Hard Drive Failing on iMac?

[mike21]

Hey guys,

First post on the forum however i've been a browser for a while,

I have just put in a memory stick which has failed on me in to my USB slot (a Flash Voyager USB3), and i loaded up disk utility to wipe it clean however i seen the message as posted below :



I thought it may be the external hard drive i have just put in but i removed it and the error message persists.. Does this mean my hard drive is failing? I use my mac for music production and i have a lot of important things on it, not yet backed up (going to order a time capsule today)

I don't understand why it's called Samsung which seems to be failing, but it is 1TB in size so i am guessing that's the make of my hard drive?



But it raises another question as to why my Macintosh HD seems fine below it?

Does anybody know what could be up with it?

I'm not in a position to reboot my whole system and restart it again at the moment with files not yet backed up

Thanks!

 

[Bear]

Your hard drive is reporting hardware errors, do get it backed up as soon as you can and then get it replaced. If you look at the bottom of the first image, it shows "SMART Status: Failing".

There are no software errors on the Macintosh HD partition which is why it's still being reported as okay, but with the drive failing that will change.

And yes the drive was made by Samsung.

 

[mike21]

Thanks for the reply,

With the error message saying the disk is irreparable does this mean that once i have backed it up I will need to replace the hard drive completely? If i remember correctly does that stack up to around £600?

Thanks again

 

[Bear]

Thanks for the reply,

With the error message saying the disk is irreparable does this mean that once i have backed it up I will need to replace the hard drive completely? If i remember correctly does that stack up to around £600?

Thanks again

Yes, the drive will need to be replaced. I'm not sure what the price will be in the UK, but the US price is $265 as of last month.

How old is your system? Would it be covered by the Apple warranty or by the EU-wide consumer laws?

 

[flynz4]

Thanks for the reply,

With the error message saying the disk is irreparable does this mean that once i have backed it up I will need to replace the hard drive completely? If i remember correctly does that stack up to around £600?

Thanks again

Yes, you will need to replace the HDD. Hopefully you have already been backing it up continuously.

Personally... I would now back it up twice to two different destinations. Your NEVER want to have just one copy. If you have not been backing up... you better hope that it makes it through a full backup cycle before dying.

/Jim

 

[mike21]

Thanks for the replies

I purchased it from apple around 2 and a half years ago, so i doubt it will still be under warranty, i didn't take apple care out at the time

I'm unsure of how long the disk has been failing for as i haven't checked disk utility in a while,

I am currently backing all of my samples up on to a hard drive, they're the most important part of my computer, i only really use it for music production (logic pro) so re downloading my software plug ins won't take too long

I have just purchased a time capsule now (too late i know), hopefully my system will hold out until i can completely restore it

QUESTION:

You know the time capsule will back up my system, well what will happen with all my software plug ins, will they need re licensing when i back up on to my new hard drive, what i mean is, the serial numbers etc. usually get sent via email and some of them say 2 times maximum, which i've used for my imac and my laptop, so i'm unsure if i'll need to re purchase.

But does anybody know if time capsule saves that your plug ins and what not are licensed already and i won't need to go through the fiasco of trying to get hold of 50odd licenses again?

Thank you!

 

[rkaufmann87]

Thanks for the replies

I purchased it from apple around 2 and a half years ago, so i doubt it will still be under warranty, i didn't take apple care out at the time

I'm unsure of how long the disk has been failing for as i haven't checked disk utility in a while,

I am currently backing all of my samples up on to a hard drive, they're the most important part of my computer, i only really use it for music production (logic pro) so re downloading my software plug ins won't take too long

I have just purchased a time capsule now (too late i know), hopefully my system will hold out until i can completely restore it

QUESTION:

You know the time capsule will back up my system, well what will happen with all my software plug ins, will they need re licensing when i back up on to my new hard drive, what i mean is, the serial numbers etc. usually get sent via email and some of them say 2 times maximum, which i've used for my imac and my laptop, so i'm unsure if i'll need to re purchase.

But does anybody know if time capsule saves that your plug ins and what not are licensed already and i won't need to go through the fiasco of trying to get hold of 50odd licenses again?

Thank you!

Run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode 2-3 times back to back, if you get errors then you have confirmed a hardware issue. You will need to take it in for repair. Even if no errors appear that does not guarantee you DO NOT have hardware problems you still might.

 

[mike21]

OK Thank you

Is this a standard fault that could happen to anybody or have i done the damage myself by not being too cautious over my downloads over the past couple of years?

I would just like to know going forward whether to be more careful or not

Thanks again

 

[flynz4]

Run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode 2-3 times back to back, if you get errors then you have confirmed a hardware issue. You will need to take it in for repair. Even if no errors appear that does not guarantee you DO NOT have hardware problems you still might.

OK Thank you

Is this a standard fault that could happen to anybody or have i done the damage myself by not being too cautious over my downloads over the past couple of years?

I would just like to know going forward whether to be more careful or not

Thanks again

Recommendation:

Regarding the hardware tests... make sure that you have two backups of your machine before doing anything else. At this point, preserving your data must be your #1 priority.

/Jim

----------

QUESTION:

You know the time capsule will back up my system, well what will happen with all my software plug ins, will they need re licensing when i back up on to my new hard drive, what i mean is, the serial numbers etc. usually get sent via email and some of them say 2 times maximum, which i've used for my imac and my laptop, so i'm unsure if i'll need to re purchase.

