my mac pro is one year old. It has 2 500gb barracuda hard disks, and one of them is starting to make these horrible clicking sounds, "tick" more likelly. So, is it going to fail soon? Is there any way i could prevent it? My mac is also much slower after this started... Sometimes right-clicking gives me a spinning circle and the disk starts clicking again for a while...
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Is my hard disk dying? :(
- Thread starter sOwL
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Yes
No.
It's the error correction in the hard-drive's firmware fighting with the problems it's seeing - and slowing down as it has to re-read and correct data.
This drive is toast, and is unfixable. Get a fresh drive and move your data off ASAP (500MB drives are really cheap now!).
I think Seagate only warranty OEM drives for a year.
You may be able to get a new drive, check with Apple. Probably best to securely-erase the drive first, 'cos you would have to give it up to get a new one.
Luckily 500MB drives are extremely cheap now.
Glad to hear that you have a back up.
I believe if you have Applecare and within the 3 year period, Apple will replace the hard drive.
If you don't have Applecare, and it is over 1 year, then you will need to use the manufacturer's warranty. I believe most are around 9 months to a year depending on the manufacturer so this probably won't help.
If you have a PC that you can use, there is always SpinRite. It's awesome. I used it to fixe some of my drives that are making the same sounds as yours. Of course SpinRite is about the same cost as a new 500GB HD. So it might be better to just get a new HD.
Spinrite is very cool - and able to fix up a failing disk so that you can get the data off. I don't understand why anyone would trust a fixed disk and keep using it though... with the price of drives these days it's just not worth it.
It also can recover files on a corrupted HD that is working fine.
Case in point, I had a Mac formated HD that was completely messed up. I could not even mount it. I tried all the Mac HD utility software that I had to no avail. I could not even recover the majority of the files. Tried the PC side. Same result. Used SpinRite. Took about 3 days. At the end was a perfect HD. All files/folders restored. Awesome.
Good point.
These days I use SpinRite to condition my HDs. Seems to make them last a long time.
But if I have a HD that is giving me problems, more than likely I will just get a new one these days, with few exceptions.
ok thank you all for your replies. I replaced both my hds with a new 1tb western digital model (which is so silent that its like i dont have an hd inside ). I will give the working 500gb hd to my sister and i'll test Spinrite with the other one. If it works, i might just put it in a case and use it as an external, but never put sensitive data in it. Just for transfering files, so if it fails, it fails. Again thnx a lot, im superdupering my external to my new drive at the moment
). I will give the working 500gb hd to my sister and i'll test Spinrite with the other one. If it works, i might just put it in a case and use it as an external, but never put sensitive data in it. Just for transfering files, so if it fails, it fails. Again thnx a lot, im superdupering my external to my new drive at the moment Glad to hear that you have a solution.ok thank you all for your replies. I replaced both my hds with a new 1tb western digital model (which is so silent that its like i dont have an hd inside
As a reminder, to start the year off well, be sure to do routine backups of all your sensitive material.
Yes, I practice what I preach. I just finished backing up my MBP (500GB) today.
Glad to hear that you have a solution.
As a reminder, to start the year off well, be sure to do routine backups of all your sensitive material.
Yes, I practice what I preach. I just finished backing up my MBP (500GB) today.
i update my superduper backup twice a week
For situations like this, im so happy i got a backup plan Are you doing incremental backups?i update my superduper backup twice a week
Call me "Murphy," but I have bad luck with incremental backups. So I do complete clones instead.
Every week, I clone to alternate external HDs. I have two HDs in one external FW800 enclosure. That way, if in the unlikely situation, my MBP HD craps out on me during a clone, I sill have a backup clone that is 7 days old.