RAM or Hard Drive failing ... or both?

Early 2009 24” iMac, iMac model iMac9,1, Build 13F1066, 2.66 GHz, Intel Core Duo running with 2 x 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM (a matched pair installed 2 years ago to add RAM) running OS X 10.9.5. I have several USB and one Firewire external hard drives to hold iPhoto/iTunes and various back ups.
Of late it has had numerous and frequent odd errors. Mid-operation crashes, application crashes, inability to boot following a crash, apparent corruption of external hard drives which can now only be read (but not written to) etc. Fault reports were varied; some kernel panics some crashed threads e.g com.apple.main-thread. Disk Utility often unable to repair so re-format and re-install required.
Before effecting a repair I had to establish what was causing these seemingly unrelated issues.
SMART Utility first showed the hard drive as failing [item 5 - Reallocated Sector Count 0x0033 199 (threshold 140) Pre-fail, Update Always, Failed Never, Raw value 6 & item 196 Reallocated Event Count 0x0032 199 (threshold 199), Old age, Raw value 1]. However, I have successfully re-formatted it and it still shows this (which I presume is fine as the bad blocks are still present). Other drives it can report on were reporting ok.
That said, more recently it also now shows one of the USB connected external hard drives as Failed [item 184 - End-to-End Errors 0x0032 99 (threshold 99) Old age, Update Always, Failing Now, Raw Value 1].
Whilst researching what hard drive I could replace mine with (same manufacturer [WDC] to avoid heat sensor issues, larger [why not?], jumper settings to downspeed to 3Gb/s I thought I'd run an Apple Hardware Test (AHT).
So yesterday I ran an Apple Hardware Test. This showed one of the 2 RAM blocks in error (4MEM/9/40000000: 0xb8c03818). If I pulled them out one by one and once I’d worked out which one was reporting faulty the iMac operated OK the first time, if I used the good one alone. Using the faulty one I got the regular ‘horn’ as it couldn’t operate without workable RAM. With both in it still reported one as failed. It didn’t matter even if I swapped the good one between the two slots, the iMac would work but with only the faulty one in either slot it wouldn’t. There were no reports of Hard Drive issues?
I also ran the Rember app which reported a RAM error.
Interestingly after all this and even with the one working RAM in place it would eventually not boot so I am now booted from a USB connected carbon copy cloner back up. I presume this is because the failed RAM introduced corruption (again).
I have now replaced the 2 RAM blocks (good ol' Mr Memory FoC) and AHT and Rember report it as OK. Still no HDD errors reported with AHT?
Questions:
1/ Do I really have a hard drive issue or a RAM issue?
2/ Or both?
3/ Is it possible that the RAM issue has caused the other reports and could it cause SMART Utility fault reports?
4/ Are SMART Utility faults 'latched' i.e. once triggered, they remain in place?
5/ Is there something I have missed?
6/ How can I be confident of identifying the core issue?
Any thoughts, help, expertise appreciated.
Mervyn
Can failed RAM really screw up external drive files, writing, etc?

With another system in the computer's hard drive along with the old one,
there is alot of stuff in there. If an archive and install procedure was done
and her old settings saved into the new system, the older one could be
tossed; but ever so carefully.
Booting into the OSX installer disc#1 and use the Installer's own Disk
Utility version (found in menu below Installer, in main menu after booting)
can be helpful in doing some repairs to the hard drive; by chosing the
"repair disk" item in disk utility; you can run it more than once. [Also,
using repair disk permissions is helpful; this latter thing can be done
in the regular in computer OS as it is running the machine. Choose
Disk Utility in the Utilities folder, launch it, choose the Mac HD item
from left side menu, and run repair disk permissions. When it is done,
quit Disk Utility. Also, consider getting OnyX (free download online
from Titanium Software) and run the items in Automation monthly.
Repairing disk permissions before and after installing upgrades is a
good idea; and if this has not been done, issues can result.
And the hard drive may be getting really full, sluggish systems can
have too much in the drive and not enough free space. See how
much free space is in the hard drive by single clicking its icon and
use Get Info from in File in the main menubar. For troubleshooting
user account/permission issues, some people create a new user
account; that helps to tell if the main "admin" account has problems.
There is alot more to this; so see what you come up with and then
post back if you find anything new or if repairing permissions and/or
other things show promise. The extended warranty sounds good.

