Repairing internal hard drive, having a problem

My internal drive needs minor repair. It will verify in disk utility. It asks for my administrator ID and I type that in. But the "repair disk" button is dimmed and it won't let me repair the disk, why? It says I have an error 36 and error 38, what are these? it acts like it is repairable, but the button is grayed out. help please. thank you.

[Apple Error codes|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1618]
In addition to Fortuny's sound advice it is also possible nothing its really wrong. If Fortuny is correct and you are analyzing the drive from which you are booted, Disk Utility may also be detecting false errors because the drive you use to boot is constantly changing. Try starting in Safe Mode and reanalyzing the drive. In addition to cutting back on the number of active things happening during analysis Safe Mode also runs a version of First Aid repair.
[Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393]
[What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X)|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392]
[Safe Boot takes longer than normal startup|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107394]
Safe boot mode runs a directory check command similar to that used by Disk Utility's repair. In Tiger it ignores some stored information (cache) that is normally read that speeds up the boot process, and it moves some other caches to the trash. It also uses only System fonts and disables all Startup Items, third party items, and any Login Items.

Similar Messages

Repairing internal hard drive from disk utility

Hey folks,
I need to do a repair of my internal hard drive on my PB. I understand that in order to do this, you need to boot from another disk. I cloned my hard drive using CCC to an external firewire hard drive so I can boot from the external.
So I shut down and rebooted while holding the option key but the external hard drive did not appear as a choice for which to boot. So I booted with the internal and went to the Start Up Disk icon in System Preferences. There, the external appeared so I told it to restart using it.
After restart I went to the Disk Utility to repair the internal but when I did, the "repair" button would not illuminate. I'm pretty sure I'm running off the external because when I use spotlight, it searches the external and not the internal.
Any ideas?
(I'm trying to boot off an external because I cannot find my OS X disc referenced here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6642196#6642196)

If the "repair" button does is not selectable, maybe you indeed restarted using the same INTERNAL drive by mistake? Also, it could be that your INTERNAL hard drive is beyond repair, as which happened to my PowerMac's a few weeks ago and I--which I just mentioned on another forum--had to buy Data Rescue II to salvage my data because the only solution was to reformat the drive. It was beyond repair.
I don't know if this helps, but which did you select? The disk itself? (first in the hierarchy) or the volume (second in the hierarchy... list). Sometimes that matters. But I couldn't tell you since I can't see your screen and don't know your exact issue unless I saw it or was able to test it out.
The other thing could be, are you selecting the EXTERNAL by mistake on the list of drives on the left? You can't repair the disk/volume that you are booted up from, why you would need your software discs / restore discs to do that. But since you are doing it the "workaround" way, which should work, that is my guess.
Message was edited by: Pismo 900
Just a suggestion, why not just erase and reformat the damaged drive, and then once that's over, do a "Restore" from Disk Utility, choosing your external as the SOURCE and the internal that's been reformatted, as the DESTINATION.

How to repair internal hard drive failure?

Well so I have a new mac book pro 13 with retina and the internal hard drive just disappear after doing a time machine backup. When I turn it on it comes the Recovery 10.10.1 disk and just that, normally you could do a hard drive partition like ''Macintosh HD'' from the internal hard drive that is like ''500GB toshiba blah blah'' something like that, but the thing is that in disk Utility the only thing I see is ''Macintosh HD'' and no internal drive, and also when you select it and you go to the Partition tab everything is grayed out, btw there is just two tabs the partiton one and the first aid one? I don't care if i lose the data on my hard drive because it was new. what should I do?

H. In the disk utilities the base system drive that you see is the recovery partition. You should be seeing above the base drive two other drives .One is the main drive, that should name the drive and it's size as in 250 G The one directly below that is the partitioned drive that the operating system is on. Clicking on the upper drive should show down at the bottom right as GUID and should say S.M.A.R.T status verified. Try starting up by holding down the option or the option r key and see if you go to the recovery partition. Which should have option for disk utilities terminal and recovery and I believe internet.

Internal Hard drive start up problems scince installing a new one

Hi All,
I had installed a new WD Green hard drive in my intel 17" iMac.
I set up via Leopard the installation process and all went well (Disk utilities, partition etc).
When I was initially installing applications/upgrades and restarting the computer (not powering off) the system was running well.
So, I powered off and when I came back to the iMac and powered on, I came to a grey screen which showed a folder icon with a question mark in it. It did not recognise my new hard drive.
I went back to the installation disk and pressed the 'C' key and went to disk utilities. It recognised the hard drive and the installed system, and when restarted it booted back into the Leopard OS. I thought all was fixed. I powered off again and the same gray screen and icon came back. (I had previously set via System preferences the start up disk etc).
I reinstalled my original hard drive and powering off and on is not a problem-it booted straight back into Leopard.
Any clues what is going on?
Many Thanks Fred.

