MacBook Pro hard drive erasing and reformatting question

[macrumorsforum]

Hey and thanks in advance,

My MBP has been acting unreliably recently, primarily by automatically rebooting, typically after opening up the screen.

When I took my MBP to the Apple store, they ran the diagnostics and then, based on the issue I described, suggested reformatting the hard drive. When I took my laptop back to the Apple store, they used some third-party, non-Apple software called "Deploy Studio Runtime" that appeared to use a script and computationally intensive program to reset the hard drive.

My laptop developed new issues, and I wound up taking my MBP to another Apple store location and they used the built in DiskUtility software and the Ethernet operating system to "re-image" the hard drive. Though this initially appeared to fix the problem of my laptop automatically rebooting, after about a week, my laptop begun automatically shutting down, and not rebooting. Further, my laptop often fails to even turn back on, and I have to try numerous times to start up my MBP.

From my view, the erasing and resetting of a hard drive appears like the most intrusive process to subject a laptop to, and I am surprised the Apple endorsed DiskUtility was not the Apple store's go to method for reformatting the hard drive.

What does hard drive reformatting exactly affect? Could this affect more than just the software components of the hard drive, and cause other types of unanticipated hardware/software compatibility issues? Any other thoughts? From the looks of my current MBP issues, I would say that the numerous hard drive resets have aggravated the initial problem I was trying to fix.

 

[macrumorsforum]

Any opinions or thoughts about this?
I'm sure that most people here have had to go through or will eventually go through some kind of hard drive erase and re-installation (or "re-imaging"), and this seems like an important topic to figure out the best option for a system reset as well as the possible consequences of such a process on software or hardware features. Presumably, formatting the hard drive only affects the software, though the computational effort for such a process could feasibly utilize and affect other components.

 

[user418]

Try an SMC reset.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

If that doesn't resolve the issue and you're under warranty or have AppleCare make a Genius appointment and have them check it out again.

 

[macrumorsforum]

Thanks for the reply about the SMC reset, I wasn't aware of that. However, I don't think that's the problem.

I'm mainly asking about the affects and differences of using "Deploy Studio Runtime" as opposed to "DiskUtility induced Re-imaging" to erase and reset a hard drive. After going through multiple hard drive reformats, my MBP is running worse than my initial reason for going to get my MBP checked by the Apple store (i.e. shutting down and not starting back up as opposed to automatically rebooting).

 

[macrumorsforum]

MacBook Pro hard drive erasing and reformatting question

When I took my laptop to the Apple store after getting their suggestion to reformat my hard drive, they used a non-Apple program "Deploy Studio Runtime" to reset my hard drive. After this, my laptop was in worse shape than before, and I went to a different Apple store and they used the standard, built-in DiskUtility software and Ethernet cable induced re-imaging, and the Apple Genius's I talked with were themselves surprised about the use of the Deploy Studio software. The multiple hard drive resets have clearly aggravated my laptops problems as the problem has changed from my laptop automatically rebooting every few days (typically after opening the screen) to now automatically shutting down and often failing to start back up.

Thanks in advance

 

[macrumorsforum]

MacBook Pro hard drive erasing and reformatting question

(note: this Mac Basics and Help section seems like the more appropriate place to ask this question than the MacBook Pro section anyways)

When I took my laptop to the Apple store after getting their suggestion to reformat my hard drive, they used a non-Apple program "Deploy Studio Runtime" to reset my hard drive. After this, my laptop was in worse shape than before, and I went to a different Apple store and they used the standard, built-in DiskUtility software and Ethernet cable induced re-imaging, and the Apple Genius's I talked with were themselves surprised about the use of the Deploy Studio software. The multiple hard drive resets have clearly aggravated my laptops problems as the problem has changed from my laptop automatically rebooting every few days (typically after opening the screen) to now automatically shutting down and often failing to start back up.

What kind of affect can multiple hard drive erases and resets have on the functionality of a laptop (particularly in terms of software and hardware compatibility)?

Thanks in advance

 

[chown33]

I know of no bad effects that repeated reformatting of a hard drive will produce. It's not computationally intensive, either, despite what you seem to think.

I have several hard drives which I have formatted and reinstalled OSes to many many times. Sometimes multiple times in one day. This was done for testing software I wrote, where I had to check against multiple OS versions, and I had more OS versions to test against than I had hard drives.

If I had to guess, the symptoms sound like your hard drive is failing. I recommend you buy a replacement and backup as much data to it as possible. If you have a backup hard drive now, make a backup now. One that you know you can recover from, because you've tested the ability to recover from it. Then wait for the new HD to arrive.

 

[macrumorsforum]

I know of no bad effects that repeated reformatting of a hard drive will produce. It's not computationally intensive, either, despite what you seem to think.

In regards to the computational strain that the reformatting seemed to cause, the "Deploy Studio" reformatting showed a lot of running, scrolling script on my screen and looked more intensive than the seemingly more standard DiskUtility hard drive reset and Ethernet induced operating system re-imaging.

Any thoughts about the possible differences in the effects of these reformatting methods (particularly if they affect any other laptop components)?

I recommend you buy a replacement and backup as much data to it as possible. If you have a backup hard drive now, make a backup now. One that you know you can recover from, because you've tested the ability to recover from it. Then wait for the new HD to arrive.

I have all my data backed up. What are your thoughts about replacing my 2.66 GHz Duo Core Snow Leopard MBP hard drive with a solid state hard drive?

 

[balamw]

In regards to the computational strain that the reformatting seemed to cause, the "Deploy Studio" reformatting showed a lot of running, scrolling script on my screen and looked more intensive than the seemingly more standard DiskUtility hard drive reset and Ethernet induced operating system re-imaging.

Any "deep" drive operations will be long and seem intensive just due to the size of today's disks. The usual "hard drive reset and ... re-imaging" are benign because they don't do too much checking.

e.g. a secure 7 pass sector by sector erase of a drive will take a long time and seem intense, and using something like SpinRite or other tool that will really test the drive will have to do a lot of work.

As chown33 has said, none of this should be taxing on any part of your computer other than the hard drive itself. If it ends up that way something is wrong with that other part of the computer.

Personally, I'd suspect and test and the RAM with a testing tool like memtest which will also perform a deep, potentially verbose scan that could take overnight.

B