Error question

[magberg]

I recently took my iMac 7,1 took the Genius Bar (running the newest version of Mountain Lion) because it was freezing (not entirely--everything frozen except for mouse cursor), and I was occasionally getting a garbled screen, which seemed tied to the freezing. After their tests and diagnoses, they told me they found some errors on the hard drive. The hard drive has been replaced and is not that old, though, so I wanted to read several forums online to see if others have had similar problems before I replaced the HD. One person on this site who had similar issues said it turned out to be the HD after they ran a SMART Utility. So I downloaded a SMART Utility program to run the test, and it did say that my HD has errors.

My question is this: is there a way to figure out that the problem is the actual hardware (the HD), or that specific files are causing the errors/problems? Can files even cause these errors? If so, how do I find and isolate them? I'd hate for the issue to be files and not the HD, and replace the HD, put my files on the new HD, and then face the same problems because I just put problematic files on my new HD.

I'm not terribly tech-savvy. Please help!!

 

[dakwar]

At the end of the day, you are having problems because at least some of the files that your computer needs to operate correctly are corrupted. While such corruptions do arise spontaneously, they more often than not result from hardware problems in your RAM or your HD.

In your case, both the Apple Genius and your SMART Utility have done the necessary tests and determined that it is a hardware problem with your HD. This is a good enough reason to replace the HD. When you load Mountain Lion on your new HD you're better off installing MT from the Apple servers and then using Migration Assistant to transfer your personal stuff from your current environment to your new environment. This will prevent any corrupt system files from being placed on your new HD. Do make sure you make a Time Machine backup of your current environment before you replace the HD so that you have something to use for Migration Assistant. The problems you've described shouldn't be enough to prevent a Time Machine backup from being made.

 

[magberg]

Thanks, dakwar!

A couple of follow-up questions: what does MT stand for? Also, I have been backing up on Time Machine regularly, so am I technically set backup-wise to get a new HD, put Mountain Lion on the computer, and migrate all of my files from my older computer?

 

[dakwar]

My bad. "MT" should have "ML" - Mountain Lion. If you've got the Time Machine backup, and its up-to-date, yep you're set.

 

[magberg]

Thanks again. I really appreciate your help.