I'm in shock, a little skeptical, but relieved!

[a-m-k]

I can't expand the final result to show the top of the results, but I doubt it's helpful. How can I fix the EFI system partition folder and the partition map? I actually ran this a couple of days ago, and assumed fixed it. I ran the app again and got the same thing.

I am sorry I keep asking you all wonderful people for help. I used to rely on my friends on my social apps, but people I am related to actually complain. (I'm just trying to get this taken care of as quickly as possible and it's not easy for me to go out on my own and get it taken care of. (Don't ask.))

 

[snaky69]

View attachment 660126
I can't expand the final result to show the top of the results, but I doubt it's helpful. How can I fix the EFI system partition folder and the partition map? I actually ran this a couple of days ago, and assumed fixed it. I ran the app again and got the same thing.

I am sorry I keep asking you all wonderful people for help. I used to rely on my friends on my social apps, but people I am related to actually complain. (I'm just trying to get this taken care of as quickly as possible and it's not easy for me to go out on my own and get it taken care of. (Don't ask.))

Like you've been told by many people (and multiple times by me): your hard drive is about to croak.

You need to backup everything you've got, and you need to do it now before you lose any data. Then you need to swap in a new hard drive. It's a $100 fix, maybe a bit more if you chose to go with a SSD(which I would if I were you, the computer would be so much faster).

If you know how to operate a screwdriver, you have all the technical skill needed. It'd take me less than 10 minutes all told to swap it, then it's just reinstalling OS X and migrating your data to the new one.

 

[a-m-k]

I am probably going to get my HDD switched to an SSD hopefully during the big day after Thanksgiving shopping morning. (I'm hoping to get a great deal!) It's long been established since the one cable wasn't the problem, it is narrowed down to the HDD. My question... Any suggestions on brand and size? I'm doing this by myself to get a starting point in what to look for?

I am assuming that it holds up to 498.88 GB when it works correctly. However, it reads I still have 396.24 GB available. I just can't read the bar graph. It still says "calculating...".

Thank you.

 

[a-m-k]

One thing I never mentioned. Lately, as in the past few months, every time I open Safari. I get this weird "tweet". For lack of better words, it's like a electronical bird chirp. Will that be fixed when I replace my HDD with the SSD. (I'm taking your advice everybody.

 

[snaky69]

One thing I never mentioned. Lately, as in the past few months, every time I open Safari. I get this weird "tweet". For lack of better words, it's like a electronical bird chirp. Will that be fixed when I replace my HDD with the SSD. (I'm taking your advice everybody.

Very likely, SSDs are silent.

 

[a-m-k]

Very likely, SSDs are silent.

Thank you, I'm not sure if it is related to my faulty HDD but since it's not loading information about what is taking up its space. I am more than certain that things will be far better when I get it replaced.
[doublepost=1478627574][/doublepost]I think I might have figured out why I get that weird chirp. When I open an app on my dock when Safari is already open... does it happen for you or is it just me since my HDD is already non-working. (I'm surprised that I can still use my MBP since my HDD is pretty much gone.)

BTW, I was looking into options for my new SSD after finding the specifications of the size my particular MBP's HDD, how large can I go in terms of MBs or GBs? Was what was listed or shown on the about this mac just what the size of the HDD was in my MBP now? I feel odd asking, but I have never replaced a HDD before.

 

[snaky69]

Thank you, I'm not sure if it is related to my faulty HDD but since it's not loading information about what is taking up its space. I am more than certain that things will be far better when I get it replaced.
[doublepost=1478627574][/doublepost]I think I might have figured out why I get that weird chirp. When I open an app on my dock when Safari is already open... does it happen for you or is it just me since my HDD is already non-working. (I'm surprised that I can still use my MBP since my HDD is pretty much gone.)

BTW, I was looking into options for my new SSD after finding the specifications of the size my particular MBP's HDD, how large can I go in terms of MBs or GBs? Was what was listed or shown on the about this mac just what the size of the HDD was in my MBP now? I feel odd asking, but I have never replaced a HDD before.