I wrote to WD with my WD HDD Model and serial number:
'Is this hard drive bootable with my iMac 17" Intel'?
Reply today:
Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is Joel O.
I truly apologize that you are having problems with your product. The drive is bootable if you set it up in that way, but try this:
1- Go to ''Finder'' and click on the option ''Go''.
2- Click on ''Utilities''.
3- Click on ''Disk utility''.On that window take a look to see if the drive is listed
4- Click on the drive ( it will appear twice, select the one that shows the capacity)
5- Click on ''First Aid''.
6- Select ''Repair Disk''
I hope that we have met your expectations today and that you are satisfied with our service. If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.
Sincerely,
Joel O
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com
There you go; I did all of that, but as a previous responder suggested keep at it - I will just carry on.
Message was edited by: fred4321

Can I clone and transfer from the internal hard drive to an external hard drive ?

I got an intel duo iMac, the machine is very good even if it is almost 3 years old. But with the internal hard drive having 320 Gb I am running out of hard drive space. I have looked into changing the internal hard drive but that involves having to send the machine away to have that done. So I was wondering if I could just transfer all the Mac OS X and all the applications and settings within three user accounts to say a 2 TB external hard drive, and boot from that, using cloning software.
Alternatively, is there a way to transfer the iPhoto and iMovie libraries to an external hard drive. That would free up space. I do not know how, if that is possible, although I have managed that with iTunes. My iMac is running Snow Leopard.
Regards from John5801

John,
USB should be fine for general computer use, but media may add a little too much for the sustained rate that USB2 provides. In a previous career I did a lot of video editing. Firewire was much preferred in that task because of its stability at higher rates. I can see why the SuperDuper! people might suggest it.
When I cloned the wife's iMac, I had replaced the HDD on the MacBook Pro with a USB pocket drive that I've kept the original MacBook's installation mounted on. I've booted directly to that external drive, so you should be okay if you can make the clone across the USB. When I cloned the wife's machine I booted the MacBook Pro with a fresh HDD in Firewire target mode and connected it as an external Firewire 800 drive. Firewire 800 is much faster, but you'll need the cable and everything to be right.
Firewire has a better reputation among people running a lot of media from their drive. I would suggest that you try and get an external drive kit that can support both. I think your iMac supports both firewire 400 AND firewire 800 along with the 3 USB2 ports. I'm guessing based on my wife's 24" imac. The fastest would be the Firewire 800, but that standard is about to be pushed aside in both cases.
Hope that helped.

Internal Hard Drive Disk Utility Repair Problem

Hello all! I'm really hoping someone can help me out because I'm in a bit of a panic right now about all of this.
For starters, I have a Mid-2007 20" Intel based iMac.
The other day, I turned on my computer and got a flashing question mark and the computer would not boot. Luckily, I have an external hard drive, so I went through the process of using the Install Discs to use the Hard Drive to start up my computer. Everything worked out and once the computer turned on, I was able to access my Hard Drive and had full access to my files. I powered down my computer as I had to run out the door for school and was planning on backing all of my files up on my external hard drive tonight.
Unfortunately, when I turned on my computer, my internal hard drive had disappeared. I can only start the computer with my external drive plugged in.
I accessed the Disk Utility, and it was the first place I was able to locate my Hard Drive. On the left hand side, underneath the external drive, it simply says "Media". I cannot click on ANY of the options under First Aid and the only thing it seems I can do is Erase the drive.
I would REALLY like to avoid this option, as there are nearly 5 years worth of documents on this computer.
My S.M.A.R.T. Status says Not Supported, and it's saying that the Total Capacity is 0 Bytes.
I suppose I should also mention that with the disc I used I am now running OS X 10.4.11, but previously, I was running 10.5. I can't remember the last decimal place. I don't know why there was a difference, as I used the same disk...
I have NO IDEA where to go from this point besides taking it somewhere to see if my files can be recovered.
Can anyone help me out here?
If you need any more details about my computer/the actions I took, just let me know.
Thanks so much!!

If you cannot access the internal HD then it may have crashed, I am getting you may not have been backing up either so if it has crashed and you don't have a backup then your data is probably gone. If you can get the internal HD to show up again before you do ANYTHING else back it up using Time Machine (assuming you use 10.5.x or above) or create a clone on an external HD using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
My recommendation at this point is to take the machine into and an Apple Store or AASP to have it looked at.

