Second Hard drive failure in one year

I have a mid 2007 imac purchased on February 7th of 2008. 2.4GH, intel etc. I love how my apple product is working when it works. I am off to the apple store in Chicago, an 88 mile trip, for the second time in this first year with a hard drive failure. Each trip costs met from 35-40 dollars in tolls, parking and gas.
I wonder if I can ask for a replacement machine since there is clearly something wrong with this one. I do not have air flow problems as the machine is out in the open and does not seem to run hot. Each time I pull out my old dell to problem solve whats going on with this expensive one year old Mac I get a sick feeling.

Hi Bonawe!
Saw your post and I understand where you are at. Several months ago, both my PC desktop and laptop's motherboards died so I had to replace both. I was told Apple was best for graphics so I decided to get an iMac and a Dell for the laptop. I have to tell you, I love this iMac. The operating system is so easy and intuitive. If you have experience with computers, you will love how easy it is to begin using. So far, I have found it to be an amazingly stable operating system as well. In 3 months, I've had only one freeze up and I use this computer a lot.
I hate Vista - just don't like the operating system at all. I wanted the flexibility of having the apple and PC since some software I have would not work on the iMac. In retrospect, I would have gotten both laptop and desktop from apple. Seriously.
The support at apple is crazy good. I couldn't get the iMac to connect to the internet when I got home - from my unfamiliarity with this operating system. I actually had support on the phone after 3 rings and was on the internet in minutes. I about fell out of my chair. It's that good.
Like it's been said, people who are having no issues are not going to come to the forum. I come here to learn - the responses from experienced users have taught me so much about how this computer functions and how to prevent problems. So don't use these posts as a decision maker in your process. I've visited Vista forums that have so many more problems.
My daughter became an apple convert as well. She got the Macbook Pro for Christmas and loves it.
Sorry for the long post and hijacking this thread but I really wanted to let you know my experience to help you with your decision.

Similar Messages

Hard Drive died under one year of replacement

I replaced my Hard drive from Apple store this march and now its dead, will they replace it or I have to buy new one, I am not sure if the warrenty for new HDD is one year or six month if we replace through Apple store

I just had a HD fail, it was an out of warranty repair since it was 22 days past my original 1-year warranty. They took it on at their own expense since I was having problems with it some 2 or 3 months before the expiration.
This was included in the receipt of service record:
"All Apple products come with a one-year limited warranty and up to 90 days of complimentary telephone technical support."
I assume this means this new replacement drive is covered for 1 year.
https://supportprofile.apple.com/
This PDF seems to say 90 days
http://images.apple.com/legal/sales-support/terms/repair/docs/Retail_Repair_US_T erms_Conditions.pdf

Second hard drive failure

ok so my hard drive died today. It cant be recognized in disk utility or as a target disk.
this is the second drive thats died!!! also had my batterie die,,
my macbook is the most fragile comp i have ever had. i have had 1 old CRT imac then an emac then my macbook and finally my alu imac,
ggggrrrrr

Keep in mind that hard drives are vulnerable to damage when they are spinning & moved: the head is "flying" over the disk platter on a very thin cushion of air & if the drive is moved suddenly it can literally crash into the platter, damaging either or both parts. Apple uses an advanced technology (the Sudden Motion Sensor) to attempt to "park" the head in a safe zone if the laptop detects this kind of motion, but it isn't foolproof.
Thus, you should treat it somewhat gently while using it, taking care not to bump it or move it about quickly until it is in the fully spun down sleep mode (indicated at least on the latest models by the pulsing of the status light on the front edge of the case). Judging by that light, it takes about 10 seconds after telling my MB to sleep for it to reach that state.
The manual does mention this but I suspect many people don't notice it or forget about it after using their MB's for a while.

Leopard-induced hard drive failure and support options

I purchased a copy of Leopard a couple weeks back and installed it on my Macbook. Everything seemed fine at first, but within a few days I began experiencing sudden, inexplicable crashes. I could be checking my email, editing a word doc or simply browsing the Finder when the OS would completely crash and the computer would reboot.
This began happening more frequently, and a few days ago the computer crashed for the last time—I can no longer boot up at all. When I power on the Macbook the sleep indicator light comes on steady, but the screen remains dark, and there is no hard drive activity. I suspect at this point that my hard drive has died.
My question is, before I bring in my Macbook to get the hard drive replaced (the one-year warranty has expired), is there anything Apple Support can do for me? It seems ridiculous that I paid for a new OS which destroyed my hard drive, and then will have to pay for repairs and a new drive. Any suggestions?

