hard drive frustration

[carrieann]

I installed a Scorpio Blue 750GB 5400rpm drive in my MBP when I bought it, and it was running fine for about 18 months. Then it started hanging left and right, and using SMART Utility, I found there were bad sectors. So since it was still under warranty, I sent it back to Western Digital, and got my replacement last weekend.

This week, I'm still getting hanging, and so I ran SMART Utility again, and now there are 63 bad sectors, and it still says my hard drive is failing (with the NEW drive). I installed "Smart Reporter" and it keeps popping up with I/O errors.

So, is it possible I'm doing something wrong with installing my hard drives, or has Western Digital been known to send bad drives? I came across the hdapm tool and installed it last weekend, as I think that was the reason for early burnout with the first drive. Just bad luck?

 

[maflynn]

Do you move the laptop around while its running? That could be a source of damage

 

[carrieann]

No, it sits on my desk plugged in about 95% of the time. When I cloned and installed the new drive, my laptop stayed on my desk (no movement) and has stayed in the same spot all week.

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Also, could this be a sign the motherboard is dying, and if so, are there any diagnostic tools to detect that?

 

[carrieann]

One more thought... I have been reading about bad hard drive cables in the 2009 MBP's... would it be worth putting the hard drive in an enclosure, and booting from there, to rule out the cable (or is there a better test to make sure it's not just a bad sata cable)? Can Apple Service Centers run better tests to tell me for sure what the problem is (hard drive, logic board, or cable, etc)?

 

[tamvly]

Well, I/O errors are different from bad sectors. I/O errors are more likely induced by a bad cable. The drive marks bad sectors because, well, they're bad.

If you have a spare enclosure you might try moving the HD to it to see if there is a difference, but I suspect another bad drive. Seems like a replacement makes sense.

 

[carrieann]

Is there any other good diagnostic tools that would tell me my drive is bad (other than SMART utility)? I just want to make sure it's the problem before I go through this again

I also ran the "verify disk" in Disk Utility, and it says the drive is fine...

 

[Naimfan]

Might be time to consider something other than a WD . . .

 

[carrieann]

Since my Western Digital is under warranty, I'm hard pressed to NOT waste another $150-$200 dollars on a new drive, and just spend <$10 getting this one replaced So next drive, when this one is out of warranty, maybe, but for now, it's either replacement WD or more troubleshooting to diagnose a bad logic board or sata cable

 

[Naimfan]

Since my Western Digital is under warranty, I'm hard pressed to NOT waste another $150-$200 dollars on a new drive, and just spend <$10 getting this one replaced So next drive, when this one is out of warranty, maybe, but for now, it's either replacement WD or more troubleshooting to diagnose a bad logic board or sata cable

True.

I'd suggest giving WD one more shot but insisting on a refund if the replacement doesn't work.

And it probably is the drive - as tamvly said, a bad cable will give you different errors - and the drive is what has bad sectors.