S.M.A.R.T. Says 'hard drive is failing' - how to wipe?

As the title says - S.M.A.R.T. says one of my internal hard drives is failing,
and then prevents me from highlighting it to repair or erase.
I have successfully copied the hard drive to a new drive, but how do I now
wipe the failing drive?

Are you trying to do this while booted from the OS or from the install Disk? If your booted into the OS then the repair option shouldn't be click-able. Beyond that, there might be some 3rd party software that could force a reformat and/or erase. I did try to find you something but didn't come across anything specific to what your trying to do. You probably already know this, but the purpose of S.M.A.R.T. is it acts as an early warning indicator. This means the drive is no longer dependable and may fail without warning in the near future, resulting in losing all data. With that being said, I've used a hard drive that S.M.A.R.T. indicated was failing for 3+ years without a hick-up. I don't use it for anything imported though. When I have more time and if I come across anything that might get the job down, I will add to this posting. The worst case scenario is that there is no way to reformat and/or erase the drive due to the state it's in. At that point, the only thing left to do is recycling the drive.

Similar Messages

Hard drive is Failing how do I save the iTunes 7 data?

On my iMac G4 the hard drive no longer mounts since I tried to upgrade to Leopard from 10.4.11. What I need to know is what data do I take from the hard drive to save my iTunes library of 13gigs. I would like to save whatever I need to reinstall it when I replace the drive. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!

Well clearly you want to try and save anything and everything you can. Typically in the iTune Music folder you will find all the media files. With just those you can start a new library but won't have stuff like playlists, some artwork, play counts, etc.
If you can find them, there are two data base files in the iTunes folder and also likely an artwork folder. Artwork you can always redownload from the iTunes store, so not a big deal saving that one if you can't. But if you can save either of the two database files (one being the XML file) you may be able to recreate all/most of your library as it was before.
Good luck,
Patrick

MacBook Hard Drive has failed, how can I backup my information?

Ok, my macbook's HDD has decided to fail 2 days before my 10 hour Photography Examination, in which I'm supposed to be spending 10 hours creating a final piece on Photoshop using it! :/
It's still in warranty, so before I send it off to Apple to be replaced, what methods can I use to backup my MacBooks data, I have ALOT of important information that I CAN NOT lose!
I've tried repairing the disk through Disk Utility on my OS X disc, but no joy. Is there a method I can use to backup all my data or clone the HDD? I have another MacBook (2006) and a Windows 7 IBM laptop if their any use for the backup? I also have an external HDD (320GB). Thanks

AdamNoakes wrote:
Ok, my macbook's HDD has decided to fail 2 days before my 10 hour Photography Examination, in which I'm supposed to be spending 10 hours creating a final piece on Photoshop using it! :/
See [Data Recovery|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Recover.html].
Once this is sorted out (or not), it should now be clear that you need to do regular backups before your HD fails, or something else awful happens to your Mac.
You already have Time Machine on your Mac. All you need is an external HD, or perhaps a Time Capsule. You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
There are other options, too. See Kappy's post on [Basic Backup|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12366915#12366915], complete with links to the web sites of each product.
Message was edited by: Pondini

My mac air says hard drive full and 90% is full of 'other' which I cant work out what 'other' is as i Have transferred most to my external hard drive

My mac air says hard drive full and 90% is full of 'other' which I cant work out what 'other' is as i Have transferred most to my external hard drive.
Do you know how I can tell how large each file is taking up and what my 'other' category could be?
thanks