Hi Cloudneuf.
Hope I can bring clarity on a few points :
0 : If you have not done so, perform the steps described in this article : http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303234
1 : Don't be afraid if the DVD/CD gets swallowed. If that happens : shut down your Mac (pressing 5 seconds the power button always does) than start it up while pressing the trackpad or mouse button : this will eject the disk -it used to eject the floppy disk back in 1984
2 While a backup disk is very useful, DIskWarrior is useful in case of emergency but most Mac users do not have it (I have to confess I have it though)
3 Start with Leopard' install DVD : Shut down if necessary by pressing 5 seconds on the power button? Then Start the Mac while pressing the C key (C was for CD). The Mac will start using the CD or DVD. By the way, if you want to select a startup drive, hold the option/alt key when starting
4 Once in the installer, (I think after the primary language screen) you can access the Disk Utility through a menu. In the DIsk Utility, you can repair your drive.
5 If Disk repairing is not enough, start using Leopard's DVD and perform an "Archive and Install" (that's in one of the oprions button if I remember correctly). This will install a clean version of Leopard but will keep all your personal data intact.
6 If that does not work,, start using Léopard's DVD and perforem an "erase and install". You will lose all your data and will have to collect it back from your external drive afterwards.
7 If Erase and install does not work, your Mac needs service.

Having hard drive failure every year

Trying to find out why the hard drives on our computer HP TouchSmart 310-1124F keeps failing. Purchased this computer new in 2011, in February of 2012 the hard drive failed, message was "Hard desk failure is imminent have it replaced" so I did. Now in 2013 I'm getting another message " we strongly recommend that you back up your computer to avoid potential data loss ... contact your computer manufacturer to determine if the disk with errors needs to be repaired or replaced." The computer is attached to a good battery backup, it's not used for extended Internet work, No new programs have been downloaded, it is not used to download or upload information and although it's not our main computer it is used daily. What is going on, is anyone having same issues. I feel the computer itself is a lemon. This will be the 3rd hard drive in 2 years on this machine! By- the- way I did contact the Tech. department telling them the error message but was only told this computer was "not in warranty now" and that ... "you'll need to purchase a new hard drive" No offer or indication as to a possible repair could be done. Yeah that dosen't make me feel that great about this product. I just want to find out why the hard drives installed on this machine only last one (1) year! Any advise would be appreciated, thank you.

WRI-Jupiter,
Your computer may not / most likely doesn't have anything to do with the hard drive failures you have experienced. Drive manufacturers have been reducing the warranty period on drives for years. Also, as drive density has gone up, it appears that quality control has gone down.
Was the first drive replaced under warranty by HP or did you do it yourself??? Have you kept the computer free of "dust bunnies"??? What is the average temperature where you live???
By the way, the "we strongly recommend that you back up your computer to avoid potential data loss ... contact your computer manufacturer to determine if the disk with errors needs to be repaired or replaced" message was primarily just for your information. Because the warranty has expired, HP will no longer repair the machine without you incurring additional costs.
Your best bet is to;
1) Follow the advice of the message above and back-up any and all data you wish to save before the computer encounters a major hard drive issue.
2) Run the hard drive diagnostics from the boot menu or DOWNLOAD and run the HP Vision Hardware Diagnostics CD Image.
3) Also consider downloading and running the hard drive manufacturuer's diagnostics routine and see if it generates an error code. If the drive is still under warranty and you receive an error code, contact the manufacturer for an RMA.
4) When replacing the drive make sure to blow all the dust out of the computer and continue this practice about every three months.
Please send KUDOs
Frank
{------------ Please click the "White Kudos" Thumbs Up to say THANKS for helping.
Please click the "Accept As Solution" on my post, if my assistance has solved your issue. ------------V
This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I don't work for HP.
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Macbook Pro 2011 extremely slow wondering if hard drive failure

