MBP Hard Drive Issues

[robEstyles]

Hey Everyone,

I purchased a MBP last February. This is my first Mac I ever owned jumping out of the PC world which I had been in for my entire computing life. I loved the thing and everything was great until this summer when I started expereincing problems.

I had constant freezes followed my the clicking of the hard drive (which I knew was the slow death of my HD). It would sometimes last hours before freezing but as it went on it turned into lasting mere minutes after booting up before pinwheel, click, click, click.

Then just one day it wouldnt even boot it was just a flashing ? icon. So off to the Apple Store and they told me it was the hard drive cable it would be replaced and all would be good.

That was back in Septmber and I got my MacBook back and all was well again until of course this week. When it froze for the first time since I got it back followed by click, click, click. I haven't gotten to the flashing ? icon yet but my laptop pretty much only works for about an hour before it freezes and click, click, click.

I'm bringing it back to the Apple store again today but my question since I really still don't know about Macs much, is this somewhat common? Did i just get a bum hard drive? Can I possibly be doing something that is screwing up the HD cable if that is infact the problem again? My MacBook gets a lot of usage but I wouldn't say overuse. It's sleeping while I'm at work but pretty much on daily at night.

Another weird thing is i have a 16gb parition for bootcamp and if I boot directly to XP it doesn't freeze. No freeze no clicks works perfect (if you consider using windows perfect).

 

[n0de]

Try booting with your install CD and using Disk Utilities to repair permissions.

I had this issue once and it turned out that the permissions on several core OS files were screwed up.

Also download Onyx and see if the SMART check status returns any errors.

It can't hurt to try.

 

[robEstyles]

Try booting with your install CD and using Disk Utilities to repair permissions.

I had this issue once and it turned out that the permissions on several core OS files were screwed up.

Also download Onyx and see if the SMART check status returns any errors.

It can't hurt to try.

Thanks for the advice but I'm almost 100% sure it's a hardware problem. I tried Onyx tried Disk Utility. My friend even brought over Disk Warrior. Did you have a similiar freezing issue or could you physically hear the hard drive clicking? I even re-installed Leopard and literally 5 minutes after the Welcome screen it did it again.

 

[mAc-warrior]

I've only had one hard drive crash on me through 7 Macs. It did start out with the distinctive clicking from the HD area of the Mac. I would backup your data as soon as possible, even before taking it to Apple. They may offer to transfer your data for you but I would be sure that nothing important will be lost by making my own backup.

The fact that HDs eventually fail is simply a reality of the technology right now, regardless of brand. Eventually, all of them will fail because they have moving parts. Some last longer than others; it's just the way the technology is right now.

You have a good warranty with Apple and if the drive is failing they will replace it free of charge! Not a big deal at all!

--mAc

 

[robEstyles]

I've only had one hard drive crash on me through 7 Macs. It did start out with the distinctive clicking from the HD area of the Mac. I would backup your data as soon as possible, even before taking it to Apple. They may offer to transfer your data for you but I would be sure that nothing important will be lost by making my own backup.

The fact that HDs eventually fail is simply a reality of the technology right now, regardless of brand. Eventually, all of them will fail because they have moving parts. Some last longer than others; it's just the way the technology is right now.

You have a good warranty with Apple and if the drive is failing they will replace it free of charge! Not a big deal at all!

--mAc

Its all backed up I use Time Machine so I'm good there and I understand with hard drives I've had many fail on me before its just that this has now happened twice in under a year. Thats was my only concern and wondering if I was actually doing something wrong.

 

[mAc-warrior]

Its all backed up I use Time Machine so I'm good there and I understand with hard drives I've had many fail on me before its just that this has now happened twice in under a year. Thats was my only concern and wondering if I was actually doing something wrong.

Yeah, its really just chance in terms of hard drives failing... to my knowledge at least. I'm not aware of whether different usage will wear them out faster or not. Perhaps heavy video work where the entire drive's data is being constantly overwritten might impact on lifespan.. I'm not sure. I doubt you're doing anything "wrong" to it though.

--mAc