Mini server drive failing?

2011 mac mini server.
Today, to see how my SSD was doing, I installed DriveDX. The SSD and my external drives all look great.
However, that original 7200RPM 500GB hard drive in the upper slot of mini is showing "Failing." The second original drive, now in a USB enclosure, also shows falling.
The one still inside is showing these significant issue:
Relocated Sector Count 339 (raw value)
Reported Uncorrect 1,487 (raw value)
Current Pending Sectors Count 1 Raw Value
Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count 1 Raw Value
Should I get that drive out immediately? It stores my iTunes library. Are these numbers bad enough to indeed buy a new drive? The one in the external enclosure now, some of its numbers were even worse. Reported Uncorrect was something like 10,000 I believe.
These drives had been used in a RAID 0, so I wonder if that wore them out more?
Thanks.

Thank lllaass
Disk Utility absolutely says Verified, which is why I had thought I was all good to go before I looked at what the in depth program was showing and stating. Disk Utility seems configured to be extremely conservative for obvious reasons.
I guess I will have to try to get this drive out of there.
Thanks so much.

Similar Messages

Failing mid-2010 mini server drive - warranty?

I have a mid-2010 mini server - you know, the one with "server" class hard drives - and it started exhibiting dying behavior - it would freeze, or nearly so, and the logs reported all sorts of I/O errors. I scanned for bad blocks and out of the 500GB drive there were 765 bad blocks. I figure at this point I should just replace it, but that's $200 for the drive (Seagate 750GB hybrid) and $100 to install it because it's so hard to install in the mini.
Apple only provides a one year warranty. Drives often come with a longer warranty, though. So, is there a longer warranty for the drive itself?

765 bad blocks out of almost 1gig blocks is pretty small.
(a 500 gig drive contains ~1gig, 512 byte blocks).
Suggest save all the data you can from it and
repartiton and erase with the write zeroes option.
This forces the drive to map out bad blocks. Then
reinstall what ever was on the drive.
I had a similar situation and had found about 500
bad blocks. Did the above and it has been working fine for
over a year now.
Do what I have explained and avoid the unnecessary
hassle and cost. If it doesn't work, then worry.
Sometimes blocks just go bad for any number of reasons
on any type of drive, even "server" grade.
Anyway, as to manufacturer warranty on the drive, not
sure how it works with drives that are OEM.

Mac Mini Server Drive Configuration

When ordering a Mac Mini Server, under hard drive selections the fourth option down is Two 750GB 7200 drives and a 256GB SSD It lists it as 2x750GB + 256 SSD. This indicates to me that you are getting the server with three drives, Two SATA 750GB and one SSD 256GB. I was under the impression that the Mini would only hold two hard drives? I opened two different Chat sessions with Apple and also made a call to sales and they all assured me that this is correct. Can anyone offer any insight? I would like to make sure before I order.

Another discussion on same topic https://discussions.apple.com/message/16024311#16024311
Seems like the Mini Server has more space in it so it can hold the three drives.
But haven't myself seen one in real life so I can't compare.
Stefan

Mac Mini DVD Drive fail and upgrading to Snow Leopard

Hey, my Mac Mini has a dvd drive failure, ir reads cd's but just spits out dvd's. It no longer burns cd's either.
The main question is, will I be able to install Snow Leopard from an external dvd drive? As I am thinking about getting one as a burner/player instead of paying sky high prices for a new superdrive to be fitted in the Mini.
Many thanks for any help

Sure,
Here's the methodolgy from Apple:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Here's a video from OWC, which shows how to install a HD or an Optical Drive into your Mini:
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macmini06-08/
There's probably more than one slot-loading drive model that will work in your Mini, and you may even gain a new capability, like dual-layer DVD burning capability, if you do a little homework on the models that will work for your Mini.
Peace to you,
C. Livingstone

Mac mini server won't load after creating RAID0

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Have a look at this thread guys, it should help sort out your problems.