Hello, I want to start off by saying I'm not a huge computer guru, so that is why I'm coming here first. My Macbook Pro worked very well for a year, and then it has slowed down drastically. I've always been a windows user so mac is kind of foreign to me, but I'm trying to learn.
Some problems I've encountered are 1. Extremely slow running whether internet related, or just an application. I have checked the activity monitor and nothing is hogging up my memory. 2. Spinning wait cursor (rainbow circle) when I try to do ANYTHING. It takes minutes to start computer once it makes it to home screen. The circle just spins for a few minutes. Even just web surfing it's there. 3. Battery drains from 100% to less than 20% in 30 minutes, which again is annoying. 4. When battery drains the fan turns on and seems to drain battery even faster. 5. I get a lot of random errors forcing shut down of programs. I have ignored this problem for two years by not using my laptop or using it very minimally, but I am going to be needing a laptop again for school and not just my iPad and phone so I was planning on taking my macbook to genius bar, but wanted to check here first since Apple is an hour away. Plus I want to be able to use the piece of equipment that I spent a decent chunk of change on. I used time machine to back up everything today. I know its not a space issue as I have 300+ free GB on hard drive. I have tried to read through similar posts, but its overwhelming so I came here to post my own question.
I ran disc utility and there were some errors, which were able to be corrected after a couple tries. Computer still slow though when trying to do anything and running rainbow circle.
In recovery mode I reinstalled OSX
I was finally able to install updates after completing the above that were not able to be installed before.
I ran etre check, this is the report that came up:
Problem description:
Extremely slow computer, possible hard drive failure
EtreCheck version: 2.0.11 (98)
Report generated November 3, 2014 9:25:29 PM EST
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1
1 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
4 GB RAM
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB
Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software: ℹ️
Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63) - Uptime: 0:6:50
Disk Information: ℹ️
Hitachi HTS547550A9E384 disk0 : (500.11 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499.25 GB (357.49 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5970H
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple, Inc. MacBook Pro
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/System/Library/Extensions
[not loaded] com.Logitech.Unifying.HID Driver (1.2.0 - SDK 10.0) Support
/Users/[redacted]/Downloads/LCC Installer.app
[not loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.HID Driver (3.5.1 - SDK 10.0) Support
Startup Items: ℹ️
HP IO: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP IO
Startup items are obsolete and will not work in future versions of OS X
Problem System Launch Agents: ℹ️
[failed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist Support
[running] com.Logitech.Control Center.Daemon.plist Support
[invalid?] com.luthresearch.savvyconnectmenu.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[invalid?] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support
[invalid?] com.luthresearch.scservice.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[...]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)
SavvyConnect UNKNOWN (missing value)
Google Chrome Application (/Applications/Google Chrome.app)
HP Scheduler Application (/Library/Application Support/Hewlett-Packard/Software Update/HP Scheduler.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 15.0.0.189
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 67 Check version
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player Support
Growl Support
Java Support
Logitech Control Center Support
Time Machine: ℹ️
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      11% Safari
      3% WindowServer
      0% fontd
      0% Google Chrome
      0% ps
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
245 MB WebProcess
206 MB System Preferences
168 MB Safari
99 MB mds
82 MB Google Chrome
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
1.37 GB Free RAM
1.57 GB Active RAM
318 MB Inactive RAM
1.03 GB Wired RAM
436 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs
Basically I'm wondering if anything sticks out in this report. I was thinking it could be a possible hard drive failure. I know my computer has been dropped on the floor at least a few times. Thoughts are appreciated. Thank you for your patience.

Eab, I feel your pain! I am replying simply to share my similar ongoing experience with my early 2011 17 inch MacBook Pro, running Mavericks with seeming ample hard drive space, [applications requiring less than 100GB, about 200GB data (total drive space of 500GB)] & 4GB RAM. (Disclaimer: I am not a wise or computer-savvy mac guru - simply a fellow traveler who has had a very similar set of problems - apps taking forever to load, rapid battery depletion & super overheated MacBook. While I am a Genius Bar groupie, getting to the Apple store is, for me, akin to an antarctic polar expedition (i.e. problematic). Having spent endless hours struggling with a similar issue, I offer you a synopsis of my struggle/experience.
STEPS TO DATE:
1.Installed several memory utility programs (Daisy Disk & MacCleanse) system
maintenance program to regularly and thoroughly empty application caches (Adobe apps & internet browsers being tremendous hogs), identify and remove language elements and other redundant space hogs, etc.   Result: Small, but real improvement when I forced myself to perform a "scan and delete" session every second major computer run (typically about 6-8 hours in length). However, this did nothing to help the problems regularly detected when I run the Disk Utility which almost invariably demonstrates disk permissions that need to be repaired and, with increasing frequency, has demonstrated actual disk errors that require restarting and walking through a disk repair protocol. I did bring it to the Genius Bar where they kindly reinstalled Mavericks which they could do in about an hour versus the several hours that doing this at home requires. This did identify that my RAM was, on fact, a limitation on the speed at which I could run certain apps.
2. My next move was to install an additional 4GB of RAM. I bought the new RAM on eBay for about $90 because, with 3 kids equipped with MacBooks & iPhones, I simply couldn't afford the official Apple RAM. I even installed it myself, with the help of a YouTube video. Result: Giant improvement in speed (starting up or switching apps. If I had realized how simple it turned out to be, I would have done it well over a year ago. Some minor improvement in the overheating problem, but persistent problems with disk permissions continually requiring repair and periodic disk repairs (using Disk Utility) required.
PLANNED FINAL INTERVENTION:
3. I am purchasing and installing a solid state drive (ssd) and simply chucking the original hard drive, after considerable discussion with my savvier mac friends. It has become clear to me that, sadly, every hard drive has a finite life affected by a variety of factors. I am, in fact, hard on my equipment - running multiple graphic apps simultaneously, transferring massive GBs of data between my laptop, time capsule and an array of hard drives. I will let you know how it goes, but can share that the decision to get a solid state drive followed many conversations with multiple Mac guru-types (in the hope of saving you similar painful tribulations). The cost varies according to the size of the drive, but $400-$500 would buy a reasonable starting size. I am waiting for Black Friday sales, myself. Amazon (where I will likely purchase the ssd) is already offering a number of pre-Black Friday deals. While I don't really feel like putting out that amount of cash, I reassure myself that a new drive will almost certainly solve the disk errors (with a solid state one offering more durability) & will help me prolong the life of my MacBook Pro by a couple of years hopefully. It beats buying a new Apple MacBook only three and a half years after investing close to $3k for this one!
I am certain that more experienced forum users could point you to software that could help defragment your drive or may be able to offer other solutions. I've simply had enough of struggling with burning thighs and head-banging behavior triggered by slow performance. I hope this is helpful to you in some small way. The war is not yet over, but I'm feeling good about the battle plan!

