mac pro HD dying?

[turtlebud]

I have a Mac Pro that occasionally will not boot - it basically stays grey screen instead of the apple popping up. If I shut down and start up again, it picks up just fine however. This maybe happens every 2 weeks or so. I've run disk utility to repair permissions and also from the snow leopard boot disk to fix any problems it finds already, but it's still displaying the behavior periodically.

Is this a sign that my boot drive is starting to die? The Mac Pro is about 1.5 years old, but he HDD was pulled from my previous Powermac - so it's probably 4.5 years old.

Thanks!

[iBookG4user]

I'd make sure to have a backup of all the data on the hard drive. But if the hard drive were starting to go you'd get a folder icon with a question mark flashing on the grey screen.

[DoFoT9]

hey man, yeh it most certainly does sound like a HDD issue. PLEASE backup asap!

clone the drive or something - much easier :)

[turtlebud]

thanks for the advice. i have the boot drive being backed up via time machine, but have been considering getting another external HDD to keep a weekly cloned copy just in case. can I back up from time machine with a fresh install of OS X?

[strausd]

thanks for the advice. i have the boot drive being backed up via time machine, but have been considering getting another external HDD to keep a weekly cloned copy just in case. can I back up from time machine with a fresh install of OS X?

Yup! All you gotta do is click restore from time machine backup

[OZMP]

Check SMART status in disk utility, it will not always tell of a failing drive, it only covers some aspects.
Never clone a failing drive.
Please buy a new drive, a 1TB drive is what, 80-100$? Seagate/Samsung are prefered. Seen to many WD failures.
Do fresh install then migrate using migration assistant.

[DoFoT9]

Check SMART status in disk utility, it will not always tell of a failing drive, it only covers some aspects.
Never clone a failing drive.
Please buy a new drive, a 1TB drive is what, 80-100$? Seagate/Samsung are prefered. Seen to many WD failures.
Do fresh install then migrate using migration assistant.
really? seagate? i am not keen on them of late :(

[AppleNewton]

You should be able to back up with the new install of OSX.
Or you can simply Restore from Time Machine back up.


have you tried selecting X at start up to make sure it boots directly into your drive?
while it may be a drive issue, just making sure its not trying to boot into something else.