Surface scan on TechTool Deluxe.

Hi
Surface scan on TechTool Deluxe has said that there were 48 errors, why is this? Is this due to the Internet or is it internal or is it just something that happens? Need answers please.
Regards

TJ94 wrote:
Surface scan on TechTool Deluxe has said that there were 48 errors, why is this? Is this due to the Internet or is it internal or is it just something that happens?
A surface scan identifies bad sectors on the drive where data won't be reliably read or written too.
Normally as one writes data to the drive if it can't write to it then the driver software maps off that bad sector and uses another.
However at the factory, data is likely injected directly onto the drive, right over the bad sectors and everything which might result in unstable OS X behavior.
If your computer is running fine, then no need however if OS X is unstable, then perhaps some part of OS X itself is written on a bad sector.
There is a simply method to pre-mapping off bad sectors on new hard drives, and that's Disk Utility Erase Security option Zero and format the drive HFS+ journaled. (warning all data will be lost)
You can also do this in a perfectly fine working OS X by using Disk Utilities "Erase Free Space" option and choosing Zero (don't format)
To do it to a whole OS X drive, you need to clone all the data off first using Carbon Copy Cloner, to a external drive, then hold option and boot from the clone, then use Disk Utility > Zero method.
What Zeroing does is writes 0's to every bit on the drive or free space, depending which option you choose.
The driver software for the hard drive will then map off any bad sectors automatically. So with Zeroing your forcing the machine to do it in advance.
As you notice the Surface Scan for TechTool Deluxe was not enabled in the software by default, it's because there are always errors from bad sectors, but the hard drive driver software automatically takes care of them.

Similar Messages

Surface Scan Fail (TechTool Deluxe)

I thought my problem was fixed, but apparently not... my PowerBook works when I first boot it up, but as I use it for a while (or close it and re-open it), things start freezing. Sometimes it can't find my AirPort connection, either.
Anyway, I ran the TechTool Deluxe that came with AppleCare, and it said the Surface Scan Failed:
"Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again."
Joeuu helped me over in another thread, and I've already archived and installed from the discs, but now that I've backed up all my important files, should I consider erasing and installing? Is that what that message means? Or should I try something else?
Thanks in advance!

Good that you have AppleCare still.
Do you by any chance have .Mac and auto synch? Or any networking going on?
1. Call and get a case number.
2. Be patient as they will probably ask you to do things you have already done. Take copious notes as to what we have done and what they ask you to do.
3. Don't be afraid to ask for a higher level of tech if you get frustrated.
4. Decide how long you can be without your Book. The fact that it is portable, they will send you a box to use to ship to them.
Will not hurt to do an erase and install, I'm still wondering why logging in as a new user helped greatly, albeit only for a while--leaned to the software side.
Hang Tough!
Joe

Techtool deluxe found 7 errors during surface scan... what do i do???

please help

The steps mentioned by TTD aren't very thorough, especially for a rookie. I only have 1 error and the suggestion by TTD is:
Surface Scan
Failed - 1 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.
Can you please walk me through these steps? I have my computer backed up using Time Machine and I still have the box that I bought to upgrade my operating system to Snowleopard.

Persistent surface scan error on techtool- please help

My Powerbook started running slower than usual, so I decided to run the Techtool Deluxe cd I got with my Apple Care plan. I ran all the tests. My result: 5 errors in the Surface Scan test.
I didn't know what to do, so I took my Powerbook to the Apple store Genius Bar. The guy just said I needed to reformat my HD. So, I did the "erase and install" reformat at the store.
But, the genius bar guy didn't seem to know what he was talking about, so after I did all the software updates at home, I decided to run the Techtool Deluxe cd again. Again, the results showed I had 5 errors in the Surface Scan test, even after I had completely reformatted my hard drive.
I had the 3.0.4 version of Techtool, and just to be safe that it wasn't out of date, I installed it on my computer and updated it to version 3.1.2.
With the updated 3.1.2 Techtool Deluxe program, I ran all the tests again.
And STILL I have 5 errors on my Surface Scan test.
Here is a copy of my results (every thing else passed).
Surface Scan
Failed - 5 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.
Please help! What am I supposed to do???? (I don't think reformatting my HD will help, because I already did, and still have this problem)
Thank you!

Welcome to the Apple discussions.
When you reformatted the hard drive, did you do an erase and write zero's? That's important because that's what remaps the bad sectors of the hard drive. After booting from the OS X CD, choose disk utility, choose the hard drive, and on the erase tab, choose security options and write zero's. If you don't do this step, a plain erase or erase and install only deletes the index or catalog of the disk contents.

TechTool Surface Scan 1000+ Errors. Replace Drive or Reformat?

