Slow Mavericks - internal hard drive failure?

Hi
I recently updated my iMac 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 4GB RAM to Mavericks. Before I was working on OS X Lion 10.7.5. Until the day I updated I never had any problems with my computer being slow, unless when I was using heavier applications or heavy files like in Adobe PS for example.
Since I've updated however, it often happens that the icons in my launchpad load slowly, my computer shows the spinning circle more often, and especially Microsoft applications (Word and Excel) take much longer before they are launched. I don't think I have to explain how this is bugging me, since we all like a fast computer. So I kind of regret updating.
I wanted to downgrade to 10.7.5 again, but this doesn't seem that easy even though I know my way around reformatting Apple computers…
So this is kind of a last option. Now I went to the Apple store in Belgium, and they told me that it could be a bug and that I should wait for the next version (yeah right…) or that it could be my internal hard drive was failing. Now I tried to find some information on how to recognize a failing hard drive, but I mostly bumped in to extreme errors. So I was wondering how to know your internal drive is failing? Second of all could it be failing all of a sudden? Since I hadn't had those problems before I updated. Thirdly is it possible that the next update would solve these problems, as they mentioned? Could a clean install help?
Anyway, I find it pretty weird, and there's a lot of different opinions and options, so I would like a more expert view on the problem, so get to a solution and an answer whether or not my disk could be failing, cause then I would like to get it replaced.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
Grts
Matthias
In a previous topic, I was asked to deliver some information in order to get a diagnosis, but there has been no more answer. This is why Now I would like to ask if anyone can interpret this info below… Cause I have no idea what it means…
When I entered the following query in Terminal this is what happened:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'GPU |hfs: Ru|I/O e|find tok|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|timed? ?o' | tail | awk '/:/{$4=""; print}' | open -ef
It produced a text editor window without any content. It didn't take long either, just one or two seconds. (Is this normal?) Does this mean my hard drive is intact?
Disconnect all non-essential wired peripherals and remove aftermarket expansion cards, if any. - there are none
Reset the System Management Controller. - does this simply imply that I have to hold the power button for 10 seconds?
Run Software Update. If there's a firmware update, install it. - done
If you're booting from an aftermarket SSD, see whether there's a firmware update for it. - not the case
If you have a portable computer, check the cycle count of the battery. It may be due for replacement.
- not the case
If you have many image or video files on the Desktop with preview icons, move them to another folder.
- not the case
If applicable, uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preference pane. See whether there's any change. - not an icloud user
Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
- not the case either
Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk. - is this necesary if the former step didn't bring up any text in the text editor window?
If you have a MacBook Pro with dual graphics, disable automatic graphics switching in the Energy Saverpreference pane for better performance at the cost of shorter battery life.
- not the case
Since I am doing jack right now and am solely typing this topic, the highest %CPU is about 2-3 percent and is "Safari web material". In the second place there is Safari with about 1-1.5%.
System is about 0.76, user 0.89 and inactive is the leftover. 98,"something".
In the memory tab:
In the disk tab… It varies a lot:
After launching the Console application, I copied the 50 or so most recent entries in the log All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. This is the result:
