Hard Drive Failure... is it just me?

OK some would say to have one hard drive failure is unlucky, to have two fail is careless but three failures make me think we have a problem. So now my MacBook goes back for repair, before that my MacBook Air, before that my MacBook Pro... no problem, all the data is backed up on www.mesh.com, I can't rely on MobileMe, I just have to make do until it returns. I am a pretty heavy user of my Macs, but they seem to fail far more often than they use to.
I don't need advice... but I strongly suggest that you back up your data and probably to something that does not use an Apple supplied Hard Drive.
Perhaps someone could publish the MTBF so that I would know when I should replace the drives before they fail.

Well this is a long-standing issue with Mac OS X along with Linux. [This|http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=591503&highlight=harddriveclick] thread on the Ubuntu forums has 90 pages of discussion and it isn't the only thread about the issue. [This|http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5030999] thread continues the discussion from the other post. It talks about using tools like hdparm (hdapm on Macs) in order to reset the power management of the drive and stop the idle clicking.

Similar Messages

HT1661 My mid-2009 MacBook Pro has just died via a painful (for me) hard drive failure. I backed up a good percentage of files recently but not enough to keep me happy. I need to access the dead drive on the MBP via a 2008 iMac. Best options?

My mid-2009 MacBook Pro has just died via a painful (for me) hard drive failure. I backed up a good percentage of files recently but not enough to keep me happy. I need to access the dead drive on the MBP via a 2008 iMac. Best options?
I have ordered a 800 firewire to 800 firewire cable and am hoping to use the target mode option to copy files from the MBP.
Is this possible?
Hope so!
Any advice and or help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Neil

Thanks Ogelthorpe.
Just bought an enclosure to try that also.
Hoping the MBP isn't really dead but just feigning death
Fingers crossed.

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.

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.
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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.

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.

Macbook Pro 2011 extremely slow wondering if hard drive failure

Hello, I want to start off by saying I'm not a huge computer guru, so that is why I'm coming here first. My Macbook Pro worked very well for a year, and then it has slowed down drastically. I've always been a windows user so mac is kind of foreign to me, but I'm trying to learn.
Some problems I've encountered are 1. Extremely slow running whether internet related, or just an application. I have checked the activity monitor and nothing is hogging up my memory. 2. Spinning wait cursor (rainbow circle) when I try to do ANYTHING. It takes minutes to start computer once it makes it to home screen. The circle just spins for a few minutes. Even just web surfing it's there. 3. Battery drains from 100% to less than 20% in 30 minutes, which again is annoying. 4. When battery drains the fan turns on and seems to drain battery even faster. 5. I get a lot of random errors forcing shut down of programs. I have ignored this problem for two years by not using my laptop or using it very minimally, but I am going to be needing a laptop again for school and not just my iPad and phone so I was planning on taking my macbook to genius bar, but wanted to check here first since Apple is an hour away. Plus I want to be able to use the piece of equipment that I spent a decent chunk of change on. I used time machine to back up everything today. I know its not a space issue as I have 300+ free GB on hard drive. I have tried to read through similar posts, but its overwhelming so I came here to post my own question.
I ran disc utility and there were some errors, which were able to be corrected after a couple tries. Computer still slow though when trying to do anything and running rainbow circle.
In recovery mode I reinstalled OSX
I was finally able to install updates after completing the above that were not able to be installed before.
I ran etre check, this is the report that came up:
Problem description:
Extremely slow computer, possible hard drive failure
EtreCheck version: 2.0.11 (98)
Report generated November 3, 2014 9:25:29 PM EST
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1
1 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
4 GB RAM
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB
Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software: ℹ️
Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63) - Uptime: 0:6:50
Disk Information: ℹ️
Hitachi HTS547550A9E384 disk0 : (500.11 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499.25 GB (357.49 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5970H
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple, Inc. MacBook Pro
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/System/Library/Extensions
[not loaded] com.Logitech.Unifying.HID Driver (1.2.0 - SDK 10.0) Support
/Users/[redacted]/Downloads/LCC Installer.app
[not loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.HID Driver (3.5.1 - SDK 10.0) Support
Startup Items: ℹ️
HP IO: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP IO
Startup items are obsolete and will not work in future versions of OS X
Problem System Launch Agents: ℹ️
[failed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist Support
[running] com.Logitech.Control Center.Daemon.plist Support
[invalid?] com.luthresearch.savvyconnectmenu.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[invalid?] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support
[invalid?] com.luthresearch.scservice.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[...]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)
SavvyConnect UNKNOWN (missing value)
Google Chrome Application (/Applications/Google Chrome.app)
HP Scheduler Application (/Library/Application Support/Hewlett-Packard/Software Update/HP Scheduler.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 15.0.0.189
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 67 Check version
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player Support
Growl Support
Java Support
Logitech Control Center Support
Time Machine: ℹ️
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      11% Safari
      3% WindowServer
      0% fontd
      0% Google Chrome
      0% ps
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
245 MB WebProcess
206 MB System Preferences
168 MB Safari
99 MB mds
82 MB Google Chrome
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
1.37 GB Free RAM
1.57 GB Active RAM
318 MB Inactive RAM
1.03 GB Wired RAM
436 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs
Basically I'm wondering if anything sticks out in this report. I was thinking it could be a possible hard drive failure. I know my computer has been dropped on the floor at least a few times. Thoughts are appreciated. Thank you for your patience.

