for sample libraries using music software, among other things, but currently larger flash drives from Apple are too expensive. I ask because I'm in the process of buying one of the new 15inch Macbook Pro Retina Display laptops right now (or at least right after I get an answer to this question).
I saw in the Mac store when I started looking at the build options for ordering the Macbook Pro that under Memory it said the memory was built into the computer and therefore could not ever be replaced or upgraded in the future. So I was wondering if something similiar might be the case with the flash storage drives even though the same wasn't written under the hard drive options? If these flash drives can be replaced in the future then I would just purchase the starting 256GB drive and suffer through using connected external hard drives, as unwieldy as that would be, until there were potential replacement flash drives with larger storage capacties available on the market or through Apple for more reasonable prices. But if the hard drives in these laptops can't be replaced/upgraded I would go for the 500GB drive option (even though paying an additional $300, before taxes, for just 244GBs more storage space is absolutely outrageous no matter how great flash drives are with their read/write speeds, no moving parts to break, and lighter weight/thinner builds allowing for an overall thinner laptop). I would even go for the larger 1TB option, which is really what I need, except that costs an additional $700 which is more than enough to buy me a new 50inch, HD, flatscreen TV from a reputable brand if I were so inclined! (And yes, I understand the youth of the technology, current limits to flash drive capacities, and the reason for the high prices. I know I'm not getting bilked...)
So yeah, does anybody have an answer to this question? Can the flash hard drives in the new Macbook Pro Retina Display laptops, just released, be upgraded/replaced in the future? Any answers are greatly appreciated and will save me some much needed cash on my purchase of one of these laptops! And I should also ask, if so, can they be replaced by the laptop owner with the normal toolset through the normal, easily done methods of hard drive replacement in laptops that has been common, or would I have to bring the laptop to a Apple technician?
Thanks everybody!

The modules are proprietary. They are installed in a slot secured with a tiny screw.
macsales.com has been working on providing aftermarket modules for the older models that were on the SATA Bus.
These newer ones are likley directly on the PCIe Bus. That will take some time to develop.

I can not access the hard drive connected to my airport extreme! Any thoughts?

I can not access the hard drive connected to my ariport extreme. When I use the finder to connect a server and type in the IP of the a. extreme, 10.0.1.1 it does not work and I get an error message.
Any thoughts.
A

Is the hard drive formatted for Mac in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?
If yes, you may need to use a powered USB hub since the USB port on the AirPort Extreme is under powered and it is often necessary to use a powered hub....even if the hard drive has its own power supply
If both items check out above.....have you checked Finder Preferences to make sure that "Connected Servers" will be displayed?
Finder Preferences > General > Show These Items on the Desktop > Connected Servers
Then with the Finder menus displayed at the top of the screen click the Go menu
Click Network and the AirPort Extreme icon should be displayed
Double click the icon to mount the drive on the desktop

Hard Drive error after upgrade to Mavericks

Trying to upgrade my girlfriends MacBook to Mavericks from Lion.
After starting the installer an "Install Failed" message came up saying there was an error with the Hard Drive and it couldn't be repaired. It said to backup all data, whipe the hard drive and try agian.
Thankfully the hard drive was already backed up, but I can't whipe the hard drive. When i go into disk utility and click erase it gives me an error saying the disk can't be unmounted. All this happens while running the Mavericks installer. It also happens in the Lion recovery software.
I should mention there is a boot camp partition running Windows 7, however I am no longer able to access that either.
So to summarize, I can't run Lion or Windows 7, I can't install Mavericks or reinstall Lion, and I can't re-format the hard drive and start again.
Theory i had was using target disk mode and attempting to erase the drive that way, but I'm not sure how i would go about reinstalling Lion or Mavericks if i did that.
Any suggestions would be grealty appreciated! Thanks!

What exactly crashes? iPhoto upgrades to a library or the application?
What format is the external HD?
OT

Smart hard drive error

"everytime when i'll open my netbook hp mini 110-3500 is showing this message " Smart Hard Drive Error ". imminent failure, i'm trying tohe hard drive test but its still error...please help me..!

Sorry to say it means what it says. Your hard drive needs to be replaced. There is no workaround.

Can not get external hard drives to connect to my computer 17" Mac book Pro 10.7.5

can not get external hard drives to connect to my computer I am using a 17" Mac book Pro 10.7.5.
I have 2 iomegas and 1 LaCie. Changed cables. I can feel the external hard drives running and
I can hear them running but I can not get them on the computer any more. They did work at one time.
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Nothing appear on my desktop.
I did Repair and Verify the HDDs in Disk Utility>First Aid from the
Utilites App about a dozen times ans they all said everything was good
except for the last time there were erors found and I ran the
Disk Utility from the Start Up Disk and the repairs were made and everything
was subposed to te good and still Nothing on the desk top.
Ginger

Can not fine external hard drive for time machine sence lion was installed

I can not fine external hard drive for time machine sence lion was installed, it don't reconise it at all.

I have a Mac Mini (late 2009) and I have an iomega 1TB external hard drive connected to my mini via firewire and usb (usb allows me to use the usb ports on the external 1TB drive to daisy chain other devices). Since I installed Lion, my Time Machine and this 1TB drive (and its partitions) is finicky. Sometimes it is mounted and sometimes it is not. This issue has only surfaced post Snow Leopard and in the Lion era. I am not the first to say this but the whole reason I went Mac was b/c of Vista. I am beginning to think that Lion is the new Vista. Sorry for the latter, just venting... b/c this ain't the first issue with Lion.

Can I use one hard drive for two computers? Newbie here.

Newbie here.
I currently use Time Machine for my iMac (Intel)
I've been using my Macbook Pro (Intel) a lot lately and would like to back it up from time to time as well.
Can I simply attach the external hard drive to my Macbook Pro and set up Time Machine?
Can use the external hard drive for both machines?
Will Time Machine recognized that my Macbook Pro is a separate computer and set up a separate folder on the external hard drive automatically?
Thanks

Hi,
you can use the drive for as many Macs as you like, just make sure it's big enough. Time Machine will create separate folders for your Macs and will "know" which one you're using.
Björn

Can't write to hard drive Error -50

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