27/01/14 18:13:56,000 kernel[0]: IOThunderboltSwitch<0xffffff80356b5200>(0x0)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for route = 0x0 port = 1 unplug = 0
27/01/14 18:13:59,000 kernel[0]: [ PCI configuration begin ]
27/01/14 18:13:59,000 kernel[0]: [ PCI configuration end, bridges 14, devices 18 ]
27/01/14 18:14:10,094 fseventsd[49]: could not open <</Volumes/"name"/.fseventsd/fseventsd-uuid>> (No such file or directory)
27/01/14 18:14:10,095 fseventsd[49]: log dir: /Volumes/"name"/.fseventsd getting new uuid: "…"
27/01/14 18:14:10,000 kernel[0]: hfs: mounted "name" on device disk1s3
27/01/14 18:14:19,385 mds[39]: (Warning) DiskStore: Server returned -1 setting attributes
27/01/14 18:14:37,139 sandboxd[330]: ([1116]) mdworker(1116) deny file-read-xattr /Volumes/"name" 3TB/Backup Januari 17:01:2014/Mailboxes (pre-plugin fstype:hfs fsflag:"…" diag:0 isXCode:0 uti:com.apple.mail.mbox plugin:internalPlainTextImporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 71392)
27/01/14 18:14:37,164 sandboxd[330]: ([1122]) mdworker(1122) deny file-read-xattr /Volumes/"name"/Backup Januari 17:01:2014/Mailboxes (pre-plugin fstype:hfs fsflag:4A09018 flags:250000005E diag:0 isXCode:0 uti:com.apple.mail.mbox plugin:internalPlainTextImporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 71387)
27/01/14 18:15:29,970 WindowServer[87]: disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Safari" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.
27/01/14 18:15:32,310 WindowServer[87]: common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Safari" after 3.34 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds)
27/01/14 18:17:35,918 ntpd[113]: ntpd: time set -0.367612 s
27/01/14 18:17:35,943 com.apple.time[150]: Interval maximum value is 946100000 seconds (specified value: 9223372036854775807).
27/01/14 18:17:35,946 com.apple.time[150]: Interval maximum value is 946100000 seconds (specified value: 9223372036854775807).
27/01/14 18:17:48,846 com.apple.SecurityServer[14]: Killing auth hosts
27/01/14 18:17:48,846 com.apple.SecurityServer[14]: Session 100029 destroyed
27/01/14 18:18:45,357 mdworker32[1162]: CGSConnectionByID: 0 is not a valid connection ID.
27/01/14 18:18:45,357 mdworker32[1162]: CGSGetSpaceManagementMode: No connection with id 0x 0
27/01/14 18:23:57,000 kernel[0]: CODE SIGNING: cs_invalid_page(0x1000): p=1219[GoogleSoftwareUp] final status 0x0, allow (remove VALID)ing page
27/01/14 18:24:32,979 VDCAssistant[1221]: AVF encoder error: fail to create accelerator instance
27/01/14 18:25:15,338 com.apple.SecurityServer[14]: Killing auth hosts
27/01/14 18:25:15,338 com.apple.SecurityServer[14]: Session 100038 destroyed
27/01/14 18:25:15,342 com.apple.SecurityServer[14]: Session 100040 created
27/01/14 18:25:15,345 com.apple.security.XPCKeychainSandboxCheck[1229]: Can't get sandbox fs extension for /Users/Home/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.amp.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1/ PrivateEncryptedDatak, status=-1 errno=No such file or directory ext=(null)
27/01/14 18:25:15,346 com.apple.security.XPCKeychainSandboxCheck[1229]: Can't get sandbox fs extension for /Users/Home/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.amp.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1/ lck~PrivateEncryptedDatak, status=-1 errno=No such file or directory ext=(null)
27/01/14 18:25:15,346 com.apple.security.XPCKeychainSandboxCheck[1229]: Can't get sandbox fs extension for /Users/Home/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.WidgetBrowser.E7BED6E5DDA59983786DD72EBFA46B159 8278E07.1/PrivateEncryptedDatak, status=-1 errno=No such file or directory ext=(null)
27/01/14 18:25:15,346 com.apple.security.XPCKeychainSandboxCheck[1229]: Can't get sandbox fs extension for /Users/Home/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.amp.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1/ .fl89CB8354, status=-1 errno=No such file or directory ext=(null)
