Flash drive failure? Help

I have been using a macbook air (mid 2012) for a while, it gave me some warnings for the last 3 days that my start up memory is low but I did not know what to do although I had 8GB free.
Yesterday i finished my work normally and closed the lid. Today when I get to open it, it does give me a blinking folder with a question mark, I have read all types of software troubleshooting of this problem, The only one I proceeded in was : (after turning the computer on, hold down the Options key for a while to choose your start up drive) instead of showing hard drives to choose from, I get to choose wifi connection and the only option to use "Internet recovery" I choose it and it took a while to load then gave me a bunch of options and in the disk utility I can see my start up drive and I click verify and it tells it is OK,then when I go to choose The start up disk, it searches for available disks and the list is kept empty, so I neither have the option to continue installation of a new copy of OSX nor choosing it for startup... So what is wrong ? I really hope for an answer that will save all my data that is on the disk( i have a lot of important data for university) and a fast one because my university semester just started and i need the computer urgently
I really appreciate anyone's reply...

It seems that there has been a rash of the Toshiba 128GB SSD's failing lately. I would make an appointment at your local Apple shop (or maybe just turn up with it) and see what they say.
Lots of these have been replaced lately. In fact it seems they may have run out of the replacement SSD's.

Similar Messages

Experiencing strange performance issues after a hard drive failure - Help!

I bought my mid-2012 i5 Macbook Pro in December of 2012. I realized when shopping for computers that I wanted an SSD installed, but that it would be a lot cheaper if I bought the SSD and installed it rather than customizing it in the Apple Store. So I bought a nice Samsung 128GB SSD (820 or 840 - can't remember which) and did the installation. I went ahead and installed two 4GB sticks of RAM while I was at it. Everything was just dandy: my boot time was just under 9 seconds, and all of my data-heavy apps booted in no-time at all. Then all **** broke loose.
About two weeks ago, I opened my computer and I got the dreaded "? File Folder" notification with a gray screen. I immediately thought hard drive failure. No matter how many times I tried to boot, the computer just would not talk to the SSD anymore. I used Internet Recovery to get into my Disk Utility, and the entire partition was gone. I assumed the worst but wanted to be sure - I bought a hard drive enclosure and hooked the SSD up to an older Macbook, and lo and behold: it worked perfectly. I was not only able to recover data, but I could write data to the drive. Nothing appeared wrong with the drive when I plugged it into the old Macbook, but my newer Macbook still would not recognize it. Even my fiance's Windows 7 PC recognized the drive as "?" (since it was formatted for Mac, but hey - it recognized that it existed!).
I decided to re-install the original HDD that came with the 2012 Macbook Pro (the one I removed in favor of the SSD). I was able to re-install the OS and I can boot up at will, but everything is different. The performance issues are extremely noticeable. I can't have more than two programs running at one time without the spinning wheel of death appearing. My boot time went from 9 seconds to 2 minutes. I know that SSDs increase performance, so there is some slight performance downgrade to be expected since I am using a mechanical drive now -- but these are not normal issues. Sometimes I can't even type a web address into Safari without the wheel appearing. iTunes, and specifically the App Store, take minutes to open - and I have no media is on iTunes.
Here's the thing: I have tried just about anything to fix this problem that Google can pull up. I've verified the HDD, I've booted into Safe Mode, reset RAM and cache, run benchmarks and other performance tests, entered all sorts of weird language into Command Prompt, and studied Activity Monitor - I can't find a single red flag that would indicate anything being wrong. It appears to be a perfectly functioning, updated computer.
I'm thinking a piece of hardware failed that triggered the error with the SSD. I'm not really sure though since all of my performance tests indicate perfectly functioning hardware. I'm a little afraid to take it to the Apple store because I know they'll tell me it's my fault for opening the computer and replacing the hard drive in the first place.
Any ideas? At this point anything to salvage this computer would be helpful.

Spin Cycle,
were those other computers which were able to recognize your SSD in its external enclosure also Macs? Do you know if your SSD has its most recent firmware revision installed? (If it doesn’t, its installer can be downloaded from the Samsung SSD firmware page for burning onto a bootable DVD.) I haven’t used the 830 myself, so I don’t know what its reputation is with Macs. I have an 840 PRO in my MacBook Pro, which has been trouble-free for me, but my understanding is that the 840 EVO has had trouble with Macs in its earlier firmware revisions — so I’m wondering if the 830 has a known track record with Macs, good or bad.

Flash Drive Unreadable - HELP PLEASE!!

