What does a "full surface scan" of a hard drive?

I've been advised to do a "hard format and full surface scan" of new internal hard drives I'm adding to my new mac pro to hopefully avoid encountering any problems down the line. (mostly HDV video editing purposes) If there are any problems I would just exchange the drives now rather than wait for the problem to pop up unexpectedly. I'm not sure if disk utility does a true surface scan. So, is there any included apple application that does a true "full surface scan"? If not, what other inexpensive software would do it? I've heard of disk warrior and similar software but they are $100 which I'd like to avoid spending on a preemptive surface scan. Thanks.

You can look for free utility. But you won't find a better disk catalogue maintenance program.
You could buy TechTool Pro that does a good media surface scan but then fails or doesn't actually do anything to map a sector out.
Windows wlll let you use the vendor's own tool and does an excellent job.
SMART Utility sounds like it does a good job.
Intech Speedtools has a suite of tools but I found it to not do a good job when I did notice the side effects and behavior of weak and bad blocks. ZoneBench/QuickBench set is only $29 and you can do a lot with those, helps to create multiple partitions to force write test to every block.
Bottom line i see: no free lunches.
I use to believe that a zero all would attempt but the errors have to be really bad to pick them up. And a 7-way write erase takes 7X longer and really strains things. So I stict to WD Diagnostic Utility running in Windows, and I swear by the results and job it does. Excellect.
In theory, enterprise drives with 1.4 million MTBF hours have longer burn-in and therefore should be safer.
You could torture a drive for a few days and load it with files and then erase with zero and/or 7-way.

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HT201250 What does it mean to "partition" an external hard drive? Is it something that I want to do?

What does it mean to "partition" the external hard drive? Is it something I want to do? How do I save files from another hard drive to the new one? I have to reformat the old one as it was not set up correctly. The drive I have is Seagate but not specifically for MAC, so I have to format it.. never have done this before. Don't know the jargon. I read that Time Machine will back up automatically but I want to take files from the old drive to the new one. Do I have to take them to the computer first and then to the new drive? I need more memory on my computer. It's way too cluttered and congested. HELP!

Whoa! Slow donw. TRhere's a lot here. I would suggest you buy a good book on computers in general or macs in particular, one is "OSX the missing manual".
What does it mean to "partition" the external hard drive?
It means you take one large drive and make it into more than one volume. This means that it might show up as 2,3 or 4 inde[pendenmt drives. Each one could have, for example, a different operating system on it. Its a good thing to do if you want to use a drive for several purposes
Is it something I want to do?
beats me, you didnt way what you're trying to accomplish. Sorta like sking "should i turn left?" Depends on where you want to go.
How do I save files from another hard drive to the new one?
See advice n book above. Copy them in finder. Copy them in unix. Use a backup or sync utility. No different from Windows in that respect.
I have to reformat the old one as it was not set up correctly. The drive I have is Seagate but not specifically for MAC, so I have to format it.. never have done this before. Don't know the jargon.
Hook it up. Run disk utility. Partition 1 or more partions. GUID map. Format each partition Mac OS extended, Journaled. for more, read book, above. Seriously - we could give you more tips, but you really should learn enough to be comnfident.
I read that Time Machine will back up automatically but I want to take files from the old drive to the new one. Do I have to take them to the computer first and then to the new drive?
I have no idea what you are asking.
I need more memory on my computer. It's way too cluttered and congested. HELP!
What kind of memory and why? RTAM? Hard drive space? Explain. By the time you are done explaining, i suspect you will have ansered your own question.
Good luck,
Have you read the PDF manual for your cmputer?
Have you used a search engine to look for info, for example, in two seconds i got this from google and wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning
Grant

What does Apple HW Test really test about hard drive?