27/01/14 18:25:15,346 com.apple.security.XPCKeychainSandboxCheck[1229]: Can't get sandbox fs extension for /Users/Home/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.WidgetBrowser.E7BED6E5DDA59983786DD72EBFA46B159 8278E07.1/lck~PrivateEncryptedDatak, status=-1 errno=No such file or directory ext=(null)
27/01/14 18:25:15,346 com.apple.security.XPCKeychainSandboxCheck[1229]: Can't get sandbox fs extension for /Users/Home/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.WidgetBrowser.E7BED6E5DDA59983786DD72EBFA46B159 8278E07.1/.fl89CB8354, status=-1 errno=No such file or directory ext=(null)
27/01/14 18:25:16,750 Mail[1227]: Could not create query for expression ((null)) && (kMDItemContentType == 'com.apple.mail.emlx')
27/01/14 18:25:17,116 WindowServer[87]: disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Mail" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.
27/01/14 18:25:18,209 WindowServer[87]: common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Mail" after 2.09 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds)
27/01/14 18:26:58,258 WindowServer[87]: CoreAnimation: context hosting changed while locked!
27/01/14 18:29:03,058 com.apple.launchd[1]: (com.apple.WebKit.WebContent.4A179DCB-D12E-433B-B053-89B6CA18DF91[1233]) Exited with code: 1
27/01/14 18:30:53,000 kernel[0]: hfs: unmount initiated on "name" on device disk1s3
27/01/14 18:31:01,000 kernel[0]: IOThunderboltSwitch<0xffffff80356b5200>(0x0)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for route = 0x0 port = 1 unplug = 1
27/01/14 18:31:01,000 kernel[0]: [ PCI configuration begin ]
27/01/14 18:31:01,000 kernel[0]: [ PCI configuration end, bridges 12, devices 18 ]
27/01/14 18:31:01,000 kernel[0]: Fixing incorrect zfree from zone kalloc.16 to zone kalloc.32
27/01/14 18:31:40,520 login[1261]: USER_PROCESS: 1261 ttys000
27/01/14 18:34:18,863 mDNSResponder[40]: 48: Could not write data to clientPID[1131](com.apple.WebKi) because of error - aborting connection
27/01/14 18:34:18,863 mDNSResponder[40]: 48: DNSServiceGetAddrInfo v4v6 e4233.b.akamaiedge.net. PID[1131](com.apple.WebKi)
27/01/14 18:46:49,368 com.apple.IconServicesAgent[225]: Icon filename entry missing from bundle info dictionary for bundle at URL: file:///System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ShareKit.framework/Versions/A/XPCServi ces/com.apple.ShareKitHelper.xpc/
27/01/14 18:46:49,450 com.apple.IconServicesAgent[225]: Icon filename entry missing from bundle info dictionary for bundle at URL: file:///System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/WebKit2.framework/Versions/A/XPCServic es/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent.xpc/
27/01/14 18:46:49,701 com.apple.IconServicesAgent[225]: Icon filename entry missing from bundle info dictionary for bundle at URL: file:///System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MailService.framework/Versions/A/XPCSe rvices/com.apple.MailServiceAgent.xpc/
27/01/14 18:46:49,834 com.apple.IconServicesAgent[225]: Icon filename entry missing from bundle info dictionary for bundle at URL: file:///System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/XPCServices/com.apple.doc k.extra.xpc/
27/01/14 18:46:49,988 com.apple.IconServicesAgent[225]: Icon filename entry missing from bundle info dictionary for bundle at URL: file:///System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/WebKit2.framework/Versions/A/XPCServic es/com.apple.WebKit.Networking.xpc/
27/01/14 18:50:27,143 com.apple.IconServicesAgent[225]: Icon filename entry missing from bundle info dictionary for bundle at URL: file:///System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/InternetAccounts.framework/Versions/A/ XPCServices/com.apple.internetaccounts.xpc/
27/01/14 18:53:26,913 WindowServer[87]: _CGXSetWindowBackgroundBlurRadius: Invalid window 0xffffffff
27/01/14 18:53:26,942 WindowServer[87]: _CGXSetWindowBackgroundBlurRadius: Invalid window 0xffffffff
27/01/14 18:55:40,974 login[1261]: DEAD_PROCESS: 1261 ttys000
27/01/14 18:55:55,199 Console[1343]: setPresentationOptions called with NSApplicationPresentationFullScreen when there is no visible fullscreen window; this call will be ignored.

