7200 RPM drive on a MBP?

[rickface]

Hi all,

I just bought a new 750GB, 7200RPM drive for my MBP (2.3 GHz Core 2 Duo / 8GB 1067 DDR3 RAM). The drive installed just fine, is recognized, and I was able to restore the disk via my time machine backups (which were taken from the standard 250GB 5400 RPM drive), but it is reaaally chugging.

It seems like there may be something wrong with the drive or some kind of compatibility issue as even the simplest of tasks (open a folder for instance) seems to be stalling out the computer and bringing up the rainbow wheel. The tasks eventually are completed, but something is definitely not right.

Does anyone have any ideas? Perhaps my MBP can't handle a 7200 RPM drive?

Any ideas on what this might be would be amazing!

Best,
Joel

 

[GGJstudios]

Does anyone have any ideas? Perhaps my MBP can't handle a 7200 RPM drive?

Of course it can handle a 7200 rpm drive. It's possible you have a faulty drive. It's also possible something else is causing your problems.

1. Launch Activity Monitor
2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
3. Click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
5. Take a screen shot of the whole Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
6. Post your screenshots.

 

[rickface]

Thanks a bunch for the reply.

Doesn't appear to be anything crazy going on in the processes at first glance :? Screenshots attached:

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks a bunch for the reply.

Doesn't appear to be anything crazy going on in the processes at first glance :? Screenshots attached:

Image
Image

No, there isn't anything running amok, but there are a few observations. You have flash installed on Safari.
For Flash-related issues:

• Find your Flash version and make sure it's the latest version available. Never install or update Flash from a pop-up on a website. Always go to Adobe's site to get Flash or updates.
• Install ClickToFlash (Safari), Flashblock (Firefox) or FlashBlock (Chrome) to control which Flash content plays on websites.
• Try using the YouTube HTML5 Video Player to watch YouTube videos, when available. (May impact fullscreen viewing. See link for details.) Some have reported better performance with HTML5, while some have reported worse. Try it and find out what works best for you.

Also I see you have MacKeeper installed. I highly recommend you uninstall it completely. You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.

Five Mac maintenance myths​

Also, if you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

[rickface]

Thanks again. Will definitely uninstall MacKeeper et al (I didnt even know I had installed them actually!).

In regards to the hard drive itself, sounds like it must just be a faulty drive. You think it is best just to wipe the drive and send it back for a replacement?

One thing I just noticed—the drive seems to respond/react fine to folder I have previously loaded. Almost seems like it is starting fresh, creating some kind of cache or something.

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks again. Will definitely uninstall MacKeeper et al (I didnt even know I had installed them actually!).

In regards to the hard drive itself, sounds like it must just be a faulty drive. You think it is best just to wipe the drive and send it back for a replacement?

One thing I just noticed—the drive seems to respond/react fine to folder I have previously loaded. Almost seems like it is starting fresh, creating some kind of cache or something.

Go through the suggestions in the last link I posted before you consider wiping the drive. As far as uninstalling MacKeeper, the most effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:

Best way to FULLY DELETE a program​