Hard drive failure - options for data recovery and AppleCare coverage

I have been handed a relative's 12 month old MacBook Pro with a factory-installed 500GB hard drive which appears to have failed. When attempting to boot the MacBook I am met with the classic clicking and grating noise which I know is a tell-tale sign of hard drive failure. The drive will not boot and I am shown the question mark folder icon, indicating that the operating system cannot be found. Have booted into internet recovery mode, Disk Utility appears to have found no sign of the hard drive's existence and shows none of its partitions. I have attempted putting the MacBook into FW target-mode and mounting the disk from another laptop, but to no avail; while it will go into target mode the drive simply isn't visible. The SATA connection to the drive is definitely OK - I have tested with another 2.5 inch hard drive which showed up fine in Disk Utility and was bootable. Have run Apple Hardware Test/Diagnostics but this returned no errors. It seems like a pretty clear cut case of drive failure.
I put this all to the relative whose laptop this is and asked them whether the MacBook had been dropped recently, explaining to them that this is one of the likeliest causes for such sudden failure. Sheepishly they admitted that they had indeed dropped it, although not from too great a distance and onto a carpeted floor. Apparently in the days immediately after the shock the hard drive continued to boot but the system was very slow and beset by spinning beech ball hangups. It is only in the last few days that the hard drive has become completely unbootable, and seemingly unreachable.
I have two questions that I would be grateful for some help with.
Firstly, is there any possibility of recovering data from this drive without going to a data recovery specialist? The user did have backups of most important data, but some recently imported photos were not backed up. Is it any use me trying any third-party data recovery software utilities, bearing in mind that I can't even mount the drive in target mode?
Second, the MacBook is still covered by the extended AppleCare warranty for the next two years. Is it worth my relative's while making a Genius Bar appointment to see whether Apple would replace this drive for free, given that the damage was most likely user-inflicted? Is there any chance that this sudden failure could be unrelated to the drop the MacBook suffered the other day - perhaps just a result of the 'normal' failure rate? I am more than happy to exchange the drive for a new one myself and my relative is happy to pay for the new part (I was amazed at how cheap hard drives are now), but would we be better off trying an Apple Store? My prediction would be that while we might get lucky and have an obliging genius who agrees to swap the drive without asking too many questions, we could also have one who concludes the damage is not covered by the warranty and insists on charging for the new hard drive (at a mark-up I assume) and labour.
Any thoughts about these two issues or the hard drive failure more generally are very welcome. Thanks.

1, Data recovery software is your only alternative if there is no backup. It may or may not be able to revoker anything from that hard drive. If it does then the only other choice is to go to a data recovery service. If have to go that route expect to pay for it, like $$$$.
2, Yes. They will at least tell him what the problem is and the cost if any to fix. There is a good chance they will fix it for nothing and only charge for data recovery if they can do it.

Mac Pro 1,1 Hard drive failure... sorta. Then not.