I was copying files to my external drive a few minutes ago, and my computer was reaaaally slow at that time. So I figured opening the Activity monitor and I took some screen shots:
The only thing I tried to interpret is the CPU tab. It shows 94.67% was inactive, and still my computer was being terribly slow… Is this normal and is this the right interpretation?

Similar Messages

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!

Incredibly slow MacBook, Internal Hard Drive issues...

Good morning everybody! I'm apologize if this post is extremely wordy...
I am extremely baffled by a particular issue with a MacBook 2.0GHz C2D which belongs to a friend of mine. The warranty is expired.
_Brief history:_
Several months ago, this MacBook could not find a bootable volume. The drive would not mount when booting from an external FireWire hard drive. It would not mount when the MacBook was put in Target Disk Mode and connected to another Mac. When booting from an external USB hard drive or with my MacBook Pro connected to the MacBook via Target Disk Mode, the MacBook booted up quickly. I came to the conclusion that the internal hard drive must have failed and needed to be replaced. Ultimately, the data was not recoverable from this drive.
I then proceeded to swap out the defective Apple OEM Seagate hard drive with a known working Apple OEM Fujitsu hard drive. When booting from the Leopard Install DVD, the MacBook would boot incredibly slow, but would finally reach the Installer Language screen. When proceeding to install Leopard, the drive would take a very long time to have data written to it, and ultimately the install failed. I removed the new hard drive from the MacBook and placed it in an external USB enclosure, attached it to the MacBook and booted from the Leopard Install DVD. Leopard would install successfully. I removed the hard drive from the enclosure and reinstalled it the MacBook. When booting from the freshly installed OS, the MacBook would take a very long time to boot. The MacBook is extremely slow!!!
I checked the Activity Monitor to ensure CPU & System Memory Usage was not going crazy. All Processes where normal with adequate CPU & Memory headroom.
I took the MacBook apart thinking that the SATA Controller Cable might be loose. No, it was firmly in place. I reassembled the MacBook and booted it up again. Still incredibly slow!
Finally, after several reboot attempts, the MacBook would book up quickly and operation was perfect. I applied all updates and continued testing the MacBook with great success. Gave my friend his MacBook back and he was grateful.
_Now for the kicker..._
My friend brought me his MacBook a week ago complaining that the MacBook was operating extremely slow (much like when I was initially testing it before). I verified the MacBook was slow when I tried using it. I tried several reboots and then it would get stuck on the gray Apple with spinning gear.
I tried booting into Single User Mode, but it gets stuck on "Waiting for root device"
I put the MacBook in Target Disk Mode and connected it to my G5 2.0GHz Dual Core. The hard drive would mount quickly on the G5 and I used Disk Utility to create a Restore Image. The disk operation would perform normally and the image would be created successfully.
I then partitioned the MacBook's hard drive when connected to the G5, ejected and proceeded to attempt OS reinstall. No dice! The hard drive is not even detected by the Disk Utility on the Leopard Install DVD.
Finally after several reattempts, the hard drive is recognized, but is extremely slow when trying to reinstall...and again, ultimately install fails. Using Disk Utility from Leopard Install DVD, the hard drive fails to unmount when I try formatting.
I don't have Apple Hardware Test disc for the MacBook or Apple Service Diagnostics disc for this model. Running TechTool Pro shows hardware to be okay, disk controller onboard the Fujitsu drive is okay, but running SMART & Surface Scan takes a long, long time (which I'm certain will ultimately error out). Running Drive Genius takes a long, long time as well.
Conclusion:
I think the SATA Controller Cable is defective. I can't think of anything else that would cause disk errors or performance issues like this. Your input is truly appreciated!

Even though no one responded to my post, I thought I'd share the resolution with the entire Apple community. I hope this information will be helpful to some of you with MacBooks or MacBook Pros that may be running painfully slow or may be exhibiting hard drive issues because your machine won't recognize the boot drive or fails to properly boot on a perfectly healthy S.M.A.R.T. verified hard drive. It just might be the hard drive connector/cable. Here it goes...
I visited my local Apple Retail Store and asked a "Genius" at the Genius Bar about this issue and told him my thoughts about a possible failed hard drive connector/cable. First, he didn't even know what a hard drive connector was! Then, he arrogantly stated that he never heard of such a thing and that these cables never fail. Finally, he blatantly dispelled this as a possibility.
On the contrary with my experience, I have had many failed PATA controller cables that required replacement when supporting the desktop PC's at work. I have personally owned and supported many Apple manufactured laptops and desktops and have never encountered this issue on a Mac...until this MacBook!
So, after looking at the Service Manual for the MacBook, I went over to my local Apple Authorized Service Provider and purchased the Hard Drive Connector Apple Part #922-7579. I replaced the original cable, reassembled and proceeded to boot the MacBook with the Leopard DVD installer. The Fujitsu drive was immediately recognized and was able to be formatted and Leopard installed without incident. The MacBook boots off the internal hard drive as normal again and works nice and fast again.
Thank you all for your time!
:D

How to repair internal hard drive failure?

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

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

Installing Maverick caused hard drive failure

I am only posting this to be sure that the Apple community gets more information concerning this update. I "had" a perfectly functioning 18 mos. old Mac Book Pro and when I attempted to install Maverick I was notified that my Hard Drive was damaged beyond repair. The computer was returned to an Apple Store, new hard drive installed and still the computer does not work!!! I cannot open Cloud, log on with my Apple ID (and yes, I am using the correct user name and password!), or open Itunes. I have had over 1 hour long phone calls with very nice people from Apple, but even after a deleting and attempting to re-install Maverick....nothing. Now, Maverick will not even load. Something is wrong with this update and Apple has got to get it fixed!