My computer recently began freezing whenever I tried to open certain files. I found that each time the computer locked up, a Disk0s2 error flashed in the Console. After checking the SMART Status of my drive (Verified) and running Disk Utility (Repair Disk and Permissions), the problems persisted today. I ran a TechTool Surface Scan and found that my hard drive has over 1000 errors. My question is, should I take the time to reformat the drive and zero over it or should I replace my 3.5 year old hard drive?
Thanks!

jbend32 wrote:
Thanks for your response. I was afraid that the writing was on the wall with this one.
Methinks you're correct.
When I ran Repair Disk, it found two errors, one about a discrepancy in the volume of files and another in the volume directory count. It told me that 1 HFS Volume had been repaired. I'm not sure what this really means.
Always run RD repeatedly until you get two "clean" runs in a row. Each time RD fixes something, something else may be affected, or may not show up until the first thing is fixed.
RD attempts to fix the directory structure, basically the locations of every bit of millions of bits of data scattered across the HD platters. If this directory becomes corrupt, then the data cannot be located/accessed, even if it is still "intact" (would require data recovery software).
As far as an HD replacement goes, it looks like the Seagate Momentum XT might be a good option. Any thoughts?
If 5 people respond to that question, you could easily get 5 different opinions. For my preferences, Seagate has slipped over the last year or two, and although I like the idea of their hybrid drive, I will not buy one until I see reviews reflecting consistent quality. That is my recommendation to you; take a look at some reviews (Tom's hardware, newegg, Amazon, xlr8yourmac, etc.) and see what looks good to you. Another thought, I like to compare it to car brand loyalty. Is a Chevy or a Toyota or a Ford or a Honda, etc. "better?" My current favorite is Hitachi.
Message was edited by: tjk

Tech Tool Deluxe 'Surface Scan Failed-'

Surface scan repeatedly failing, no recent change to iBook settings, I suspect that this problem may have been caused by m-audio software, however I believe it has been properly uninstalled. Advice?
Error message reads;
'Surface Scan Failed - 212 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.'
I am unsure as what this report is prompting me to do. What does the term 'media' mean in this context? Which data should I be trying to replace?
Please forward any tips on how to resolve this issue.
<Post Relocated by Moderator>

When I use the disk utility application the volume passes verification, is this contrary to Tech Tools or are they analyzing different elements of the drive?
Yes, different, DU is just basically checking part of the drive, where Directory info is stored & such.
Laptop drives are generally a lot shorter lived than regular drives, which now seem to last 3 to 5 tears.
Although these errors are present it doesn't seem to be effecting my day to day running of things at the moment...
There's a Train Wreck coming up ahead though, you can avoid it, or wait 'till it hits!
Not certain which iBook G4 you have, but here's some ideas on HD replacements...
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?sort=pop&model=198&type=DataStorage&TI=5904&shoupgrds=ShowUpgrades

TechTool Deluxe contradictory results

I could not determine where to post regarding TechTool Deluxe (included with AppleCare). Is there a better forum to have used?
I've just purchased AppleCare for my recent iMac acquisition. I downloaded the latest TechTool Deluxe (v. 3.1.3). After burning a cd and also installing it, I went ahead and ran all the tests enabled by default (i.e. all but "Surface Scan").
Each "Passed". But, when it got to "Volume Structure", the visual indication said, "Fail". However, report window showed "Passed". So, I ran it again (just that test). Same thing; failed visually, and passed in report. I tried a different test (RAM); it passed in both.
So, now I am confused.
What does it mean for TTD to tell me that it Failed and also Passed? Is this a known bug in TechTool Deluxe?

It doesn't mean anything. If you need to repair your drive use Disk Utility, not TTD. If you have questions about TTD the best place to ask is to call AppleCare or contact the developer, MicroMat.

Techtool deluxe problem

G'day
My new 24" imac with Gforce 130 graphics card has been acting weird; frozen shutdowns, frozen programs, photoshop not pasting correctly.
The techtool deluxe that came with Applecare shows a 'Fail' on the cards memory, but TechTool Pro shows a 'Pass'.
Micromat tells me it's possibly because the supplied TechTool deluxe is older than the card (the TT deluxe creation date is 1 April 2008).
Apples hardware test shows everything OK.
I've re-installed the OS 3 times, and it seems OK for now.
Does anyone have the same card with TT deluxe, and does it show a failed or passed card?
Regards
Santa

Have you checked the list of items to be scanned and made sure "surface scan" was selected?
Miriam

Techtool deluxe & Snow Leopard

Does anyone know if the TechTool Deluxe I downloaded under Leopard will be OK to use under Snow Leopard. I'm thinking it will because Snow Leopard is an upgrade of Leopard not a whole new system, but I just wanted to check.
Eric

TechTool Deluxe 3.1.3 updater.
Be sure to run the Surface Scan test, which checks the internal hard drive for bad blocks that have not already been remapped to spare blocks.

Failed "Surface Scan"

Hello Everyone.
I recently ran TechTool Deluxe - The program that came bundled w/ Apple Care, and it generated this report:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1347667/TechTool%20Deluxe%20Report.html
Everything passed except that in the surface scan section, it says:
Surface Scan
Failed - 1 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.
Should I be concerned about this? Unfortunately, I can not get the drive replaced for free by apple care because I bought this drive a while ago not from Apple (it seems to work very well). Does anyone have any opinions about this matter.
Thanks!

Normally, yes, but TT has a tendency to produce that erroneous error. Use Disk Utility which is in your Utilities folder to repair the drive and/or permissions. Stay away from TT Deluxe. If you need something heftier then purchase Disk Warrior.

