Is hard drive failing - should I erase and reinstall?

[thetravelbug]

I have had my MAC for around a year and half. It is a Macbook Pro with OS V 10.6.

A few days ago it started taking ages to start - a grey progress bar comes up and takes maybe 5 to 10 minutes to start. Then it would be fine. I cleared out the hard-drive, freed up some space and still no better.

I tried MacKeeper as said there was loads of critical errors etc. Shortly after running that I could no longer open word documents and excel files etc with office for mac. Something to do with not right edition. Now just get that encountered error and will send report.

I have tried disk repair from the install disk and says cannot repair. Volume thing fine but next bit it tries and then stops repair and says it cannot do it, I should reinstall.

I have most important stuff backed up - did an email back up a couple of days ago and documents etc.

I am currently running a virus scan but wondering whether I should erase and reinstall everything or if it is more serious.

 

[Hellhammer]

Have you run Disk Utility from the install disc? You can't repair your boot drive if you're running an OS from it. Could be that the HD is taking its last breaths though. Try Disk Utility and a reinstall of OS X.

 

[thetravelbug]

yes ran from install disk.
Will try reinstalling OS X tomorrow.
Need to make a note of a few things first! Hope it lasts till tomorrow!

 

[-aggie-]

yes ran from install disk.
Will try reinstalling OS X tomorrow.
Need to make a note of a few things first! Hope it lasts till tomorrow!

Your problem is that you used MacKeeper. I looked at that awhile ago, and it offers nothing that you can't get from more popular programs, and it looked fairly dangerous if you just let it do it's thing without unchecking certain things. Who knows what it deleted.

You're going to need to reinstall OSX from the install disk, like he posted above.

Use programs like Onyx from now on.

 

[thetravelbug]

This problem was occurring before I used MacKeeper. I tried Onxy as well before that and no difference. Although Mackeeper might be why office now does not work. Will see if they honour their refund offer I guess! Will reinstall tomorrow and hope for best.

Any tips as to erasing everything and re-installing?

 

[-aggie-]

This problem was occurring before I used MacKeeper. I tried Onxy as well before that and no difference. Although Mackeeper might be why office now does not work. Will see if they honour their refund offer I guess! Will reinstall tomorrow and hope for best.

Any tips as to erasing everything and re-installing?

No, I mean the problems you are having now are due to MacKeeper.

 

[patrick0brien]

It isn't necessarily an HD failure. If it were I'd expect your S.M.A.R.T. to be screaming at you.

It sounds more like a volume directory issue, which is one possible side-effect of using MacKeeper from what I understand.

Regardless, I recommend you invest in TechTool Pro from Micromat. It'll be cheaper that a new HD or a tech (because that's what he'd use)

TechTool is so indispensable for me and my machines, it has it's very own portable HD for booting (and is necessary if you have headless systems like mine)