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.

Similar Messages

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.

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.

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!

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.

Satellite C855-1GQ - hard drive failure warning

Hi
suddenly my laptop has started showing me "hard drive failure warnings" and I honestly have no idea what to do about it please can someone help me.
Symptom: The PredictFailure flag is set on the disk
Cause: A logical disk has the SMART Predict Failure bit set.
Details: This disk is experiencing a problem and predicts that the drive will fail
Symptom: Pred Fail
Cause: A device has reported a "Not OK" status.
Details: The device, Disk drive, is reporting a bad status value. This device will not be available until the issue is resolved. The Plug and Play ID for this device is \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0.

Hard drive failure can be cause of computer is bumped or jostled while it is running; the electric motor which allows the platter to spin fails due to bad bearings or other components; filter on your air intake gets too clogged or the filter isn't working properly.
Extreme heat while running causes the electronic circuit board to fail.
There is a sudden power failure while the disk is writing.
You can try the following solution:
Firstly, create a bootable CD/USB by Windows Boot Genius
Windows Boot Genius is a multiple windows repair tool which can be used to fix all computer errors, create bootable CD/USB, recover data lost and unlock windows password, etc.
We just need to insert a CD or USB flash drive and run the program, then click "burn".
Secondly, set the computer boot from CD/USB after enter into the BIOS menu.
Thirdly, start to fix Hard Drive Failure with the CD/USB created at the first step.
At this section, the wizard will tell us what we need to do according to our computer's issues.

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

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.

MacBook (2007) Hard Drive failure?

Half an hour ago my MacBook started to have quite a large clicking noise, somewhat kind of like the optical disk checker that happens when you start up your Mac, but slightly different.
20 seconds later, everything started freezing. I forced-shutdown the Mac and when I opened it up again, it had a dimly lit screen and had the loud jingle noise that happens when you start it up.
Is this a hard drive failure or a logic board failure? There's no broken folder indicator-It's just a dimly lit white screen and that's it.
Please reply back.
Thanks,
JFWarr

Apple has a hard drive repair program for Macbooks sold in 2007. See information at http://www.apple.com/support/macbook/hd/repairextension/

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop (dv6108nr) with Windows-XPsp3 OS - Need Data Recov

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. Or does the disk have a mechanical failure, in which case, is a recovery disk even helpful at all?
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. (But see below, "UPDATE")
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Jon
===============================
UPDATE:
I found a website that offers the following:
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 my computer goes to a blank 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.
Any help here would also be appreciated!
Jon

Hi @goshenguy
Thank you for your inquiry, I am happy to help.
I grasp you tested the hard drive from the bios and it failed. This tests the physical aspcects of the hard drive and when it fails it does require replacement. You were able to retrieve some of your files using recovery software but not all.
Your recovery partition is still intact and when you try to do a recovery with the disks from Best Buy you do not get past these options R / F / Q but will not proceed.
Here is a link to Performing an HP System Recovery (Windows XP, 2006 or Later) that may assist you in performing a recovery.
Here is a link to the Maintenance and Service Guide HP Pavilion dv6000 Notebook PC. Please note chapter 3 page 42 for a replacement hard drive part number.
HP Parts, HP Replacement Parts
If you are still unable to do the recovery, you could try contacting Best Buy for assistance with the recovery kit they provide.
I don't know if it is possible, but you may want to check cloning software to see if you could clone the D partion to the new drive or connect both drives and try a drive to drive copy of the D partition.
If you were able to successfully put the D partition on a new hard drive you should be able to do a recovery from the D partition to take it back to factory.
If none of the above has allowed you to successfully do a recovery, I suggest contacting Best Buy to see it they have options other then purchasing a third party recovery kit.
Good Luck!
Sparkles1
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Hard Drive Failure on Satellite A660

I bought a new Toshiba A series 9 months ago.
Within a week I had to return it because the sound card was not working. The store I bought it from did not have an identical replacement so the replacement model cost me an additional $150.
Now the hard drive has failed.
Any attempt to back up anything fails so I will lose everything including an important contract. Toshiba tell me that I should go and pay a computer store to save my files!!!
I would consider it just a coincidence except that a friend who purchased a Qosmio a month before I purchased my A660 has also had her hard drive fail. It has supposedly been repaired under warranty but is still not working.
So much for Toshiba stating "Toshiba believes that reliability is the single most important feature a laptop can have and understands that it must be built in and not something that can be bolted-on.
The result? Our laptops have a class-leading reputation for reliability." The technical support person said that its just bad luck - its electronic anything can fail at anytime - thats nothing to do with reliability.
So what is Toshiba reliability?