Initial easy steps to gain disk space:
- Delete all files in the Downloads folder.
Empty the Trash.
- Start iPhoto.
Empty its trash.
Restart.
Backup:
Run a Time Machine (or other) backup since you are about to delete and move files and you may need to recover from any inadvertent mistakes or decisions. You will need one external hard drive for your Time Machine (or other) backup and a second if you plan to offload some files. (See suggestions for where to purchase hard drives at the end of this message.)
For more about backups:
Time Machine Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
Most commonly used backup methods:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031
Deleting files:
Then use the free application OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more to explore your volume in descending order by size so you can attack the problem from the top down, deleting the largest unwanted files first. Delete with caution and do not delete any system files. Remember to empty the trash after trashing the files.
Additional reference on freeing disk space:
http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
Offloading files:
Consider moving some of the no-often-used large files or directories to an external disk. Use ODS again to find them. This will be at least your second hard drive. Your first one(s) is/are for your Time Machine (or other) backup(s). Do not offload files onto a Time Machine disk.
Format the second drive as Mac OS Extended (journaled). Using OWS to find large files/folders and copy them from the system drive to the external hard drive and delete them from your internal drive.
Then  > System Preferences > Time Machine > Options… > Remove the offload HD name from the exclusions list.
Now both your system disk and your external offload disk will be backed up onto your Time Machine disk.
From: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
To move your iTunes Music folder to another disk or partition:
To change the location of your iTunes Music folder, carefully follow the instructions in the AppleCare® Knowledge Base document "iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Music folder."Additional information can be found in iTunes Help.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.thexlab.com/105/ 00000849.html
Laptop users may want to consider having two iTunes libraries: a small library of current favorites on their computer, while their complete library resides on an external hard drive. Utilities like iTunes Library Manager enable you to easily have multiple iTunes libraries you can use with your account. https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7689/itunes-library-manager
To move your iPhoto Library folder to another disk or partition:
To move the iPhoto Library folder to a new location, employ the instructions in the AppleCare Knowledge Base document from http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506 corresponding to the version of iPhoto you are using. Additional information can be found in iPhoto Help.
Laptop users may want to consider having two iPhoto libraries: a small library of current, favorite photographs on their computer, while their complete library, or archives of older photos are saved on an external hard drive. Utilities such as iPhoto Buddy and iPhoto Library Manager enable you to have multiple iPhoto libraries that you can use with your account.
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12175/iphoto-buddy
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7158/iphoto-library-manager
Hardware — Bigger disk/SSD:
OWC sells 120, 240 and 480 GB SSD upgrades for MacBook Airs. A 240 GB upgrade costs $265. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/ . If your Mac is under warranty or AppleCare replacing the SSD will void the warranty.

I am trying to erase and reformat my old iMac, it has a 1Tb hard drive in it. Error pops up and I noticed it is saying that the hard drive is 8Tb.How do I correct this?

Iam trying to erase and reformat my old iMac, it has a 1Tb hard drive in it. Error pops up and I noticed it is saying that the hard drive is 8Tb.How do I correct this?

I found another forum that had a solution. Instead of using the recovery discs that came with the mac, use snow leopard to perform the actions that I needed to do. It worked. No input/output error and the software recognized the 1Tb hard drive.

What are my options when Disc Utility says my hard drive is failing?

Before I upgraded to Tiger on my G4 (this morning), I ran Disk Utility, repair permissions. After the Tiger installation, I ran Disk Utility again and got the message that my hard drive is "failing" in red letters, something I have never seen before.
I started up with the Installer Disk and tried to run Disk repair from that, but the red remains and I am prevented from doing a repair.
What are my options?
(I added this question to another thread, but got a little confused about the answered/not answered option when my message was not accepted as a "not answered." Anyway, John Huber1's response to my original question was helpful. I thought it was better to start a new thread.)
Thanks,
Jeanie
Power PC G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Hey, guys.
I ran into a problem this morning that I've never ran into before and I wasn't sure where to write it but I thought this is best.
Here it goes...
Last night I had a power surge and when I restarted my computer, my external hard drive did not mount on my desktop. I than proceeded with restarting my computer, I relinked all my connections and I cant seem to get it fixed. I have a lot of material on my external drive that I dont have backed up (I know, a stupid move) anyways, I dont want to lose that information. Also, when I open up disk utility, the icon for my external drive is there and the partition I made for my external drive shows up also but the title of my partition for my external hard drive is not in bolded font. I tried to click the button to mount my external drive cause the specs tell me that it is not mounted but when I press the mount button, it does nothing. I than tried clicking the unmount button and than restart my computer and still nothing.
What problem am I facing and how can it be fixed?
Thanks.

Hard drive test failed

Hi
My HP Pavilion G6 is showing HARD DISK IMMINENT FAILURE on startup and asks to go in diagnostics.
When I run any test it shows SMART CHECK - FAILED.
Failure ID: OTSE1F-5LC77B-XD015G-60FV03
Product ID: QA498EA#ABV
HARD DISK 1.
However, when i choose to continue startup, it loads Windows but runs very irritatingly slow.
How can i get it fixed?