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Hard Drive failed both postive read and smart short self test

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bentaulbee wrote:
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I backup the Maxtor to a portable 1TB drive by cloning it using SuperDuper. My thinking has been that, if the Maxtor fails then a simple rename of the backup drive to the same name as the Maxtor is all that will be required for iMovie to retain the linkages between Events and Projects. I hope this is the case!
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Why Did My iMac Hard Drive FAIL?

I am majorly upset right now.
My iMac 2009, 21.5" (4GB Ram, 500GB Hard drive) computer that was practically unused since it was in storage for 2 years in my basement while I went out of town on business- suddenly had a Hard Drive Failure for no reason! Since the Warranty was expired on Apple Care, I took it in a Mac store - only to be told by the repair man that the hard drive needed a replacement. He did quick testing, and these were the results:
Ran MRI and everything passed
Reset pram and SMC
Ran storage diagnostics
Proposed Resolution: Replace hard drive
Total cost: A WHOPPING $229.00 plus tax for the hard drive plus labor costs. When I asked if I could just upgrade to a 1TB Hard drive since I was shelling out money anyways, Apple flat-out REFUSED- saying they couldn't put a warranty on a new hard drive, just the replaced one. Sounds like complete BS to me!
Further more, I would like to know how the **** this happened! A few times when the iMac was on the table and running, I lifted it up and clunked it back down a bit rough to readjust it- but it continued to work for a few more days. I doubt that would ruin a hard drive. I own a Macbook 13" that I clunk around all the time, the hard drive has never failed. Suddenly my hardly-used iMac that worked out the box when I first started using it again suddenly has a random hard drive malfunction a week in??? And now I'm out $250.00. I just feel jipped. I thought Apple products are meant to last. Apparently not. The guy said "Well it's a four year-old computer". Yeah but I only used it one year and then it was in storage! So whose to say THIS hard drive won't fail as well?
Why did this happen?

Hard Drive Warning (all makes and models)
Ironically but logical, new hard drives are far more fragile than one that has been working for several months or a couple years. So beware in your thinking that a new hard drive translates into “extremely reliable”!
Hard drives suffer from high rates of what has been termed "infant mortality". Essentially this means new drives have their highest likelihood of failing in the first few months of usage. This is because of very minor manufacturing defects or HD platter balancing, or head and armature geometry being less than perfect; and this is not immediately obvious and can quickly manifest itself once the drive is put to work.
Hard drives that survive the first few months of use without failing are likely to remain healthy for a number of years.
Generally HD are highly prone to death or corruption for a few months, then work fine for a few years, then spike in mortality starting at 3-4 years and certainly should be considered end-of-life at 5-7+ years even if still working well. Drives written to once and stored away have the highest risk of data corruption due to not being read/written to on a regular basis. Rotate older working HD into low-risk use.
The implication of this is that you should not trust a new hard drive completely (really never completely!) until it has been working perfectly for several months.
Given the second law of thermodynamics, any and all current mfg. HD will, under perfect storage conditions tend themselves to depolarization and a point will be reached, even if the HD mechanism is perfect, that the ferromagnetic read/write surface of the platter inside the HD will entropy to the point of no viable return for data extraction. HD life varies, but barring mechanical failure, 3-8 years typically.
Data redundancy (copies) makes all HD crashes inconsequential, an irrelevancy.
There are only two kinds of hard drives, those that have failed, and those that will fail, regardless of quality of manufacture.
Any Macbook or desktop should be idealized as a working platform computer system, containing all your applications, documents, and weekly-use necessary files; and all media files such as ‘big-data’ (music/PDF collections/video/pictures), unless directly needed in the near future, should be kept off the computer and on external storage USB or likewise bare hard drives.
Never consider any computer a data storage device at any time under any circumstance, rather a data creation, sending, and manipulation device. Anyone who thinks data is safe on any computer, even copied upon multiple partitions is making a mistake that will, without fail, strike.
Never backup your data exclusively upon magnetic hard drives or flash storage, nor consider same since magnetic storage degrades over time, roughly 3-8 years, even under ideal storage conditions.