I have a MacPro 1,1 Quad core 2.66 processor, with what I believe is the original 250 Gb hard drive. I'm running OSX 10.7.5.
Today when I powered it on, I could hear the hard drive spooling up (same sound as normal) then I heard 6 clicks and could hear the hard drive spooling down for a few seconds. It then spooled up again, heard 6 more clicks and it spooled down. Finally it attempted once more to spool up which was followed by 1 click and then spooled down with no more tries at booting up. Monitor showed blank grey screen until about the single click which brought up the grey screen with folder symbol with the question mark in it. I pressed the power button which turned it off. I tried powering up several additional times all with the same pattern of clicks and visuals on the monitor.
I did some research and tried to run the Apple Hardware Test by inserting the second of my original install disks and holding down the D key. Instead of bringing up the Apple Hardware Test, my hard drive managed to boot up completely with no clicks, and now appears to be running fine. I restarted and also did shutdowns... my Mac is booting up completely normally. I took the opportunity to make sure I have a recovery disk and the ability to download and install a new copy of Lion if the need comes up any time soon.
The main question is... was this likely an indication of a hard drive failure about to happen, as I tend to want to assume, or was the clicking sound and failure to boot a symptom of something else? Booting up while pressing "D" with the second install disk inserted shouldn't have fixed a hard drive problem... I wouldn't think. Also, anyone know the max size a replacement hard drive could be? I'll go with the same kind of hard drive as is currently in it, but not sure on if I'm limited to the original 250 Gb size.

BTmy1andonly wrote:
I'm not sure I understand your reference to "clone and backup." I assume it's something else besides a standard backup done with Time Machine?
The main things to realise…
Clones are a static copy of an OS or disk.
Generally they don't have the history of older files (some can).
OS clones are usually bootable - a really fast solution to 'oh carp my disk died' moments.
Schedule one to be made as often as you can afford to lose data (e.g once a day, or every other day etc).
Time Machine is a 'rolling backup'.
TM copies new files, preens older stuff & then deletes when space is running out.
It also excludes some inessential system files (like logs) - technically you will not get an identical copy back from a TM restore.
Archives are for the occasions where you want to store on another media for permanent safekeeping.
These need to be capable of being read in whatever timeframe you need to store for (a year, a decade…)
Don't archive with proprietary backup software or proprietary media, otherwise you will have a tough time finding a machine to connect it to it & run the software.
Several copies on different disks, probably on different media too (e,g. HD + Flash storage + archival DVD's…).
You may want to revisit archives & duplicate them to new media once in a while depending on how important it is.
Ideally you would have some offsite copies to protect against fire/ theft etc.
If you are in business you need to employ all options, if it's just iTunes music & some family photos, you still need to employ 3 types of backup

Data Recovery After Hard Drive Failure!

Ok, basically, I've got a 2 1/2 year old iBook G4 with a bombed hard drive, and unfortunately, the last time I backed up was around 3 months ago. Here's what happened right before the crash: some applications like Widgets and Safari were acting fluky, and it wouldn't let me open Word documents, so I restarted, because I thought it might have something to do with the fact that i had downloaded the new version of itunes not that long ago and hadn't restarted since. well, when i restarted, the gray screen with the wheel and the apple symbol went on for a really long time, and then the blue screen came up with the cursor, but nothing else happened, and the blue screen just stayed there. as far as i know, the hard drive wasn't making any unusual noises, just the usual occasional soft sounds that my hard drive has always made (there are usual sounds, right?) a piece of information that might be useful is that the hard drive was almost full (it only had about 5 GB left, which i understand is how much you should leave) could this have caused the failure maybe? anyway, i tried using the hard drive as a target and tried getting another computer to recognize it and pull the files off, but that didn't work. so, i brought it into the apple store, and they got it to boot up but using some external hard drive, i think. they tried disk utility, but that didn't see my hard drive. then the tried disk warrior, and that saw it and repaired it or something, but then it couldn't get the drive to mount. so, i'm assuming that because disk warrior didn't work and couldn't get it to mount, then other software like data rescue, etc... won't either. like all computer users, i've got some REALLY REALLY important data on there, and all the data recovery places i've gotten quotes from are pretty pricey. if the drive doesn't require physical data recovery, only non-physical, as i hope, the cheapest is still $350. even so, the person on the phone there didn't seem to know nearly as much as the people at the more pricier places. so, are there any other options besides expensive data recovery? i read something about using dd - a unix thing, but i don't know the first thing about it (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050302225659382) so i'm not sure i want to risk messing it up even more. and, if worse comes to worst, then i'll use a data recovery place... but can anyone tell me if they've used any of the data recovery companies below, and which ones are good?
(first three do evaluation for free, and then you decide if you want to continue based on more accurate price idea)
MacintoshDataRecovery.com
$500 non physical
$1100-1600 physical
Heroic Efforts
http://www.heroicdata.com/data_recovery
$350 non physical
ships to another (very expensive) place if physical
ACS Data Recovery
http://www.acsdata.com/index.htm
$600-700 non physical
DriveSavers.com
(recommended by Apple, probably the best, but the most steep, too)
could cost anywhere from $500-$2700 and $200 evaluation fee even if data is unrecoverable
Since this is our fourth hard drive failure in four different iBooks in 2 1/2 years, i am starting to become seriously disillusioned about the quality of the hardware Apple uses...not that i would ever get a dell or anything, but still....
THANK YOU in advance for any tips you might be able to offer, and also for reading this extremely long post!
katie
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I have read good reports concerning Data Rescue although I have not used it myself.
Once you get your data back, focus on a regular (even daily) backup routine, because as you know only so well, the question is not if a drive will fail, it's when.
My condolences, by the way.

