Hard drive problems...

My MacBook is almost almost two years old and I've had a ton of problems with it. It started out with the colored palmrests and "mooing" fan, then I had a crash after a firmware update. About four months ago I had to replace the SuperDrive because it stopped recognizing disks completely. Now, a few days ago, my hard drive crashed.
The crash sounds exactly like crashes that other MB's have had: I wasn't doing anything too taxing, using Firefox with Photoshop and Illustrator running but not being used. Firefox froze on me, I went to force quit it and then Finder froze. I went ahead and turned off the computer and let it rest a minute or so then rebooted. The flashing folder with question mark appeared after awhile so I found my startup disks and tried to see if I could re-install OSX, but the computer didn't recognize the hard drive at all. I took it to my neighborhood Apple repair place and they said "Hard drive not mounting, it appears that there is an issue with the read head. Data not retrievable."
I bought a new HD and installed it myself, but now the computer isn't recognizing the new drive either. I'm not sure if it's still a hard drive issue or if there could be something else wrong with my MB. I would really appreciate any suggestions anyone can give me!

In order to use a new hard drive you must prep it:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
Of course I assume the drive has been installed properly.

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Hard drive problem...... Please Help

Hard drive problems
I am sure it is due to my error or mistake but I received a new Maxtor III touch as a replacement for my failed drive yesterday after connecting it I went to Maxtor one touch manager software that came with it and the drive did not appear in the window so then I opened disk utilities and copied my notebook hard drive over to the Maxtor ran permissions on each drive and then closed down my system ! today when I opened my Powerbook with the Maxtor on it gave me the grey screen 2x so I disconnected the Maxtor ran permissions again and everything was fine until i power up the Maxtor and Grey screen again! Help How do I fix this?????

Maxtor one touch III firewire 800 its connected to my Titanium G$ Powerbook I am beginning to think its just another drive failure

Computer is balky random freezes across apps. Two hard drive cleans later (their scan reveals no hard drive problems) photo shop won't work at all, magic touch mouse inoperable and their diagnoses is corrupted data? Anybody heard of this?

Computer is balky random freezes across apps. Two hard drive cleans later (their scan reveals no hard drive problems) photo shop won't work at all, magic touch mouse inoperable and their diagnoses is corrupted data? Anybody heard of this?

Well, yes, data does get corrupted sometimes.
The trick is finding what data.
By 'cleaned' are you therefor meaning that the drive has been erased and the system re-installed?
Because that's the quickest way to deal with such a situation.
Back up the system first of course,
Add back 3rd party apps one at a time in case one of them is causing the problem.

I was trying to sync my 120GB iPod Classic earlier and it said it couldn't sync as the iPod disk could not be "read" or "written to". I now can't get anything onto my iPod, and I was wondering if it is a hard drive problem? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

I was trying to sync my 120GB iPod Classic earlier, and it said it couldn't sync as the iPod disk could not be "read" or "written to." I now can't get anything onto my iPod, and I was wondering if it is a hard drive problem? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Did you go into iTunes to change the location of your media files? if not you will need to go into iTunes and click on preference and select the advance tab then click the iTunes Media folder location. Select the location of your on external hard drive.

Hard drive problem with HP Pavillion dv7-4180us

Hard drive problem with my HP Pavillion dv7-4180us. Using Windows 7.
Boots up sometimes and very slow.
Appreciate any help.

Have you booted into the BIOS or Diagnostics Tool to run the Hard Drive Test?

I have lost my info for my ipod due to hard drive problem. Can I upload the info on my ipod to my computer. I don't want to lose what is on my ipod.

Lost ipod info on computer due to hard drive problem. Can I upload info on ipod back to my computer and how do i do it.

- Transfer iTunes purchases by:
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to a computer
- Transfer othe music by using a third-party program like one of those discussed here:
Best iPod to PC
- Create a backup of the iPod by connecting the iPod to the computer. Right click on the iPod under Devices in iTunes and select Back Up.
- Restore the iPod from thzt backup and sync a necessary.

