Selling Damaged MBP - what to do about hard disk?

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro which has had the VGA failure. A reball failed and I decided to give up on it and sell for spares or repair. It had a disk in it with 10.8.5. I would normally do a re-install for a new user but cannot do that because the machine is not working. I want to sell it with the drive but am not sure what to do to make it safe with regard to my previous data (I guess I will have internet passwords in my browsers)....I need to go in an try to get my bookmarks from chrome and firefox - Im going to use Macdrive to do this...
Any advice? If they dont have my user log on - is this safe or maybe better to wipe the disk with macdrive?

>if I wipe the disk does that present a problem for the buyer <
Well given that the MBP is non operational at the moment, I don't think that's a major issue. They can always install Yosemite if it comes to that but that would still presuppose that they got it running.
They should also be able to do an Internet restore if they get it up and running:
Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery - Apple Support
Just did that with my wife's Mini 2012 and that was awesome!

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Selling old G4, what to do about Hard drive?

I'm getting rid of my old G4 and I'd like to erase the hard drive and give it to the person clean. I want to erase the old admin and start from the beginning and enter her information as the new admin.
My only concern is that she'd like some of the software I have on it already. To save time and hassle by later reinstalling them is there a way to reset the current admin and keep the programs I have on there now?
What would you do?
Thanks for your help!
Message was edited by: cbyates

You can create a new account easily. Start in your admin account and open System Preferences, usually located in the Dock but also in Applications.
Click on Accounts (silhouetted heads icon)
Click on the + sign at the bottom of the account names list.
Enter a new Username being her name but the choice is hers,
Her short name (like an alias) let her also choose this.
set the password.
Click on Login options and allow her to have administrative privileges, and choose how she wishes to be logged in. List of users is a good choice.
At this point, it is not a good idea to then delete your account, even though she will be able to log on and has admin priv. because you are likely to have software that is owned by you.
The Apple software that was installed is owned by the system, but if you added some third party stuff later it may be owned by you. You can check this with selecting the Application usually or rightly belonging in Applications and control + click to access the contextual menu giving you the choice *Get Info.*
It is in here that the ownership of the software can be seen and changed to her Shortname.
There should not be too many such changes to be made.
Use the computer in her account (she can always change her password at a later date) and see that it functions as normally as when you used it from your account pre the new account. If all is well then you can delete your old account. But try everything out first.
When you hand on the computer, remember to give the original disks as well.
If you have any questions post back, but do make use of your computer's help menu. It has a lot of untapped information there.
regards roam

K8neo 4 socket 939 cpu 3800 x2 amd what is the best hard disk

k8neo 4 socket 939 cpu 3800 x2 amd what is the best hard disk
for this confy
i know maxtor has more problem
so i ask to you
what is the best hard disk 250 300 gb ?
sata sata 2 ?
i read about in some site but i can understand what is the best for this confy
thank
my english is Lol

When we are talking about Quality and Performance the choice is:
http://www.wdraptorx.com

Confused about hard disk space

ok, I am new to Apple and not a computer person per say, so I am very confused when all of a sudden my new computer is now telling me I do not have enough space on my hard disk to download things. I have downloaded pictures and videos but have never had this problem with my old pc and I have more disk space on my apple. am I doing something wrong?
and, I tried to move some of my photos that I downloaded onto a disk to free up some space but it's not letting me move the originals. I'm getting super frustrated -- HELP!

Agreed, jtandi, we would be happy to help.
Have you checked your system profile to see how much hard disk space you have available? If not, follow these steps and let us know what you find.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top left of your menu bar
- Click More Info
- Your MBP displays a summary screen, Click "More Info"
- Your MBP displays a more detailed information tree. Click "Serial-ATA" under Hardware
- your MBP displays information on your hard disk. Look towards the bottom of the display. You will see the name of your hard drive. If you have not renamed your computer, it will be Macintosh HD. Below the name will be your hard drive's "Capacity" and "Available" in GB's. Let us know what these two readings are

What's the maximum hard disk size for the MBP?

Sorry the title might sound like a dumb question, but I was wondering if my MBP Core Duo, is future proof regarding the internal hard disk. Will it recognise any capacity, or stuck at a certain level?
Also what are the largest Apple supported internal drives currently available? Any recommendations?