Hard drives have a reading head that moves across the platters, that chirping noise you get is the sound it makes when it moves. This tends to get louder when a hard drive's about to crap out.

You need a SATA II or III SSD, 2.5" in size, no taller than 12.5mm. You can go as big as you like regarding GB.

Basically anything in this search will work:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...001183 50001455 600038463 600038510 600038519

Fit whatever fits your needs and budget from there. You don't have to buy from newegg but they tend to have good pricing on components. Once you've narrowed down your choices you can always shop elsewhere for that model.

 

[a-m-k]

Hard drives have a reading head that moves across the platters, that chirping noise you get is the sound it makes when it moves. This tends to get louder when a hard drive's about to crap out.

You need a SATA II or III SSD, 2.5" in size, no taller than 12.5mm. You can go as big as you like regarding GB.

Basically anything in this search will work:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100011693 50001077 50001157 50001183 50001455 600038463 600038510 600038519

Fit whatever fits your needs and budget from there. You don't have to buy from newegg but they tend to have good pricing on components. Once you've narrowed down your choices you can always shop elsewhere for that model.

Thank you, snakey. I'm going to look at them in the next few days online choose the one I want and hope I can last until the day after Thanksgiving. (Who knows maybe one I like will be on sale somewhere.

 

[a-m-k]

Are there any opinions on brands? I kind of like a PNY HDD. I'm keeping my eye on this one and I hope I can last until the post-Thanksgiving sales.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchp...izerange_facet=Storage Capacity~300GB - 499GB

 

[treekram]

The most popular SSD's are those from Samsung, but they're pricey. And for what you do, probably not worth the premium although the Evo's have a 5-year warranty. I'd stay away from the Evo 750's (850's are the model to get).

I don't keep up with what the makers like PNY, Kingston, Mushkin, etc. have to offer. More information is available online about the SSD's from Crucial/Micron, Samsung, OCZ/Toshiba, SanDisk, Intel, all of whom manufacture the SSD memory chips themselves , except for Intel who uses chips from other manufacturers in their cheaper drives). The Crucial MX300 series is relatively new and was a sorely-needed upgrade from the MX/BX-200 lines (BX-200 is pretty bad performance wise, MX-200 price-wise can't compete with the Samsung Evo's in price/performance). Right now on Amazon, a MX-300 SSD is $123 and the "500GB" drive is actually listed at 525 GB, not 480 GB common for the lower-price SSD's of that size. Performance-wise, it's pretty good and comes with a 3-year warranty. I think that would be a better alternative for $3 more than the PNY CS1100, although I'm not familiar with the drive.

In doing a quick look at Amazon, I'm not seeing any great deals on older SSD's that might be good for you - however, you really need to do your homework because there are certain discontinued SSD's that are OK, others should be avoided. The preview of the Best Buy Black Friday sale didn't have SSD's unless I was looking in the wrong place.

 

[a-m-k]

Can anyone here help me read an app. I have the DriveDx app. I thought it would produce easy to understand language what the problem is. I am hoping that I can get someone to look at it and on Friday I can go out and get the new part whatever is needed.

Thank you.

 

[treekram]

The consensus of people who have read your post is that you have don't have a healthy drive. We base this on our intuition and experience in these matters. A mechanical hard drive may have flaky performance one day, good diagnostics the next day and fail shortly thereafter. So I don't that it's worth your time worrying about what the DriveDx says. A "new part" as you mentioned has to be a total whole new drive - you probably know that - nobody sells HDD parts. If you're replacing the drive, no additional parts other than the SSD or HDD are needed (even if you need the cable, it's unlikely you'll find them in standard retail shops anyway).

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't see SSD's (or internal HDD's for that matter) in the BestBuy Black Friday ads. Maybe if you have a Fry's (big electronics retailer mainly in California and Texas) nearby, they may have Black Friday deals (but their short preview doesn't show any either). My opinion would be that unless you know a retailer has a Black Friday deal which is substantially less than a mail-order price, I wouldn't waste my time looking in retail stores for a SSD or internal HDD on Black Friday.