Hi,
The 24 character error code for the Smart failure would indicate that the Hard Drive is failing and needs to be replaced. This is also consistent with the slow loading/performance issues you describe.
If your notebook is still under warranty, contact HP and arrange to have the drive replaced - you can check your warranty status Here.
If you live in the US, contact HP Here.
If you are in another part of the world, start Here.
If you are out of warranty and would like a guide on replacing the Hard Drive yourself, please let me know.
Regards,
DP-K
****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
****I don't work for HP****
Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Hard Drives Constantly Failing

I just received a new hard drive Monday through an AASP in Puebla, Mexico, due to a hard drive failure within two months of purchasing my laptop. Sadly, I'm now reinstalling OSX due to what appears to be a very similiar hard drive failure. Luckily, my computer is still under warranty.
I'm not a computer whiz so here are some details of the first hard drive's failure (the current hard drive is failing in much the same manner).
1) The computer became increasingly slow, eventually freezing, forcing me to force restart.
2) Should I be lucky enough that the Macbook would reboot, it would be even slower than before, and freezing sooner than before. This would forece me to reboot, leading to step 1 or 3.
3) The hard drive would no longer boot, forcing me to try suck fixes as...
-repairing from the disk utility, which did not work
-trying fsck which also did not work
4) Reinstalling OSX, going back to step 2, and repeating until the hard drive was no longer recognized.
It appears that either
A) I'm doing something horribly wrong which is destroying my hard drives.
B) There is some other hardware problem that is slowly killing my hard drives, or..
C) My AASP didn't actually replace my hard drive.
What do I do, and would it be possible to get a new Macbook under my warranty?
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Apple doesn't publish a policy on replacements, but anecdotally, it seems that if Apple has tried three or four times or more to repair the same problem and not met with success, they'll consider replacing the machine.
Sure, but it's a little different if an AASP's been doing the repairs. Also because it's been the exact same repair over and over, I doubt they'd be willing to replace the entire unit without trying something else first.
Hard drives fail — they just do. One may run like a top for ten years, while the one that came off the assembly line right behind it could fail on Day 2. Odds are that you've simply been unlucky.
Also, yeah, HDDs fail, but it doesn't make sense to have 3 HDDs fail in quick succession.
Seems like, which came first...the chicken or the egg...except it's which came first, the freezing or the directory corruption.
You could very well have a failed/failing hard drive flex cable (connects the drive to the logic board) or a failed/failing controller on the logic board. I'd bet flex cable myself, but it's hard to say without working with the machine firsthand. The bad cable causes the computer to freeze, which causes you to force it to shut off, which means files don't get put away properly. This leads to data corruption, partition map corruption, volume header corruption, all kinds of stuff that makes it impossible to boot. It snowballs from there each time you try to use it.
I'd agree it's possible to coincidentally have more than one failed drive in a row, absolutely. But for them to all have the exact same problem and the exact same progression to me indicates a bigger problem.
Message was edited by: k.panic

27 inch imac's hard drive has failed.

Hi guys my 27 inch imac's hard drive has failed and I need to replace it. it was a seagate 1tb ST31000528AS. Any suggestions what to replace it with.

No worries,
Any SSD should work I recommend either OWC or Crucial SSDs, but you will still need an aftermarket optical drive temp sensor or the software to slow the fans down.
I recommend:
For software: http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/
Temperature sensor:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac-21-5-A1311-Mid-2010-Optical-Drive-Temp-Sensor -Cable-922-9624-/151521177860?
You will also need a bracket to mount it on-http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer+Technology/ADPTADRV/
iFixit guide: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2309+and+2374+Hard+Drive+Rep lacement/1634
You will just need to swap out the HDD bracket with the above one mentioned.
Good Luck
PS: If you are interested in installing it in the 3rd SATA slot or replace the optical drive with an SSD please say so

What to do when my hard drive is failing

I have had my 160 GB ipod classic for 1 year and after unplugging it from my computer it said that it had no music on it. Then I plugged it back in and i got message 1439 saying that it was corrupt. After running some tests and attempting to restore it, i figured out that my hard drive was failing. How do you get it to work again, or do i have to replace it? Can i still save the ipod? and if i take it to the apple store will they fix it or charge me money?
On another note..i recieved this ipod as a christmas present on christmas day with a year long warranty. and it broke today which is christmas day a year later. could i still return it while on its warranty?

This seems to be a common issue for new Mac users - try emptying the Trash in Finder and in iPhoto if you use it a lot - and then look around in these discussions for similar questions. Here is a couple:
Start up disk is full. How do I remedy that?
how do i clean up my startup disk
Good luck...

Is this a sign that hard-drive is failing?