That's kind of a gray area, but I think you may be right. Here are the conditions under which Apple can refuse service:
This warranty does not apply: (a) to damage caused by use with non-Apple products; (b) to damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, flood, fire, earthquake or other external causes; (c) to damage caused by operating the product outside the permitted or intended uses described by Apple; (d) to damage caused by service (including upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not a representative of Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider; (e) to a product or part that has been modified to significantly alter functionality or capability without the written permission of Apple; (f) to consumable parts, such as batteries, unless damage has occurred due to a defect in materials or workmanship; or (g) if any Apple serial number has been removed or defaced.
So if something breaks that's unrelated to your HDD upgrade, I think Apple still has to service it as long as you didn't break it while performing the ugprade. At least that's my interpretation.

Booting MBP from SATA external drive/hard disk

I have an external SATA HD 120GB portioned in to 4 partitions. It is in an ICY BOX SATA house. Connected direct to the MBP via an USB cable. No external power supply.
I have cloned the OS from the MBP to one partition on the external disk (using SuperDuper!).
I can see the external device in the System preference window ‘Start-up Disk’ I can select it, but it refuses to start up from it. When I do a restart it starts up from my internal HD.
If I hold down the Alt key at start-up I do not see the external HD.
I also have an other non SATA disks connected via FireWire with a cloned version of my OS and here I have no problems.
Any suggestions as to how to be able to boot form the external SATA disk?
Thnaks

In Disk Utility/Partition/Options we can read:
- GUID Partition Table (GPT) "to use the disk to start up an Intel-based Mac".
- Apple partition Map (APM) "to use the disk to start up a PowerPC-based Mac or to use the disk as non startup disk with any Mac".
At http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2006/tn2166.html we have very important secrets of the GPT:
- Any Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 and later can mount GPT-partitioned disks.
_ Intel Macs can boot from GPT. By default, the internal hard disk is formatted as GPT.
- While Intel Macs can boot from GPT and APM, Apple only supports booting Mac OS X on these machines from GPT. Apple's GUI tools, like the Installer, will prevent you installing Mac OS X for an Intel-based Mac on non-GPT disks.
Many posts In this forum telling ius that it is mandatory to format disks GUID partitioned to boot MBP.
But, in other forums there are some opinions about APM too:
. http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006061610374449
. http://www.macfixitforums.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=Forum38 "How to make a triple-boot service drive"
. http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=42&func=view&cat id=7&id=786
We are discuss the boot capability of external drives and I wish someone can clarify this question to isolate software (include cloning software) or hardware problems.
MacBook Pro 2 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

What is the best Hard Disk Configuration?

Hi all!
I've been reading the forum for some time, and now I decided to build my new PC for editing.
I will use it with Premiere and After Effects CS5.
The hardware I am going to buy is listed below:
- Processor Intel Core i7-2600K
- Mother Board ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (or the ASUS P8P67 Deluxe... I didn't decide it yet)
- 2 Hard Disks WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA III (6Gb/s) 7200RPM [for working media and exports]
- 1 Hard Disk Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA II (3Gb/s) 7200RPM [for OS and Programs]
- SDRAM DDR3 Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1866MHz (PC3 15000)
- Video card ATI Radeon 5850 1024MB (later I'll buy another and CrossFire them)
- Pioneer Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer BDR-206
I also have a eSata Docking Station and other slower HDDs for Backups and "Old Projects Library".
So, my question is simple: what is the best way to use my HDDs, to get the best performance on Premiere and After Effects?
A) OS, Programs, PageFile and Media Cache on the Seagate HDD + Media, Projects, Previews and Exports on the WD HDDs working on RAID0; or
B) OS, Programs and PageFile on the Seagate HDD + Media and Projects on one WD HDD + Previews, Media Cache and Exports on the second WD HDD?
Thanks a lot!
Thiago
Ps.: My next upgrade will be another 8GB for RAM and another 2 WD Caviar Black HDDs, as soon as I make some money with that machine... xD