My 2002 FP iMac was recently jolted. The internal hard drive is no longer recognized. Here is what I know:
When I boot with the Apple Hardware Test CD which came with the computer, it does not recognize anything wrong with the hard drive.
When I boot from an external hard drive, I get a dialog with buttons to Initialize, Ignore, or Eject the hard drive.
When I open Disk Utility (external HD boot), it can see the disk, but says it is unformatted.
I also downloaded a trial data recovery program and it could not find anything identifiable on the hard drive.
I don't really know what the Apple Hardware Test program tests with the hard drive, so I don't know how to interpret the information I have.
My questions:
Is there any hope for salvaging anything from the hard drive? (Probably not?)
Is the drive itself likely to be OK if I format and re-install my OS? (Is that what the HW Test is telling me?)
I have not tried to format the drive, because there are a few things I would really like to salvage. I have also not opened it up to examine anything on the inside because I would not know what to look for.
Suggestions for how to proceed will be welcome.

The data on the ill-fated hard drive may be recoverable; could be
there has been damage to the drive or the software on it that lets
the computer read files from the drive.
Some disk utilities such as Disk Warrior could see about trying to
fix the drive; although if physical damages exist, it can't fix that.
The booted OS X Installer's Disk Utility has options in the Installer
menu bar (drop down menu to select other things, when not just
reinstalling) and you could see if OS X's Disk Utility from the booted
Installer disc could give you a status report on the drive in Verify, &
also see what it says about 'Repair drive' when chosen to try a fix.
Sometimes, the OS X's Disk Utility can't fix something, and at that
point, other utilities (retail on DVD) may be able to. Then, the tossup
is, whether or not you want to pay for the utility to fix an old drive, or
put the money into a new one.
Data Recovery software is available as download, so if the old hard
disk drive were removed from the computer and a new drive put in,
later on the failed drive could be investigated through use of software
(such as those which can recover, then you pay to unlock results)
and that is another way to consider addressing the old drive contents.
Some would suggest, if you had Disk Warrior or some other disk utility
that could fix the old drive good enough to try and get data off it, maybe
even a full clone or just the files you need, then you would not need to
get the data recovery software. Of course, that software which runs to
see if you have recoverable files, can do that part for free.
The AHT may see the drive is present, while not recognizing a
failure in its firmware or in its directory, etc. Some kinds of disk
utilities can try to rebuild and replace a damaged directory or
other bits of software on the drive so it can be read again.
Usually, the test for the hard disk drive is Disk Utility on the
OS X Installer; and that gives you the boot version that sees
even a healthy drive as an unmounted and repairable volume
when it is correct and not beyond the limited ability of the utility.
Hopefully something practical comes from all these words...
Good luck & happy computing!

What does the "other" section contain on my hard drive?

It is taking up 155 gigs on my hard drive.

Same website, different page than what leroydouglas provided, should complete the picture.
http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html
Ciao.

What does "Disk Full" message mean when trying to send mail?

I have recently been getting an error message when trying to send email using Entourage - "cannot send mail using this account, disk full". Quiting all applications makes no difference, get the same message. To send email again I have to restart the computer. Then everything is fine until the next time, maybe a couple of days or weeks later.
Any idea what the "disk" referred to in the message is? I have plenty of RAM (640 megs) and as I said earlier, even if I quit all open apps after getting the "disk full" message it makes no difference.
Thanks for any suggestions!
G3 Blueberry Mac OS X (10.2.x) Upgraded processor to 1000mz G4, OS 10.2.8

Hello! Usually the disk full message occurs because the hard drive is at or near capacity. The message has nothing to do with apps except for the "virtual memory or paging" aspect of OSX. Restarting probably clears out the paging file and possibly some other stuff which allows you to work for a while. Select the hard drive and do a "get info" on it to see hoe much space is available on the hard drive. FREE space should be 10-20% and anything less than 10% will likely crash the computer or choke it to a slow crawl. Tom

Time Machine appears to be doing back-ups, but they do not appear on the external hard drive. The last one I can find is June 30. I did a utility scan of the hard drive disk and it is fine.

