Hard Drive Failure

[JHummer]

How do I know if my hard drive is failing? Recently my computer has been acting up and on a few occasions has shut itself off when I have had plenty of battery life. Any thoughts about this?

 

[Spadoinkles]

Is it making a clicking kinda sound?

Back in the day (number of years ago) before I valued backing up, same thing happened to me - by the time I rushed out to buy an external and came home, my mac had crashed, and refused to boot since.

If it's a physical drive (not an SSD) you'd be able to tell.

 

[JHummer]

It hasn't made a clicking noise yet, but like i said it does randomly shut off every once in a while.

 

[thundersteele]

what does the crash log say?

can you run a hardware self check? HD diagnosis?

Anyways, it's probably a good idea for you to back up regularly. Actually that is always a good idea

 

[Mersailios]

Which model of MacBook Pro do you have?

 

[JHummer]

I downloaded Drive Alert from the mac app store, and this is what it said.

Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/11/11 : 6:59:33 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/11/11 : 7:00:33 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/11/11 : 8:00:31 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/11/11 : 9:00:31 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/11/11 : 10:00:30 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/11/11 : 11:00:30 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/12/11 : 12:00:30 AM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/13/11 : 11:24:54 AM
could be failing as of: 11/13/11 : 7:08:30 PM
could be failing as of: 11/13/11 : 7:30:05 PM
could be failing as of: 11/13/11 : 7:45:02 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/13/11 : 7:52:00 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/13/11 : 8:51:59 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/13/11 : 9:51:59 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/13/11 : 10:51:58 PM
Macintosh HD Statue is verified as good as of: 11/13/11 : 11:51:58 PM
could be failing as of: 11/14/11 : 8:24:55 PM
could be failing as of: 11/14/11 : 9:24:55 PM
could be failing as of: 11/14/11 : 10:24:55 PM
could be failing as of: 11/14/11 : 11:24:54 PM


That is the complete log since I began tracking it the other day, after it started crashing on me. I have a unibody macbook pro from mid 2009.

 

[thundersteele]

Just buy a new hard drive. I don't know this app that well, but it seems to agree with your concern that the HD is failing.

 

[JHummer]

Just buy a new hard drive. I don't know this app that well, but it seems to agree with your concern that the HD is failing.

As of right now, I am still under the Apple Protection Plan, I am taking it in this weekend when I go home from college.

 

[thundersteele]

As of right now, I am still under the Apple Protection Plan, I am taking it in this weekend when I go home from college.

Ok, that makes sense.

 

[JHummer]

I took it in, got a new hard drive, and am good to go!

 

[Nice]

try making a s.m.a.r.t. test

 

[JHummer]

try making a s.m.a.r.t. test

How do you do that? What is it and what does it do?

 

[mgartner0622]

How do you do that? What is it and what does it do?

It's basically a simple test your Mac does automatically to see if your hard drive is failing. Go to "About This Mac" from the Apple Menu, click "More Info", then system report. Then, click "Serial ATA" it should give you information that looks like this:
Of course capacity and manufacturer will vary.

Hitachi HTS727575A9E362:

Capacity: 750.16 GB (750,156,374,016 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HTS727575A9E362
Revision: JF4AD0F0
Serial Number:
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 7200
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:

As you can see mine is smart verified.

Alternatively, you could open Disk Utility, select your disk, and then look at the bottom of the window:

 

[JHummer]

It's basically a simple test your Mac does automatically to see if your hard drive is failing. Go to "About This Mac" from the Apple Menu, click "More Info", then system report. Then, click "Serial ATA" it should give you information that looks like this:
Of course capacity and manufacturer will vary.

Hitachi HTS727575A9E362:

Capacity: 750.16 GB (750,156,374,016 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HTS727575A9E362
Revision: JF4AD0F0
Serial Number:
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 7200
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:

As you can see mine is smart verified.

Alternatively, you could open Disk Utility, select your disk, and then look at the bottom of the window:

thanks for the info i I will have to check it out