Internal Hard Drives Disappeared, Finder Memory Problem

Hello Helpful Folks,
I recently installed an addional internal Hard Drive, and an additional 1GB SDRAM. This worked great for a day, but the next morning, after powering up, system was extremely sluggish, and after much deadline-induced impatient problem solving, has gone from bad to worse (system refuses to acknowledge existence of internal Hard Drives). I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but as
the devil is in the details, I figure too much info is better than not enough.
Following is a breakdown of my system: AS IT LAST WORKED; RECENT UPGRADES; and MY LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE. Please don't interpret my all caps as shouting, just trying to organize this post for better clarity.
System is dedicated to Video Editing with FCP 3, running under OS 9.2.2. System is "off the Grid", i.e. no network, no internet, no printer, no gaming devices. System was purchased new in July 2001, by a friend. At one point I know this system had an Airport card, which was removed prior to my purchase in 2003. I can't remember what else it may have had installed in its history, but here's what it has now:
SYSTEM AS IT LAST WORKED:
**bold items are upgrades Original Owner or I installed with no apparent problems**
Power Mac G4 "Quicksilver" 2001
867 PowerPC G4, 256 L2, 2MB L3
-1 Stick "ValueRAM - KVR 133 x 64 C3/512" in PC 133 DIMM slot **
- "Virtual Memory" was turned off years ago due to conflict with FCP 3
-2 empty DIMM slots
-1 60 GB internal HD (Maxtor Ultra ATA/100), 1 partition, formatted HFS+, jumpered as "Master" on Internal ATA 2 ID=0 (which as I understand it is ATA/66 speed)
-1 Pioneer "Superdrive" DVD-R/W/CD-R/W on Internal ATA 0 ID=0
-NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32MB SDRAM in AGP Slot, feeding a 17" Apple Studio Display.
-PCI Display Card "formacGA7" - not attached to any external device, not sure what its intended purpose is.**
-3 Empty PCI Slots
-OEM Keyboard attached to Monitor's rear USB port.
-Microsoft 3 Button Wheel mouse with "IntelliEye" (wheel is 3rd Button) connected to Keyboard USB port (right side).**
-2 OEM FireWire (400) ports
-2 OEM USB (1) ports
Peripherals that have worked in various configurations with this system over the past 3 years:
-3 OWC Mercury Elite ("Oxford Chipset") Externally powered, External FireWire(400) 200GB Hard Drives, 1 partition each, formatted HFS+, daisy-chained to either of the FireWire ports.
-1 Canon GL1 MiniDV camera, attached either to the other FireWire port, or to the last drive in the chain, depending on my urgency/laziness factor. BTW, FCP 3 has worked flawlessly controlling this Cam for logging and Batch Capturing.
Applications on System Hard Drive that I have OEM CDs for:
-OS 9.2 - (I think I remember that OS X was removed from system due to conflicts shortly after original purchase)
-FCP 3
-DiskWarrior (version unknown, purchased from Alsoft in 2003)
-OWC Intech Hard Disk SpeedTools ver 3.5
Other CDs I have:
OEM CDs for Power Mac G4:
-Software Install, OS 9.2, CD vers 1
-Software Install, OS 10.0.4, CD vers 1
-Software Restore, OS 9.2 & 10.0.4 CDs vers 1, Discs 1-4 of 4.
-OEM Apple Hardware Test; Power Mac G4, SW vers 1.2.1
Applications on system Hard Drive that I don't have CDs for, that I rarely use, but I'd like to keep:
-After Effects 5.0
-QuickTime Player 6.0.2
-Toast Audio Extractor 1.1
-Toast Titanium 5.0.2
Applications on system Hard Drive I use if my wife is busy on our Windows XP machine:
-Photshop 6.0
-Microsoft Word & Excel
# of other Applications on System Hard Drive I either don't use or may be integral to the system: 260
# of Control Panels:
-Enabled: 34
-Disabled: 0
# of Extensions:
-Enabled: 174
-Disabled: 0
note: a number of the applications and extensions are for AOL, Quickbooks, Microsoft Money and the like, as well as other things I don't use (Airport, USB printers, Networking, etc.)
Smart things I did:
-Regularly made backup copies of my FCP projects to the external drives.
-Bought a copy of MacDrive so I can see what's on my External Drives on the XP machine.
-Printed out System Profile before I installed upgrades.
-Thoroughly searched this discussion board for and gathered as much info as I could before upgrading.
Dumb things I did:
-Made a copy, but not a clone, of my System Folder to one of the external drives when I first got it.
-Didn't keep any sort of separate log of what's on the External Drives.
-Never ran any sort of Disk Maintenance, even after one of the Externals crashed (DiskWarrior saved my butt on that).
-Ignored some of the advice on this discussion board.
Really dumb thing I did without even realizing it:
Captured all media for a rush job onto my internal system Hard Drive, as well as storing and using massive jpgs for the same job on that same drive...
Which led to painfully slow rendering times, and crashes caused by "Error: Out of Memory", which I interpreted as "Must buy more memory" and not "must make sure I'm not trying to edit media stored on system drive, especially with massive jpgs that I should reduce"
RECENT UPGRADES:
Here's what I did, and how I did it:
Turned off system, disconnected all External FireWire Devices, disconnected Monitor, opened case, touched various metal parts of case and power supply to discharge any Static, unplugged power cable.
-Installed 2 512MB sticks of "Lifetime" PC 133 SDRAM; total System RAM is now 1.5GB, all 3 DIMM slots now occupied.
-Installed 1 Maxtor "DiamondMax" Ultra ATA/133 100GB Hard Drive (8 MB buffer) as "Slave" (no jumper) in top of U-Carrier above System Hard Drive; attached to middle of original Apple ribbon cable, attached available power plug.
Taped spare jumper to inside of empty drive bay, noting origin and date. Did NOT push PMU button. Carefully closed case. Reconnected Monitor, did NOT reconnect any FireWire devices. Powered System on, but did NOT perform PRAM reset.