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so i have 2 hard drives
1 for windows bootcamp and 1 for mac
as it is now, i boot to the windows boot manager then choose my copy of windows.
what would happen if my mac os hard drive failed right now?
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if you have a workstation, you should clone both operating systems; you should not put them on the same hard drive. And you just use the clone you made for each (Paragon Clone OS for Windows $19; Carbon Copy is sharefare for OS X)
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Message was edited by: Flamingcreatures

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Hi
In most cases the data is lost if the HDD is faulty and you did not create any backups.
But I found also nice offer from Toshiba here:
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/services/home
Here choose Data Recovery.
You can purchase different Data Recovery Service for Hard Disk Drives. Such services is good for the future. Now you could ask Toshiba hotline for other date recovery services but of course you will have to pay for such data recovery.

I need to upgrade my macbook ram and hard drive pls help

Hi all,
I need to upgrade my macbook's RAM and hard drive as after 3 yrs of use it is showing signs of aging.
I am novice in hardware stuff. I am planning on doing it entirely by myself and on tight budget will need to compare the prices across sellers and buy a suitable peice of kit. Please help
Questions:
1 - How to find out which RAm do I need to buy and what is the maximum I can go on my macbook?
2 - How to find which hard drive to buy and what is the maximum my macbook will support?
3 - Can I buy the SSD drive instead of SATA for this macbook?
Some of the specs are listed below:
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Model Identifier:          MacBook5,2
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L2 Cache:          3 MB
Memory:          2 GB
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MANY THANKS FOR READING AND REPLYING TO MY POST
[email protected]

Hi Chefjeegar
Yes that screwdriver kit has the #00 phillips screwdriver that you need to access the RAM and hard drive. You'll also need the Torx driver to change the hard drive. http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-Computer-Technician-Precision-Torx/dp/B0000934GO/r ef=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1348072554&sr=1-1
For a good explanation about RAM look at the page on OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/MacBook/DDR2/
In the UK Amazon or eBay might be your best bet for cheap RAM but read the description and reviews carefully. For a little more expensive but with a better warranty is Crucial UK http://www.crucial.com/uk/
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obesity wrote:
It was really empty. Clicked on, nothing.
But no prohibited signs, like these:
Get info on folder, zero kb. Just one user account on each mac.
I did navigate back several days prior to my Mac dying. Still nothing.
Sounds like it may have been excluded, or perhaps damaged.
Just for future reference, it's always a good idea to keep "secondary" backups. See #27 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for some suggestions.

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Get an external hard drive, some good ones that I like are the OWC, http://www.macsales.com Mercury Elite Pro drives...they are very good and reasonably priced.
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After you have formatted and named the external drive, click Restore in the main Disk Utility window, drag the name of the old hard drive to the Source box, and drag the name of the new external drive to the Destination box. DU will make an exact clone of the internal drive on the external drive.
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I have a version Adobe pro 7.1, my old computer hard drive failed, tried to install on my Windows 8.1, will not start up get error message? any solutions? It worked perfectly fine on my old computer which was windows 7.0

Hey,
I am sorry but Acrobat 7 is not at all compatible with Windows 8. For this, you will need to upgrade your Adobe Acrobat version.
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Macbook Pro Hard Drives Failing

Hi all,
I've been having massing problems with my Macbook Pro 15" 2.53 Ghz laptop. I got one brand new with apple care in December of 2008. The hard drive was the standard 320 Gb @ 5400 RPM.
Within approximately two weeks of operation the computer failed (froze and after a hard shutdown wouldn't boot). It turned out the hard drive failed. Two weeks! So I took it back to Apple and they replaced the hard drive (took them one week so I lost a week of productivity).
One week after receiving the laptop back, the hard drive failed again! This time I believe the OS got corrupted somehow as the symptom was that it would not boot.
So back to Apple and they straight out replaced it with a new one. One week later, guess what? Failure. So back again and they replaced it.
I'm now on my 3rd laptop from Apple and this hard drive is failing. Luckily I was able to back everything up. I downloaded a utility called SMART Utility and it tells me 60 some sectors are bad on this disk.
Is anyone else having issues like this? Its absolutely ridiculous. Currently the computer is working despite the failed sectors and horrible sounds coming from the hard drive but I expect failure soon. I'll be taking this back to Apple and showing them the results of the SMART Utility, but I'm at the end of the rope here.
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Has anyone heard anything?

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