Progress bar on boot screen?

[Vidd]

Whenever I boot into OS X, it shows a progress bar and takes much longer than it used to.

Apparently this may be indicative of a hardware issue.
Is there some way I can check the status of the hard-drive and find out if it is in full working order?

 

[spinnerlys]

Normally that status / progress bar shows up when the Mac runs out of battery (while asleep) and now starts from the so-called sleepimage to restore the last known state.

What exact Mac model and what Mac OS X version do you have?

 

[calderone]

The progress bar you are referring to spinnerlys has different appearance and is a result of waking from deep sleep. The desktop image is shown in the background, but is greyed out, as the image loads. I don't think this is what the OP is referring to. See the attached images.

There are two things a gray progress bar beneath the Apple when booting can mean.

A firmware update or
A system check of the disk (Repair Disk).

I am going to guess it is the latter, and you are right OP. If this is being displayed every time you boot, you should backup your data as there are likely serious problems with your hard disk (physically or logically).

After you backup your data.

1. Boot to your Install DVD
2. Then run Disk Utility (Utilities > Disk Utility)
3. Run a Disk Repair on your drive

Depending on what happens I can advise on what you should do.

If it is unable to repair the drive, erasing the disk and reinstalling may work.

However, be aware that this may indicate a failure of the drive and the symptoms may return. Checking the S.M.A.R.T status in System Profiler or Disk Utility and running Apple Hardware Test will help you determine if the problem is hardware or simply software based.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3148

 

[spinnerlys]

The progress bar you are referring to spinnerlys has different appearance and is a result of waking from deep sleep. The desktop image is shown in the background, but is greyed out, as the image loads. I don't think this is what the OP is referring to.

There are two things a gray progress bar beneath the Apple when booting can mean.

A firmware update or
A system check of the disk (Repair Disk).

Thanks. But often, when my Mac recovers from a sleepimage, the desktop is not shown, not even grayed out, just the light gray with an Apple logo and the progress bar and once it finishes, the Desktop appears and all the applications that ran before are still running.

But I agree, that the OP might experience what you have brought into the game. Maybe my computer is doing that too sometimes and recovers from a sleepimage while it does that 😉 , but I doubt that. Or is that possible?

 

[calderone]

Thanks. But often, when my Mac recovers from a sleepimage, the desktop is not shown, not even grayed out, just the light gray with an Apple logo and the progress bar and once it finishes, the Desktop appears and all the applications that ran before are still running.

But I agree, that the OP might experience what you have brought into the game. Maybe my computer is doing that too sometimes and recovers from a sleepimage while it does that 😉 , but I doubt that. Or is that possible?

Since the OP described this as happening while booting, and not waking from sleep. I can only assume that the OS is trying to repair the disk.

I have no data to indicate that the OS runs disk checks when restoring a sleep image.

 

[spinnerlys]

Since the OP described this as happening while booting, and not waking from sleep. I can only assume that the OS is trying to repair the disk.

I have no data to indicate that the OS runs disk checks when restoring a sleep image.

Thanks.

 

[Vidd]

I am going to guess it is the latter, and you are right OP. If this is being displayed every time you boot, you should backup your data as there are likely serious problems with your hard disk (physically or logically). [Snip]

Thank you very much.
I'll try what you suggested.

Is their any way I could have caused these errors?
I've seen people suggest having Boot Camp installed or forcing shut down while booting can lead to this but I'm not quite sure.

 

[Vidd]

Well I ran the hardware test off one of the system disks and it says the hardware is OK.
Is there any way to back-up the hard drive without having to reinstall everything? e.g. using Disk Utility?
Or would that simply copy any errors that exist?

At any rate, is it a good sign that it passed the hardware test or should I be worried about an impending failure? 😀