Time Machine appears to be doing back-ups, but they do not appear on the external hard drive. The last one I can find is June 30. I did a utility scan of the hard drive disk and it is fine. What do I do?

Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar. The time of the last backup is shown in the drop down.

Computer is balky random freezes across apps. Two hard drive cleans later (their scan reveals no hard drive problems) photo shop won't work at all, magic touch mouse inoperable and their diagnoses is corrupted data? Anybody heard of this?

Computer is balky random freezes across apps. Two hard drive cleans later (their scan reveals no hard drive problems) photo shop won't work at all, magic touch mouse inoperable and their diagnoses is corrupted data? Anybody heard of this?

Well, yes, data does get corrupted sometimes.
The trick is finding what data.
By 'cleaned' are you therefor meaning that the drive has been erased and the system re-installed?
Because that's the quickest way to deal with such a situation.
Back up the system first of course,
Add back 3rd party apps one at a time in case one of them is causing the problem.

What format i should use for my external hard drive that can be used interchangeably between mac and pc?

What format i should use for my external hard drive that can be used interchangeably between mac and pc?

Usually Fat32/MS-DOS as mentioned, but that has several limitatiuns, like 4GB filesize limit.
One option is MacDrive for you PCs... allows them to Read/Write HFS+...
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/
More options...
NTFS-3G Stable Read/Write Driver...
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
MacFUSE: Full Read-Write NTFS for Mac OS X, Among Others...
http://www.osnews.com/story/16930

My dad has dementia - does not remember his password. His hard drive has been erased. We need to reload Mountain Lion and can't figure out how to do it.

My dad has dementia - does not remember his password. His hard drive has been erased. We need to reload Mountain Lion and can't figure out how to do it. Internet recovery asks for his Apple ID and password. He has no idea. I have an Apple ID but have never bought anything through the iTunes store so it won't accept my Apple ID. I don't know if his computer is under warranty. He does not remember if he has Applecare. I tried reinstalling Leopard -- the computer originally came with Leopard -- but the computer screen goes grey and a message comes up saying I need to restart. He wants to give this computer to me since it's useless to him. What do I do to get a system on it again?

You will need to reformat the hard drive to go back to Snow Leopard or Leopard.
Does he have a Snow Leopard Disk? He should, as there is no way to go from Leopard to Mountain Lion without it. If you can find the Snow Leopard Disk, I'd at least start with that.
You will need to use Disk Utility in the installer to format the hard drive and get rid of the recovery partition.
Boot from the installer disk by holding down the C key on restart. When it boots, Open Disk Utility (Utilities menu, at least in Snow Leopard).
Select the Hard drive and then click the Partition tab.
Select 1 Partition from the partition menu.
Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format.
Name the drive (Macintosh HD is the standard).
Click Apply to partition the drive.
When it is done, quit Disk Utility and install the OS.

Hi i am have had a lot of trouble emptying my trash. when i go to put something in there it asks from my password and the item goes off the screen, but this does not clear any space on the hard drive.

Hi i am have had a lot of trouble emptying my trash. when i go to put something in there it asks from my password and the item goes off the screen, but this does not clear any space on the hard drive.

1. Triple-click the line below to select it:
~/.Trash
2. Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Show Info
from the contextual menu. An Info dialog should open.
3. The dialog should show "You can read and write" in the Sharing & Permissions section. If that's not what it shows, click the padlock icon in the lower right corner of the window and enter your password when prompted. Use the plus- and minus-sign buttons to give yourself Read & Write access and "everyone" No Access. Delete any other entries in the access list.
4. In the General section, uncheck the box marked Locked if it's checked.
5. From the action menu (gear icon) at the bottom of the dialog, select Apply to enclosed items and confirm.
6. Close the Info window and test.

Does Time Capsule works as a External Hard Drive?

Does Time Capsule works as a External Hard Drive?

The Time Capsule works as a network drive.
An external drive connects to your Mac using either the USB or FireWire ports.
If your real question is to ask whether you can store other data on the Time Capsule drive....you can.