Multiple Hard Drive Failures in 2 months on 2 MacBook Pros

I have a mid-2009 13" MacBook Pro with a 320GB hard drive. In early Feb. the hard drive failed suddenly and would no longer mount. My Apple Store replaced it and I restored from a Time Machine backup. A week later the hard drive failed again. It was again replaced, and they order a completely new machine. On the second restore I did not restore from Time Machine but rather moved the files I wanted, iTunes, iPhoto, documents, as to not bring along bad system files. The new computer came in and I set it up as a new machine and transferred files from the old Time Machine but did not do a full restore. I then erased Time Machine and ran a fresh backup. Two weeks later the hard drive on the new machine failed. It locked up so I powered down and upon restart got the file folder with a question mark and the hard drive was nowhere to be found. The Apple Store kindly replaced my hard drive for the third time, the second hard drive in a two week old computer. The asked me to not move any files from Time Machine for a couple of weeks.
I now have my fourth hard drive in 2 months and I do not want a fifth. In fact, the first computer may have failed three times. At this point I don't remember. The Geniuses at the Apple Store are stumped so I'd appreciate any input. What the heck is going on here?
My theories
1. Simple bad luck
2. A file in iTunes, iPhoto or an Office, iWork, pdf...... is causing the failures
3. Restoring Office from Time Machine is killing it.
4. I'm doing something to cause physical damage. I've never dropped it and I handle it fairly carefully and in the same way I've handled every other Mac laptop I've had in the past 10 years.
5. Moving the computer immediately after closing the lid to sleep. I've been told that the disk doesn't stop spinning until the sleep light pulses and moving it around too much too soon can cause damage. I've been doing this every laptop I've had and in the past much more aggressively as a grad student hurrying out of class rooms.
6. My most recent idea, not having the Put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible button checked in System Prefs. I unchecked it for better performance but maybe this is causing the hard drive to never lock when sleeping so when I move it around the heads bang on the disks.?
7. Something environmental. Using it on my lap? Setting it on the couch or ottoman while running? A power surge?
Please help. Thanks a lot.

Dunno about your hard drive issue.
However, everything you list in number seven are definite no-no's. All of them, except power surge, will cause heat related problems.
Have a nice day.
Boyd
Message was edited by: Boyd Porter

Hard Drive failure - various boot modes won't work, HELP!

Hello all,
First of all, sorry for the essay, but I didn't want to miss out on possible crucial details that could help!
A couple of weeks ago, my beloved 27" iMac had a hard drive failure. It won't boot, but instead goes to the grey 'no entry' sign when booting up. I tried holding Cmd + V on boot and this message repeated itself whilst failing to boot:
"rooting via boot-uuid from chosen/: D94DA2D5-DB38-3517-B05D-70A97AC6EE5B
Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key><IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1"> IOResorces</string><key>IOResourceMach</key><string ID= "2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/AppleIntel5Serie sAHCI/PRT0@0/IOAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCBlockStorageDevice/IOBLockStorageDriver/Hitac hi HDS722020ALA330 Media/IOGUIDPartitionScheme
BSD root: disk0s2, major 14, minor 2
jnl: unknown-dev: open: phys_blksz 4096 does not match journal header size 512, and journal is not empty!
hfs: late jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 0)
cannot mount root, errno = 19"
I'm not sure how much of that is useful, but I thought I'd copy it all down anyway.
I googled error number = 19 and found articles on an invalid b-tree node and corrupt journals, leaving me to believe that because I recently deleted a Windows Vista partition and reformed the overall HD into a 2TB OSX volume, some windows data may have been left over and corrupted the journal?
So it fails to boot normaly, using Cmd V, and using the OSX install disk, as well as failing to boot from the DiskWarrior 4 DVD I purchased from my local Apple Reseller because I'd heard that it's very good at helping with issues such as what I think my HD is having. I tried Disk Utility whilst booting from the install disk, and tried to repair the drive, and each time I tried it said that invalid content was present in the journal but the disk repair had been successful.
Am I right in thinking that my data is on the drive, it's just that OSX won't register the drive's existence because of a corrupted journal? (the little I know of hard drives is shining brightly through at this point, I'm sure!)
I also tried to boot using target mode by connecting my iMac to a MacBook Pro also running Snow Leopard, but, whilst the iMac clearly went into target mode (bouncing firewire icon on screen), my HD never appeared on the desktop of the MacBook Pro, nor in Disk Utility.
Whilst I have AppleCare, I haven't tried taking it to a mac store yet because of two reasons; 1. The last time I did this I had HD failure on my old 2008 MBP and, whilst I told them to keep the data on it, the first thing they did was reformat the disk. Needless to say, it worked, but I lost all my valuable Data! The second reason is that it's bloody heavy, and I don't own a car!
Before people go on about the way I should have backed up my data, I did, and that's gone as well! D:
System Specs:
First generation of 27" iMacs
2.8Ghz Intel i7 quad core
2TB HD
ATi Radeon HD 4850 512mb VRAM
8GB DDR3 RAM
OS version: not the very latest snow leopard but the one before.
Thanks in advance, and once again sorry for the essay!
Westy