Restoring iTunes files after hard drive problems

HI.
I recently had hard drive problems and since the recovery of the data I have lost all my files from iTunes. The sogs I have put on to the Mac via CD's are all still there but all the iTunes downloads have disapeared. This is probably because I didn't back up!
I also have numerous duplications, which I eventually removed from itunes but I know the majority of which will return if I drag my music folder across.
This will be a hige taks again to remove the duplications.
I want to use this unfortunate incident to my advantage though and now have a clear out of my unwanted files and keep my iTunes nicely organised.
I also lost my playlists, which is a major pain.
By looking at the support threads it seems that I can use my ipod to put my library back as it should be. Will this also replace my downloaded songs? My other issue is that some of my iTunes downloads, downloaded with some problems, which are obviously on my ipod. How do I go about getting the songs repaired?
Thanks for any help.

[Zevoneer's detailed instructions on getting music off an iPod|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9053179#9053179]
[Wired's How To: Get Your Music Off of Your iPod|http://howto.wired.com/wiki/GetYour_Music_Off_of_YouriPod]
[http://www.metaphoriclabs.com/articles/5-ways-to-copy-music-off-your-ipod-windo ws-mac-os-x>
I imagine if the files exist on the ipod you can get them transferred over. if they don't exist, they are gone.
As for the corrupt files you would need to provide more information on the issues.

MacBook Hard Drive Problems?

I've used this MacBook for a few years without any issues. It has always had very snappy response and very few problems. Earlier this week, I noticed that it takes about 4 minutes to boot up now as opposed to the 30 seconds it used to take just a week ago. Once running, Safari also tends to be unresponsive at times and slow to load. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that during boot up, I can HEAR the hard drive give off some "clicks" and faint "beeps" (for lack of a more technical description). In my experience with Windows machines, this is often a sign of hard drive problems.
With Vista, I can run a CHKDSK and fix the drive by taking the bad sectors out of the mix. I am trying to figure out how to best diagnose and repair my drive on this Mac. I tried booting from the Snow Leopard DVD and running Disk Utility/First Aid to find the problem, but this utility reports that everything is fine and dandy. I am not sure I agree.
Can someone tell me of a more powerful tool for the Mac that will fully diagnose any hardware or software problems on this machine so I can get it back to tip top performance. Is there a diagnostic utility provided by Apple? Other utilities built in to Snow Leopard? Third party applications?
As I have never had problems with a Mac before, I am in uncharted waters with regard to diagnostics so if anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks!

domtrump wrote:
In addition to OSX (Leopard) I have two (2) "MacBook Mac OSX Install" discs. Does anyone know which one is bootable and contains the AHT utility?
You have to determine what version of Leopard shipped with your Mac. It might say on the disk. If not, put in the leopard disk and see which version it is. As stated in the link I gave you.........
For Intel-based Apple computers shipping with Mac OS X v10.5.4 or earlier, Apple Hardware Test is located on the Mac OS X Install Disc 1 and should be included with your computer.
For Intel-based Apple computers shipping with Mac OS X v10.5.5 or later, Apple Hardware Test is located on the Applications Install Disc 2 and should be included with your computer.
Here's another AHT faq.
DALE

Help! folder icon w/ exclamation point - hard drive problem?

I live in the philippines and the store which i called up said the only solution is to show the receipt and they will send it to singapore but i still have to buy a new one. it's like they're not giving me choices at all. i know my iPod is not yet "dead", why do i have to buy a new one? how can i have this repaired?! it hasn't been a year yet, but around 10 months already and i don't have the receipt anymore.
here's what happened...
for the past week my iPod has been skipping songs, going to the next ones but doesn't play at all. sometimes it even freezes. and i hear this whirring sound at the back.
so i decided to connect it to the computer and erase all my songs first coz i thought maybe the problem was with the files. but iTunes didn't recognize the device. so i decided to reset it (so that the songs and my factory settings will be erased) by pressing menu and select at the same time. then after i did this the "do not disconnect" message kept on showing up and eventually it just stayed there. so i tried resetting again. the apple logo shows up but after a while the folder icon with exclamation point shows up. then it would turn off.
I tried restoring it with updater but it says it could not mount the ipod. so this might be a hard drive problem already. how can i solve this?
please help!

