Imminent hard drive failure 2010 iMac 27, 2.93GHz

Hi I have a 2010 2.93GHz 27in iMac that is my main machine. It has both a 256GB Apple SSD and a 2TB Hitachi HDS722020ALA330 installed with the SSD running Apps and the system and the Hitachi used for my Home folder.
I use both iStat and SMART Utility to monitor the condition of both drives since a sudden failure by either would be catastrophic. I have an adequate back-up procedure in place but I don't want to be suddenly pressurised to replace either drive hurriedly in an emergency. Call it being prepared...
Anyhow, SMART Utility is warning me of imminent failure of the Hitachi drive containing all my data. However iStat passes both using SMART status. So which do I believe?
Looking online it seems that SMART Utility has a pretty good track record in detecting possible failures but I guess unlesss you actually wait for it to happen you can never be sure if the diagnosis is correct.
So I decided to prepare for the worst by ordering a Western Digital 4TB Caviar Black. I like WD and I like the five year warranty even more, however when it arrived I tried to format it. It was noisy spinning up and Disk Utility would not allow a format to take place even though it did actually see it in the list of drives.
I have since found out that internal drives on some iMacs must be replaced with those from identical brands - in my case Hitachi. Hitachi is now called HGST and guess who owns it - yup, Western Digital...
So, the supposed reason for needing an identical branded hard drive is to enable the temperature sensors to work avoiding the 'full-on fan experience'. In the past I have fitted other brand hard drives to other iMacs and used HDD Fan Control to get around the issue but this is my own machine and I intend hanging on to it in as close to factory condition as I can. It's simply the best Mac I have owned in 20 years!
HDD Fan Control has worked very well but obviously I don't want to go down the road of stripping my main machine unneccessarily nor encountering compatibility or other problematic issues that further delay fixing the drive keeping my machine unavailable for work.
And there's the rub. It isn't yet a problem according to iStat. So which software should I believe and which 4TB hard drive should I buy to maintain an otherwise happy Apple experience with my beloved 2010 iMac?
Thanks for any helpful advice!
Rich

Run Apple Hardware Test in extended mode 2-3 times back to back. If any errors appear then take the machine in immediately and get the machine fixed. If errors appear that only confirms a hardware problem is imminent however if no errors appear you may still have troubles.
You left your profile completely blank, it would be helpful if you read Help us to help you on these forums so you know what we look for to assist you.
I would also recommend running Repair Disk in Disk Utility on the internal HD, because you did not complete a profile we don't even know the version of OS X you have running so we cannot offer more instruction than that. If Repair Disk reports errors then yes take it in immediately for replacement.

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Imminent hard drive failure message

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Hi,
"Imminent hard drive failure" do you get this message in a black screen (as in the BIOS) or in windows.
This could be a Hard drive failuer.
Please run a startup test by tapping F2 when the system is powered on.
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Following hard drive failure on iMac running Maverick I have recovered from TimeMachine backup but now app store does not connect. All other internet connections normal. Does anyone know of a fix?

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My HP G62-b23SA reports a imminent hard disk failure. Hard disk test reports SMART Error (301). Advised to back up the system and contact HP support to enquire if Hard disk needs to be replaced or just needs repair. I have since backed up the system, should it be replaced?
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
The 301 Smart error would indicate that your Hard Drive is failing and will need to be replaced.
If your notebook is still under warranty, contact HP and arrange to have the drive replaced. You can check your warranty status Here.
If you live in the US, contact HP Here.
If you are in another part of the world, start Here.
If you are out of warranty and would like a guide on replacing the Hard Drive yourself, please let me know - include the size ( ie 500Gb ) of your current HDD.
Regards,
DP-K
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Imminent hard drive failure

Hey there, I just missed my warranty by 7 months and i am now receiving 'smart check: failed' - what are my options? - it seems to me that a hard drive should be covered for more than just a year on a unit that I paid almost $1000. - Is the HD covered elsewhere? thnx -ev

The standard warranty is for one year for most notebooks unless you purchased an extended warranty.
Most new Envy notebooks have two years and many business notebooks have three. You can check your warranty status here.
If you have the imminent hard disk failure error message then do a clone of your entire hard disk to an external storage medium today.. Do not procrastinate on this!!
There is a free version of Macrium Reflect available here. Clone the ndrive to an external disk.
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2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

Imminent Hard Drive Failure Pavillion DV6

HP Pavillion DV6 - 6051ea
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I've run the hard drive scan, and got the following failure ID:
M4JC3U-5K9655-MFH14J-60E303

