MacBook Pro scare: Everything OK now?

[doxavita]

Hi,

I had the following issue:

Whenever I finish working with my 2010 MBP, I make sure all programs, documents and windows are closed as well as turning off my Magic Mouse BEFORE closing the lid and setting the system into sleep.
This time, however, I forgot to turn off the Magic Mouse. So I closed the lid, made sure I waited the necessary seconds for it to set into sleep (pretty sure about that), and then checked the mouse, I flipped it over realizing it was still turned on, but the LED was not (perhaps it went into some sort of standby mode as well, since it's paired with my system).

I decided to lift the MBP's screen again, but this time the system did not wake up from it's sleep state, all I got was a black screen.

I tried turning on the notebook with the power button. First try, no luck... Second try, still no luck, after the fourth try the system would still not turn on.

Miraculously after the fifth attempt at the power button I finally got the system to turn on/start up.

First thing I heard was a strange click/crackle sound (most likely from the Hard Drive).

The boot process took quiet a lot longer than usual. As well as the loading of the OS (Snow Leopard). But in the end I was able to get the system up and running again.

What exactly was all that about?
-Could it be that my Magic Mouse did not let the Hard Drives head park properly before going into sleep?
-Is this the beggining on a faulty Hard Drive which I'll need to replace sometime soon?
- Had the hard drive been damaged both physically (improper parking of the hard drive lens/head) / Data wise (Corrupted sectors of the disk, faulty information, read/write errors) would I have been notified at boot that something's wrong with it?

- I'm still on time to backup everything, right?

- Is everything OK? could the OS have gotten damaged due to this abrupt way of booting up? programs /documents?

Thanks

 

[MCAsan]

You need to have been Time Machine backups previously. Not doing so is just asking for a problem and the loss of your data. Address that NOW!

Run Disk Utiliy on the HD to check for any problems with the file system, permissions...etc. Do that testing and repairs NOW.

Plan on changing out ASAP the HD to another HD or even better, an SSD.

When I refurb 2010 whitebooks I put in 8GB or memory and a 500GB Samsung EVO 840 SSD. That combo gives a new life to the machine. The SSD can be used again with a replacement machine via an external USB3 enclosure. If you don't need the 500GB size, go for a 250GB SSD.

 

[leman]

Weird sleep behaviour is quite common with the Macs, so I wouldn't worry too much. Although, it should go without saying that you always need to have one or two backups.

As to the HDD: check its S.M.A.R.T status, if its ok, then you probably don't need to worry too much.

 

[doxavita]

You need to have been Time Machine backups previously. Not doing so is just asking for a problem and the loss of your data. Address that NOW!

Regarding this issue, I just bought a new external hard drive:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1772176/

It has a total of 1TB. My MBP is about 250GB. What's better, and which should I do first? :

1. Copy all my documents/files by drag and dropping them onto the external Drive?

2. Create a partition (250GB) for an entire Time Machine backup?

What file format should I give the new drive?
Have plenty of files from a Parallels Windows7 installation.

And then, how do I go about all this Disk Utility testing? and this S.M.A.R.T. verification?

Can I keep using my current Hard Drive until it dies at last? always taken care of my system, strange this is taking place.

Thanks

 

[leman]

Regarding this issue, I just bought a new external hard drive:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1772176/

It has a total of 1TB. My MBP is about 250GB. What's better, and which should I do first? :

You should give time machine more then 250Gb, ideally the entire disk. Time machine performs incremental backups with history (that is, it also stores previous versions of your data).

The format must be HFS+, AFAIK. If you want to use the disk to share the data with Windows computers, you can format it 50/50 or something like that.

If you are afraid that your HDD might fail, it is certainly not wrong to copy your documents first. But don't forget: don't put all your eggs into the same basket! The external HDD can also fail. The most safe way is to store your important data on the cloud, IMO

 

[MCAsan]

Putting data in one partition and backups in another partition is not a good idea. When the drive dies....so does all the data. And all HDs die if you wait long enough.

 

[doxavita]

Putting data in one partition and backups in another partition is not a good idea. When the drive dies....so does all the data. And all HDs die if you wait long enough.

Right, I guess I'll just drag and drop all my files first. I don't have that many settings to worry about. I am a bit unsure as to what file format to use.
I have plenty of files that can be used in Windows 7 (through Parallels), the rest are just standard files..

A future Time Machine backup is just a possibility, not sure if I'll end up creating it.

I guess I just need to buy some time before the drive dies...

EDIT: As to the file format, I can go with ExFAT and FAT32, both should work under Mac and Windows environments. Right? Thoughts?