Mini Server OS 10.7.2 degrades, locks permissions, fails to boot

New current model Mac Mini Server 5,3 i7 Quad with OS X Lion 10.7.2. Twin drives formatted HFS-journaled, everything stock. Using primarily as a personal and imaging computer using Adobe CS5 apps, not as a server. Originally attempted to set up twin drives as RAID 0, reformatting, but system was unstable and I reformatted drives back to stock HFS-journaled configuration, then did a clean OS install from recovery partition. System ran OK except would not allow me to move items to trash, save screen snapshots, etc. as I did not have privileges (?). Run Disk Utility from recovery partition and repair permissions. No help. Did "Get Info" and changed HD privileges to read & write, all enclosed items, for everyone. Got series of "Missing KEXT" hundreds. Reboot and reinstall system. Repeats behavior. Do a reformat and clean install. System runs fine for several hours, seems stable, so I install Java Runtime, then Adobe CS5, Spyder 3 Elite 4 calibration, ICC profiles, Epson printer and scanner, VueScan, all proven, Lion-friendly apps. System now requires permissions to move or save items, then I get "Missing KEXT" and OS will not reboot.
Awaiting Apple service call where undoubtedly the tech will have me do another reformat and clean OS install over the course of several hours. Will tell me to disconnect everything and not use my apps. Will dick me around for another lost day and then get me further frustrated.
I have been using Macs since 1989 and am ready to throw this one out. FWIW my 2007 Dual MBP is running Lion, installed from the USB stick, just fine, knock on wood. But I could spit nails over this stupid Mini Server and the bone-headed way this OS installs and breaks on what should be a very straight-forward set-up!
How about it Apple, if the KEXT extensions are messed up, a fresh install should fix it. But it isn't. Even if there is some voodoo left, I pity the next poor user who gets trapped in this circle.

Try booting into safe mode and see if the issues continue.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455
this will disable all but a minimum of Apple components
at boot time. Therefor no attempt will be made to load
any kexts that are not Apple.
If booting is successful in this mode, it indicates that one
of your third party products is starting something at boot
time that is either calling or not providing a proper driver.
If things boot without issue, then remove items from the
StartupItems folder at the root /Library folder and also
in your user preferences remove disable any startup items
present there, then reboot normally. If all is well, then put
back startup items one at a time until the boot fails, then
you have found the culprit.
First need to get it to boot properly then can deal with
other issues.
As for the reliability of using the Mini Server as a workstation,
At this point I have been using one for about 4 months now
without issue. I think you may have a 3rd party item that
is causing an issue. It is also possible that even though,
as you claim, your apps are Lion freindly, they may have
a corrupt file in their installers or a previously unknown bug.

Mac mini server: Hardware test error on Hard Drive

Mac mini server: Hardware test error on Hard Drive
'checking for slow read failures': ERROR - Target device access failure - Test failed.
CAN I ACCESS HD (which is our data server) EVER AGAIN? IF SO, HOW?
Meanwhile we wonder if this is really a hardware error. It all happened during writing a time machine backup.
Probably while writing it, some data was relocated by accident, but we can not 100%-sure remember the sequence of actions :/
This is our trauma history:
- time machine got increasingly slower in writing a backup
- we quit the backup
- we switched off the mac mini (on power button)
- we switched on the mac mini
- we stopped time machine to the rules
- we shut down mac mini via command
- we booted the mac mini in save mode
- we see a loading bar
- no progress after 10th of loading bar
- switched off (power button)
- when we now switch on the loading bar below the apple-logo is all we see + the little wheel
- we started with cmd+alt+p+r pressed
- mac mini restarted but showed the loading bar scenario without progress again
- we started with 'd' pressed and did the hardware test (see above)
- we started with 'alt' pressed but it does not give us the recoverydrive to run the last backup
ANY IDEAS?
IS IT A SOFTWARE- OR HARDWARE ERROR?
THX IN ADVANCE!

BDAqua wrote:
I thnk Intenal 2.5" Drives for servers is silly, & Ithink the Minis & iMacs re poorly cooled.
I'd get Temprature Monitor & see what temps they're running.
Is Temperature Monitor an app or a device? If it's a temperature problem then that is essentially a design problem. Two drive failures in the same Mac mini server in four months combined with the fact that they're not really user serviceable already has me 90% on the way back to more pragmatically designed Linux servers. I think it would be foolish to waste any more money on these minis for my business hosting.