I don't remember the exact order of what happened next, but I think: System booted up normally, a window popped up saying a new drive had been found, would I like to intitialize it?, which I did as Mac OS extended, and then named. If I was instructed to restart, I did so, otherwise did not. Clicked on "about this Mac" and saw that it now showed 1.5GB RAM. I then went about moving Media/Render files off the System drive (and one of the Externals) onto the Internal Drive, with a combination of FCP's Media Manager, and dragging from the Finder. After files had copied, dragged Media/Render files from System Drive to Trash. Opened FCP project, had FCP re-link to new locations of missing files. Saved, closed, and re-opened project, set Capture/Scratch disc to new internal Drive. At some point I changed FCP's Memory Allocation from whatever it was to 512000KB Minimum, and 900000KB Prefered (and I hope I got all those zeroes right). Did NOT restart after changing Memory Allocation, unless a window popped up instructing me to do so, in which case I did. Re-opened my project, rendered a few thing at a noticeably increased speed, saved everything, emptied the Trash, shut everything down, and called it a night as it was 4:30 am.
A few hours later, I plugged the MiniDV and an External Drive into the FW ports and powered up the System. It was behaving extremely sluggishly. I would click on something, the pointer would turn into a wristwatch (sometimes with the minute-hand moving, sometimes not) and like an actual minute later, what I'd clicked on would open. All three drives were on the desktop, still had their files, and "About this Mac" still showed 1.5GB total Memory. So I powered down, disconnected the FW devices, waited a bit, and powered back up. Same sluggish response. I tried to open my FCP project file, and instead got a Window that said something to the effect of "The Application associated with this document could not be found". I think I tried to open FCP from the Applications folder on the System Drive and got the same message (I'd only had 3 hours sleep, no coffee, my client had died, and his family was coming for whatever I had in a few hours).
LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE
Panic had set in, which never solves anything, so I don't remember what order I performed which tasks, between searching for clues in this forum, and convincing myself that that would be faster than trying to compose a question, waiting for a response, etc.
The first two things I did, and I can't remember which I did first (both from Keyboard Commands during Restart):
Rebuild Desktop
PRAM Reset
Neither of those solved the problem, so I continued.
I tried restarting without extensions.
I would get errors that said something like "Not Enough Memory to Open Finder".
I tried booting from Disc 1 of the Software Restore Disk, which only wanted to destroy my data.
I tried booting from the OS 10 disk, with the same result.
I was finally able to boot from the OS 9.2 Software Install Disk, and actually saw both internal drives on the desktop, and the 1.5GB RAM in About this Mac. I tried to allocate more memory to Finder, but was informed that "Cannot Perform Requested Operation. This operation requires versions above 8.0".
I think at this point I decided that I must have too many extensions, and started disabling ones I thought irrelevent to my cause (mostly anything that said "AOL", "Airport", "Ethernet", "Printer", "Modem", "Speakable", and a couple things called "Open TPT".
It gets worse. Then I decided to turn off some "unnecessary" things via the control panels, but somehow managed to disable the control panels themselves: AppleTalk, DialAssist, File Sharing, Modem, Mouse (as I saw that Microsoft Mouse was among the others), Remote Access, Speech, USB Printer Sharing, and possibly TCP/IP.
That certainly didn't help anything (though upon restarting from the OS 9.2 Disc I was able to see the extensions and control panels in their respective "Disabled" folders in the System Folder). But I still wasn't able to get more Memory to Finder.
So, I decided a few more PRAM resets might help, which succeeded in making both Internal Hard Drives disappear. I tried booting up from the DiskWarrior disc, but even the Mighty DiskWarrior couldn't find the drives. I performed the longer, in depth version of the Apple Hardware Tools tests, which reported that everything's fine (including the new RAM), but made no mention of the Hard Drives at all. The deadline having long passed, I shut the system down. I read through more posts and tech articles, etc.
I searched my External drives with MacDrive on my XP, and found the drive that has the copy of my System Folder (which shows all extensions and control panels as enabled); not sure if the Quicksilver will boot from that, I don't know what the Keyboard command for booting from a FireWire drive is (if there is one) and the drive itself only has 900MB of free space.
I can't find any reference to Internal ATA drives anywhere in the MacDrive documentation; if it was possible I'd put them into the XP, get the files off the Mac drives, reformat them and install OS9 from the Discs.
This is where I am now:
The Quick Silver is still powered down. I removed the Microsft mouse and replaced it with the OEM Apple mouse. I opened the case, and removed the PRAM/Backup battery (manufacture date: July 2001). Couldn't find my voltmeter, so took the bat to Radio Shack and bought a new one. Had the Radio Shack guy test the old one: it showed 3.69 volts still. Have not installed the new battery yet. The case is still open, waiting for any advice any of you might have to offer.
Thank you all so much for your patience in perusing and pursuing this.
Sincerely,
Patterson
Power Mac G4 Quicksilver 867 Mac OS 9.2.x 17" Studio Display, 512MB RAM

