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Multiple Hard Drive Failures on Macbook Pro 15inch (late 2008)

S

SmileItIsTravis

macrumors newbie
Original poster
So I just lost my THIRD hard drive since July on my refurbished Macbook Pro. I was told when the first one failed it was just bad luck. That hard drives fail once in a while. Then in December when the 2nd one died I was told there was no way there was a connection but they would run test on the macbook Pro. Both times I told the genius workers that my Macbook pro runs very very hot at random times (not all the time and I have not had it happen at an Apple store) and that I have many friends with Macs and I have never had a friend macbook get as hot as mine but both times I was told that my macbook could not be getting too hot it would shut off if it got too hot. The 2nd time I was told all the test came back normal and it was just bad luck the 2nd hard drive failed. SO.....

Anyways so yesterday my hard drive is failing again!!!! 😡 Third time! since July!!!

So my question anyone else having this problem?

I am sure that there is a problem with the macbook pro that is leading these failures-- but I cannot get an apple genius to believe me. I personally think it is time for Apple to replace my macbook pro if they cannot fully determine the underlying problem. Anyone have these issues?

I am headed to an apple store tomorrow but it is a 2.5 hour drive (one way) for me and this gets really really old each time I lose a hard drive!!
 
Sounds like heat maybe your problem. Try the iStatPro Dashboard app. It will give you temperatures. Record them and ask the Apple Genius if those are normal. I don't know if there is another app out there that will actually make a record. Are you running the higher end graphics board all of the time?

I've been running an SSD in the same MBP and have had no problems. I don't miss the heat or vibration at all.
 
Don't mean to be an idiot but how do you run "the higher end graphics board"? Is that a setting you change -- I do a lot of photo editing in aperture/adope photoshop.

I will have to find out how to run that app once I get another hard drive 🙁

Travis
 
So I just lost my THIRD hard drive since July on my refurbished Macbook Pro.
SmilitisTravis, maybe you got one of my returned MBP's. I have had 3 machines and 7 hard drive failure in the last 7 months. What is going on with MBP's? I love my Macs but this is getting ridiculous. I'm losing faith.
 
If it makes you feel any better after three times. I asked for a new macbook pro. They gave me an upgrade and a brand new macbook with only a quick check to see if the hard drive really did die at the apple store. Just go in and bug them.
 
zenio said:
You are so right. It's not a reflection on the computer, just the drives.
Click to expand...

Not saying it's 100% a reflection of the drive(s) (as mentioned earlier in the thread, heat may be an issue), but as an Apple Tech for over a decade, I've definitely seen it happen. Bad batches do happen.
 
Last edited:
zenio said:
You are so right. It's not a reflection on the computer, just the drives.
Click to expand...
I have to disagree with you on that. When my hard drive fails my computer turns into a paper weight. When it fails 7 times in 7 months, it becomes a paper weight that need to be driven back forth forth to the Apple store. This definitely has a reflection on the computer and the company. Not one person at the Apple store would admit to me that there was a problem with the design of the MBP. I spent a lot of time trying to diagnose the problem on my end only to find out here on this forum that it is a very common problem. Wish they had told me that in the store. Very disappointed in Apple.
 
Amen

I had the same experience. Bought a MacBook Pro 15" in September and have had three Hitachi HDs destruct on me.
To their credit, Apple Store has just replaced my computer with the newer model, but I have become very anxious about my data as a result. And it is an hour drive for me to the nearest store.

Hopefully this Toshiba drive will be more stable.
Thankfully I read about Dolly Drive to back up my files in the cloud. Saved my bacon.
 
SmileItIsTravis said:
But I cannot get an apple genius to believe me.
Click to expand...

I believe its apples policy to offer a replacement after having the same issue three times, if they don't offer it to you, ask for it. - so in all you might just be going home with a brand new MacBook Pro.
 
Hard drives are hard drives.

I've gone through that in the past, with 2-3 failed drives in a relatively short period of time. It's just bad luck.

Failure rates over 10% aren't uncommon with today's drives and sometimes a particular model/manufacturer will present with higher rates. I recall one bad run at my old job. They replaced all of our computers with new ones containing Western Digital drives, all the same model. Over a period of 2 years nearly all of them failed (maybe 100 or so).

I've had them fail in well cooled desktops, laptops, DVRs, etc. It just happens.

They conk out left and right in the work servers I deal with.
 
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