"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." Story of my life.
I have a 32gb Micro Center brand flash drive. It's completely full of pictures, videos, documents, and files. Every time I stick it into my Macbook Pro, it tells me its unreadable. It gives me three options: Initialize, Ignore, Eject. I don't want to mess around with anything until I know what's wrong and what I should do. I've tried putting my flash drive into PCs, but it's still unreadable. I always remove my devices safely so I'm not sure what the problem is. The flash drive is in excellent condition. Maybe if anyone knows how to talk me through the Initialize option, that'd be helpful, cause frankly, I don't know much about softwares and such.
I've heard of people sending out there flash drives and getting them fixed. Is this an options? I'd only do it if it was guaranteed to work without losing any files. Is there anyway I can troubleshoot it at home and fix this?
I will be checking this post often to reply to any questions or answers. It's urgent that I access my flash drive!

Initializing it will format it and you will definitely lose everything if it isn't lost already.
Not being readable on either a PC or Mac is a bad sign.
It may be worth taking it into MicroCenter and see if they have any ideas. Most recovery services are rather expensive and Google is your friend in finding such a service.

FLASH DRIVE ISSUE HELP !!

Why does my FLASH DRIVE inserted to mac then inserted to WINDOWS it turned to shortcut after that i can't open my file to my mac.

I have the exact same problem. Can someone please help?

IMAC Fusion Hard Drive failure, help with data recovery

I've got a Late 2012 iMAC 27 Inches 3.4GHZ with a Fusion 3.1TB HDD. My machine has booting issue the past few weeks and when contacted through Apple Care UK, after a few over the phone diagnostics they wanted me to take the machine over to get the Hard Drive checked. I had transferred some of my vital data from another HDD a few days before that and did not have an up to date backup. When booked in they said the HDD will have to be replaced and they will migrate the data over. But when I collected the machine, they said they couldn't transfer data as 'it didn't mount' and therefore unable to transfer. I was gutted as I have 2 wedding on their which were WIP and had to be delivered to the client in a few days. I have got my old HDD from the apple store...but unable to read data..can you help? Guess as a final resort I'd have to obtain the expensive data recovery services.

Ouch...
But before going for an expensive data recovery service, you have some other options.
At first you have to get that harddrive connected to your iMac. There are several solutions to that. One is to buy a SATA USB Docking Bay (see picture). You can put the harddisk in it and connect it via USB to your iMac.
Next you'll need recovery software. Disk Utility will probably not help you, but it is worth the try (because it is free and comes with OSX).
A great piece of software to look at is DiskWarrior. It once helped me accessing a dying External Harddisk and got most of the data off it before it really died. There are more applications, just google 'Data Recovery OSX', and you will find a lot more.
Oh, and make sure to start a good back-up plan for the future. Time Machine is great, or Carbon Copy Cloner, and maybe invest in a decent NAS to copy your data on.
Good luck!

USB flash drive with G4, OS9.2

Just bought a 256Mb USB flash drive to help friend move data from old iMac to new core duo (lucky s*d). tried it first at home - works Ok on my eMac (10.4), but when plug it into my G4 (OS9.2), get the old 'this disc is unreadable, do you wish to initialise?) message (that takes me back a few years!). Should I format it? If so maybe it won't then work with my eMac. I think OS9 has a USB mass storage driver somewhere, but can't find it. Maybe that is the reason why G4 doesn't recognise the flash drive.
Any suggestions would be most welcome

Hi, John -
This User Tip (by Joerg Weiss) may help -
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121944
Although that tip is directed towards other USB storage devices, the included list of needed extensions and their versions may also apply to your situation.

My MacBook Air chimes during startup but flashes a bar at the bottom then shuts down, is this a hard drive failure or a hard ware failure? Please help I miss my laptop

First generation MacBook Air running OSX 10.6.8

Hi,
From what you describe it's certainly a Hard Drive failure so you'll definetely need to contact HP. Personally, considering this is the 2nd HDD in under 2 months, I say it's either bad luck ( however unlikely ) or there is another issue at play - it may be worth suggesting this to HP when you contact them.
Regards,
DP-K
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Flash Memory / Hard Drive failure

HP 311-1000 NR
Bought this computer new in 04/2010. Have used it for nothing but internet and itunes. Have used it maybe a total of 40 times in 18 months. Hard drive storage being used was maybe 30GB out of 250GB.
Turned on today, and got a black screen with error message "Flash Memory Error Hard Drive Failure"
Have not installed any new software in months. Had only been using the computer to visit Nike.com website the night before.
Computer has run it's antivirus and tune-ups without any errors every time I turn it on. No previous errors or freeze ups prior to this.
Any advice? Is this simply a matter of having the flash memory replaced? Thanks for any time and help.

we need to make sure that the HDD on the com works fine
here is the helpful link
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00439024&tmp_task=solveCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&la...
If you hav windows 7
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USB Flash Drive Help

