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How to fix corrupted drive

K

Krayzkat

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 22, 2011
754
1,353
My mid 2010 iMac is getting sluggish so i'm thinking about reformating harddrive and installing a fresh OS.

My questions are:

1/ Will this fix my corrupted drive disk utility told me i had?
2/ If i copy all my music/pictures/other files etc saved on my hard drive to an external drive first, will it be a case of just copy them back across once the hard drive has been reformatted and fresh OS is on?
3/ Also, will i have to install OS from the original disk i got with the iMac (version 10.6.4) and then upgrade to the latest version afterwards? Or, is there a way to install over the internet to the latest OS?


ps. the reason i need to do all this is because i'm getting 'basketballs' overtime i type anything, watching programmes on iTunes is terrible, taking ages to boot up etc. This has only been like this in last week or so


Thanks in advance
 
Krayzkat said:
My mid 2010 iMac is getting sluggish so i'm thinking about reformating harddrive and installing a fresh OS.

My questions are:

1/ Will this fix my corrupted drive disk utility told me i had?
2/ If i copy all my music/pictures/other files etc saved on my hard drive to an external drive first, will it be a case of just copy them back across once the hard drive has been reformatted and fresh OS is on?
3/ Also, will i have to install OS from the original disk i got with the iMac (version 10.6.4) and then upgrade to the latest version afterwards? Or, is there a way to install over the internet to the latest OS?


ps. the reason i need to do all this is because i'm getting 'basketballs' overtime i type anything, watching programmes on iTunes is terrible, taking ages to boot up etc. This has only been like this in last week or so


Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
1 - If your disk directory is corrupted, it may be fixable with Disk Warrior. DW is a more capable repair utility than Disk Utility. On the other hand, you might want to check if your drive itself is failing. In Disk Utility, select your disk in the left hand column (the device, not the volume) and look at the info below the right hand pane. There should be an item called "S.M.A.R.T status", what does it say? If it does't say "verified", your disk is failing. You will want to back up everything ASAP and think about how you will replace it.
2 - More or less, yes.
3 - Depends on your OS, which do you have? I believe Lion and up use internet install/recovery, so if you are running that, your drive will have a special partition that contains the boot image, so no disc required. Press Option when betting to see the boot picker. However, if your drive is failing and you replace it, you will need installation media in order to get the OS installed. I recommend using a USB key. Check out DiskMakerX, it makes it easy to create at bootable USB.
 
barbu said:
1 - If your disk directory is corrupted, it may be fixable with Disk Warrior. DW is a more capable repair utility than Disk Utility. On the other hand, you might want to check if your drive itself is failing. In Disk Utility, select your disk in the left hand column (the device, not the volume) and look at the info below the right hand pane. There should be an item called "S.M.A.R.T status", what does it say? If it does't say "verified", your disk is failing. You will want to back up everything ASAP and think about how you will replace it.
2 - More or less, yes.
3 - Depends on your OS, which do you have? I believe Lion and up use internet install/recovery, so if you are running that, your drive will have a special partition that contains the boot image, so no disc required. Press Option when betting to see the boot picker. However, if your drive is failing and you replace it, you will need installation media in order to get the OS installed. I recommend using a USB key. Check out DiskMakerX, it makes it easy to create at bootable USB.
Click to expand...
Got Yosemite 10.10.4 atm

Probably a stupid question, but if i bought a 500Gb external drive and copied everything on computer over to it, then reformatted hard drive and used USB stick with latest Yosemite installer on it, then copied everything back from external drive to iMac hard drive, would that just copy any corrupted file back over, i.e. be a pointless task?
 
Krayzkat said:
Got Yosemite 10.10.4 atm

Probably a stupid question, but if i bought a 500Gb external drive and copied everything on computer over to it, then reformatted hard drive and used USB stick with latest Yosemite installer on it, then copied everything back from external drive to iMac hard drive, would that just copy any corrupted file back over, i.e. be a pointless task?
Click to expand...

There are no stupid questions.
The first thing you want is to identify if your disk is physically failing. If it is, you have a slightly bigger job since you will need to replace that (the bright side is that you could upgrade to SSD).
If the disk is healthy, it may just be that the disk directory is damaged. In that case, copying off your files (most likely, just stuff in your Home folder, no need to copy system files) and copying back to the new OS may solve the issue - but it's hard to say based on the info so far.
I really suspect that your drive is dying, though, and if so, you need to back up your files immediately. What does the SMART status say?
 
