Is my hard drive failing?

[AlphaDogg]

My MacBook Pro (see sig for specs) has been very sluggish since yesterday. When it first froze yesterday (around 9:00 AM), I just shrugged it off, and rebooted. It didn't freeze again until this afternoon (around 4:00 PM). It just froze again a few minutes ago. This hard drive is not an original part. It is the bare drive that I grabbed from an external drive (was purchased just for this purpose, was not used until was put in my MBP). I have used the drive around 8-12 hours per day since late April, early May. I have been yearning for a seagate Momentus XT, and I am thinking that this may be the time to buy. But before I buy, I am looking for someone to tell me if my drive is failing. Also, my parents likely will not let me get a new hard drive for about a month or so. But if/when my drive is actually dead/dies, they will likely allow me to order a Momentus XT. Also, I have a backup of my hard drive, so I am not worried about data loss.

 

[miles01110]

Is it a bootable backup? You could try booting off that and running for a few minutes to see if you have similar issues. If you don't, odds are the drive is failing.

 

[AlphaDogg]

Is it a bootable backup? You could try booting off that and running for a few minutes to see if you have similar issues. If you don't, odds are the drive is failing.

It, unfortunately is not. I do not feel like risking my data, to erase the time machine drive, to clone the internal drive to (to use as a bootable backup). Also, if it helps, the drive that I used is a seagate freeagent go. It was originally in my old white MacBook. The drive was used in that machine for about 6-8 months. With the roughly 12-14 months that this drive has been in use, it seems to me that the drive is failing.

 

[AlphaDogg]

I am really in dire need of help. I need to know whether or not my drive is failing. I would like to get a new drive (preferably a momentus xt), but do not want any downtime, so I need to get a new drive if it is failing. My parents will likely allow me to get a new drive if I/you can prove that it is failing. Also, I forgot to mention in the first post that the drive is not quiet, like it used to be. It is now somewhat noisy, but not unbearable. The drive itself, is a Seagate Momentus 5400 RPM 320GB drive.

 

[alust2013]

If it's making noise, especially clicking, it is quite likely that it is failing. With its age, it shouldn't be, but those are signs of a failing drive. Unfortunately, I can't "prove" it unless it actually fails, at which point you would have very likely deduced that yourself.

 

[AlphaDogg]

I have convinced my parents to allow me to get a new drive. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me get the Momentus XT, as I had planned. They allowed me to get a Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 7200RPM drive with 500GB of storage and 16mb cache.. It should come from newegg by Wednesday next week .