Hi all,
My SnowLeopard started to NOT show icons under icon view in the documents, desktop, applications windows; only the name will be shown in white color font against a black backdrop. (This has happened before but it returned to the normal state where I can see both the icon and the name of the documents.) Why is that so? Is it a sign that the hard drive is failing?
I would like to know how to post screenshot here so that people can perhaps, better understand my situation.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ wrote:
I used S.M.A.R.T. and it says "Verified"
Is the SMART check foolproof?
Nope
On the other note, my hard drive is making clicking noise occasionally, for instance when I start a video file or an app, but is there any way to better define "loud noise"?
Erm.....I would say two or three times it's normal click volume. Does it make them at start up and take quite some time to start up or find files?
If so get a new one. Before it decides to turn its last spin. If you haven't got a portable HD, now might be the time to get one. You could keep it as a backup and clone to or from it.

When I use Preview,Photo Mechanic and Pages, all JPEG or RAW images appear corrupted. I thought my hard drive was failing and replaced it and migrated everything over but the problem still exists. Any idea what is going on?

When I use Preview,Photo Mechanic and Pages, all JPEG or RAW images appear corrupted.
I thought my hard drive was failing and replaced it and migrated everything over but the problem still exists.
It felt as if maybe a virus was at work but I ran Sophos and found nothing.
I store images on my Drobo Raid system but when I work from my Macbook Pro I have no issues, just on the tower.
Any idea what is going on?

First of all, why did you say yes to Nero Back up before researching what it does with files already on the HDD? When I install Nero, the Back Up is the first thing I disable, it is a nagging pain, there are much better backup programs available. There are several file recovery programs out there to recover deleted files, that is, if that is what happened. Also, if you haven't overwritten the files, so you should be able to find them.

TC reporting "Hard Drive is Failing" after Firmware update to 7.6.1

I've jumped in and updated my TC and expresses. Everything is working it would seem, however I'm getting intermittent amber alerts on the TC now saying the hard drive is failing. Time Machine backups are happening fine, no problem mounting the drive and the alert goes away after a few minutes. I've read other posts previously about this behaviour but never had it myself. Anyone else having this problem?

AT & T is infamouse for its out-dated PPoE technology. Still don't get how a company that big can still be so behind the times.
Unfortunately, I'm at the point when someone mentions AT&T and internet issues, I just cringe because 9 times out of 10 it's one dreaded PPoE problem you're going to get stuck into, or another.
Good luck with it...

How to backup data when hard drive is failing.

I think my hard drive is failing..
I booted using Install DVD, and got message in Disc Utility that "this drive has a hardware problem that can't be repaired." It mentioned I should backup data and consult apple representative..
I clicked on Macintosh HD under the red physical drive (500.11 GB Hitachi HTS) and did disc repair.
Strangely, the message went away on the physical drive when I finished. It turned back to black wording and gave green "verified/repaired" messages in the log.
I am still able to boot my macbook, although everything is running slowly... Desktop excel files take 15 mins to open.
Does this still sound like a failing hard drive?
I am trying to act fast and borrowed my sister's external harddrive/ "passport for mac", and it slowly prompted a time machine backup. It is slowly working through "8.34GB of 200.33GB"
I do not really understand what I am doing, but hoping this is the right move. Could someone explain what time machine will do or how it will help?
Is there any chance I will harm her external hd?
I am mostly worried about iPhoto and itunes library, iMovie projects,and important excel spreadsheets on my desktop. Is time machine looking after these concerns?
Any help greatly appreciated.

Where is you TM backup?
Where are your external data redundancies?
Now you will need to use very expensive data recovery experts to recover data when you could have had it safely on a $100 worth of 2 external HD.
Mechanical HD failure circumvents using recovery software.......so, now you backed yourself into a corner and needed expensive data expert recovery.
You took a wrong turn a long while back before reaching this cliff edge.
that wrong term was not having (preferably 2) external HD as a redundant data archive.

I have 5 computers authorized to use my iTunes. 2 of those computers do not exist and have had their hard drives destroyed. How do I remove those computer from my iTunes account?

I have 5 computers authorized to use my iTunes. 2 of those computers do not exist and have had their hard drives destroyed. How do I remove those computer from my iTunes account?

Begin by opening the iTunes program and going to the iTunes Store via the iTunes Store button in the top right.
Once you're at the iTunes Store, click on the Sign In button at the top left corner (if you're not signed in) or on your account name in the same location (if you're already signed in).
This will bring you to your iTunes account. In the top box, you'll see a section labelled Computer Authorizations towards the bottom. Next to it is a button that reads Deauthorize All. Click it.
A window will pop up asking you to confirm that this is what you want to do. Continue.
In just a few seconds, all 5 computers on your account will be deauthorized.
Now, re-authorize just the computers that you still use and you'll be all set.

S.M.A.R.T. Says 'hard drive is failing' - how to wipe?

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