Disk Erase Failed. Disk cannot be dismounted on Mac Mini Server

Ok, this is a bit crazy for me anyway. I have a Mac Mini Server running Snow. My Server HD failed but fortunately my Mac HD was being used as an image backup and I can boot from it fine and runs perfect. The bad disk was not showing in Disk Utility at all. So I bought a new one and replaced it.
Now Disk Utility sees it but if I try to format it or partition it, I get the message the it cannot be dismounted. I tried re-setting NVRam (Optio+CMD+P+R) but n luck.
I have my original Snow DVD but I have no external DVD. I have a MacBook Pro Mountain Lion.
How do I erase my new disk so I can copy everything back?
Any help is appreciate it.

Although thats an excellent suggestion but in the end I attached an old usb backup drive and restarted and held down the Option key to select it to boot. Then it went into Disk Utility, and I reimaged the 2nd drive to the new drive. After the reimage I restarted and held down the Option key to allow me to select the first drive.
The only issue I had was to rename my boot drive back to Server HD, which I did by using Finder and one more restart.
I guess the rule is you cannot unmount the boot original boot drive unless you boot from an external drive.
All is good now and thank you.

Mac Mini server 2010 (no modifications) Panics & Drive issues

Hey guys,
I've been having some issues with a 2010 Mini server (stock 4gb with no modifications) It's crashing at least daily, sometimes greyscreen panics, sometimes retaining mouse input, but nothing responding that requires disk use. (You can move windows around etc but not load anything that isn't already visible or interact with finder)
I've had issues with one of the hard drives before with it disappearing from disk utility (even booted into command line) , and system profiler giving a "There was an error while scanning for Serial-ATA devices" error.
I've had it in at the genius bar before, they found nothing wrong and had the drives mount fine. I had put it down to a lose connection as the guy said he had reseated the drives and had no problems.
Anyway, like I said its been crashing pretty much daily so I decided to bite the bullet and erase & reinstall the OS, and that led me to new error logs to work with!
What do you think? I should also note it was installed from a usb superdrive (the ones which came out with the Macbook Air's)
error log file: http://d.pr/xYok

I had been running my Mac Mini Server with both drives striped as RAID 0 up until a few weeks ago. In the middle of the night the Mac Mini Server rebooted and when I tried to login the next morning, it never finished. I booted from my backup clone drive and ran Disk First Aid on the RAID volume and it reported that my only choice was to reformat. Since it's kind of risky to be running a striped array anyway, I chose to reformat as individual drives.
After rearranging everything so the data would fit on the two volumes, I started having some problems with my media drive that I use for video editing. Disk First Aid didn't report any serious problems, but I downloaded SMART Utility and it reported the drive is FAILING. So, I have lost all confidence in the second drive (lower) and have an SSD on order to set up as my boot volume as a replacement.
BTW, when I called Apple about this problem, they said I could take the Mac Mini Server into an Apple Store and it would take 3-5 days for them to evaluate it and repair, if necessary. Since the closest Apple Store is 65 miles away and I can't do without the server for that long, I'm eating the cost of the failed drive and I guess I'll just live with that. But it doesn't give me a lot of confidence in the other drive and this isn't the first problem I've had with this Mac Mini Server.
Dennis

Mac mini server and harddrive 1 of 2 failed now fan runs full speed

I have a 2010 mac mini server. One of the drives failed.
I took out the bad one and the fan started to run full speed.
Replaced that drive with a new one. runs great but fan is running.
I put the temp sensor in exact same place but had to use a small pc of tape
to hold it on. I used the same tape that was holding the wires to the drive.
I used the temp sensor connector on the logic board closest to the fan connector?
Does that matter?

Hello, possible work arounds...
HDD Fan Control
HDD Fan Control works to fix this issue by reading the drives internal temperature using the S.M.A.R.T protocol and set the fans actual speed to a value good to protect the drive.  It runs at startup and continually to always control the fan correctly, prevent the loud fan noise and protect the drive from overheating.
Free SSDFan Control...
http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/

How to set up my mac mini server to use two drives seamlessly?

