It sounds like my hard drive is "leaking" or popping, for lack of a better term.

First of all, I got a Macbook Pro MD104LL/A 2 1/2 weeks ago and the trackpad started being defective to a point to where it was a pain to mess with. So I ended up swapping it out for another one earlier today. Now after researching a bit, my hard drive (right side of trackpad only) is popping with an occassional loud pop. What is the problem, has anyone else ever had 2 defective macbook's in a row? Man, I've enjoyed the experience, but I've had better luck with windows than this. I am even thinking about just returning the whole purchase in general. How can you pay $2100 dollars for two defective products in a row! I've seen people recommending going into the terminal to do super user codes and downloading a file into the bin directory, which is really easy to do in my opinion. But why would I have to pay 2100 dollars to get into a terminal and download a file in a brand new directory when this problem shouldn't have happened in the first place. If someone has any answer to why this is happening, please help out. I don't want to have to return this, but I guess I might have to for a 2nd time. I guess 3rd times a charm huh?

Start Firefox in [[Safe Mode]] to check if one of the extensions is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).
* Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
* https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
In Firefox 4 [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode Safe mode] disables extensions and disables hardware acceleration. 
If disabling hardware acceleration works then check if there is an update available for your graphics display driver.
* Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
In Firefox 4 you can use one of these to start in [[Safe mode]]:
* Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
* Hold down the Shift key while double clicking the Firefox desktop shortcut (Windows)

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Severe startup problems (sounds like the hard drive is done.)

Hey all,
Last night, I attempted to wake my iMac out of sleep mode. The screen prompting me for my username and password came up, and I entered in my password. After pressing enter, the system hung and all I saw was the colored spinwheel.
I shut off the machine, and restarted it. I still hear the Mac start-up sound, but the system hangs at the grey Mac loading screen with the twirling circle. After a few moments, I can hear the fans kick on, and they're louder than ever.
After a few times of restarting the machine, and letting it hang, the grey screen eventually faded away and a new screen, a black screen with white lettering (very similar to DOS), came up and gave me the following text:
"diskOs3: I/O Error.
/etc/master.pssword: Input/Output error
diskOs3: I/O Error.
-sh:/etc/profile: Input/Output Error
-sh-2.05b#
-sh-2.05b#"
As you can see, I'm pretty dumbfounded by this. After looking at this screen for a couple minutes, I tried typing on my keyboard and saw that like DOS, I could type commands. I tried typing "exit" and after I pressed enter, a little text box featuring "LOGOUT" came up. But nothing happened.
Anyway, this is my situation. I've tried resetting the PRAM, and since I have a Rev-2, I don't have to manually reset the SMU or whatever it is.
If worse comes to worse, I still have my Apple Care warranty (I purchased it less than a year ago.) I would definitely prefer to not lose all my data, though.

I just wanted to follow up with this. I had to do a fresh install of Mac OS X, which is unfortunate. I got all my music and movies and such from my other Mac computer, including some key programs.
That was 5 days ago.
Today, I installed Photoshop CS and attempted to launch it for the first time. As the program was initializing, it hung. Not figuring this was anything to worry about, I tried force quitting the program but it didn't work. The entire system had locked up. I turned off the computer, and turned it on again, and surprise: I had the same problem. The hard drive crashed.
So...this has happened twice in two weeks. What's going on here? The hardware tests show nothing wrong with the hardware; surely, it's got to be something right?
I did the smart thing this time and backed up all my essential programs and files in case this happens a 3rd time. If it does happen a 3rd time, I'm going to give Apple a talking to. I love their products, but something fishy is going on here.

My Macbook Pro, circa 2007, does not start up correctly. It gets stuck opening Finder. Does this sound like a Hard Drive or other hardware?

Hello. Need a little help. My Mac Book Pro is having start-up issues. I am running Snow Leopard on this computer. It is bootcamped up to run a PC portion as well. I started having this problem a few weeks ago. I tried to back up the drive, but it would not even let me do that. I wiped it clean (I had a relatively new back-up and it is secondary computer) and reinstalled the OS. It worked well for a couple of days, but started getting held up with opening the Finder on start-up and it woudl just get stuck. I am more than willing to pull the drive and install a new hard drive, but that might not be the main issue so I am looking for some assistance before the next wipe out.
When it was working for a couple of days, I tried to install OS X Lion, but it would not allow me to do so (some installation failure).
Anyway, should I retire this computer or install a new harddrive....
Any advice is welcome.
Dan

a brody, I will take a look. The internal drive works (i.e., the battery, it spins, etc.) it just has a bit of trouble recognizing all CD's so I tend to use the external one since it works consistently. Do you still think this might be the issue? The apple store told me a week after my extended warranty ran out that the drive should be replaced but that an external drive is not an isse, but that was a while back and this problem just started.

How can i transfer a movie from mac to external hard drive? I have tried dragging but it is like my hard drive has a block on it?