If BestBuy is where you like to shop either in-store or online, right now the 500GB-class less-expensive drives they offer aren't as good as the alternative I offered earlier - the Crucial MX300 525GB. The performance is quite a bit better than the SanDisk SSD Plus or the Kingston that BestBuy has - I can't find much information at all about the PNY CS1100 in your link. All of these are pretty close in price. And as I mentioned earlier, the MX300 has 525GB vs. 480GB for the others. You'd have to get the MX300 from someplace like Amazon or directly from Crucial. An alternative might be the OCZ Trion 150, but like the Crucial, those are more likely to be found mail-order vs. in-store.

Last year I as I recall the best prices on Amazon on an external HDD and SSD's that I bought were during the holiday season - but the Black Friday prices weren't cheaper than these general holiday prices. The SSD's I bought were Samsung 850 Evo's, which have the margin available for a price drop - I don't know that you'll see something similar for less-expensive drives. I think the price difference was maybe $15-$20 vs. the post-Holiday price so we're not talking about a substantial price difference. That was my experience - YMMV.

If you opt for an HDD, there's 3 remaining HDD companies - Seagate, WD and Toshiba, with Seagate and WD dominating (brands such as Samsung HDD's, Hitach HDD's are owned by Seagate and WD). Some people favor one company or another but for 500GB and 1TB drives, I don't think there's much difference. You'll pay more for 7200rpm vs. 5400rpm. Discontinued drives will be a few dollars less (on Amazon, current drives are sold by Amazon or they will say a model has been replaced by a newer model - those with cheaper prices of models not sold by Amazon likely are discontinued models or perhaps pulled from overstocked inventories from computer sellers).

 

[a-m-k]

treekram,
I will be doing something. I actually know what I want to do. However, I have to accommodate to others schedules to help me out. As of right now, a bracket is not the problem. (I had that replaced a while back since it was a problem for many MBPs and the technician on the phone through a screen share thought it was the problem. )

Since I cannot get a reading from my HDD, I think it's a little strange I can still get my MBP to run and at a speed that isn't snail slow.

When I showed the results of the DriveDx, I wasn't anticipating a sermon from you. I'm just getting as much information from you all that I can arm myself with to take with me when I drop my MBP off at the Apple Store if I have to again. So, if you can't be of any help please don't berate me. I am doing this on my own for the time being.

I've done a ton of research in the past few months, eliminating every single possible scenario. Every thing from fans going bad (for a heat problem when this all started, it was so hot) to just getting too old. This current MBP is almost 4 years old and this is the only issue that I have had. Yes, it's gone on for a while. I know that.

Being almost four years old, I am surprised that I haven't had any issues bigger than this. I wish I could have just taken off when I lost power in the beginning. That's personal. I have always taken excellent care of my electronics, I don't think that my MBP (while in the laptop bag) sliding to the floor for some reason has anything to do with its internal problems. That would be ridiculous to even think that.

So the wait to get it fixed one way or another continues....

 

[treekram]

I did not mean to berate you. If it came across that way, I apologize. However, people who have spent enough time diagnosing computer issues, either professionally or for personal use, have come across hard drive issues similar to yours and in most cases have come to realize that the most optimal solution (time and aggravation-wise) is to just replace the drive rather than investing more time and effort with the old drive. That's the message I think most of us are trying to convey.

I don't see the results from the DriveDx software (was it in an earlier post?). So don't take any lack of help on that as being a criticism of your efforts.

As I recall (correct me if I'm wrong), this computer isn't under warranty, is it? If it is, then being informed about various diagnostic programs say may help when conversing with a technician. If it is not under warranty, then really the cheapest and easiest thing to do (diagnostics will usually cost money) is to just tell the service shop to replace the drive.