Try calling their toll free number <probably charges apply when you're calling outside the US>, 1-800-827-0685.
Usually, they will send your machine to the nearest repair station. I think in SEAsia, repair stations are in Malaysia.
Your iPod comes with a universal warranty, so you could definitely have that repaired even without the receipt. <Im from the Philippines too. I what you mean...>
good luck!=D

HT4759 I had to change my apple password to fix hard drive problem in my iPhone and now I cannot connect date stored in iCloud as my password has changed. How do I plug in new password to iCloud to be able to retrieve data from my MacBook Pro to my I pho

If you change your apple password how do you notifly icloud to resync everything? Forgot my apple password, had to change it due to hard drive problem on my iphone 4 which had to be totally erased then rebouted and now works but cannot download from my computer/icloud due to password change. So how do I orchestrate the change of password to icloud/computer to allow all to sync together?

If you use Lion, boot into your recovery pressing Command and R buttons, press "Utilities" menu, open Terminal and write:
resetpassword
If you have Snow Leopard, boot into your install DVD pressing C button, click "Utilities" and press Password Reset

MBP Hard Drive Problem (Again)

My MBP is going back to the Geniuses for a HD problem for the 3rd time tomorrow, since I bought it in July. I am confused about exactly what is happening, and I would like any advice anyone might have about salvaging any of my data.
(The first two times, I brought it in because the HD died. The first time, they told me they had replaced the HD, though they hadn't. They ran diagnostics, decided it did not need to be replaced after erasing my data, and then gave it back to me. I brought it back the next day [t died that night as I was reinstalling] and they replaced the HD in about a day.)
Everything got really slow this weekend and I had "index" and "database" problems in my mail.app (twice), and my iTunes (twice). Now, the replacement HD has disappeared when I tried to reinstall the system software/repair the disk in disk utility.
This is the chronology:
I have had this hard drive for 3 weeks, installed at the local apple store to replace my factory-installed dead hard drive.
On Friday, my mail app stopped working. After diagnosing the error message (thanks to this forum), I learned that the index file was corrupted, so I reinstalled the index.
On Saturday, my iTunes said it couldn't read my iPod, so I restored my iPod, erasing all of my data (music, calendars, contacts, important documents). I continued to get the same error message.
Today, I restored it again, but I still couldn't get iTunes to write more than 2 gb of information (of the 20 gb of data). At that point, I decided I would have to send my iPod in for repairs and stopped trying.
8 hours later, I got an error message that said the iTunes index was corrupted. I started to put the music back in to iTunes, but the MBP kept kept freezing.
I restarted the machine and received the blinking questionmark. I put in my system installation disks to run disk utility and, if need be, reinstall my system software.
This is where it gets interesting:
Disk Utility can see the topline Disk Description and the SMART status is verified. But the name of the disk itself is wrong and the mount point says it is unmounted. The capacity is correct, but under everything from owners enabled to number of files and space available, there is just a dash.
Unlike my previous hard drive problem, there is no clunking, and the hard drive appears to be working. Disk Utility found the following: Invalid B-tree node size. The volume needs to be repaired. Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit. 1 HFS volume checked: volume needs repair. And that's it.
My questions are:
1. What is happening to my hard drive?
2. Is it dead or is there any way to fix it?
3. Is there any way to salvage my data? (Because of my iPod failure, I lost my calendars, contacts, important data from my last big back up 3 weeks ago, not to mention my carefully curated music collection. I have my documents backed up to gmail, but not my notes, which were on my iPod.)
4. Does it sound like an internal hardware problem or is it really just two bum hard drives (from two different manufacturers) in a row?
MacBook Pro 2.16 ghz Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

In case anyone receives a series of index problems which escalate into apparent hard drive failure and blinking question mark of doom . . .
the Geniuses fixed the computer by doing a complete wipe of my hard drive.
They said that the directory error may have existed from before my last hard drive was installed, but I am not certain how such a thing could exist.
Because it was a directory error, I lost all of my data on the hard drive, but I was able to take the machine home with me within an hour. Since the erase and reinstallation, my computer is running much, much faster, and seemingly cooler, but that may just be my relief at having a working machine back.