Thank you Rodney and John,
The jumpers are correct for both Maxtor Drives.
Rodney, you are correct in that the initial problem (slow rendering/"out of Memory" crashes) was caused by my not realizing I'd stupidly captured several GBs of media to my system drive, and not checking which drives those files were on (as I'd assumed I'd put them on one of my external media drives) once that problem presented itself.
Before I'd determined what I'd done, I bought the extra RAM. After I'd found the media files on the System Drive, and saw that my dedicated media drives were too full to easily move them, I decided to buy an additional Internal drive so that I could:
-Move the Media onto it relatively quickly and finish my urgent project.
-Juggle all my media into a more organized fashion for archiving (as most of my projects are on-going long-term affairs)
-Wipe it, Partition it, and clone my System Drive onto it, as a spare bootable drive in case my OEM System Drive failed.
Copying the Media files onto the New Drive and moving the System Drive's Media files into the Trash worked great: huge improvement in Rendering, etc.
Before shutting down for the night I Emptied the Trash, and was pleased with the amount of space I'd freed up on the System Drive.
My guess is that the System Drive was terribly fragmented, having been subjected to intense use over the past 5 years without any sort of Drive Maintainence, and deleting that massive amount from it in one shot caused my extreme system sluggishness upon Startup the next day.
My subsequent lame attempts to solve the sluggishnes ultimately resulted in my losing access to both drives.
Today, I replaced the Backup Battery, pushed the PMU, re-attached the AC, and Powered Up with the case open as per your suggestion.
It was trying for a few minutes (the gray screen went black at one point, and then returned to gray) before presenting me with the flashing question mark.
There was, however, a quiet but distinct "buzzing" sound that would alternate: 1 sec "buzz", one second silence, one second "buzz", one second silence, etc. coming from the drives, even after the "?" appeared.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power Cables from the new "Slave" drive, and powered up again, with the exact same results.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power cables from the original "Master" drive, reinstalled the Jumper on the New Drive as "Master", plugged the End of the Ribbon and the Power cables into the New "Master" drive and powered up. The screen went to the "?" within 20 seconds instead of 4+ minutes, and no more "buzzing".
I put the Apple Hardware Tools Disk in, ran the "long" test, and everything came out fine.
I have to abandon this for now, but thanks again for your previous advice, and any more you may have!
Cheers,
Patterson