I have the same model of MBP you have (although it was manufactured late last year). The main problem areas for the this MBP is the SuperDrive (DVD), normal wear of the HDD (which makes sense in your case) and the HDD cable. Otherwise, these are well-built laptops and other than these components, the computer should have a life span of years to come. Over-heating can be as much of a software issue as it is a hardware issue but the only way to know for sure is to be able to monitor it when it happens. If overheating happened at one time but is no longer happening, it's not likely to be a fan problem. I think the best advice is to replace the HDD and see if you still have problems after the replacement.

 

[a-m-k]

I did not mean to berate you. If it came across that way, I apologize. However, people who have spent enough time diagnosing computer issues, either professionally or for personal use, have come across hard drive issues similar to yours and in most cases have come to realize that the most optimal solution (time and aggravation-wise) is to just replace the drive rather than investing more time and effort with the old drive. That's the message I think most of us are trying to convey.

I don't see the results from the DriveDx software (was it in an earlier post?). So don't take any lack of help on that as being a criticism of your efforts.

As I recall (correct me if I'm wrong), this computer isn't under warranty, is it? If it is, then being informed about various diagnostic programs say may help when conversing with a technician. If it is not under warranty, then really the cheapest and easiest thing to do (diagnostics will usually cost money) is to just tell the service shop to replace the drive.

I have the same model of MBP you have (although it was manufactured late last year). The main problem areas for the this MBP is the SuperDrive (DVD), normal wear of the HDD (which makes sense in your case) and the HDD cable. Otherwise, these are well-built laptops and other than these components, the computer should have a life span of years to come. Over-heating can be as much of a software issue as it is a hardware issue but the only way to know for sure is to be able to monitor it when it happens. If overheating happened at one time but is no longer happening, it's not likely to be a fan problem. I think the best advice is to replace the HDD and see if you still have problems after the replacement.

Hello, Teekram!
First off, I want to thank you for your apology. I appreciate it. My reply to you seemed very rude, too.

As for getting a part or parts, I am forced to wait until this weekend at least. Since it's Thanksgiving, there might be a sale on the part I need. (If I get help from some one at home, it would be an easy trip.) I will also have someone who knows a thing or two more about my MBP's internal components and it's a possibility that they'll suggest getting an SSD.

I went to the Apple store on October 11th and had a bracket replaced. (I'm going on memory here.) I wasn't sure why since my HDD isn't reading as it should. I believe if I run Disk Utility, I can get a reading so I have something to go on when either show the person I plan on showing before I take it back in and hope to get an SSD.

Since I didn't think about asking last time since I assumed the problem would be fixed, when I get the new SSD installed can I ask for the technician to show me that it's installed?

Would you want me to provide screenshots of the app where I think I get a reading and a screenshot of the app where there's not a reading?

 

[treekram]

We would need more information on the bracket that got replaced. If you have a part number or description, that would help. Also, if your MBP is under warranty or not, if you got charged or not if it wasn't under warranty. Apple will sometimes replace parts on out-of-warranty computers - if there was some defect that they feel was their problem (or a government body felt it was Apple's problem).

You can post screenshots of both cases and see if anybody has any helpful input to offer.

For me at least, venturing out shopping on Black Friday weekend is to be avoided. As I mentioned earlier, I don't think there are deals exclusively available at the brick and mortar store for computer components like internal hard drives or internal SSD's. At someplace like BestBuy, they haven't listed any Black Friday specials on internal HDD's or SSD's and worse, they don't have much of a selection available in-store anyway. For example, of the three 480GB SSD's priced around $120, one is not offered in-store, and the second (the PNY you have a link for) doesn't seem to be widely available (I tried a Silicon Valley zip code and it said it wasn't available within 250 miles of the zip code).

 

[a-m-k]

I am guessing it's called a mounting bracket because I googled the phrase 'bracket involved with an HDD in a MacBook'.
I won't be able to provide screenshots right now.

When I can, I will post any updates of what is done one way or another.