Eab, I feel your pain! I am replying simply to share my similar ongoing experience with my early 2011 17 inch MacBook Pro, running Mavericks with seeming ample hard drive space, [applications requiring less than 100GB, about 200GB data (total drive space of 500GB)] & 4GB RAM. (Disclaimer: I am not a wise or computer-savvy mac guru - simply a fellow traveler who has had a very similar set of problems - apps taking forever to load, rapid battery depletion & super overheated MacBook. While I am a Genius Bar groupie, getting to the Apple store is, for me, akin to an antarctic polar expedition (i.e. problematic). Having spent endless hours struggling with a similar issue, I offer you a synopsis of my struggle/experience.
STEPS TO DATE:
1.Installed several memory utility programs (Daisy Disk & MacCleanse) system
maintenance program to regularly and thoroughly empty application caches (Adobe apps & internet browsers being tremendous hogs), identify and remove language elements and other redundant space hogs, etc.   Result: Small, but real improvement when I forced myself to perform a "scan and delete" session every second major computer run (typically about 6-8 hours in length). However, this did nothing to help the problems regularly detected when I run the Disk Utility which almost invariably demonstrates disk permissions that need to be repaired and, with increasing frequency, has demonstrated actual disk errors that require restarting and walking through a disk repair protocol. I did bring it to the Genius Bar where they kindly reinstalled Mavericks which they could do in about an hour versus the several hours that doing this at home requires. This did identify that my RAM was, on fact, a limitation on the speed at which I could run certain apps.
2. My next move was to install an additional 4GB of RAM. I bought the new RAM on eBay for about $90 because, with 3 kids equipped with MacBooks & iPhones, I simply couldn't afford the official Apple RAM. I even installed it myself, with the help of a YouTube video. Result: Giant improvement in speed (starting up or switching apps. If I had realized how simple it turned out to be, I would have done it well over a year ago. Some minor improvement in the overheating problem, but persistent problems with disk permissions continually requiring repair and periodic disk repairs (using Disk Utility) required.
PLANNED FINAL INTERVENTION:
3. I am purchasing and installing a solid state drive (ssd) and simply chucking the original hard drive, after considerable discussion with my savvier mac friends. It has become clear to me that, sadly, every hard drive has a finite life affected by a variety of factors. I am, in fact, hard on my equipment - running multiple graphic apps simultaneously, transferring massive GBs of data between my laptop, time capsule and an array of hard drives. I will let you know how it goes, but can share that the decision to get a solid state drive followed many conversations with multiple Mac guru-types (in the hope of saving you similar painful tribulations). The cost varies according to the size of the drive, but $400-$500 would buy a reasonable starting size. I am waiting for Black Friday sales, myself. Amazon (where I will likely purchase the ssd) is already offering a number of pre-Black Friday deals. While I don't really feel like putting out that amount of cash, I reassure myself that a new drive will almost certainly solve the disk errors (with a solid state one offering more durability) & will help me prolong the life of my MacBook Pro by a couple of years hopefully. It beats buying a new Apple MacBook only three and a half years after investing close to $3k for this one!
I am certain that more experienced forum users could point you to software that could help defragment your drive or may be able to offer other solutions. I've simply had enough of struggling with burning thighs and head-banging behavior triggered by slow performance. I hope this is helpful to you in some small way. The war is not yet over, but I'm feeling good about the battle plan!