Hey Harm, thanks for the response.
First of all, I did choose the ATI GPU because of the benchmarks I saw on internet, BUT i didn't know about the CUDA Acceleration Technology. So, I will probably buy a nVidia GTX460, since it is at the same price level, but seems to have a better performance with Premiere and AfterEffects. =)
But the question is about HDDs, so let's get to it.
I read in the forum that it doesn't make a big difference to have RAID 0 HDDs or even use the SATA III drives foe video editing, because the system doesn't even use the whole bandwith of the SATA II technology.
But, in another question, I read that it depends on the type of files you are working with. I have a Canon 550D, so it records in 330MB/min (about 45MB/s) in 1080/24p, using the h.264 codec (in *.mov files). Those are the files I will edit and I want to burn Blu-Ray disks with my movies.
That said, my doubts are:
A) Should I invest on SATA III disks for better performance? Will I take any advantage of the 6Gb/s bandwidth, or the only difference will be the 64MB cache?
B) Is it better to have a faster C: drive?
I am asking that to get a better use of my investment. If the SATA III disks won't give me any difference on performance, I could get some SATA II disks and then use that money to buy more RAM - or faster RAM, like 2000MHz.
Thanks again!!!
Thiago

Question about Hard disk

My current computer's setup (for Hard disk) is as follows:
IDE0: A 80Gb HD with the root partition (including /temp and so), another partition for swap and another one for /boot
SATA0: A 2Tb HD for /home
I use my computer for watching HD movies via HDMI and for surfing the internet mainly... the machine is rather new (i recently upgraded the video card and the ram memory), but i notice some slowlyness sometimes (while hearding heavy hard disk activity) and i think, this might be because of that IDE HD i still have, the one i use for the system itself.
My question is:
Given the fact that a 250 Gb SATA2 HD is around 30€, is it worth it to purchase one and replace the IDE one i currently use for the system partitions?
Would that considerably increase the performance of the whole machine?
Even the movies are in the SATA HD (way faster than the IDE one) the swap and the temp folder are still in the IDE disk...
What do you guys think?
Last edited by Xi0N (2010-10-26 09:51:06)

Even if your stuff is in the SATA drive, it will work in IDE compatibility mode instead of AHCI. (this is an option in the BIOS)
AHCI is especially useful for laptop because of power management features, the performance will be a tad better overall but not by much. http://expertester.wordpress.com/2008/0 … advantage/. It also depends of your disk's RPM (Anyway if you want mindblowing performance, buy an SSD and put your root partition on it)
The slowness sometimes may be because of, not enough RAM leading to swapping, a cron job (man-db for example) or because of too much /tmp or ~/.cache or ~/.thumbnails activity. It may be worthwhile to mount those directories in tmpfs to limit disk activities.

What is the best hard disk replacement for my notebook?

Hi, what hard disk replacement should i buy for my notebook HP G62-a016sl, considering the price/quality ratio? I would not want to spend more than 60 euros/dollars.
(if you want to know why i need it, see this post: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Recovery/Creating-and-using-a-Factory-Recovery-Disk-of-a-simil...
I'd would like to know an expert opinion. Thanks!)
This question was solved.
View Solution.

I finally got the second hard disk you recommended and i can confirm that the problem of the jerkily computer was the hard disk (almost failed) and not software. Thank you very much!

My MBP won't recognize my hard disk

Hi guys
Two weeks ago my Macbook Pro (Mid-2010 model) started getting very slow. I suspected it was getting too warm, so I put a fan under my computer to cool it down. It helped a while, but then it crashed completely. If I try to turn on my MBP, it will only show the dreaded "white screen of death". So it is likely that there is something wrong with my hard disk . However, it can't find my hard disk even when I'm using disk utilities, not even my new hard disk. I tried to plug the hard disks externally through one of the USB ports, and then it suddently shows that BOTH harddisks are working! I really hope that my motherboard isn't fried, so is there any other explanation to this?

It may be that the SATA connection cable has failed. If you can see the HDD externally but not when it is internal in the MBP, that is usually the symptom. Have it checked out and it that is the problem, it is an inexpensive repair.
Ciao.

What is true about used disk space?

Hi,
Funny thing a MacBook Air but I don't understand which of the values below is true or not?
Running one shows 45Gb used space and the other 81Gb, which of the 2 is right?
:/ root# du -sckxh * | sort -nr
408M          usr
45G          total
29G          Users
15M          mach_kernel
5.8G          private
4.6G          Applications
4.5K          dev
4.1M          bin
4.0K          var
4.0K          tmp
4.0K          etc
4.0K          Volumes
4.0K          User Guides And Information
3.0G          Library
2.7G          System
2.3M          sbin
1.0K          net
1.0K          home
0B          cores
0B          Network
:/ root# df -h
Filesystem                          Size   Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                       112Gi   81Gi   31Gi    73%    /
devfs                              187Ki 187Ki    0Bi   100%    /dev
map -hosts                           0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%    /net
map auto_home                        0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%    /home
localhost:/BMibznOHfSLdyFjRO-gK10 112Gi 112Gi    0Bi   100%    /Volumes/MobileBackups
/dev/disk2s0s2                     226Mi 226Mi    0Bi   100%    /Volumes/WD SmartWare
/dev/disk1s1                       931Gi 896Gi   35Gi    97%    /Volumes/My Passport 1
Thanks,
Remi