Hi:
I would back up my files as soon as possible, if I were you.
Also, if you have not created a set of recovery disks using the HP Recovery Manager, I would do this ASAP.
You may also want to create a system image using the backup tool in windows 7 and create a repair CD.
Then plan on getting a new hard drive in the very near future. Use the recovery disks or system image to load your OS back on the new hard drive.
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Imminent hard drive failure detected ; product name : F2C07PA#ACJ ; operating system : windows 8.1

dear sir,
i need urgent help!! my laptop says that it has detected an imminent hardware failure although it hasn't even been 6 months since i bought it. i ran the system diagnosis for
system and component damage, as prompted by the system. the SMART test was passed but the test for hard drive 1, failed.
failure ID is : RU76X3-6RG733-MFPWXF-61UB03 .
product no. : F2C07PA#ACJ
i have had my data backed-up, in case things go worse and i am currently trying to defragment the hard drive. but it will only buy me some time.
may i please know, if there is any way i can get things back to normal without spending any money ( more preffered). and if 'no' then how much it would cost me to get a new hard drive..
thanking you in anticipation.
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View Solution.

Contact HP.
As long as your notebook is in warranty you will be provided with a replacement hard disk at no additional cost. Having an active warranty is a good thing.
You will need the recovery media that you should have already created to recover your notebook to the state it was delivered in once you install the replacement hard disk.
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2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

Imminent Hard Drive Failure? Satellite C655D-S5130

Recently performed a system recovery after boot failure on Satellite C655D-S5130. Recovery went fine, but now we're getting a windows error message after startup saying that we should run file backup because the hard drive reported errors and warning us of an imminent failure. Otherwise running fine. Please advise.
R&S

Everybody should already have a file backup for all of their PCs. So if you haven't already backed up your files then do it now. I strongly suggest creating a Hard Drive Image of your C drive using a reliable imaging/ghost program. If the hard drive is able to provide a reliable image this will save you a lot of heartache and countless hours of rebuilding your NEW Hard Drive.
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Good Luck.
"My comments are my own reality" Consider these in addition to other sources. I only know what I know.
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Serial (repeated) hard drive failures - 24" iMac (early 2007)

This is my mother's computer. After years of my brothers and me advising her to buy a Mac so we wouldn't have to fix her Windows computers anymore she finally bought a 24" iMac. Since then the hard drive has failed repeatedly. The first time it was still under warranty (barely) and it was replaced by the fine folks at the Apple Store. The next time I had the pleasure of doing it myself (I've been doing such for a couple decades; walk in the park). The first two were, of course, standard/OEM Apple-issue drives. The most recent (installed less than 2 months ago!!!!) was a decent Seagate (same grade as the OEM drives).
Seriously, something is very wrong. Please put yourself in my position: My mother dropped quite a bit to buy this computer after I insisted that it would be more reliable than anything she'd used before. Her frustration (she is very verbal about her frustrations) after the first failure was difficult to endure. Now she won't let me rest until this is resolved.
I have zero desire to put another drive into this if it's just going to die like the last. Not to mention the cost. This is ridiculous! She has a great Time Machine backup, and I personally saw it running the day before the failure, so she's good on that front, but what am I supposed to do to prevent this from happening again?
Other than the previous hard drive replacement I have had zero experience with Apple support. I've never needed it. Do I have any chance of them recognizing that this is a lemon and doing something about it?
Look at it in perspective: This will be the 4th hard drive in less than 3 years. In my mother's computer. She's almost 60 years old. It gets maybe 15 hours of use per week.
Thank you for any help/direction/whatever you can provide.

Excellent questions. Yes, I have tested the drives independently of the iMac. I tried target disk mode first, which showed no drive installed. Then I removed the drive and tested it with two different external devices. In all cases my MacBook Pro doesn't recognize any drive connected, though it does recognize the external devices.
The iMac and the backup drive are plugged into a uninterruptable power supply which, in turn, is plugged into an excellent Isotel surge protector which isolates the printer and other devices which are also plugged into it.
I will definitely be getting this drive replaced by seagate. I just don't want to do this again.
The AHT never shows any problems. Is that normal? Seems like it isn't even trying to test the HD, which would make sense if can't see a drive attached. Hadn't occurred to me to run it right after installing the drive, when everything appears to be running just fine. Thanks!
And, to the other guy who cautioned me about the scary glass and fancy sounding tools (give me a break; I own torx drivers up to T20-something), you'll note if you scroll up that I said in my first post that I personally installed this last drive. If you'd like I can go over the pros and cons of each iMac design in terms of hardware upgrades and/or replacements. Same goes for the PowerBooks, PowerMacs, Macbooks/Pro, and Macs Pro.
I'm not a psychiatrist, so I'm certainly prepared to be wrong, but it sounds like you had a traumatic experience with your own glassy iMac. Do you feel like you want to talk about it? I'll listen if you think it will help you feel better.
Message was edited by: jonkun227

Possible Imminent Hard Drive Failure?