Time Capsule hard drive failure

Hello, all
I have a 500 GB Time Capsule that is about four years old. I use it to back up my MacBook Air and I also use it for file storage. Recently the HD has become erratic, in that it appears on Finder under Shared sometimes but not always. The wireless router part is still working fine. I can usually get the HD to reappear but it disappears again eventually. I can get it back by unplugging and replugging the TC, but I tried a hard reset and that didn't bring it back. I have backed up all the files I had stored on there as advised by the Apple Store Genius (see next paragraph).
I took it to the Apple Store and the Genius said that he thinks it is failing. He was not able to see the TC/HD wirelessly but was able to access it by plugging in a cable. He expressed surprise that my TC has lasted four years!!! He said I should replace it.
I then went to the online Apple Store and read the TC reviews, which contained quite a few reviews that report HD failure (mostly power failure, if I'm not mistaken) after 18 months or so! Some suggested that a good solution would be to get an Airport Extreme plus a USB hard drive of some other brand, not Apple. Many of these report power failure, which is not my problem. I still have power; apparently hard drive failure.
This sounded like a good idea, so today I went to London Drugs in Vancouver (an Apple retailer) and the salesman there (should be fairly unbiased) thought I should get a new TC rather than the two-piece solution just because it was simpler. He also said that in fact there about three HD manufacturers who produce all hard drives and that any one would have about the same frequency of failure, Apple include because they don't manufacture their own.
So I'm ready to replace my old TC with the new one I bought, but I'd like to get any suggestions the community might have. I can see the advantage of the TC because it's an all-in-one. I haven't opened it yet, so I'll await your well-informed input.
Thanks so much!

I think the TC is a much better buy.. If only for this reason.. the USB hard disk on the AEBS is dog slow.. whereas the TC internal drive is at least same as standard single disk NAS.. overall for what you get the price of a 2TB TC vs the 2TB USB disk plus AEBS is about right.. the 3TB TC is much poorer value.
Read the review.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/airport-extreme-5th-gen-and-time-capsule-4th- gen-review-faster-wifi-/4
It is fairly well done, but not everything is correct.. the stuff about the fan turning on is wrong.. it has the same issue as the old one. That is overheating, no ventilation and the fan does not turn on, has no outside vent anyway.
But look at the internal vs usb speed of hdd.. that should convince you of the value of the TC.. if you are using anything but wireless.
BTW the issue with the Gen 1 is still more likely to be the power supply.. The original 500GB hard disk was a Seagate Server ES drive.. the only server standard drive in the whole TC series although it was always promoted as having server standard drives..
IMHO a repair of the power supply would get it up and running again. Very extermely unlikely that drive will die in such a manner.. even if it was to go bad they tend to stay bad.. not come on again when you power cycle.. but power supplies sure do.
I have repaired dozens of them.. haven't ever come across a dead 500GB drive yet.. seen a few 1TB, both WD and noisy hitachi.. but even so not that many..
Lots and zillions of dead power supplies though.
https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repair
At least you can pull open the TC and remove the hard disk and wipe it.
Interesting the Apple guys are surprised at the 4year life span.. obviously intended for you to buy a new one much sooner than that.

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
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.

MacBook Pro hard drive failure- data recovery possible?

Hi everyone, I have a June 2009 MBP that stopped turning on the other day and it just sits on a gray screen when trying to boot up. I had it taken in to a small little authorized Apple repair shop since I am living out in BFE and they said it has a hard drive failure which is causing the problems. They said there is no way to recover the data. Is that right? I'd imagine there has to be someway to recover it. Is there somewhere I can send it in or something? At this point even if it were to cost a lot I'd like to get the data off of it if there is the possibility.
Inb4: should've backed it up!

You may be able to boot from an external hard drive and repair the disk enough to copy the data from it, even if it will no longer boot. There are a number of hard drive recovery services. Apple even lists a couple of them (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3974) that are authorized to recover data from hard drives without voiding the warranty. The warranty is not an issue with a machine from 2009, but those are high quality, reputable companies.
Most such companies have you send them the hard drive and they will give you an estimate of how much it will cost to recover the data, if possible. Some people have reported that Data Rescue 3 comes with a coupon for free diagnostics and $100 off data recovery from The Data Rescue Center. That was a couple of years ago. I don't know if the same deals are in place now.

Hard drive failure

Hello everyone, my macbook is like around 3 years old, and a couple of days ago my hard drive died. This is really unfortunate since I couldn't back up most of the files I had in that drive. The thing is, this happened to me 1 year ago, and I'm noticing that I had similar scenarios prior to the hard drive failures. The first time that this happened, the night before my first hard drive died, I was erasing tons and tons of files from my macbook, I was just cleaning my downloads folders, deleting stuff I wasn't using anymore, that night I deleted like around 20gigs of data(pictures and music mostly), and the day before my second hard drive died, I was deleting files as well, this time I deleted like 13gigs. Both drives died because of the famous "clicking of death" sound. My macbook wouldn't boot, and was flashing a question mark folder in both cases.
My question is: was this just coicidence? or deleting tons of gigs of files at once will make your hard drives die. I've heard deleting files you no longer use is good for your hard drive. I must stress that I didn't delete any system files, I tested both hard drives via USB hard drive enclosures and the hard drives were just unrecognizable.