The true amount is the higher of the two, in this case.
Finder and Disk Utility will often show differing quantity of free space for the following reason.... If Time Machine is turned "on" in Lion, Time Machine will accumulate copies of changed information and store it as "Local Backups". This affords more "restore points" for your Time machine backups than would otherwise be kept if Time machine were to only create restoration points at each syncing to your backup drive. These "local Backups" are purged from the system at each backup sync, and the process of accumulation begins anew.
The operating system treats these local backup files as "low priority", and will be erased straight away, if ever during normal operation the user needs this disk space. Hence, some reports will not count these files at all in free space calculations, while others recognize the space as at least temporarily in use.
As well, Local Backups will stop accumulating is the free space drops below 10% of total. This is so that paging operations are completely unhindered by what might be a situation where erasure may be required before virtual memory could issue a write operation.
You can turn "local Backups" off via a terminal command, but it is hardly necessary. You can stop the accumulation and purge (erase) the files by simply by turing off Time Machine, and then using the "backup now" feature the next time you want to sync to your Time Machine backup drive. You simply will have no additional staged backup points other than the ones you make every time you sync. In other words, it will be just like it was in Snow Leopard, except that you have to "tell" Time Machine to sync, instead of TM doing it automatically just by hooking up the drive. Turning off Time machine doesn't disable TM, it simply turns off Local Backups, and automatic syncing upon backup disk mounting .

Tech: zen touch - what's its internal hard disk make/mode

sure would like to know, just for kicks, and possibly to study the manufacturer's specs on shock resistance, transfer speeds, etc...
rumouredly, there's some seagate ,8" dri've, but what's the model ?

It's a Hitachi Travelstar. I think there's only one or two models of this size, so it should be easy to spot.

What's the expected hard disk speed for Mac Mini?

Hi all, I just bought my first Mac for use in my personal photo studio, a refurbed 2011 Mac Mini i5 2.5ghz. As I was setting up external drives and putting the mini through its paces, I ran a disk benchmark (BlackMagic Disk Speed Test) and got some pretty poor scores.
My mini's internal drive hits roughly 40MB/s for both sequential read and sequential write. Am I correct in thinking that this is poor performance even for a 5400 rpm drive? The drive is mostly full; there are 50GB free. Would you recommend that I address this with Applecare?
Here are two other Minis (same 5400 rpm drive) hitting much higher marks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2KOAUAqYiw#t=1m41s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPksGswN8Uk#t=0m18s

Thanks for the response, Allan. I was preparing to move most of the data to an external RAID setup when I ran that benchmark. It made me think twice about spending several hours setting up the system if in the end the system drive needs replacement.
I'll move some data and see if the speed improves.
ps - One of the torx screws inside the mini case is misaligned. Noticed this when installing new ram. I guess that's making me a bit paranoid that the refurb process didn't go smoothly ;-)

What to do about lost disk

I have an old computer with PS CS installed (an upgrade version based on an original PS 7 install). I now have a new computer (instead of, not in addition to the old one!), need to install CS on that, and cannot for the life of me find the PS 7 install disk. I have the CS install disk, and I have the S/Ns for both, but not the PS 7 disk. The CS disk won't install because it can't find an installed product. Is there anything that can be done here that does not involve buying an upgrade right this very minute?

with cs3 you just need to enter the old serial #. i just did a clean install and skipped my 6, 7, cs, cs2 installs and just went to cs3. after installation and before 1st run it asks for either the media or serial from a qualifying product. i entered my cs2 serial (an upgrade) and cs3 install completed and activated cleanly.

Damaged Product key label totaly crashed hard disk

My hardisk crashed with out warning and I had to buy a new one. When doing the recovery is ask for the product key... I can't read the last 7 characters clearly. I called Sony to explain and after verify it was in fact a real purchase they told me to order
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A

Use a magnifying glass if needed to read the cd-key from the certificate
lots of vendors want to gouge for recovery disks, should be provided
might be cheaper to buy Windows 8 retail and use that
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Selling Damaged MBP - what to do about hard disk?

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