I'm not sure about the DW disk. Check that out at Alsoft's website. Apple doesn't provide data recovery services.
Apple has records of your iTunes purchases. However, the licensing for music only permits you to download it once. I'm surprised that you don't have backups.
If you get an external enclosure in which to put the drive then you might try accessing it from the MBP as an external drive. If you have an external drive you could try using recovery software:
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.
Beyond this you would need to send the drive off to a data recovery service which will be extremely expensive.

Rebuilding aMacBook 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, hard drive failure so rebuilding system. Aircard will not stop self-assigning IP address. Any ideas how to resolve successfully?

Had hard drive failure on MacBook 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, so had to rebuild the OS on new drive. Was on Lion 10.7.5 prior to failure, but had to reinstall Snow Leopard 10.6.3 since that was most recent OS on media I had. After finally getting ethernet connection to router working, was able to get to internet and download / upgrade to 10.6.8. I assume I can probably buy the upgrade to Mountain Lion 10.8 from there.
Problem is this, Airport will not stop self-assigning IP address for my wireless connection, and unless I can get wireless back on this laptop, doesn't make a lot of sense to continue the rebuild and reinstall of all the software that was on it prior to HD failure. Only way to my home network and router is ethernet now. Everything else on my network (Apple MacBook Pro laptops, iPhones, desktops, and non-Apple printers and laptops) is hooking up to router wirelessly fine.
Any ideas how to resolve successfully so that the airport will stop self-assigning and allow the router to assign the IP address?

When see the beachball cursor, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Time Capsule hard drive failure

Hello, all
I have a 500 GB Time Capsule that is about four years old. I use it to back up my MacBook Air and I also use it for file storage. Recently the HD has become erratic, in that it appears on Finder under Shared sometimes but not always. The wireless router part is still working fine. I can usually get the HD to reappear but it disappears again eventually. I can get it back by unplugging and replugging the TC, but I tried a hard reset and that didn't bring it back. I have backed up all the files I had stored on there as advised by the Apple Store Genius (see next paragraph).
I took it to the Apple Store and the Genius said that he thinks it is failing. He was not able to see the TC/HD wirelessly but was able to access it by plugging in a cable. He expressed surprise that my TC has lasted four years!!! He said I should replace it.
I then went to the online Apple Store and read the TC reviews, which contained quite a few reviews that report HD failure (mostly power failure, if I'm not mistaken) after 18 months or so! Some suggested that a good solution would be to get an Airport Extreme plus a USB hard drive of some other brand, not Apple. Many of these report power failure, which is not my problem. I still have power; apparently hard drive failure.
This sounded like a good idea, so today I went to London Drugs in Vancouver (an Apple retailer) and the salesman there (should be fairly unbiased) thought I should get a new TC rather than the two-piece solution just because it was simpler. He also said that in fact there about three HD manufacturers who produce all hard drives and that any one would have about the same frequency of failure, Apple include because they don't manufacture their own.
So I'm ready to replace my old TC with the new one I bought, but I'd like to get any suggestions the community might have. I can see the advantage of the TC because it's an all-in-one. I haven't opened it yet, so I'll await your well-informed input.
Thanks so much!

