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Failing hard drive.. unfailed?

M

macbooked

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 19, 2009
7
0
the other week my mid 2009 2.66 mbp (refurbished) would boot up to a blue screen with a folder icon with a question mark on it.. I was getting a loud clicking noise coming from the front right side next to the track pad at a rate of maybe a click a second. I immediately suspected a failing hard drive, only to have the problem disappear the next day. after several trips to the mac store and numerous tests.. Nothing. Needless to say, i'm rather concerned about the reliability now. Anyone else encountered this problem?

Jesse
 
you should run seatools on it. Its a free disc program from seagate. You will have to boot your computer in windows though
 
well i was hoping to address the problem without installing another operating system.. Mac store ran some tests and then asked me to bring it back in so they could real time test it for a day. No results. Every once in a while the screen scrambles to grayscale in large pixels for a brief moment, but the display issue seems rather unrelated.

Jesse
 
Loud clicks with question mark folder are very bad signs. If I were you, I would definite put a new drive in and not risk losing my data. However, it it's under warranty and you want Apple to pay for the drive, then back up all your important files elsewhere (e.g., time machine). Your current HDD is likely to fail in the near future.
 
At least backup your data, so that in the event of the HDD failure you will not need to ask on how to recover lost data.


I had that experience too though, the one with the dying HDD, loud clicks, system hanging up and so on.
But then the HDD went back to normal and now the HDD only freaks out, when it is in use for several days.
As it is inside my old iBook I don't plan to replace it though.
 
Im almost always backed up, I just hate the feeling of a the upcoming fail. I kinda feel that since I even paid for the extended warranty, i don't deserve the feelings of unreliability.. I travel a whole lot do a fair bit of photography; I would hate to have a dead computer while on the road.
 
Definitely get a new drive....I recently had a problem with my MBP, and it turns out that Apple will ship you a replacement drive that you can install yourself if you'd rather do that than go to the store or send it in. The first AppleCare tech I spoke to didn't know that was possible, and I had to reach a supervisor who knew the policies better.

Of course you might prefer they replace it at a store or through a mail-in repair, but I find it more convenient to do at home. Also, you seemed to say the store wouldn't replace the drive. When I spoke to the Apple representative by phone, they took me at my word and were going to send me a drive based only on my description of the problem.
 
Good info. The store definitely acted like their hands were tied and there was nothing they could do since the problem was unrepeatable..

Thanks
Jesse
 
So there is this dorky iphone app that simulates hard drive failures called drive saver. Both Clicker Failure and Head Crash Failure produce clicking noises. In general, it definitely sounds like your drive is on its last leg.
 
macbooked said:
Im almost always backed up, I just hate the feeling of a the upcoming fail. I kinda feel that since I even paid for the extended warranty, i don't deserve the feelings of unreliability.. I travel a whole lot do a fair bit of photography; I would hate to have a dead computer while on the road.
Click to expand...
Have you looked at the S.M.A.R.T. status in System Profiler. Normally a good indicator.
 
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