Macbook Pro crashes then hard disk fail

I'm a weathered mac user and have had macs for the last 15 or so years. I bought a new Macbook Pro 4 months ago and it has crashed more times than all of my previous macs together.
A month after buying it with SL installed, the beach ball of death came up on the screen more often and then a day later the computer froze and the hard drive was corrupted. I reinstalled OSX and it worked fine (all data backed up using a time capsule phew!) until a month later it started getting slow again. I went to disk utility and this told me the hard drive need a repair. Then it tried to repair and said it could not and OSx could not be loaded onto the hard disk. Apple directed me to a service centre and replaced the hard drive.
Then a week ago (Xmas eve to be precise) the same thing happened. The hard disk froze and said it needed to be repaired. I took it to a genius bar where the guy (who seemed knowledgeable) said that it was not a hardwear but a software problem and reinstalled OSx. Fair enough I thought and rather than using the migration assistant I dragged over my emails, photos and doc etc.
If you've got this far well done! My problem now is that this evening it has once again started crashing for no apparent reason. I have no dodgy programs loaded, in fact all of them are on both mine and another mac. Two things have also happened, Front Row keeps loading up for some strange reason and I'm unsure why. Secondly the hard drive started making some really bizarre clicking noise whilst time machine was backing up.
Has anyone any ideas what to do next or had similar problems?

Well, if there isn't a hardware problem then there must be a software problem. Of course the diagnostics test may not detect a problem especially if it's random unless you run the test over a prolonged period of time - 24 hours, for example.
If it is a software issue then I would start by doing the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. 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. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
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.
Quit DU after formatting is completed and reinstall OS X.
In answer to your firmware query: No, you cannot return to the previous version.

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Macbook pro not starting (Hard disk damaged)

Hello,
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I have a time machine backup on an external hard drive so I can use that to restore the system but that backup was done 2 weeks ago, I've some new files in the computer so I'd rather not do that. I want to be able to start my computer and copy files and folders onto external disk then perhaps reinstall the OS again. I also read about Fsck but I don't really understand that.
I don't know about computers well, please help me..

OS X- Gray progress bar appears under Apple logo during startup
OS X v10.6- Gray progress bar appears under Apple logo during startup
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing drive
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
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If the above does not bring about a resolution, then you need to erase the drive and reinstall OS X:
Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
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This model was released in June 2012 and is still available:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD103LL/A/refurbished-154-inch-macBook-Pro-23g hz-Quad-core-Intel-i7
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Get Disk Warrior that will repair the problems without requiring that you reformat the drive - $99.00 on a bootable CD. Will not work on a FAT formatted drive.
You will need to use Drag and Drop to save your files by copying them from the bad drive to a good one.
To reprep the drive:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
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 Security 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.

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it can't mount
this is message when i used Disk Utility's First Aid
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848
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If you subscribed to iTunes match the songs are kept in icloud. If you didn't but you did save the actual iTunes library folder which should include the music, video, etc. you should be able to just drag this file back to your machine in the same place and when you open iTunes it will give you a chance to identify the iTunes library folder.
You can test this to find out if you saved the media files or not and don't need to attach your nano to do it.
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iPhoto 6 and earlier libraries were regular folders with the kind of files your reporting. With the advent of iPhoto 7 the library folder was changed to a package similar to the application packages but have essentially the same files and folders inside. There's no reason to have access to the inside of the iPhoto Library so Apple changed them to packages.
Do you have a backup copy of the iPhoto Library from before the HD crash. If so restore it to the Pictures folder in your Home folder. If you previous version of iPhoto was iPhoto 7 or earlier download and run the iPhoto Library Upgrader 1.1 on your library before trying to open it with iPhoto 9.6.1.

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On Saturday May 12 I contacted Local Apple Support (I have failed to mention that I live in Brasil) and they informed me that what the dealer said was the only thing that could be done, too bad for me if I lost everything, going to loose several days of work and whenever I receive my computer back will have to re-construct all my life and deal with the forever lost data.....DEAL WITH IT
After a couple of discussion with Apple Support and the Dealer, I made my decision to take the Macbook to the dealer today for repair and meanwhile I'm opening a case with the Brazilian Justice to have Apple honor with all the trouble and hassle that it is causing me, it's said that I have to take this type of action as I'm a very fan of Apple and it's products, have had several iPods, iPhones, Macbooks, Keyboards, Mouses, Apple TV, etc.....This i the first time I have a problem with a Apple product and got a taste of the "Apple Care", it seems like Apple is more concerned on seeling products then keeping long time customers happy.
One last thing, today when I was at the dealer to drop my computer for repair, the Technician informed me that he also had a computer crashed and the HD erase on Sunday May 13th in the same way of mine, after the update everything was gone, also he said that we were not the only ones, iPads and iPhones were going trough the same situation, update causing complete breakdown.
WORD OF ADVISE, BE 1000% SURE THAT YOU HAVE EVRYTHING BACKED UP BEFORE YOU GO THROUGH AN UPDATE.

rvalezin wrote:
If I need to back-up every hour of my life in order to be able to save everything from something like this I won´t do anything else.....at least we should be able to trust that Apple tests this updates so situations like this won´t happen.
That's exactly what Time Machine does for you. It backs up every hour, so you don't have to. While it is backing up, you keep on working. Time Macvhine came with your Mac and you chose not to use it.
The 10.7.4 update did not cause your hard disk to fail. Hard disk fail due to mechanical causes. They are extremely reliable, but that doesn't mean every hard disk will last a long time. Your mileage WILL vary!
If you are dependent on your computer and the data stored on it, then you should make sure you have AT LEAST two copies of all data and probably three or four. You should use at least two means of backing up in case the backup software has a problem. And you should consider having a backup computer if you live in an area where replacement takes too long (whatever too long is for your business).
Apple hardware and software is very, very good. You have documented your experience of this. But NO hardware or software is perfect. You also have experience of this.
It is YOUR responsibility to ensure that your system is set up to protect your data and availability of computing resources.

I tried transferring my iphoto library from my old macbook onto my new macbook pro (via external hard drive), but when i open the new iphoto, it seems to have transferred ALL images ever used on my old macbook. so i tried to just del

i tried transferring my iphoto library from my old macbook onto my new macbook pro (via external hard drive), but when i open the new iphoto, it seems to have transferred ALL images ever used on my old macbook. so i tried to just delete all those images so i could try a different approach to transferring, but the new iphoto won't let me do anything and every time i try to delete anything it crashes (since the image amount is so high). please help!!
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iphoto '11, version 9.4.2

To move an iPhoto Library to a new machine:
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But however you do choose to link the two machines...
Simply copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder on the old Machine to the Pictures Folder on the new Machine.
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Macbook Pro crashes then hard disk fail

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