I think the TC is a much better buy.. If only for this reason.. the USB hard disk on the AEBS is dog slow.. whereas the TC internal drive is at least same as standard single disk NAS.. overall for what you get the price of a 2TB TC vs the 2TB USB disk plus AEBS is about right.. the 3TB TC is much poorer value.
Read the review.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/airport-extreme-5th-gen-and-time-capsule-4th- gen-review-faster-wifi-/4
It is fairly well done, but not everything is correct.. the stuff about the fan turning on is wrong.. it has the same issue as the old one. That is overheating, no ventilation and the fan does not turn on, has no outside vent anyway.
But look at the internal vs usb speed of hdd.. that should convince you of the value of the TC.. if you are using anything but wireless.
BTW the issue with the Gen 1 is still more likely to be the power supply.. The original 500GB hard disk was a Seagate Server ES drive.. the only server standard drive in the whole TC series although it was always promoted as having server standard drives..
IMHO a repair of the power supply would get it up and running again. Very extermely unlikely that drive will die in such a manner.. even if it was to go bad they tend to stay bad.. not come on again when you power cycle.. but power supplies sure do.
I have repaired dozens of them.. haven't ever come across a dead 500GB drive yet.. seen a few 1TB, both WD and noisy hitachi.. but even so not that many..
Lots and zillions of dead power supplies though.
https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repair
At least you can pull open the TC and remove the hard disk and wipe it.
Interesting the Apple guys are surprised at the 4year life span.. obviously intended for you to buy a new one much sooner than that.

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop Windows-XPsp3 OS - Need Data Recovery Help

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop - Need Data Recovery Help
HP Pavilion DV 6108 NR, RG365UA, purchased in late 2006 at Best Buy, with Windows XP, upgraded to Service Pack 3. It has a Fujitsu hard disk, 60 gigabyte, partitioned into C: and a Recovery D:.
Windows tries to boot up, but goes to blue screen with the message: "Unmountable Boot Volume" for one second, then just keeps recycling until I force a shutdown.
BIOS Phoenix, hard drive test result: " #1-08 Fail "
I ran a disk analysis/recovery program on the Cdrive and it seemed to show the directory structure intact, and it was able to recover some files. I was using the free one from Seagate (which only recovers small files). The second pass didn't run so well, and during the third run the program said I should not proceed further, and I should contact a professional disk recovery company.
However, the D drive seems to be intact, so, I wonder if the disk is corrupted or just some aspect of the logical C drive is bad.
How can I get the D: to run the recovery software on it? The recovery disks, made by Best Buy, only proceed to the R / F / Q option screen, and when I press R, I get a blue screen every time.
Tapping the F10 key during startup gets me nowhere. Ditto the F11 key.
I dont care about the hard disk; it is the data (files, docs, images, etc) that I want.
I contacted HP to order recovery disks but they are no longer available for my computer.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Jon
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Update...
I found a website that offers the following:
http://www.computersurgeons.com/p-13442-recovery-kit-435422-001-for-hp-model-number-dv6108nr.aspx
Recovery Kit 435422-001 For HP Model Number dv6108nr
Price: $27.00
Recovery Kit Set (An Entire Image of the Computer hard drive when the computer was new)
But I wonder how useful it would be. Early XP , no doubt. And if my hard disk problem is a mechanical fault, would any recovery disk even work? The disks made by Best Buy when I bought mine new in 2006 don't do anything more than go to the R /F/ Q screen and then goes to a blue screen when I press R (to recover the OS and apps and data files). And, as I wrote, it is the data that I want, not the disk drive.

Hard drive failure

Hello everyone, my macbook is like around 3 years old, and a couple of days ago my hard drive died. This is really unfortunate since I couldn't back up most of the files I had in that drive. The thing is, this happened to me 1 year ago, and I'm noticing that I had similar scenarios prior to the hard drive failures. The first time that this happened, the night before my first hard drive died, I was erasing tons and tons of files from my macbook, I was just cleaning my downloads folders, deleting stuff I wasn't using anymore, that night I deleted like around 20gigs of data(pictures and music mostly), and the day before my second hard drive died, I was deleting files as well, this time I deleted like 13gigs. Both drives died because of the famous "clicking of death" sound. My macbook wouldn't boot, and was flashing a question mark folder in both cases.
My question is: was this just coicidence? or deleting tons of gigs of files at once will make your hard drives die. I've heard deleting files you no longer use is good for your hard drive. I must stress that I didn't delete any system files, I tested both hard drives via USB hard drive enclosures and the hard drives were just unrecognizable.

@tyrekm
‎Thank you for using HP Support Forum. I have brought your issue to the appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post ( serial numbers and case details).
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Thank you,
Omar
I Work for HP

Second Hard drive failure in one year

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