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

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

Imminent hard drive failure - warranty replacement?

SMART drive diagnostics warns of an imminent SSD failure on a one-month old Envy laptop.
Failure ID: U4G76X-73474Q-MFGJWK-600903.
Attempted suggested fixes per HP support pages. No joy. Research indicates a replacement is necessary. How does one contact support for a warranty claim/replacement drive?
Thanks,
ram

Contact HP by one of the three methods on the web page.
You will need to give the service engineeer the hardware fail ID that you posted here in your thread.
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External Hard Drive Failures after iMac internal drive replaced

I was one of those lucky ppl who had to have my internal 1TB Seagate HDD replaced due to the recall. It was replaced on Friday.
After the drive was replaced (with another Seagate, ***?), I cloned my previous system back to the new drive (restoring from Time Machine required me to re-download Lion, which required me to re-download to a newer version of Snow Leopard, and just, Oi, vey, I used my clone).
I then had to create another bootcamp partition, and after that, I restored my previous bootcamp from an image backup with Winclone.
The next morning, my Time Machine external backup drive (a Maxtor OneTouch) makes horrible fluttering and crunching noises and cannot be found via disk utility, certainly doesn't mount to the desktop. I figure it just coincidentally failed and attached a new drive (a different OneTouch) for backup.
While Time Machine is performing an initial backup to this new drive (will take 10 hrs), I try to move a few media files to another external media drive (LaCie 1TB). I receive a couple of error -36s on a few particular files, so I figure I should wait for the Time Machine to backup and then diagnose the media drive.
The next morning (after 10 hr backup is finished), I have a stop-sign error that a disk was unmounted improperly (the LaCie media drive). The drive cannot be seen in disk utility or on a completely different MBP running Snow Leopard. It's spinning up, but it can't be read.
Only thing I can think to do is reinstall 10.8.2 over top the cloned system, make sure that the recovery partition was recreated and working.
This can't be a coinicidence, right? At this point, I'm afraid to keep my external storage drives and clone attached to the iMac, but I'm afraid to not have TM drive attached. Anyone know where to start diagnosing the problem?
1. Could a new internal drive be the problem, hardware wise?
2. Could the lack of an initial recovery partition or the setting up of a bootcamp partition have these sorts of consequences?
3. Could the problem be from restoring a clone?

Well, it is a LaCie-packaged adapter, some version of that model. The hub is on the mac mini inspired line of LaCie HDs (http://www.lacie.com/company/news/news.htm?id=10269). I've had it for 6 yrs, and the hub is still going. Other drives have been running from the hub without issue for all that time (and still are). There is no hissing, and the display light indicates the hub is getting power.
You think it's time for a new hub?
The internal switchout is just a coincidence?
(Basically, I'm not a hardware expert. Does anyone know if an internal drive or internal sensor/connection problem can cause externals to fail or blowout a controller? I'm waiting on a drive dock to arrive—I'll know more whether these are HD failures or chip failures after that. Both drives showed normal-seeming power use via their display lights.)

HP Pavillion DV7 Hard Drive failure and replacement

Hi all,
As the title mentions, I have an HP Pavillion DV7, p/n: NB406AV. The SMART is showing an imminent hard drive failure. The primary hard disk quick test stops at 4% and shows a code "303" for hard disk 1. It also stops at 4% when doing a full HD scan.
So, I'll be replacing the HD. I have no idea what to buy, and I plan on buying a non HP HD. Can anyone tell me the specs I should look for? I'd like to get the biggest GB HD that will be compatible as well. Thanks for your help!

Hi,
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http://www.seagate.com/au/en/internal-hard-drives/laptop-hard-drives/laptop-solid-state-hybrid-drive...
You can use 1Tb on your machine. New HDD's are thinner but the screws will be lined up and should be strong enough to hold the HDD in place.
Regards.
BH
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HP Envy 7 interment hard drive failure on start up

Hello,
I have a HP Envy 7 with Windows 7. On start up, I get the "Interment Hard drive failure", I ran the hard drive test and the results were good. I didn't get an error message but the message comes up everytime I restart. Is there a way to turn the smart disk message off or should I get ready to purchase a new hard drive?

Hi
Can you help me with Product number & the complete model number off you unit. Please find the Link given Here how to find the details.
Most HP Notebook PCs have SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology System) capable hard drives. SMART is firmware that resides on the hard drive and continuously monitors drive parameters such as performance and error rates. SMART uses a technology known as predictive failure analysis to tell you when a hard drive failure is imminent.
Common SMART errors are:Hard disk failure is imminent.
A hard drive in the system reports that it may fail.
Smart failure imminent, back up your data
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Let us know how it goes!
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Regards
Manjunath

Imminent hard drive failure 2010 iMac 27, 2.93GHz

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