I have a mid 2010 mac mini server, with OSX Lion installed. It has dual 500gb hard drives.
I've been moving all my important files to it, and I've always assumed that once I filled one disc, it would seamlessly transfer over to the other and continue backing up. This does not seem to be the case.
I'm at roughly 495gb of data, and when I try to move a 10gb file onto my server, it tells me that I don't have enough disc space to continue the operation.
What can I do to make use of both drives?
-Thanks

It sounds like what you're asking for is to have the two drives in a RAID 0, where the two 500 Gb drives look like a single 1 Tb drive. I'm not sure the exact procedure for installing RAID 0 on a mini's internal drives, but the process would involve backing up, reconfiguring for RAID (which destroys all data,) restoring data from the backup, and more risk than I would personally find acceptable. I'd expect to lose a full day with the backup and restore steps. I can guarantee, there will be pain.
Instead, I'd suggest looking at what's consuming the 500Gb, and seeing if there are particular folders that can be moved. For example, a shared folder is pretty easy. Copy it over. In file sharing setup, edit the share to point to the new location. Make sure remote users disconnect, and reconnect to the "new" share. When you're happy there is no data loss, delete the old location.
User's home directories can also move, but the process has a few more steps, and depends on how the accounts are built (local vs. OD)
If the majority of the data is in a single "your backup files" folder, shared or otherwise, then I would just set up a second folder on the second drive and write to it, leaving the first alone. If it is truly a backup, then you could make the first folder read-only at this point for extra protection. If you go the 2 folder route, keep in mind your boot drive is operating with 1% free space, I like my drives to have at least 15% free, and OS drives more like 25% (you'll find some range in recommended %-free, but most will agree 1% is too little) so move SOME stuff to the new folder, before closing the old.

Is the mac mini server the same hardware as the other mac minis (except for the quad core i7 and dual hard drives) with different software or is it configured differently?

I have a mac mini with an i7 dual core processor. It is perceptably slower than my macbook pro with a quad core i7. Does the mac mini server have the same hardware configuation as the regular mac mini with server software or is the hardware different (aside from the i7 quad core and dual hard drives)? I want a mini with a quad core i7...

Your assumption is correct. The server does however only
have the Intel HD3000 graphics like the base model with
no option, at this time, for the discrete graphics chip. So,
depending on what you are using it for, that could be a deal
breaker. Remember that your MBP does have a discrete
graphics chip.
I have a 2011 Mini Server connected to a Thunderbolt display
that gets used as an engineering workstation and general
personal use (some photo editing, LP restoraton, general
internet browsing). You simply just not enable any of the
server services. I find the combination to work quite well
for my purposes. I also have a 13" 2.7 GHz i7 Macbook Pro
which is pretty much strictly for work. As far as CPU
power it is pretty much equivelent to your Mini. For the most
part I find the Mini does outperfom my MBP. I heavily use
Parallels and Windows7 virtual machines, so the more cores
the better.
So, If you do a lot of CPU intensive stuff that is multithreaded,
the Server may help. If it is graphics intensive and your software
heavily leaverages the GPU, you may actually take a hit on
performance.

Can I run 4 super drives with my Mac Mini Server

I have Lion Server downloaded to my Mac Mini (set up as a TV server) and would like to be able to access the 4 USB Super Drive ports via other Mac Mini's in other rooms, 2 Apple TV's if possibe through Apple TV software and maybe Macbook Pro via AirPlay. Are these things possible. The Mac Mini Server is the Best Home television distribution network. Cheaper hardware and fast internet connection based on devices. The above is my goal.
My individual questions...
Can I place 4 Super Drives in the 4 USB slots and run them?
What is the most effiecent way to be able to server those drives on ONLY my Apple Network (other Mac Mini and 2 Apple TV's)
Can I access multiple drives at once from different devices on my Apple Network?
Can I restrict access to teen and child users based on the TV Rating displayed on DVD in Super Drive? (ex: iTunes recognizes CD's by times of songs and digital fingerprint when I input my Store bought CD or adds it to the Database if its a new title.)
These would help so much!
Thanks,
Stefan
Have any questions on how to turn your Mac into a home Multimedia System, ask.

no
a dvd drive can never be shared over a network in order to play the dvd drives content
the dvd encryption makes this imposible
you have to rip (which is illegal) each dvd disc to a computer in order to do what you wish to do
and it's not an apple thing it's the case no matter which computer you own

My mac mini hard drive is failing. I am no longer under warranty. Do you know how much it cost to have Apple replace the hard drive? or How I can replace it myself?