@tyrekm
‎Thank you for using HP Support Forum. I have brought your issue to the appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post ( serial numbers and case details).
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Thank you,
Omar
I Work for HP

Hard drive failure - options for data recovery and AppleCare coverage

I have been handed a relative's 12 month old MacBook Pro with a factory-installed 500GB hard drive which appears to have failed. When attempting to boot the MacBook I am met with the classic clicking and grating noise which I know is a tell-tale sign of hard drive failure. The drive will not boot and I am shown the question mark folder icon, indicating that the operating system cannot be found. Have booted into internet recovery mode, Disk Utility appears to have found no sign of the hard drive's existence and shows none of its partitions. I have attempted putting the MacBook into FW target-mode and mounting the disk from another laptop, but to no avail; while it will go into target mode the drive simply isn't visible. The SATA connection to the drive is definitely OK - I have tested with another 2.5 inch hard drive which showed up fine in Disk Utility and was bootable. Have run Apple Hardware Test/Diagnostics but this returned no errors. It seems like a pretty clear cut case of drive failure.
I put this all to the relative whose laptop this is and asked them whether the MacBook had been dropped recently, explaining to them that this is one of the likeliest causes for such sudden failure. Sheepishly they admitted that they had indeed dropped it, although not from too great a distance and onto a carpeted floor. Apparently in the days immediately after the shock the hard drive continued to boot but the system was very slow and beset by spinning beech ball hangups. It is only in the last few days that the hard drive has become completely unbootable, and seemingly unreachable.
I have two questions that I would be grateful for some help with.
Firstly, is there any possibility of recovering data from this drive without going to a data recovery specialist? The user did have backups of most important data, but some recently imported photos were not backed up. Is it any use me trying any third-party data recovery software utilities, bearing in mind that I can't even mount the drive in target mode?
Second, the MacBook is still covered by the extended AppleCare warranty for the next two years. Is it worth my relative's while making a Genius Bar appointment to see whether Apple would replace this drive for free, given that the damage was most likely user-inflicted? Is there any chance that this sudden failure could be unrelated to the drop the MacBook suffered the other day - perhaps just a result of the 'normal' failure rate? I am more than happy to exchange the drive for a new one myself and my relative is happy to pay for the new part (I was amazed at how cheap hard drives are now), but would we be better off trying an Apple Store? My prediction would be that while we might get lucky and have an obliging genius who agrees to swap the drive without asking too many questions, we could also have one who concludes the damage is not covered by the warranty and insists on charging for the new hard drive (at a mark-up I assume) and labour.
Any thoughts about these two issues or the hard drive failure more generally are very welcome. Thanks.

1, Data recovery software is your only alternative if there is no backup. It may or may not be able to revoker anything from that hard drive. If it does then the only other choice is to go to a data recovery service. If have to go that route expect to pay for it, like $$$$.
2, Yes. They will at least tell him what the problem is and the cost if any to fix. There is a good chance they will fix it for nothing and only charge for data recovery if they can do it.

MacBook (2007) Hard Drive failure?

Half an hour ago my MacBook started to have quite a large clicking noise, somewhat kind of like the optical disk checker that happens when you start up your Mac, but slightly different.
20 seconds later, everything started freezing. I forced-shutdown the Mac and when I opened it up again, it had a dimly lit screen and had the loud jingle noise that happens when you start it up.
Is this a hard drive failure or a logic board failure? There's no broken folder indicator-It's just a dimly lit white screen and that's it.
Please reply back.
Thanks,
JFWarr

Apple has a hard drive repair program for Macbooks sold in 2007. See information at http://www.apple.com/support/macbook/hd/repairextension/

2012 Macbook Pro Hard drive failure

I have a 13" MBP purchased in September 2012 with a 750GB hard drive. A few weeks ago I noticed it running slower than usual and sometimes it wouldn't boot correctly, throwing up the folder question mark or the circle strike through symbol at the boot screen, so I went to the Apple Store. The genius ran some test on it to see if the drive was working properly and it wouldn't even complete the test. He told me it would be about $185 to replace the hard drive, including labor, but I've had this computer for barely a year and a half (my first mac) and I find it really hard to believe that just some basic student use and mild gaming (The Sims 3) would cause a hard drive to fail after just barely a year. I've read other posts about hard drive failure for the same year MBP's so my question is, how common is this and why isn't Apple doing something about it? I've also seen people who post about replacing the drive and finding out its the SATA cable or the PRAM or something else. How much should I trust this genius from Apple, and what should I do to find out if it really is the hard drive, because almost $200 is a little much for a struggling student to pay to replace this laptop that I spent $1700 buying a year and a half ago and the guy's explaination of "its like a tire, it happens" just doesn't fly with me. Help?

Thirty percent of HDDs fail within 3 years. Your case is not uncommon. Furthermore, Apple does not make hard drives. They purchase them from hard drive mfgrs. So, why would this be Apple's fault? Despite what you would prefer to believe, it does happen. Pay the money and replace the drive or just sit there and curse your computer for no longer working because you think someone is out for your money and lying to you.

Hard Drive Failure... is it just me?

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