My ipod makes a strange sound when on ans nothing appears in the screen, is it a hard drive problem?

my ipod makes a strange sound when on ans nothing appears in the screen, is it a hard drive problem?

it is disrespectul not responding not responding to my request. anyone i can report that to?

I have a 2007 Macbookpro and it started up with gray checkered boxes ann across the screen I tried to re load OSX and it work 1 day and started again is this a hard drive problem or Video? Now as it starts to load a screen comes up saying to restart

I have a 2007 Macbookpro and it started up with gray checkered boxes and across the screen I tried to re load OSX and it work 1 day and started again is this a hard drive problem or Video? Now as it starts to load a screen comes up saying to restart over and over again

I'd suspect this known issue:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377
if you have a late 2007 MBP.
The only testing you can do at home is to attach an external monitor and see if the defects repeat on the external. If so, get to an Apple store. If the computer's video chipset fails a test the Apple Store will perform, you get a free logic board replacement. Turnaround is usually one day to one week--not bad at all.
If the defects do NOT repeat on an external monitor, then the problem is not covered by the above Repair Extension Program
The issue is heat-triggered. Be certain that you control heat once you get it fixed. Don't use the computer in your lap without a lapboard; don't block the vents under the display hinge; don't us in clamshell mode, etc.

Been having Hard Drive Problems

I've been experiencing hard drive problems recently and this started 2 weeks ago. I'm not an expert in the hardware department (bare with me) but I own a 2.26ghz 2009 MBP and the hard drive has been fine up until recently. Not gonna lie, it's performance has decreased significantly over the years and Mountain Lion slowed it even futher.
Anyway I noticed it lagged after waking it from sleep; to the point where it wouldn't respond for longer than 10mins. I had to force shutdown several times, and was afraid of putting it to sleep in fear of encoutering the same problem over and over again.There was one day, where this happened , and it just died on me. Upon bootup, a logo appeared (circle with a cross through it, something to do with startup files?) so I force shutdown again, but everytime afterwards, I'd just get the grey screen of death.
At first I thought it was a virus, but then I took it into an Apple servicing store (I live in NZ, we don't have any apple stores) and they said it was the HDD. Long story short, I got a new HDD, plugged it in and proceeded to reinstall Snow Leopard. When I went to disk utility, it wouldn't even recognise the new HDD. I had the same problem when I tried to reinstall Snow Leopard to my old HDD (before I figured it was a dying hard drive).
My new drive is a WD Scorpio Blue, brand new. It should have no problems with being recognised right?
I've come to the conclusion that it has to be the SATA cable right now, but does anyone have any suggestions? If it is the cable, is there a specific one I should be looking out for? I'm still in HS so money is a bit of a problem. I just need this fixed so I can do my design work

One way to test is to place the HDD in an external enclosure and the boot the MBP with the Snow Leopard install disk. If it appears in Disk Utility, then the internal connection is probably at fault. A new cable should not be an expensive proposition.
Ciao.

MacBook Pro 15" Hard Drive Problem.

Hello ... I have a MacBook Pro 15" which recently died on me. When I turn it on, on the "gray" screen there is a blinking folder in the middle. Snow Leopard never boots up. I thought that my hard drive died, bought a new one for it. Replaced it and when I boot it from leopard to install it on the new drive, when I was asked to select the volume in which I want it the new OS, there was no drive that I could select. Therefore, I am stuck in that step. I used an external enclosure to see if the drive was faulty, but it came up on my iMac. I also placed the old hard drive on an enclosure, and it came up fine on the iMac. So, looks like it is not a hard drive problem, any ideas on what I can try or might be ... ? Thanks!!

Did you use the disk utility on the Snow Leopard installation disk to partition the new disk. If you don't do this the installer does not see the disk.

Will Apple stores in Germany replace your iPhone if there is internal hard drive problems from a phone from the US. I am studying abroad and won't be home until December

Will Apple stores in Germany replace your iPhone if there is internal hard drive problems from a phone from the US. I am studying abroad and won't be home until December

You can try, but the iPhone warranty terms state that Apple "may" restrict warranty/service to country of original purchase...key word here is "may".
Good luck.

Hard drive problems...

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