I am migrating to a new iMac via TimeMachine back up. My iPhoto libraries are on external drive. I'd like to migrate only the internal hard drive data to the new internal Drive then just plug in iPhoto library drive. Is this going be a problem?

I am migrating to a new iMac via TimeMachine back up. My iPhoto libraries are on an external drive. Both drives are backed up on Time Machine. I'd like to migrate only the old internal hard drive data to the new internal Drive and then just plug in iPhoto library drive to the new iMac. This would save having to transfer several hundred GBs of data. Will this work using Set Up Assistant?

Your user account on the new Mac must have a different UID than on the old one. See the pink box in Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation.
You'll need to change the permissions on the iPhoto library on the external HD. Do a Get Info on it, click the padlock at the bottom of the Sharing & Permissions section of the Info window and enter your Admin password.
Then click the plus sign, select the user account you want on the next screen, and click Select. Then change Read only to Read & Write for that user via the little arrows. Finally, click the "gear" icon and select Apply to enclosed items. That may take a few mintutes on a large library.

Internal hard drive/repair: SMART status; Disk Utility, Tech Tool & More

machine: 12" PowerBook 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4 (Aluminium) with 80GB internal HD
internal hard drive (original): Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series HTS541080G9AT00
hard drive firmware: MB4AA5AJ
ATA version: 6
ATA standard: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
I have monitored the SMART status etc. of my internal drive with smartmontools for some time. Occasionally, I would see an error or a failed self-test but later testing always succeeded and things did not seem to be problematic.
At the beginning of this week, I started to see a lot of failed self-tests (though some still passed), a rising number of bad ("pending") sectors and reallocation attempts (though no reallocated sectors) and various other errors. The computer seemed to have trouble reading from the disk at times and Carbon Copy Cloner reported two I/O errors when cloning (a later clone succeeded). fsck showed errors although running fsck -fy repeatedly seemed to resolve them.
The Apple hardware tests initially reported an error (2STF/8/3:ATA-100 ata-6-Master) but I hadn't realised I should disconnect peripherals before running it so I did that and repeated the test which found no issues. I ran the extended test a total of three times with no errors.
As I continued to have problems, I booted from my clone and had Disk Utility wipe the drive by writing zeros to it. (I thought trying to get it to write everywhere would either finish the drive off or force it to reallocate the bad blocks. As I understand it, in normal use, the drive won't reallocate the blocks unless it can recover the data in the hopes of reading it at a later time.)
I then continued monitoring the disk using smartmontools. At this point, short self-tests succeed but extended self-tests "disappear". They don't fail, they simply vanish. They begin and smartctl shows the test in progress but then no error or result is logged - it is as if the test was never run. The first time I did this, I got an error saying the SMART attributes could not be read but subsequent tests do not trigger even an error. Short self-tests continue to pass.
There are now (according to SMART) zero bad ("pending") sectors but zero reallocated sectors, which seems odd. The raw read error rate fluctuates (zero one minute, many thousands a while later) although I am not sure it did not do this before.
Disk Utility claims the disk does not support SMART status even though smartctl clearly shows it does. Disk Utility claims the volume is "OK".
I ran Tech Tool Deluxe 3.04 from CD and 3.1.1 from my clone. In both cases, I ran all available tests on the drive. No problems were found.
I am seeing some problems even while booted from my clone - yesterday, the system froze completely and I had to force a shut-down by switching off the power (fsck then found a minor error but repaired it). Just before this happened, I was unable to mount a disk image and was trying to rectify the situation when the system froze. It is possible that the errors fsck corrected were implicated in the freeze, rather than caused by it, since Disk Utility found and repaired similar errors for the other two clones I have (on different partitions of my external drive - yes, I know this is sub-optimal).
Here is some current output from smartmontools:
---output: smartctl -q noserial -a disk0---
smartctl version 5.38 [powerpc-apple-darwin8.11.0] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series
Device Model: Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00
Firmware Version: MB4AA5AJ
User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
Local Time is: Sat Jul 3 20:28:52 2010 BST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 645) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 55) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 RawRead_ErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 062 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
3 SpinUpTime 0x0007 142 142 033 Pre-fail Always - 2
4 StartStopCount 0x0012 097 097 000 Old_age Always - 5793
5 ReallocatedSectorCt 0x0033 100 100 005 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 SeekErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 067 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 SeekTimePerformance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 PowerOnHours 0x0012 039 039 000 Old_age Always - 26720
10 SpinRetryCount 0x0013 100 100 060 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 PowerCycleCount 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 4168
191 G-SenseErrorRate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-OffRetractCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 201877487644
193 LoadCycleCount 0x0012 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 2209599
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 141 141 000 Old_age Always - 39 (Lifetime Min/Max 16/46)
196 ReallocatedEventCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 194
197 CurrentPendingSector 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0008 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMACRC_ErrorCount 0x000a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 2138 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
PoweredUpTime is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 2138 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26716 hours (1113 days + 4 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
10 51 00 09 4f c2 a0 Error: IDNF
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
b0 d6 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.500 SMART WRITE LOG
b0 d5 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.300 SMART READ LOG
b0 d1 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ ATTRIBUTE THRESHOLDS [OBS-4]
b0 d0 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ DATA
b0 da 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART RETURN STATUS
Error 2137 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:37.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
Error 2136 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 21 1f 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 33 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951f = 77108511
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
Error 2135 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 22 1e 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 34 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951e = 77108510
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
Error 2134 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 92 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:12.100 READ DMA EXT
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBAof_firsterror
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26716 -
# 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26715 -
# 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26714 -
# 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26697 -
# 9 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26692 75071682
#10 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26687 -
#11 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26676 77108511
#12 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26663 296917
#13 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26657 -
#14 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26646 296918
#15 Short offline Completed: read failure 70% 26645 296905
#16 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#17 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#18 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26643 296916
#19 Short offline Completed: read failure 20% 26643 296909
#20 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 26620 -
#21 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26618 -
Warning! SMART Selective Self-Test Log Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENTTESTSTATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
---end output---
Self-tests 1-8 were all run after I erased the disk. The others were run before I did so. Not listed are the extended self-tests I've started since erasing which, as I say, have simply disappeared.
The checksum error regarding the log is normal for this disk. At least, I've got that error ever since I started using smartmontools for monitoring so I assume it is normal. (I installed this version of the software in about April 2008 and have used it since.) Also, starting offline testing has never succeeded on this disk (I think I checked into this at the time but can't quite remember - this is not new, anyway).
Questions
how should I interpret all this? (Why does Disk Utility say SMART is not supported while smartctl clearly shows it is at the same time? Why do the extended tests simply vanish? Is the drive definitely dying?) I do not want to replace the disk unless I absolutely have to because I understand that replacing disks in 12" PBs is no small matter and cost is an issue. I do not want to replace the machine unless I have to because cost is an issue and, also, I really like this computer and have no idea what I would want in its place, even if expense were no obstacle.
if it isn't clear whether the drive is dying or not, is there some further strategy I can use to establish this?
if the drive is dying, is a machine of this age worth repairing and, if it is, under what circumstances is it worth doing so? For example, it might be worth doing if you can do the job yourself, but that might be quite impractical for non-expert (not to mention, inexpert) users.
if there is a hardware problem (which I obviously think is very, very probable at this point), is it definitely a dying hard drive? (I've seen people write ominous things about disk controllers etc. which I gather are more serious - or less repairable - than a "mere" dying disk.)
what questions should I be asking you and what are the answers to those questions?!
Many thanks for your patience in reading this far.
- cfr

The 12" PB internals are a bit more complex, for PB's. If you don't want to replace the hard drive yourself or pay someone to install it, you could always get an external firewire hard drive, and use it to boot from and for general usage. Would have to be firewire, since the PB won't book from a USB device. One example of what you could get is a 160GB external hard drive: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MS4U5160GB8/ . All the choices with that case are listed here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
Have you called any Apple Authorized Service Providers to see what they would charge to install a drive for you? Whether you bought it or they supplied it? You can find a local one in the US at http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/