I already gave the link from Apple explaining Time Machine backups....
 
barbu said:
There are no stupid questions.
The first thing you want is to identify if your disk is physically failing. If it is, you have a slightly bigger job since you will need to replace that (the bright side is that you could upgrade to SSD).
If the disk is healthy, it may just be that the disk directory is damaged. In that case, copying off your files (most likely, just stuff in your Home folder, no need to copy system files) and copying back to the new OS may solve the issue - but it's hard to say based on the info so far.
I really suspect that your drive is dying, though, and if so, you need to back up your files immediately. What does the SMART status say?
Click to expand...
Hi

The SMART status said verified,so does that mean the disk is physically ok?

I have ordered a 2Tb external drive from Amazon, so will switch Time Machine on when that arrives and this will copy all my data i believe. After that has done, i will set about replacing the OS.

It'll take a few days for Amazon to deliver and the first Time Machine back up to complete. I will post again on here after that if i need more help.

Thanks
 
Krayzkat said:
Hi

The SMART status said verified,so does that mean the disk is physically ok?

I have ordered a 2Tb external drive from Amazon, so will switch Time Machine on when that arrives and this will copy all my data i believe. After that has done, i will set about replacing the OS.

It'll take a few days for Amazon to deliver and the first Time Machine back up to complete. I will post again on here after that if i need more help.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Yes, Verified is a good message. Good luck!
 
Krayzkat said:
Hi

The SMART status said verified,so does that mean the disk is physically ok?
Click to expand...

Sounds good. Maybe all you need to do is repair the disk with Disk Utility.
I have ordered a 2Tb external drive from Amazon, so will switch Time Machine on when that arrives and this will copy all my data i believe. After that has done, i will set about replacing the OS.
Click to expand...

I would download Yosemite from the Mac App Store and make the USB thumb drive per the link I gave above, then boot the thumb drive and run disk utility from there, and repair your main hard drive BEFORE doing the time machine backup.
 
OP:

If I was in your position, I would do this:

1. Download CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Then use either one to create a bootable cloned backup of your internal drive onto an EXTERNAL drive.

2. Boot from the cloned backup drive.

3. Re-initialize the internal drive.

4. Now install a fresh copy of the OS of your choice onto the internal drive.
Note: be aware that if you install Yosemite onto a 2010 vintage iMac, you may be slightly disappointed in the performance of the new OS, because Apple's more recent OS's seem to produce "greater demands upon the hardware" and older hardware may have trouble keeping up. YMMV.

5. At the end of the installation process, the setup assistant will ask if you'd like to transfer accounts, apps and data from another drive. At this point, you can select your external backup drive, and setup assistant will "migrate" the applicable stuff over.

6. When all this is done, you should have a fresh OS and your old accounts, apps and data ready to go.

7. You will still need to update the OS via Software Update.
 
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Reactions: sartrekid, FreemanW and barbu
Fishrrman said:
OP:

If I was in your position, I would do this:

1. Download CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Then use either one to create a bootable cloned backup of your internal drive onto an EXTERNAL drive.

2. Boot from the cloned backup drive.

3. Re-initialize the internal drive.

4. Now install a fresh copy of the OS of your choice onto the internal drive.
Note: be aware that if you install Yosemite onto a 2010 vintage iMac, you may be slightly disappointed in the performance of the new OS, because Apple's more recent OS's seem to produce "greater demands upon the hardware" and older hardware may have trouble keeping up. YMMV.

5. At the end of the installation process, the setup assistant will ask if you'd like to transfer accounts, apps and data from another drive. At this point, you can select your external backup drive, and setup assistant will "migrate" the applicable stuff over.

6. When all this is done, you should have a fresh OS and your old accounts, apps and data ready to go.

7. You will still need to update the OS via Software Update.
Click to expand...
+ + + THIS. One thousand times this.

I am new to OS X with my late 2012 iMac. I utilize CCC with two WD MyBook USB 3.0 drives. I've executed fresh installs with Mavericks and Yosemite, and will do the same with El Capitan. I will also use the method when I take this in for the 3TB Fusion drive hdd replacement.

There is simply no comparing the nuke and pave routine here with a Microsoft cluster.

With these steps, I am literally back to using my computer, all applications installed, activated, all software up-to-date, and GeekTool configured, all data moved back over and tucked in, in several (six?) hours . . . . . . not several days as is the case with Windows.
 
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