Hi RStyle1,
Answeres are below:
a) Yes, you can use the same disc and serial number to install on a new laptop, if you get an activations error message then you would need to contact Adobe support.
b) The same serial number will work on both Windows and Mac.
c) You can still use Lightroom 4 if you upgrade to version 5, it's upto you to use both the versions on the machines available to you.
Thanks!
Ankit

Mavericks related hard drive "failures" - some fixes

I managed to save 2 devices that were bricked by Mavericks and another that was only partially paralyzed. I apologize in advance that you may need to search other threads for more details.
After deleting a lot of plist files, my newer (2009) iMac seemed to recover, but the older (2008) iMac didn't. It periodically froze up (spinning beachball) and would only restart in Safe Mode on a good day. Word has it, Mavericks creates a partition for itself, with some persistant errors, including a boot up failure loop in some cases. I was concurrently getting a lot of "BUG in libdispatch" errors. A Genius erased my HD and reinstalled Mavericks OS, but that didn't help, so I used my original recovery disk to put Leopard OS back on, used old install disks to upgrade to Snow Leopard, and then re-downloaded and installed Mountain Lion from the App Store (yes, it can be done, despite what the support folks say, but the website is very buggy and you have to keep trying). It took 2 days, but now, my 2008 iMac is working wonderfully.
I pulled out my bricked Time Capsule, plugged it into an unused circuit, and voila!, I got a flash of green. There may be an issue with circuit noise sensitivity or insufficient power transfer per some internet threads. I used my old Time Capsule installation disk to install Airport Utility on a PC and was able to talk to the Time Capsule via ethernet cable, so I could reconfigure it. I then plugged it into my iMac running Mountain Lion and it was immediately recognized (for the first time since Mavericks installation). It also still had my old backups on it. I am currently creating a new backup on it with Time Machine and it's fine (another Genius had assured me with absolute certainty that it was dead, time to buy a new one). It's been a heck of a lot of trouble to get back to my pre-Mavericks world, but it's sure better than having to replace all this unaffordable stuff and adding to the ever growing mountain of tech trash.
Good luck!

I find today pretty good and have seen no such behaviour on any of our five Macs running Mavericks. Most likely Third party incompatability or pending hardware failure. When you say
Word has it, Mavericks creates a partition for itself, with some persistant errors, including a boot up failure loop in some cases.
Where did you read that? Do you have a link? Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks all created a Recovery Partition, but Mavericks does not install any other partition, so I would be interested in reading the article.
Good luck with things.
In Advance
Pete

Is my internal hard drive dead?!? (iMac mid-2007)

Hi everyone,
My aluminum iMac (mid-2007) is behaving strangely recently. I'm suspecting some internal hard drive failure. Here are the symptoms:
1) Difficult wakeups from sleep mode: two times out of three, the spinning beachball appears on each open application, making the iMac unusable, almost frozen. I have to hard reboot.
2) One reboot out of two fails, with the "question mark folder" appearing, just like if the iMac could not detect an internal hard drive.
3) In the Finder, the spinning beachball appeared once with an error message: "The drive has not been ejected properly". Of course I didn't eject or disconnect any drive... There was also an icon "SystemUI Server" appearing in the Dock! I was forced to hard reboot.
4) Made all the usual stuff: all Onyx tests and repairs + Apple Hardware Test full tests + permission and disk repairs + PRAM/SMC reset... No problems detected, but nothing resolved in the end. (The only thing I haven't tested yet is Techtool Pro or DiskWarrior.)
I think this is an internal hard drive problem, but I'd like to have a confirmation from you, forum pros. Would a hard drive replacement fix the problem? Or is the internal drive OK but some connection to the drive not working anymore, making a HD replacement useless? (Sorry if this is nonsense, but I'm not very skilled in hardware stuff.)
In other words, any help would be appreciated. (And my AppleCare expired some weeks ago! Talk about bad luck...)
Thanks in advance for any help!

D.F. wrote:
Done! Installed a new HD following the instructions of this site. Everything works perfectly again.
Yay!
But I'm still disappointed that my original internal hard drive chose to die two weeks after my AppleCare three-year warranty expired!
The original HD was a Western Digital. Is WD a crappy brand?
You'll get widely different opinions on that. Many folks say their --cheap-- inexpensive ones are "junk;" others say they've had several that ran for years.
Some say the ones Apple uses are better quality -- not quite server grade, but better than the run-of-the mill consumer products.
As with any manufactured product, disk drives may have a few early failures (even in the first days or weeks); a few will last for many years, most will last for 2-4 years or so. Even under identical circumstances, there's no predicting the life span of any one drive.