Time Machine Problem - New Internal Hard Drive, Now Backup Takes Hours

Need some help!
Background.
Almost 4 year old 24" aluminum iMac; 4 gb ram; 500 gb hard drive; OS 10.6.8.
About 2 months after Alpple Care expired, the internal hard drive failed (New Year's Eve of all times!). Everything else working great.
Had a Mac technician I know install a new 750 gb drive for me. I cloned back from SuperDuper, and was ready to go. The SuperDuper external is 1.5 TB, partitioned - one half TM, the other half SuperDuper.
All apps, internet, mail - fine.
I hooked up my existing Time Macinne (probably not a good idea), and the next backup failed.
Did some research, and since I have plenty of archived backup anyway, decided that the best thing to do would be to erase the TM external, and start fresh.
Did that, and as expected, first backup took a couple hours.
The Problem.
Now, every incremental backup takes 4 to 5 hours, even if no data has changed.
"Indexing" lasts for 45 minues; "Backing Up" reads 600,000 plus files, which also goes on for 30 or 40 minutes (approx.), and wants to Calculate changes etc forever; then the actual backup starts out at 10 kb, and in 20 minutes is at 30 kb and then after about an hour I start getting into gbs and the blue bar progresses pretty fast after that. Then "Finishing Up" takes approximately 2 - 3 hours.
Not right. :~(
What I've Done to Toubleshoot.
First, I re-erased the TM external.
Then reset PRAM and did an SMC reset on the iMac.
Then backed up to TM again. The same problem persisted.
So next, I repeated that process (other than backing up), and I also deleted from the Root Library/Preferences com.apple.timemachine.plist, and from Home/Library/Preferences deleted com.apple.finder.plist. Then rebboted the iMac. Then I did a Disk Utility verify of the empty external - all was/is fine. Then I ran DiskWarrior on the iMac and all was fine; repaired permissions on the iMac from DiscWarrior as well. Then, I did another TM backup to the external, which took a couple hours since it was backing up to an empty drive.
Next 3 incremental backups still take 4 to 5 hours, even if nothing has changed on theiMac.
The Request.
Please if anyone can give me some easy to understand step by step options I might try to get TM working correctly again, it will be most appreciated.
If I've left out any details that might assist, please also let me know.
The problem computer is at home and I'm at work, so if any logs are needed, I can post those later today (but in that event, please tell me exactly which log to post and how to isolate it from System Profiler or Console (as there are many logs to choose from and I want to provide the proper info if someone needs to see a log to assist)).
Thanks in advance!

Pondini,
Did every step in D2 (green box) - except did not reinstall Combo Updater which I did late last night.
After that, did a TM backup - started at 6:15.
All apps were off.
Sequence of events and facts:
At start, 434.03 0f 500.1 GB available on the external TM
Last backup shown - 7:58 AM; Oldest Back Up - Yesterday at 9:56 (that's the 1st backup after I reinitialized the external for the 2nd or 3rd time trying to get this thing figured out)
Upon starting and doing the backup -
Preparing 250,000 (approx.) items (too quick to get the final number) - Parenthetically, this AM it was over 600,000; probably has to do with turning off Spotlight per your D2 instructions
Next message -
Backing Up 6.96 GB
Hung at 2 kb to 90 kb for 20 minutes before progressing
Ultimately, at 1.78 GB the progress bar started moving rapidly (as it should) - so this isn't a cable connection issue - the Backup phase took 22 minutes, but from 1.78 GB to 6.96 GB took only a few seconds; I have seen this precise same sequence repeatedly the past 2 days
Next - Backing Up (the candy cane blue and white progress bar) - Preparing 140,000 items - took 12 minutes
Now shows 426.95 GB available on the external
Next - Backing Up (no count of items shown) - started at 7:05 and went until 7:45 (40 minutes)
Next - Finishing Backup (blue/white candy cane progress bar; no count of items shown) - started at 7:45 - went until sometime after 8:15 (can't give a precise time because I need to sit down and eat :~) )
Backup completed (between bites of chicken) at 8:23.
Over 2 hours - something isn't right.
Also, TM Prefs tells me that the Latest Backup was at 7:44 - odd.
Anyway - to take a step further, here's the TM Buddy widget info you might need:
Successful Backup: 02:06:32.
There is no log entry or data showing.
Just as I sent this, a new backup started, and it appears to be going through the same routine, from Preparing ....
Gotta eat.
Please post any further instructions and I'll do what I can tonight.
Thanks!
What is the problem? How do I speed this mother up?
Thanks!

Volume needs repair AND hard drive problem...

OK so I have an Intel Based iMac and its about 1 year old. Randomly I got a message saying that the hard drive disc space is almost full, which makes NO sense. I have a 250 hard drive and I use it mainly for video editing. Before I got this message, I had about 100 GB left on my hard drive. I have NO CLUE where 100 GB went to, and i know it was not from video. Also I went to the disk utility and it said "Volume needs repair" and it gave me an "The underlying task reported failure,". Im not sure what to do and I'm hoping you guys will.....if this has been asked before, I apologize.

Yes, you can delete it, but it indicates a bigger concern namely your maintenance scripts aren't running regularly to clean up the logs or you have a problem in the system or an application that is writing huge amounts of information constantly into the log file. You should check the log using the Console application (Utilities folder) and examine its content to see if this is the case.
You should also read the following for information on installing utilities that can assure the maintenance scripts are run as well as other information on system maintenance that can help keep your computer running better.
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.0 is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.6.1 is Leopard compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. The current version, 1.5.1, is Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline. Note that presently AppleJack is not compatible with Leopard.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.

Can anyone help me repair my internal hard drive?