MY mac mini hard drive is failing. I am no longer under warranty. Do you know how much it cost to have Apple replace the hard drive? or How I can replace it myself?

You can do it yourself. I did on my 2009 Mini
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Mini
Also, this place sells HSDs and has install videos.
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/

How to get data off a G4 mini with a failing hard drive.

For the record, here's how I ended up solving the problem - I had to invent this combination of approaches and it's not documented on any Web postings I could Google up during a week of working on this:
Situation: Your G4 mini's hard drive dies (unbootable), AppleJack was unable to fix it, and DiskWarrior 4 can't rebuild it and actually crashes before it reaches its Preview stage.
Why is this situation such a puzzle?
* When booted in single user mode, the Mini does not recognize an attached Mac in Target mode, so you can't copy your files to there.
* diskutil can't help you find any attached FW drives since diskutil is unavailable (because sh /etc/rc fails due to disk hardware errors). Even though mount is available, all possible guesses of the attached FW partition name fail ("disk2s2" through "disk7s4" all fail), despite previously confirming what the FW drive or target-mode Mac's partition name looks like to other working Macs.
* Attaching a USB hard drive fails because the USB drivers fail to load, again presumably due to disk hardware errors.
* Booting from OS 10.4 (Tiger) Install DVD doesn't help, because even when running Terminal from the Install DVD, an attached Target-mode Mac is not recognized (diskutil shows no attached devices), and since the 10.4 Install DVD does not include mount_fat32, it's also not possible to mount an attached USB drive.
* Solution! *
Use an OS 10.5 (Leopard) Install DVD to boot the G4 mini. Even though the DVD reports that the old mini is incompatible with Leopard, go ahead and accept that result, and then you can run 10.5 Terminal from the DVD on your G4 mini. Unlike 10.4 Install DVD, this one includes drivers to recognize and mount an attached USB drive, even FAT32 (Windows) formatted drives. So now, in Terminal, you can copy files from your dead hard drive to the USB drive. Whew!
Note: This solution is possible and probably generally useful to people since if you have a dead G4 mini on Tiger, you probably do what I do and go buy a replacement new Mini, which of course comes with a Leopard Install DVD. And generic USB drives are easy to borrow or cheap to buy or you already have one.
Message was edited by: alanngnet

P.s. Additional details that might be helpful to people:
- When you boot Leopard on your old Mini, click "Ok" when it tells you it's incompatible. Then Terminal will be a menu option under "Tools."
- You'll need to have familiarized yourself with basic Unix file commands (practice on another Mac first, for example). If your hard drive is dying, time is of the essence, so learn your commands before you start up your dead Mini.
- Tip for Unix newbies: The crucial commands you'll need are ls and cp. http://www.ss64.com/osx/ is a handy reference manual.
- Hopefully when you run "ls /Volumes" you'll see your mini's dead hard drive listed there as "Macintosh HD" (or whatever you may have previously renamed it). If it's not listed there, you're really hosed. But try again later, maybe when it's as cool (temperature) as possible.
- The destination path for your USB drive is also viewable with "ls /Volumes", e.g. in my case it turned out to be "/Volumes/Elements" (where Elements was the brand name of the drive).
- Don't use dd or ditto en masse because the hardware errors on your drive will screw things up. Instead selectively pick out the files you really need to recover and cp them. Be sure to use -p option to preserve file date/time. I used a lot of "cp -Rpv oldminifolder /Volumes/MyUSBDrive" to copy all contents and subfolders from folder "oldminifolder" to my USB drive. It will also be helpful to use "ls -trl" to see the chronologically most-recently-modified files on your old mini so you pick out which files to copy (e.g., files newer than your most recent backup).
Hope this helps, and thanks to the many other posters out there on the Web who taught me many Unix tricks this week.

Mini server drive failing?

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