2 Harddrives fried this year

[baxterpop]

Hello, I have been a mac user since 2001 and havent had any apple hardware problems until I bought my blk macbook Dec 2006. I have had two harddrives crash on me since I bought it which has been nerve wracking. (I had most of the stuff backed up but its still very frustrating)

My First harddrive went out and apple replaced it cause it was under warranty, second one wasnt so I replaced it myself with a little help from a tech savvy friend.

My Question is right before my harddrive fried last time it was making an irregular chirping sound and now my new one is doing it. My computer has been getting very hot lately and as a freelance designer I am very very frustrated with this computer cause I am always worried it is going to crash and get in the way of the work I need to get done for clients. Is the chirping and mechanical sound a warning sign my harddrive might go out again? any suggestions on what I should do?

Im very frustrated and just dont want to have to worry about my harddrive frying every time I am trying to finish a project.

thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[iBlue]

May just be rotten luck but maybe it's overworked (?) Are you getting a lot of page-outs? (check in activity monitor) If so, how much RAM do you have?

</just a thought>

 

[jrock2004]

the 2nd hard drive was it a used one? Also do you leave your computer on and walk around with it? Any sudden movements could cause a scratch on surface. I know laptop are pretty good not to but it is possible.

 

[baxterpop]

May just be rotten luck but maybe it's overworked (?) Are you getting a lot of page-outs? (check in activity monitor) If so, how much RAM do you have?

</just a thought>

not sure what a page out is, how do you check that? I have 3 GB of ram, and try not to walk around with the computer much but do sometimes if I am going from my bedroom to the living room, etc.

 

[baxterpop]

the 2nd hard drive was it a used one? Also do you leave your computer on and walk around with it? Any sudden movements could cause a scratch on surface. I know laptop are pretty good not to but it is possible.

The second one was one apple replaced so not sure if it was refurbished or not, the one I just put in was from best buy so I know it was brand new.

thanks for your advice guys.

 

[Consultant]

Chirping, clicking, and unusual mechanical sounds are a warning that the HD is failing.

I typically buy harddrives with 3 or 5 year warranty.

Let me guess, the one that is currently installed is a western digital (or another drive with only 1 year warranty) that you bought on sale?

 

[baxterpop]

Chirping, clicking, and unusual mechanical sounds are a warning that the HD is failing.

I typically buy harddrives with 3 or 5 year warranty.

Let me guess, the one that is currently installed is a western digital (or another drive with only 1 year warranty) that you bought on sale?

nope went with the Hitachi which has a 3 year warranty, I just dont want to go through the hassle of having to wait two weeks and not being able to use my computer again, probably should buy a back up machine.

Does anyone know if you have two macs can you have them sinc so they are always up to date with each other? Is there an easy way to do this?

 

[Fuzzbear]

nope went with the Hitachi which has a 3 year warranty, I just dont want to go through the hassle of having to wait two weeks and not being able to use my computer again, probably should buy a back up machine.

Does anyone know if you have two macs can you have them sinc so they are always up to date with each other? Is there an easy way to do this?

depends on what you want to sync, i think .mac can accomplish some syncing of basic things

 

[iBlue]

not sure what a page out is, how do you check that? I have 3 GB of ram, and try not to walk around with the computer much but do sometimes if I am going from my bedroom to the living room, etc.

spotlight "activity monitor", open and look at the 'system memory' tab. You will see a pie chart and a list of what you have available, etc. You'll see the page-outs in that. If you have a lot of them, you're writing to your hard drive and may need more RAM to take some of the work load off. 3GB is decent though so I am not sure if that's the real problem or not but it crossed my mind. (note: your page outs reset every time you reboot so I find it more accurate to look at that number after a few days of up time)

 

[sushi]

Does anyone know if you have two macs can you have them sinc so they are always up to date with each other? Is there an easy way to do this?

Another option to back up your laptop, is to purchase 2 external HDs with the same capacity as your internal. Or one external with twice the space so you can partition it into two partitions the same size as your external. The preferred solution is two external drives.

Alternating between the two external drives, or partitions as the case may be, using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper clone your internal HD to the external one. Then if your internal goes, you can boot from the external HD.

 

[RedTomato]

Do you pick it up straight away after closing?

Apple doesn't widely publicise it, but when you close it, it takes a few seconds to go to sleep fully, and you shouldn't pick it up until the light in front starts pulsing.

I'm guilty of the same sin myself when in a hurry but I try to wait a couple of seconds for the drive to spin down / park and the light to start pulsing (not just glowing fixedly).

 

[baxterpop]

Do you pick it up straight away after closing?

Apple doesn't widely publicise it, but when you close it, it takes a few seconds to go to sleep fully, and you shouldn't pick it up until the light in front starts pulsing.

I'm guilty of the same sin myself when in a hurry but I try to wait a couple of seconds for the drive to spin down / park and the light to start pulsing (not just glowing fixedly).

makes sense, ill have to be more careful.