"When you bring your notebook there, they will check if the warranty data at first. If the warranty is valid every defective hardware component will be exchanged for free.
Maybe it sounds stupid not but I believe people who work in this store have utilized your situation to make more money and sell you new HDD for $150."
I think you misunderstood. The first time it was a sound card failure and the computer was less than 2 weeks old. It was TOSHIBA that told me to return it to the store (they gave me a specific number to give to the store when returning it) and exchange it for a new computer!!!! The store did not have the exact model to exchange it with. So I had two choices. Pay the $150 or take it home, spend a day dropping it off to Toshiba and then wait 21 days for them to repair a brand new computer that I had not even been able to use, or pay the additional $150 for a different model. Funnily as a consumer I dont expect to pay large amounts of money for something that has to be repaired before it can be used.
This second problem has now occurred, 9 months later, which is the hard drive failure.
I do realise that this is a user to user forum, but I am hoping to warn people that Toshiba is no longer a reliable brand. The Toshiba technician told me that the very first thing he expects to fail is the hard drive and I am simply lucky that in 16 years of owning my own home computers that I have never had a hard drive failure. Funny thing is none of my friends have ever had a hard drive failure before either....... My girlfriend and I must be the unluckiest people in the world to both buy brand new Toshiba computers at the same time and to have the hard drive fails at the same time........... Not a strong believer of coincidence I strongly suspect that Toshiba have a problem with a component(s) that they are using, its not just our "bad luck". This is the first time I have even had to use the warranty on a computer that I have purchased.
On the plus side Toshiba offered to send a courier to collect the computer, of course no replacement or loan computer. I did arrange for them to collect the computer Monday as I was not going to be home yesterday and need to find the correct box and packing materials to return it (they gave me VERY specific instructions on how it must be packed). But then I had a dozen phone calls yesterday from the courier trying to contact me to arrange to pick it up either yesterday or now today. I just hope that they are equally keen to return it as quickly!!!!
Sorry I am VERY annoyed. I am in a position where I NEED a computer. My son is disabled uses various bits and pieces of medical equipment to survive, (eg ventilators, monitors etc) and I use the computer to communicate with the hospital. If I cant get access to a computer he gets to spend the time I wait for its repair in hospital. I realise that my personal situation is not Toshiba's concern however I paid more and bought the Toshiba because of its reputation for reliability as that was VERY important to me. It has proven to be the most unreliable computer I have ever owned. I will now have to dust off a cheap Dell that is 6 years old, still works just fine, and use that while my expensive Toshiba gets fixed. And thats what is annoying, even my first 2 gig and now 16 year old computer still works, no hard drive failure..........

Experiencing strange performance issues after a hard drive failure - Help!