How can i transfer a movie from mac book pro to external hard drive? I have tried dragging but it is like my hard drive has a block on it? Please help

brogand wrote:
Thanks for that, it was really helpful.
Glad to hear that worked for you. While formatting an external drive with a Mac format is best if it will be used only with a Mac, if the files on the drive have to be accessible to a PC also, it's possible to format it in an exFAT format, which both the Mac and a PC can read from and write to. However, if you do that, do the actual formatting while the external is connected to the PC.

Programs that put icons on my desktop - they look like little hard drives

I'm new to the iMac, so be patient with me please. I have installed Google Earth, Firefox and Thunderbird. Each of these software downloads have created an icon on my desktop that looks like a hard drive with their logo on top. These icons also appear in my Finder window with an eject button next to them. Why would I want to eject these? Doesn't eject refer to ejecting a CD or DVD?
Also, how do I go about getting these program to appear in my Applications folder so that each person in my family, when they login, will have access to them?
Thanks!

If you double-click the hard drive icons (disk images that act like CDs or DVDs), they will open up revealing their contents, in this case, probably the application installer's .pkg files. If you really have installed the applications successfully, you can click on the eject buttons to "unmount" them. If they end up in the trash you can empty the Trash. However, if you haven't actually installed the applications (they aren't in the Mac OS X disk/Applications/ folder) but have only downloaded the installer packages (inside the disk images), then double-clicking the installer.pkg inside a disk image should start the installation process.

Ipod makes weird sounds when the hard drive runs

my ipod video is making weird click clak sound when the hard drive starts running. Is this normal?? HAs this happen to anyone before?

HEY!!!!!! I wasnt alone. Amazing. I had the same experience with my new Black 30 Gig iPod 5 Gen. It had a 3 second delay, made lots of HD clicking noises. And worse after a few hours of usage, forgot 240 of my 270 songs that had been transferred onto it. This was all happening on the first day! Wow.
Im sure glad to hear I was not alone. The sad thing is, Amazon is going to take 4 weeks to return my money to me. I will never again by a hardware product from Amazon.com. It simply takes too long. As far as Apple iPods are concerned, I believe they need alot of design renovation to put it frankly. Here are my complaints about the 5 Gen:
1. No Screen Brightness Controls. A major no no.
2. 3 Second Gaps between songs. What?
3. The trackpad on the iPod is far out of alignment. Not sure who supplied these, but the Mini was far superior to the 5 Gen trackpad. The traction was severly off kilter.
4. 284$ for an iPod that forgets 240 songs in a blink of an eye? I don't think so Apple. Get a grip. Woz was correct when he stated you all use crapy supplies for your parts.
I thought he was kidding?!
This was my first and by my choice, last iPod experience to be had with Apple. They are cute, but software/user level wise, they need alot of work.
Brian Kortmeyer
Toshiba Laptop Windows XP

Mount Digital Camera like a Hard Drive-HELP TONIGHT PLEASE

I need to figure out how to make my digital camera mount on my desktop like a hard drive. I need to put Images ONTO my memory card, but when I hook up my (Kodak) camera, it always opens in either Image Capture or iPhoto, and only allows me to download images ONTO my computer. I need to put pictures ONTO my memory card. Please help!!!

Digital Camera Disks can be a problem getting mounted and/or accessed on a Mac. Windows has a proprietary system for integrating camera disks but that system is not shared with Apple.
Some cameras have a menu setup setting for disk usage. You might explore your camera's menu and look for a setting to tell it to "act like a data disk". Use the "Data Disk" option to bypass Microsoft's sabotage of your camera
You can name your camera 's disk so the "NO_NAME" part will be something like "Camera". To do this, select the camera disk and press (at the same time) command key (AKA applekey) and the i key, which brings up the infowindow. You can rename your camera disk there.
Another cool trick is to assign your camera a custom icon, I have mine set as a camera which makes it easy to find on the Desktop.
I suggest ignoring applications in both Mac and XP and copying your pictures directly in Finder. When it mounts the camera disk, navigate to the pictures folder and drag it to your desktop and the entire folder will be copied. You can then open the folder in whatever application you want, I use GraphicConverter.

Cannot get into ipod like a hard drive

When I look on itunes and select my ipod I cannot delete songs or playb them they are all greyed out. Can someone help please, and also when you go to my computer and select the ipod it should be like a hard drive and browse your ipod but it doesnt show the files either. Thanks

How come the songs are greyed out and you cannot delete them from the ipod?
Because an iPod which is set to sync automatically will contain all the content set to sync with it in iTunes up to the iPod's capacity, and no other content from iTunes. It needs to be set to manage music manually to do that.
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I have a powermac dual g5 2.0 that wont start up.When I plug it in I get the click from the power supply. When I hit the start button, the white led on the front panel lights up and stays lit. No whir sound from the hard drive or the fan. No lights on the

I have a powermac dual g5 2.0 that wont start up.When I plug it in I get the click from the power supply. When I hit the start button, the white led on the front panel lights up and stays lit. No whir sound from the hard drive or the fan. No lights on the motherboard

The click usually indicates a big problem, but...
How to reset the SMU/PMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436
Earlier G3, G4, G5 models...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1939
Might be time to replace the PRAM Battery, 4 years is close to their lifespan, far less if ever without AC power, & can cause strange startup problems...
See which one your G5 has...
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/CR2032/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BAA36VPRAM/

Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??

just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??

Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd.
Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set.
1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price.
I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there.
Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB?
Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopard
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009
where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.

My iMac suddenly can't read the backup hard drive I've been using for Time Machine. I did NOT just upgrade the OS or anything. The external HD is an OWC Mercury Elite All Pro. It's worked fine since I got the iMac 4 years ago.`

My iMac suddenly can't read the backup hard drive I've been using for Time Machine. I tried unplugging the cord that connects the HD to the iMac and plugging it back in, but I still get "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" below which are buttons for Initialize, Ignore and Eject. I was using a cord that went from larger square plug to larger square plug. So then I tried one that went from smaller square plug to what I think is USB (thin rectangular plug) of the sort that connects the keyboard and mouse. It's the type that my printers and scanners use to connect to the iMac. I did NOT just upgrade the OS or anything. The external HD is an OWC Mercury Elite All Pro. It's worked fine since I got the iMac 4 years ago. What else can I try before just trying to initialize and

Thanks, Michael! I do hear it at times spooling up and running. Just after I bumped the thread I looked for troubleshooting for this drive online and found the manual which suggested using Disk Utility which I've seen before accidentally (if I hit Command Shift U instead of Shift U to type "Unit" on a new folder for a student's homework ) but had never really noticed. Disk Utility does see it and also a sub-something (directory?) which might be the Time Machine archives on the disk, called disk1s2), sort of the way that my iMac's hard drive shows up as 640.14 GB Nitachi HDT7... and has a sub-something titled DB iMac, which is what I named my iMac's hard drive.
Anyway the owner's manual just shows the image under the formatting section, not the troubleshooting section, but as soon as I saw it in the manual I remembered seeing it accidentally a few times, went to it, and am now verifying the disk. Right now it's telling me that it will take 2 hours to complete the verification, so I guess I have a bigt of a wait. :-)
Does that fact that Disk Utilities can see it mean it's not failed, or just that it hasn't completely failed?
I can see the virtue in having multiple redundant backups, or at least two backups. What do you suggest? Two external hard drives? I had this one linked by ethernet, and but I also have a cord that could link it by USB (like a printer), so if this one is reparable I could get a second one and link it by USB. If this one is not reparable I could get two and do the same thing. I do have an Airport so I suppose it's possible to get some sort of Wi-Fi hard drive (my new printer/scanner uses only the network and not a cable, although it has a cable that I used for the initial installation), but I'd suspect a Wi-Fi hard drive might have a higher price.
What hard drives, if any, do you recommend? I seem to recall that when I was looking at external hard drives 4 years ago, Apple's were substantially more expensive, which is why I got the OWC Mercury Elite All Pro.

What is the largest hard drive I can upgrade to for MacBook Pro A1278 Early '11

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I have not seen any 7200 rpm 1 TB HDDs. They all are 5400 rpm. I would say that this HDD comes closest to your requirements. Tomorrow, there may be others.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145584
Ciao.

Do I need to keep my external hard drive connected at all times for time capsule?

Do I need to keep my external hard drive connected at all times for time capsule?

Hi,
I have a similar question. I have backed up my external hard drive through my computer, onto my TC. When I go into TM, it doesn't show the external hard drive unless it is connected to the computer. Can I access the info from the external hard drive that is on the TC if I don't have the hard drive plugged in? If so, how can I do that?
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Is there any way to create a time machine backup to an external hard drive with content already on it? I have a hard drive that i have used for pictures but when i try to run a backup it says i need to start from a blank drive. Can i get around it?

Is there any way to create a time machine backup to an external hard drive with content already on it? I have a hard drive that i have used for pictures but when i try to run a backup it says i need to start from a blank drive. Can i get around it?

It would be much better if you had separate drives for the pictures and Time Machine backups.....but, if you want to use the same drive for both purposes, temporarily move the folder with the pictures to another location for safe storage.
Run the Time Machine backup on the hard drive and verify that everything is working correctly. Time Machine will format the disk for you in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as part of the backup process.
Then move the folder with the pictures back to the hard drive with the Time Machine backups.
When you have tested to make sure that everything is working again, then and only then should you delete the folder with pictures from the temporary storage area.
Again....it would be much better to keep Time Machine backups on a drive just for that purpose, and other data on another drive for that purpose. This is clearly one of those times when the fact that you can do something does not mean to imply that you should do it.

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

Unfortunately, that drive is long gone, probably back to the mfr. Drives are not returned when they are exchanged. You can go by and ask them, but the chances are slim to none.

It sounds like my hard drive is "leaking" or popping, for lack of a better term.

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