Following hard drive failure on iMac running Maverick I have recovered from TimeMachine backup but now app store does not connect. All other internet connections normal. Does anyone know of a fix?

following hard drive failure on iMac running Maverick I have recovered from TimeMachine backup but now app store does not connect. All other internet connections normal. Does anyone know of a fix?
Also mail not loading. The error report suggests that I look for updates from the app store?

http://www.apple.com/support/mac/app-store/contact/

How do I reinstall Mavericks from a time machine backup? (Hard drive failure)

Ok, so I have a mid-2007 iMac and the hard drive finally died. It originally shipped with Leopard or something, but I had it upgraded to Mavericks. I have an external hard drive with a current Time Machine backup on it. I am about to replace the internal hard drive with a brand new (unformatted) hard drive. So here is the question: Is there a way to boot from my Time Machine backup and then reformat the drive and do a Time Machine recovery?
I have the old OS X install disks, but I don't want to have to upgrade through all of the old OS Xs. I also have a Macbook that I could create a bootable USB from--something like this (http://lifehacker.com/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-usb-installation-drive-145 0280026)--and then I could reformat the drive and recover from Time Machine. But is there an easier way? Can I just boot straight from my external hard drive that has the backup on it?
Thanks for your help everyone, I'm hoping to be able to take care of all of this tonight.

You can try this. OPTION boot the computer.
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon labeled Recovery HD.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
This should boot the Mavericks Utilities Menu.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
When the formatting is done quit Disk Utility and return to the Main Menu. Now select the option to restore/reinstall OS X from a Time Machine backup. Follow the directions.

After a startup problem with my macbook pro i put it as slave and formatted the internal Hard drive. Now i want to install OS X Mavericks from USB

After a startup problem with my macbook pro i put it as slave and formatted the internal Hard drive. Now i want to install OS X Mavericks from USB
How can i do that?

What did you "put as slave?" What Mac model do you have, exactly?

Slow write to internal hard drive

The write speeds for my internal hard drive on my iMac are painfully slow (under 1 MB/s) for all kinds of files; whenever I am moving files the entire system would become unresponsive. I did not have this problem when I was running tiger; when I installed leopard it took an unusually long time (5 hrs or so), which I thought was strange but decided not to trouble myself over.
I tried to erase the partition and zero the disk from disk utility on the OS X install CD and it said it would take 24 hours, then disk utility crashed. I tried again from my iBook with the imac as a target disk and the same problem occurred.
I am reinstalling leopard now (having erased but not zeroed the disk) and it says it will take 12 hours (it has already been running for an hour).
The SMART status is "verified" but I think the problem may be the hard drive itself. When the system was running, writing to an external disk was perfectly fast.
Does anyone have any ideas? Firmware update, disk controller software update, etc.? I can't find anyone else with the same problem.

Funny thing is I was suffering the same problem on my 24" iMac for the past month or so.. of course after the first year warranty was expired.
24" iMac, 2.16Ghz C2D, 2Gb Ram, 250Gb WD HDD, 7600GT
OSX was going terribly slow, but kept working and I wasn't sure what the problem was right away. After a watching the Activity Monitor I also noticed the HDD on my iMac was suffering from horrible write speeds.. read was fine but writing.. well the HDD was dying.
I went out this morning and bought myself a new 500Gb Seagate with the 32Mb cache to replace my the trusty Western Digital in the iMac.. came home, busted out the philips screwdriver and Torx-8 opened her up and replaced the drive myself. It took under an hour and was a pretty painless process. Once the new drive was installed I restored from a TimeMachine backup and wham bam she was done!
Anyone with good PC assembly knowledge should be able to replace the drive on their own, just find a guide on the net and follow the instructions. The key is to take your time as its not as simple as removing a panel off a PowerMac or PC and swapping the drive.. there is a lot more patience to it since your dealing with such a confined space and other components. But I took my time and cleaned out the cooling system inside my iMac while I was at it.. overall it turned out okay and i'm happy with the performance upgrade on the drive with the larger cache.
I should note, if your iMac is in warranty or your reluctant to open it up yourself (i don't blame you!) just take your Mac into a authorized repair centre and i am sure they would be happy to help replace the drive for a small fee. I on the other hand prefer to save a few bucks and use the money on buying a better drive, plus it was fun to do!

