MacBook Pro Mid 2012 - HDD Dying?

[Oliver G]

I think my mid 2012 MacBook Pro 2.9 i7 8GB 750GB hard drive is dying.

I have around 250GB of free space and the MacBook is becoming really slow, getting slower over time. If the MacBook is on for over an hour or so it becomes almost unusable and transferring files to a USB3 stick are moving at about 5GB an hour, which would normally take only a minute or two.

If i then restart the MacBook I get the stop sign (circle with line through it), which I am guessing means it can't access the HDD. If I leave it off for an hour or two, I can then use it again, but only for an hour or so before the above starts all over again.

So what do you guys reckon, is it the HDD or something else? I am only guessing it is the HDD as this has happened to two other MacBook's of mine and both times replacing the HDD fixed it.

 

[hallux]

If you have the non-Retina, it likely is the HDD cable dying. A simple fix that doesn't cost a ton.

 

[protoxx]

If you don't have a backup, make one immediately.

 

[DOGWONDER]

If you have the non-Retina, it likely is the HDD cable dying. A simple fix that doesn't cost a ton.

Had the same on my 2012 version, took it into a Apple repair place, cable was fixed, not a crazy cost. This was just over a year ago, still working fine.

 

[BarracksSi]

If you have the non-Retina, it likely is the HDD cable dying. A simple fix that doesn't cost a ton.

This is what likely happened to mine. Took it to the Apple Store today and was told that they had a bulletin for the flex cable to the hard drive and that it would be a free repair.

Well, it turned out to be part of the problem --

After they diagnosed it some more, they said the hard drive was failing and needed to be replaced. I had seen the same result from Disk Utility a couple months ago, so I knew the drive was on borrowed time.

I said to go ahead and do it while my wife and I went to go see Rogue One. They finished a few hours later, charging me for just the drive, no labor and no cost for the flex cable.

It's restoring from my Time Machine backup right now. Should be all set in a few minutes.