Hi gang,
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question, but it's the closest forum I could find.
I have an old iMac running Mac OS 8.6, and I need to transfer some files (Appleworks documents, and family pictures) from it to another iMac running OS 10.3.9. They are in different locations, with only dial-up internet access, so I can't transfer files over the internet (easily), or by an ethernet connection.
I have two USB flash drives. The first is an old 128 MB, USB 1.1 drive. The other is an 8 GB, USB 2.0 drive. Neither drive will work on the OS 8.6 machine. When I put the device in the USB port, I get a message:
+'The software needed to use the USB device "USB Drive" cannot be found. Please refer to the device documentation to install the necessary software.'+
The 128 MB drive is so old, I don't have any documentation. I tried looking on the website of the manufacturer for a drive, or something, (the flash drive says Fujifilm on it), but they don't have anything useful.
The 8 GB drive is newer, but didn't come with any instructions or installers (not that I was counting on it to work on this old machine). It's a Verbatim flash drive, and they didn't have any help there.
I tried re-formatting the 128 MB drive to Mac OS Standard. That didn't work. I tried formatting it in Mac OS Extended HFS+. That didn't work.
My question is this, is there a software extension that I could download, it can't be that large of a file for dial-up, that would allow me to use the flash drive on a computer using OS 8.6? I have an OS 9 CD, and I also have a back-up CD of OS 9.2.1. Is it possible there is a driver in the extensions folder there that I could transfer and use in OS 8.6?
I appreciate any and all help.
Thank you.
just a rambling joe

Hi, joe -
...I'm going to replace this iMac's 4GB hard drive with a slightly larger one...
If your iMac has a processor speed less than 350MHz, it is important that you partition the new drive if it is 8GB or larger -
Article #TA22193 - Gray or White Screen After Hard Drive Upgrade
Article #TA20420 - OSX: Disk Appears "Grayed Out" in Installer
...install OS 10.3.9 and OS 9.2...
Important - before attempting to install OSX be sure the firmware has been updated on the iMac; failure to do so can cause loss of video on early iMac models -
Article #HT1395 - Firmware Updates

I got new hard driver for my MacBook I don't have the cd but I do have flash drive that has the software I need help because when I turn on my laptop it shows me a file with question mark how can I install the software from the flash driver?

I got new hard driver for my MacBook I don't have the cd but I do have flash drive that has the software I need help because when I turn on my laptop it shows me a file with question mark how can I install the software from the flash driver?

Hold down the Option key while you boot your Mac. Then, it should show you a selection of devices. Click your flash drive and it will boot from that.

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.

As a new MacBook user I plug in my USB Flash Drive but don't know how to access its contents. Please help. Thanks.

as a new MacBook user, when inserting my USB Flash Drive, I do not know how to access its contents. Please help. Thanks.

Open a new Finder window, Finder > File > New Finder Window, and it should appear on the left under Devices.
If you don't see it there, or to get it to show up on the Desktop: Finder > Preferences... General tab, check External disks to have it show on the Desktop, Or Sidebar tab, check External disks under DEVICES.

Using iPod as a flash drive between PC and Mac help!

Hey guys,
I have no idea how can I make my iPod a flash drive. Well, it was fine when my school used G4 iMacs last week. But now it's all HP pcs. And I cannot transfer my files to those computers anymore. When I plug my iPod via USB to one of them computer, it says that I will need to format the disk drive (iPod) because it cannot read the file system.
I guess it is because of my iPod is always connected to Macs (including mine) so that the file format on the iPod is unreadable to PCs. So I have no idea what to do because I am scared of that PC is going to ruin my iPod hard drive and its OS. I tried plugging it to a PC at my house, same thing happened. I am too scared to try.
Do you guys have any idea?
Thank you in advance,
Ton

Probably the easiest way to use an iPod on both Mac and Windows computers is to format the iPod (using iPod Updater) using the PC. This will force your iPod to use the Windows file system (FAT32) which both the Mac and PC can read from and write to without the help of additional software. Of course then all your software updates for the iPod will have to be done on Windows.
If you need to use a Mac (HFS+) formatted iPod on a Windows PC, you'll need to install some 3rd party software such as XPlay 2.0 (which you can get from MediaFour Software). This will enable your Windows PC to read a Mac-formatted iPod.

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
This question was solved.
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.

Please could somebody help me I have an iMac which came with Tiger 10.4.10 installed I have lost my disks and I need to re-install after a hard drive failure. Where can I find this? I will upgrade to Snow Leopard after but I cannot go straight to SL

Please could somebody help me I have an iMac which came with Tiger 10.4.10 installed I have lost my disks and I need to re-install after a hard drive failure. Where can I find this? I will upgrade to Snow Leopard after but I cannot go straight to SL

You can go strait to SL, all you need is a retail SL DVD available from Apple for $20. The US online store has them at:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

Flash drive failure? Help

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