I have a power mac g4 with mac os 10.4. 11 , I want to change the hard-drive ,what program can I used to transfer one hard-drive to another hard- drive on this mac pc.

I have a power mac g4 with mac os 10.4. 11 , I want to change the hard-drive
,what program can I used to transfer one hard-drive data to another hard- drive on this mac pc.

The Disk Utility, Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, or similar software. For best results, place the second drive inside the computer or in a FireWire enclosure and boot the computer from it before removing the internal drive.
(66989)

What is the best USB powered portable 1TB hard drive for a macbook pro that allows Time machine to work, windows (thru Parallels software) and mac storage and is available in Australia?

What is the best USB powered portable 1TB hard drive for a macbook pro that allows Time machine to work, windows (thru Parallels software) and mac storage and is available in Australia?

I agree with teh OWC sggestion above, but why must it be USB powered? I find that far more unreliable, and the low power devices slow.
I'd frankly get a good external enclosure and buy a bare drive. But the OWC stuff is quite good - vastly better than some of the majors (WD being aprime example of stuff that's boderline quality and often not compatible)
Grant

What is the lifespan of a Macbook Notebook Hard Drive, and is it a good idea to replace them more then once?

In specific, I own a 2007 Macbook Notebook, and it is an Intel Core 2 Duo MB21.00A5.B07. Last year, it became necessary to replace the hard drive, and was informed that the reason for the replacement was that the hard drive had reached the end of its lifespan.
My question is how long do Macbook notebook hard drives typically last? This also is in the context of frequent use of the notebook.
Additionally, is it a good idea to replace the hard drive more then once, or will the hard ware on the notebook, after I'm assuming about six or so years, be too out of date to accommodate a second or third hard drive replacement?
Also, since the replacement was still covered under an applecare plan (it's expired now), the general cost of replacing a Macbook notebook hard drive is not known? What is the cost generally expected of a hard drive replacement? This is in relation to repairs conducted at an applestore location (as opposed to a third party repair center).

justinfromlos angeles wrote:
Also, this means that, the settings of a system like Snow Leopard, in addition to all other personal settings from a current hard drive, can be copied to and from an external hard drive?
Your entire system can be copied to an external HD in bootable form. It's generally referred to as cloning, and there are a number of applications available to assist in the task.
SuperDuper
CarbonCopyCloner
LaCie Silverkeeper
To name but three.
Furthermore, once cloned, should you have to replace the internal drive, it's easy to boot from the external and clone the system back to the internal.
justinfromlos angeles wrote:
If so, do you know where one can purchase an external hard drive and a replacement hard drive?
As I don't live in the US, it's difficult for me to reccommend retailers, but any computer store (including Apple) can supply external HDs. Be aware that not all HDs from some manufacturers will play well with Macs; Western Digital I believe needs careful selection of the correct model. There are plenty of contributors who can no doubt help on that front. Personally I use LaCie and Iomega. Note that these are purpose built externals and come with their own enclosure and all cables reqd.
One thing you will need to do with most of them is to use Disk Utility to partiton them correctly (GUID system for Intel Macs) and set the file system to Mac Extended (journaled) before cloning.
justinfromlos angeles wrote:
There is one last question. Say I've replaced the hard drive on the same computer for nine years or so. Despite the hard drive being new, would the hardware of the computer be too out of date to accept an up to date replacement hard drive?
The hardware of the computer dictates what sort of internal drive you buy; earlier models used IDE interfaces, current models use SATA and these are not interchangable. However System Profiler will tell you what sort you have. It's still possible to buy compatible HDs for the early iMacs, c. 1998/99 so there's no reason to believe your model will suddenly become defunct.

Does file vault effect using a external hard drive as back up

does file vault effect using a external hard drive as back up

weird_glasses wrote:
... as you can guess Im still on L plates ...

What does a "full surface scan" of a hard drive?

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