MacBook pro issues - unresponsive - unable to really do anything

[cultivate]

My Mac book pro just started to really actup.

I have a mid 2009 15 MacBook pro I've been running lion since it launched and upgraded my ram to 8gb about 2 months ago.

This morning it would not wake up so I was forced to restart by holding down the power button. since then I've restarted about 10 times sometimes I'm able to do a proper shut down and other I have to use the power button. It seems to acting very unresponsive. I haven't been able to launch any applications and if I try to open a finder window I get the spinning ball and nothing happens for about 5min then the finder will pop open. I'm trying to navigate to my disc utility now and the finder window has been going for 15 min just trying to open my application list.

Basically all I can do is move my mouse around the screen and move a finder window around the screen.

Ive inserted one of the disc my machine came with and ran a hardware test, which said the hardware was fine. I've unplugged everything from the machine which doesn't seem to make any difference. I'm not really sure what to do next, I'm not sure whats wrong I've been using it alot this week with out any issues.

Any guidance or advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Let me know if any other detail might help.

Thanks

 

[Elbert C]

Use the other disc that came with the Mac. Boot from it (restart and hold down the C key). After you boot up from the disk use Disk Utility in the Utilities menu to Repair Disk on the startup disk. Keep hitting repair until there are no more errors, if there were any.
Use DiskWarrior if any errors can't be repaired with Disk Utility.

 

[thundersteele]

First, make a backup of your machine. Although it might be too late for that.

I would guess that it's a failing hard drive. I would bring it to apple, they might be able to tell you what is going on. If it's just the HD, that's easy to fix by just putting in a new one.

 

[cultivate]

ok so I've ran disk utility a couple of times. The first time it ran it did find and fix an error, i ran it again and everything was good. i restarted my mpb and everything seemed to be working normally for the first 2min or so (i didnt launch any applications but i was able to open and close a couple of finder windows normally), after that it did the same thing became unresponsive and had the spinning beachball.

Since then I've run the disk utility again (with no errors reported), i've restarted and the problem remains.

Any other suggestions?

 

[snazzyiphoneguy]

back up and wipe the drive and start fresh

 

[Elbert C]

What does the S.M.A.R.T. Status show in Disk Utility?
I'd back up the the data before trying anything else.
Run DiskWarrior. Every Mac owner should have this utility.
If DW doesn't fix the issue then I'd try snazzyiphoneguy suggestion.
If that doesn't work then a new HDD may be needed.

 

[cultivate]

What does the S.M.A.R.T. Status show in Disk Utility?

Thanks for the advice. The S.M.A.R.T Status reads: Verified.

I'll run diskwarrior once I'm done backing up my data.

Right now I'm backing up to my nas drive using ibackup, I'm just wondering if I back up everything wouldn't I backup any corrupted files as well? If I have to restore my system won't I just be restoring the problems again?

Can anyone suggest any backup techniques that will make the operation painless if I have to wipe my hard drive and have to restore my data? I'd like to be able to just copy everything back to my machine so it run as if nothing happened.

 

[thundersteele]

Thanks for the advice. The S.M.A.R.T Status reads: Verified.

I'll run diskwarrior once I'm done backing up my data.

Right now I'm backing up to my nas drive using ibackup, I'm just wondering if I back up everything wouldn't I backup any corrupted files as well? If I have to restore my system won't I just be restoring the problems again?

Can anyone suggest any backup techniques that will make the operation painless if I have to wipe my hard drive and have to restore my data? I'd like to be able to just copy everything back to my machine so it run as if nothing happened.

Time machine will work for what you want to do.

Suggested workflow:
- backup with time machine
- wipe HD
- clean install of Lion
- test the machine
- if the machine works fine, use the restore function from time machine