New internal hard drives, seems slow with Logic 8, how can i test

Hi,
I just bought a new internal hard drive, but it seems subtley too slow!,
On a Logic 8 song i'm working on the tracks timing seems slightly off, it's kind of driving me crazy because at times it is subtle, and other times obvious.
and 2 other things, one is an iTunes playback stalled twice, and that's never happened before,
also, when working on a Word doc, the screen was not re-drawing properly. i had to repeatedly reisze the doc window to get it re-draw itself. this has never happened before either.
is there a way to test this new hard drive?,
thanks

There are though all the ones I've used, TechTool Pro, Disk Utility, Intech Speedtools, none were 'perfect' or as good as the vendor's own utility which runs on Windows.
But you might do something for us - include the drive make/model version, and, do a look up with Google and see if you get any helpful hits.
How you have your system setup, number of drives and organization of files, can also have an impact.
Off hand, WD Caviar 640GB is cheap and fast, or there are some 1TB drives that look good, too.
Drives do break in over a period of days or first week, and it can help to break in and torture, zero the entire drive, run media scan, use a benchmark utility to graph I/O over the full drive.
Check out Barefeats, they do a bit of drive testing benchnmarks and see what they use and results. Or Tom's Hardware.

Early 2009 Mini's internal hard drive slow after sleep

I'm posting this in the hope that somebody else may have the same problem, and may have a fix. My Mac Mini doesn't go into full sleep, usually it just shuts off the monitor. And that doesn't bother me, because I know it's on account of my third-party mouse and keyboard.
What does bother me is that after waking from sleep, the mini is very sluggish. Anything that requires you access to the internal hard drive results in a spinning beach ball and bouncing Application icons in the dock. A quick check of the activity Monitor showed very little going on CPU–wise. If one application that might have been able to shed some light on the subject, Drive Genius, was unable to work on the internal drive because it was the boot drive. I would've had to reboot, regarding new would have solved the problem.
At that point I gave up and decided to restart the machine so I can get some work done. As soon as I selected the “restart” from the Apple menu, got a kernel panic. At this point I'm concerned about the integrity of the internal drive. The mini is only about a year old, and I have AppleCare, but I'm hoping it is not that serious. The drive checks out in Disk Utility, BTW.
Any ideas?

The keyboard is a Macally Bluetooth (full size) keyboard. I bought it because I didn't like the little Apple BT kbd. No special drivers for the kdb.
The mouse is a Targus BT mouse, and it does have a System Preferences pane because it has 2 programmable buttons on the side (besides left, right, and center/scroll).
The system is set up as a server as well as my personal machine, so it has "wake for network access" checked in Energy Saver settings. It never goes to sleep fully unless I turn off the kbd and mouse and then push the power button. Then it pulses. Otherwise, it just turns off the monitor and stays awake, I assume.
Often I leave Safari and Mail running, and I know Mail is constantly getting stuff because both accounts are IMAP accounts. But even when those apps are closed, it still doesn't fully sleep. I have it set to display sleep in 5 min, complete sleep in 10, and to put HD to sleep when idle.
Hope those answers help, thanks for taking the time to respond!
K.

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 failures after 10.6 installation, 2 library folders appear.

I have had to erase my intel imac hard drive 3 times and reinstall 10.6.
Each time the computer slowed to a standstill after a day or so, while using safari or mail.
It could not be repaired with disk utility.
After reinstalling 10.6 I have then retrieved the data from time machine. In all cases I had to update to OS 10.6.1 in order get my printer going (with the updated driver).
The odd thing is that when checking the hard drive trying to find out what is causing the problem
I noticed that it had
one library folder in the system folder
and another library folder outside the system folder
on the internal hard drive.
Is this the reason for the hard drive failures?
What should I do with this?? How could this have happened?
Please help! I've been using only Mac since 1986 more or less without any trouble,
but now I am having the kind of problems with SL that I thought only Windows users had!

HI,
"*It could not be repaired with disk utility.*"
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
*(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)*
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
*If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.*
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart
While you have the Disk Utility window open, look at the bottom of the window. *Where you see Capacity and Available. Make sure there is always 10% to 15% free disk space.*
There should be a Library folder in the System Folder.
Carolyn

Slow Mavericks - internal hard drive failure?

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