Surface scan errors

My iMac G5 began freezing up, sometimes making ticking noises, loud fan noises. After talking to Tech Support and repairing permissions and repairing disk, I am running the Tech Tool Deluxe CD. On the surface scan test, there are 72 errors and it's only about 1/10 finished. What does this mean?

Which version of TechTools Deluxe are you using, Wilma?
It is very common for the version included with AppleCare packages to be TOO OLD for the version of the OS installed on your computer. Sadly, sometimes the people on the phones don't seem to check before asking you to try it.
see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61794 for information about updating to the current version. You should be able to obtain it from https://support.apple.com/techtooldeluxe/main?id=dl
Using an "older" version of TTD can cause serious problems.
It MAY be that the indicated problems are real, and that your HD has serious problems. It may also, however, simply be a false error reading, in which case attempting to use TTD to resolve the situation may cause far more serious problems than it can cure.
Personally I WISH that Apple only provided this software as a download, rather than on the Applecare CD's, so that people could be assured of using the latest version, appropriate for their computer.
Rod

Problem with techtool deluxe

Hello all,
I am a new IMAC owner and have a question regarding techtool deluxe. I had no problems running it, but when it came to "surface scan" it was automatically skipped. I ran it again and the same thing occured. Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong?
Imac 17" Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2GHz Intel Core 2; 1 GB RAM;

Have you checked the list of items to be scanned and made sure "surface scan" was selected?
Miriam

Data Recovery AFTER TechTool Deluxe "Repair" ?

Hello,
I have a PB from Fall 2005 (1.5 Ghz, 512 Ram, superdrive, 80 GB) running 10.4. Recently, performance really started to lag, so I began diligent monitoring and ordered an external HD to perform a more comprehensive backup. For the last week, although SMART status was verified on the internal HD, I've been running on a bootable external drive (that was too full to perform a full backup of the current system). When the new external drive arrived yesterday, I installed 10.4 onto a fresh partition and prepared to copy all my files over from the internal drive. Of course, in the midst of this process, but before I could begin the file transfer, the internal drive decided to die and list SMART status as failed. From previous TechTool and other diagnoses, I believe the issue was just a horribly corrupted directory rather than any real physical damage (despite being forced to use numerous hard shut downs due to a stalled, all-but-frozen system in the recent past).
Now, here's the crux of my question: I ran TechTool Deluxe (the version that is packaged with Apple Care) and again it reported a bad directory. I had to safe boot on the external drive to get the computer to complete log in, otherwise it stales as it "searches for local drives." So the drive was not mounting, but it was recognized by both Disk Utility and Tech Tool. Feeling that it was my only option, I decided to go ahead and let Tech Tool repair the volume structure. Tech Tool was "successful" but now I am left with a hard drive that mounts but only shows my applications and library folders, along with a folder full of gibberish index files. No system folder, no users folder.
Is there a way to step back from this repair? Apple Support suggested trying to use Disk Utility again to verify the disk, but I'm highly dubious. I've heard of Alsoft DiskWarrior and ProSoft's Data Rescue II--but I don't know if either are something that will work after-the-fact now that Tech Tool has done its damage. I also talked to Drive Savers and they're quoting $500-2400, with $1600+ the cost of anything approximating full recovery.
Any suggestions on methods, preferred vendors, etc? I've backed up sporadically and have fresh copies of most of my key documents, and 75-90% of my music, but I'd lose all my photos and my crucial contacts, emails, and calendars.
I've done some searches and found slightly similar issues to my particular problem (ie http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1150247?).
I'll be monitoring this closely if I left any details out that would help in providing a recommendation.

Hi,
Thanks for your comments. I actually have not been able to boot from the "repaired" drive. It no longer mounts and disk utility reports it had a "fatal hardware error." I can still mount fine from either of my two external drives. Here's the current update. I downloaded the demo of Data Rescue II from Prosoft and am letting it performa thorough scan of my hard drive. It was about 2 hours from completion after 10 hours of scanning when I left for work this morning. If it turns up anything, I'll go ahead and buy the full version. If not, unless this board turns up anything else, yes, it looks like DriveSavers (or a similar alternative?).

Volume structure, surface scan

I have a new imac, it's been with me for about 2 months total. I noticed some silly little things happening occasionally....so I used tech tools and did a scan. The volume structure failed....and the surface scan has 2 errors.
What's the significance of this? What should I do?

Probably nothing. If you used TT Deluxe I would not rely on it's results. The standard repair tool is Disk Utility which is in your Utilities folder. If you need to repair your drive do this:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

TechTool Deluxe resulted in failures

I ran TechTool Deluxe on my MacBook Pro, and "Format Check", "Directory Scan" and "Volume Structure" resulted in failure. I was unable to proceed with fixes. Can anyone advise me? Thank you.

To repair your Boot drive, you need to boot from another drive (like a DVD), so that your boot drive will be available for complete repairs.
One pass of Disk Repair can also be done by Restarting with Shift key held down, to boot into Safe Mode.

Surface scan on TechTool Deluxe.

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