But does anybody know if time capsule saves that your plug ins and what not are licensed already and i won't need to go through the fiasco of trying to get hold of 50odd licenses again?

Thank you!

The licensing is very vendor specific. If you "clone" your machine to an external HDD... and then clone it back to the new (or repaired) HDD... then I think most (or maybe all) of the licenses will all remain (but I am not positive).

If you restore from backup (ex: time machine/time capsule)... some of the application may need re-licensing. In some cases (ex: adobe's 2 machine license)... you can un-install/un-register an application prior to changing the HDD... and then re-install and re-license afterwards. Others do not allow that... and still others will just work without doing anything.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

/Jim

 

[mike21]

Thanks for the reply

I've ran the extended Hardware test,

my result came back as:

Alert! Apple hardware test has detected an error

4HDD/30/40000005:SATA(0,0)

Which after googling backs up what you said about the hard drive about to die

As i say i've already ordered a time capsule, so i'll use this for day to day use

But from what you're saying i get the impression that for ease of use i would be better buying a 750GB external hard drive (i've used about 550GB on my imac) and cloning my system using a programme. This would save me a lot of time with re licensing etc.

If i'm wrong on that it would be great if you could correct me but to the best of my knowledge that seems like the best route to take?

Thanks again!

Mike

 

[flynz4]

Thanks for the reply

I've ran the extended Hardware test,

my result came back as:

Alert! Apple hardware test has detected an error

4HDD/30/40000005:SATA(0,0)

Which after googling backs up what you said about the hard drive about to die

As i say i've already ordered a time capsule, so i'll use this for day to day use

But from what you're saying i get the impression that for ease of use i would be better buying a 750GB external hard drive (i've used about 550GB on my imac) and cloning my system using a programme. This would save me a lot of time with re licensing etc.

If i'm wrong on that it would be great if you could correct me but to the best of my knowledge that seems like the best route to take?

Thanks again!

Mike

Mike,

You need to get to your nearest store, get yourself a HDD... and get your data backed up. I personally would not touch the machine until I did that.

/Jim

 

[macthefork]

Cloning generally doesn't require you to add the license info, because it's already on the exact clone. I've restored to a new HDD many times, almost always without having to type in a license code for any, including some Adobe products.

Regarding your failing HDD. Even with a time capsule on order I would run, not walk to the nearest location where you can pick up a cheap USB external HDD and clone immediately before using the data on your existing drive much more. You can then use the Time Capsule for an additional backup when you receive it.

That drive is in the midst of failing, and may already have some data loss that isn't showing up on the volume check, which mostly checks the directory information, not every file.

Hold off on any more testing of that drive, as the testing itself can push the drive over the edge.

 

[Sun Baked]

Probably can try http://www.volitans-software.com/

To get an idea of what the specific problem is, bad sectors, temp, etc.

Still need to get the drive backed up and likely replaced.

At least you can still get at it, this machine i have got corrupted by bad sectors from a failing drive, and i had to research how to force Mac OS to rebuild the directory so i could salvage the data (worked) -- wouldn't boot but it loaded the drive, so i can save it.

Though I started with saving data first, before worrying about cloning a corrupted drive.

 

[mike21]

Thank you VERY much for the replies, everything is cleared up for me!

I've ordered a Hard Drive, it will be here either tomorrow or Tuesday, i won't use my system until then

I've also just downloaded CCC which offers a 30 day trial so i will use that to do my initial back up then i will purchase for future

I have one last question if you don't mind

Can the failing hard drive be anything to do with files i may have on my computer? I appreciate it is a hardware issue rather than software however i am just concerned there could be a file within the 550GB i've already used that could corrupt my new hard drive.. Does anybody know if this could be the case?

Thanks again

Mike

 

[flynz4]

Thank you VERY much for the replies, everything is cleared up for me!

I've ordered a Hard Drive, it will be here either tomorrow or Tuesday, i won't use my system until then

I've also just downloaded CCC which offers a 30 day trial so i will use that to do my initial back up then i will purchase for future

I have one last question if you don't mind

Can the failing hard drive be anything to do with files i may have on my computer? I appreciate it is a hardware issue rather than software however i am just concerned there could be a file within the 550GB i've already used that could corrupt my new hard drive.. Does anybody know if this could be the case?

Thanks again

Mike

It is unlikely. If you are concerned about having a virus... you may want to rebuild your new drive from scratch, and then selectively restore your data.

/Jim

 

[smithrh]

Hard drives are mechanical beasts and they fail, even if taken care of correctly and not used much.

I've seen drives fail after just a month of light use, and other drives take years of hard hard use before they started flaking out. Most drives give great service throughout their lifetime, but some just fail, through no fault of the user.

 

[Bear]

...
Can the failing hard drive be anything to do with files i may have on my computer? I appreciate it is a hardware issue rather than software however i am just concerned there could be a file within the 550GB i've already used that could corrupt my new hard drive.. Does anybody know if this could be the case?
...

What you show is purely a hardware issue. There is no way writing a file on the disk could be the cause of it.

Also, as a future note, once you know a drive is failing, I recommend you don't try and run diagnostics on it until after you know you have a good backup or 2.

 

[mike21]

Thanks again for your replies, cleared everything up for me!

Have a nice day, about to get this sorted now!

Mike