I think I may have shut down my Imac at a bad moment (using the button on the back) and created a problem with the internal hard drive directory. I connected my powerbook to the Imac, using it as an external drive and ran 'Disk Utility' on it. I got:
'Invalid node structure
Rebuilding Catalog B-tree
Error: the underlying task reported failure on exit.
1 HFS Volume checked
1 Volume could not be reapired because of an error.'
So I then used a (slightly old) copy of Diskwarrior 3.0. I pressed 'Rebuild' and it came up with:
'The directory of the disk 'Robsters Imac' cannot be rebuilt. The original directory is too severely damaged. The disk was not modified (2155,2179)'
I know it looks bad, and the first thing some might say is 'get a new harddrive/ computer', but it seems strange that one bad force quit and a slightly damaged directory means the drive is now garbage. Any ideas on any other course of action?

The problem is your version of Disk Warrior is too old to work. You must use version 10.0.3 of Disk Warrior version with OS 10.4. Earlier versions will not work and will give you an error message if you try to use them. The earlier versions don't damage anything, they just can't repair the directory as you have found out.
It is a free download. You will have to have your current copy and a CD burner to use the new version. There is an excellent chance that with the latest version of Disk Warrior you will be able to repair the directory.

Can i use seagate goflex 3tb external hard drive for 2010 27" imac internal hard drive replacment if i take it out of the goflex case.do i need to format it before installation due to it allready having goflex software on it from manufacturer.

i have 3tb seagate goflex external hard drive.its brand new in package.i took it out of case and deleted partitions that were created by manufacturer.so now i have 2800 gigs.its formatted ntfs.will it work for late 2010 27" imac internal hard drive replacement.i found a apple repair place that will charge me 50$ to swap drives for me assuming i have the drive.i will have to install leopard myself at this price.i dont want to have to pay for anything other than the swap.will this hard drive work with this format or do i need to format it differently.

Hello
formatted ntfs
NTFS format not work on mac system , need to be formatted as Extended Mac os Journaled format and partition table need to be GUID
how to do that in video
HTH
Pierre

Problem backing up multiple internal hard drives to external

SITUATION:
We have 4 internal hard drives dedicated to media + another running the programs. The FCP projects are all saved on one of the media hard drives which also has captured media on it. The other 3 media drives hold the rest of the media for these projects. I have copied them all, one hard drive at a time, onto a La Cie external hard drive.
PROBLEM:
When I go into the La Cie drive, double click on HardDrive1 and open a project, the only "on line" clips in the browser are from the HardDrive1. It can't seem to link up to the media on the other three hard drives even though all the media is there.
QUESTION:
Anyone know how to set up the La Cie disk so that the projects on HD1 can find all their media from the 3 other media hard drives?

OK, had coffee, thinking straight(er)...almost not confused.
Your recent post would indicate that you have 7 harddrives inside your Mac.?.?. I think I understand what you have going on, and may be able to help, but it'll take a bit more info...
Are each of the 'desktop icon' harddrives individual harddrives, or partitioned HDs. If any are partitioned, can you tell me which?
I understand PROMAX has a good name, so I'm inclined to believe that whatever they did, was done properly and with good reason.
Anyway, I copied all of these hard drives onto the LaCie starting with the FCP HD and set that one up as a "bootable" hard drive. The rest followed, one HD at a time (took forever!).
"I copied all of these hard drives"... How did you copy...CCCloner? MediaManager, Drag and drop. This may be part of the issue...a little beyond my scope, but let us know how you copied the drive contents from internal to Lacie.
Can you open any of the 'non-findable' clips on the Lacie in QuickTime..just to make sure they're on the drive and usable?
When you open FCP on the lacie (and it only connects to files from same 'drive')...do you get the normal 'reconnect media' prompt, or are you getting a window that says 'The movie file "------" cannot be found. Without this file, the movie cannot play properly.
If the standard 'reconnect media' prompt..., have you tried selecting 'reconnect' then when that window comes up select, 'search' and uncheck 'Matched Name Only'...keep 'Reconnect all files in relative path' checked as this will link all files from that drive at the same time.
Try this and post back.
K

HT203322 Still having issues with installing Yosemite after deleting "Backups.backupdb" on the internal hard drive. I have restarted multiple times and cannot find any other back up files, yet I still receive the same error message during installation.

I am using a 2011 iMac on 10.6.8. I recently downloaded the Yosemite upgrade and during the installation process ran into the "this disk is used for time machine backups". I ejected the external drive I use for time machine backups and turned off time machine in the application. I then followed the instructions of the help article (OS X: Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups - Apple Support) by moving the folder "Backups.backupdb" that I was able to find on my internal hard drive to the trash. I have restarted several times after completing this process. I am still running into the same error during the installation process. I have searched the hard drive for any other backups and I cannot find any. I searched the hard drive using the command cmd-shift-g and searched for “backups.backupdb” and was unable to find any folders or files. Any other suggestions?

I have resolved the problem - I did not actually delete the "backups.backupdb" folder, I only deleted the contents of the folder. I must have only searched on the user account for the folder after I thought I had deleted it. Thank you for the assistance everyone and I apologize for the inconvenience!

Repairing internal hard drive, having a problem

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