Hard disk damaged, or is it something else?

[LesPaulII]

I was using my five day old MacBook Pro until, out of nowhere, it started freezing and slowing down. Eventually, it froze completely to the point where I can barely use it for the next three minutes, so I had to force shut it down by long-pressing the power button. I turned it back on, only to find a progress bar below the spinning gear, but after they both disappear, the Mac shuts down. Two more attempts yielded exactly the same result as the first attempt.

I ended up having to erase the drive (since it was locked) and reinstall Mountain Lion from the recovery partition, until it told me (three hours later) that the hard disk was damaged and the only thing I can do was restart and try again. At the second attempt, I tried repairing the disk, only to find that it can't be repaired and that I had to erase it (again). I erased it and went for a second attempt at reinstalling OS X, with the same outcome as the first attempt. A third attempt, same thing.

The irony of the situation is that S.M.A.R.T. reports that the hard disk is verified, so I have my doubts that the hard disk itself is damaged. Any ideas as to what is causing this bizarre series of events?

 

[summerdream]

Did you upgrade hard drive or RAM yourself?

 

[T5BRICK]

If its only 5 days old, it should have warranty. Take it into an Apple store or AASP and have it fixed.

 

[blevins321]

If its only 5 days old, it should have warranty. Take it into an Apple store or AASP and have it fixed.

Yeah. Personally I'd have it replaced.

 

[LesPaulII]

Did you upgrade hard drive or RAM yourself?

Didn't. Barely messed with it. Never opened it up, dropped it or did any major damage to it.

If its only 5 days old, it should have warranty. Take it into an Apple store or AASP and have it fixed.

I should. I have a 3 year AppleCare plan, as I had a feeling that this is bound to happen. I know from experience from the last Apple product I got replaced. Already filed an appointment at the Genius Bar. Will post an update soon.

 

[Dark Void]

I would also take it in as it is unreasonable to have to replace the HDD yourself after only 5 days even if it is an easy task and that is in fact the problem.

That's assuming you have an expandable model of course. In any case though take it in.

 

[whoknows87]

Didn't. Barely messed with it. Never opened it up, dropped it or did any major damage to it.



I should. I have a 3 year AppleCare plan, as I had a feeling that this is bound to happen. I know from experience from the last Apple product I got replaced. Already filed an appointment at the Genius Bar. Will post an update soon.

could be HD failure or Bad Hard drive Cable, had a similar issue let us know what they say I'm curious

 

[Mal]

The irony of the situation is that S.M.A.R.T. reports that the hard disk is verified, so I have my doubts that the hard disk itself is damaged. Any ideas as to what is causing this bizarre series of events?

SMART is virtually meaningless in this situation. If the SMART system tells you the drive is failing, it's usually failing, but it only detects certain types of failures, so it saying it's verified is almost worthless overall. Your hard drive is almost certainly failing from what you describe, although a bad hard drive cable is also possible.

jW

 

[LesPaulII]

Back from Apple

I'm back from the Apple Store, and here's how it went:

I brought my Mac in and passed the complaint to the geniuses, who attempted to diagnose the problem but can't because my Mac wouldn't let them in. They said that it was a bus issue, and may be resolved by replacing either the hard drive or the cable. The problem is, however, that my Mac is an American model, and because I live in Canada, I went to a Canadian Apple Store to get it fixed, and due to the variances in model numbers, they didn't want to do a hardware repair due to high risks involved. As a result, guess what happened next?

I'll put it to you this way: I walked in with a slightly used American MacBook Pro, and I walked out with a shiny new Canadian MacBook Pro.

Good thing I got AppleCare.