I bought my mid-2012 i5 Macbook Pro in December of 2012. I realized when shopping for computers that I wanted an SSD installed, but that it would be a lot cheaper if I bought the SSD and installed it rather than customizing it in the Apple Store. So I bought a nice Samsung 128GB SSD (820 or 840 - can't remember which) and did the installation. I went ahead and installed two 4GB sticks of RAM while I was at it. Everything was just dandy: my boot time was just under 9 seconds, and all of my data-heavy apps booted in no-time at all. Then all **** broke loose.
About two weeks ago, I opened my computer and I got the dreaded "? File Folder" notification with a gray screen. I immediately thought hard drive failure. No matter how many times I tried to boot, the computer just would not talk to the SSD anymore. I used Internet Recovery to get into my Disk Utility, and the entire partition was gone. I assumed the worst but wanted to be sure - I bought a hard drive enclosure and hooked the SSD up to an older Macbook, and lo and behold: it worked perfectly. I was not only able to recover data, but I could write data to the drive. Nothing appeared wrong with the drive when I plugged it into the old Macbook, but my newer Macbook still would not recognize it. Even my fiance's Windows 7 PC recognized the drive as "?" (since it was formatted for Mac, but hey - it recognized that it existed!).
I decided to re-install the original HDD that came with the 2012 Macbook Pro (the one I removed in favor of the SSD). I was able to re-install the OS and I can boot up at will, but everything is different. The performance issues are extremely noticeable. I can't have more than two programs running at one time without the spinning wheel of death appearing. My boot time went from 9 seconds to 2 minutes. I know that SSDs increase performance, so there is some slight performance downgrade to be expected since I am using a mechanical drive now -- but these are not normal issues. Sometimes I can't even type a web address into Safari without the wheel appearing. iTunes, and specifically the App Store, take minutes to open - and I have no media is on iTunes.
Here's the thing: I have tried just about anything to fix this problem that Google can pull up. I've verified the HDD, I've booted into Safe Mode, reset RAM and cache, run benchmarks and other performance tests, entered all sorts of weird language into Command Prompt, and studied Activity Monitor - I can't find a single red flag that would indicate anything being wrong. It appears to be a perfectly functioning, updated computer.
I'm thinking a piece of hardware failed that triggered the error with the SSD. I'm not really sure though since all of my performance tests indicate perfectly functioning hardware. I'm a little afraid to take it to the Apple store because I know they'll tell me it's my fault for opening the computer and replacing the hard drive in the first place.
Any ideas? At this point anything to salvage this computer would be helpful.

Spin Cycle,
were those other computers which were able to recognize your SSD in its external enclosure also Macs? Do you know if your SSD has its most recent firmware revision installed? (If it doesn’t, its installer can be downloaded from the Samsung SSD firmware page for burning onto a bootable DVD.) I haven’t used the 830 myself, so I don’t know what its reputation is with Macs. I have an 840 PRO in my MacBook Pro, which has been trouble-free for me, but my understanding is that the 840 EVO has had trouble with Macs in its earlier firmware revisions — so I’m wondering if the 830 has a known track record with Macs, good or bad.

What if computer run into "Bootmgr is missing" or "Hard Drive Failure"

Most of us have the experience of computer run into error,such as bootmgr is missing. The most common reasons for BOOTMGR errors include corrupt and misconfigured files, hard drive and operating system upgrade issues, corrupt hard drive sectors, an outdated BIOS, and damaged or loose hard drive interface cables. Hard drive failure is another frequent error,it is arouse by physical damage or logical error. Once this problem occurs to you, any data stores in it would be in danger. If you want to Fix Bootmgr Error by yourself. These following steps may be available for you to deal with the problem. Step one. Burn a rescue boot disc or USB drive. You need to download Fix Genius and install it into a computer ,then insert the CD/USB and run the program to burn it . Step two. boot your computer from CD/USB Enter into the BIOS and change the Boot Device Priority ,then save the changes and exit. Step three.Fix "Bootmgr is missing" or "Hard Drive Failure" Insert the CD/USB then you will enter into the WinPE system, and click the Fix Genius icon there on the desktop. After run up the program, config the parameter according to your problem. This rescuing process would last within minutes. It is the best one I can find among the solutions. As the time past, it is a time information refresh very quickly, Maybe there is a better one for you to fix bootmgr is corrupted and Hard drive failure if you have time to search online. please let me know if you find it, I will be glad with you.

There are some caveats to be aware of when replacing the hard drive! While in theory any SATA drive is compatible, I have experienced problems with a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500GB and a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 640GB recently.
With my WD drive I have had to adjust the power management settings (using a command line tool called "hdapm") to prevent it from spinning up and down every 20 to 30 seconds, and which was also leading to momentary freeze ups. While this may kill my battery a bit quicker, I'm hoping the drive will at least live an average lifetime. (Batteries may be more expensive, but they're a lot quicker to replace than a hard drive).
My Seagate drive has exhibited far less frequent problems but the occasional noises it made have never sounded healthy and after 6 months is now being replaced under warranty. There were also a number of days where I would get excessive beachballing for no reason I could identify, and that I concluded must be hard disk related. I couldn't find anything here or elsewhere on the internet to indicate what the cause of that might be.
So my limited experience of hard disk replacement hasn't been a great success and I'm beginning to wonder if getting an official replacement from Apple might be a safer option in the long run, despite it being more expensive. I read somewhere that the hard disks supplied by Apple have custom firmware that works better with Apple's own power management strategies.

Second hard drive failure

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