Thank you, I'll do that. I've been using Tech Tool Pro 5, but it says everything's peachy.
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Super slow file transfer
- Thread starter lenalandmine
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Thank you, I'll do that. I've been using Tech Tool Pro 5, but it says everything's peachy.
SMART Utility is really just a front-end for pulling the SMART data and running long/short tests. If you hard drive ran into a low-level problem at some point in the recent past it's possible it got logged to the SMART errors and will show up when that data is polled.
Geez... this really blows. I'm completely stumped. ...If it is the internal HD deciding to die on me... how did that happen? Do HDs only have a 2 year lifespan now? *shakes head*
IIRC, those are non-fatal errors and you can safely ignore them. Assuming that at least one long test has been run somewhat recently (ie: after the problems started), I would say there's a good chance your hard drive is (mechanically) fine. As for the HD's lifespan, one cannot really say; hard drive fail. Some last a few months, some last many years. There's no way to tell how long a single drive will last until the day it fails.
I was told about an app called Xbench by a friend with a mac whom has just recently had to have his internal HD replaced due to experiencing the same issues I am currently. He told me to run the app on each HD just on the "disk" selection and compare the speeds.
Without even looking at the results, I can tell there's *something* wrong with my internal HD considering it took about 30 minutes to run the test on it, and only 30 seconds to run it on the external.
Here are the results of the tests nevertheless: the first is my internal, second is the external.
Attachments
The write speeds on the internal drive are extremely slow, especially the sequential write. Those alone indicate that their is something is seriously off with the drive. With that you should have no problem getting the drive replaced (assuming you've already tried a system restore and the machine is under warranty).
The machine is under a 3-year platinum warranty with CompUSA (which won't be fun, but at least I get in-home service), but no, I haven't tried system restore yet.. I've never had to do anything serious to my iMac, could you get me started on the process? ;]
The first two major questions are: Do you have everything important backed up and do you have your grey system restore CDs (they came with the computer)? You can also use a retail copy of Mac OS X if you purchased one.
Yes, I have everything backed up. I have both the grey discs that came with my iMac and the Leopard discs which I purchased.
Now what do I do, oh wise one? ;] Is it literally a "system restore" or moreso reinstalling the os?
You have two possible paths here. One will simply install a clean copy of Mac OS X, the second will completely erase the HD and then perform the install. With both of these methods, your best bet is to leave the external drive disconnected, not perform any important work and, under no circumstances, should you choose to use the external drive as a Time Machine drive until you are 100% sure the system is good!
Note: The below instructions assume that you are using Time Machine. If you are not, ignore any references to it.
Clean Install w/ Preserve User Settings
This is the sure-fire way to kill anything that may exist on the main drive. I would disconnect the external drive during this method just in case.
Note: The below instructions assume that you are using Time Machine. If you are not, ignore any references to it.
Clean Install w/ Preserve User Settings
- Insert Leopard CD. Since you are already running Leopard this will probably be the safest spot to start.
- Reboot the computer and hold down the 'C' key until you see the gray Apple icon in the middle of the screen.
- The system should startup from the CD into the Mac OS X install application
- Select your language and hit "Continue"
- Select the drive you want to install to and click "Options"
- Select "Archive & Install" and make sure the checkbox for "Preserve Network and User settings" is checked off
- Click OK and proceed with the install as usual
- Once the install is complete, restart and run XBench (once the Spotlight indexing has completed).
This is the sure-fire way to kill anything that may exist on the main drive. I would disconnect the external drive during this method just in case.
- Follow steps 1-3 from the previous method
- Go to the "Utilities" menu and select "Disk Utility"
- Select your drive, click on the erase tab and click the "Security Options" button
- Select "Zero Out Data" and click OK
- Click erase. Warning: Once you click this button you are on the path of no return! Make sure all your backups are in order.
- Assuming you have a 250GB drive, this step shouldn't take any longer than 2.5-3 hours (assuming an average transfer rate of 20-25MB/s). If it takes considerably longer, forget about salvaging the drive and get it replaced.
- If the erase took an acceptable amount of time and you want to restore your entire previous install and see if the erase solved your problem, pull down the Utilities menu and select "Restore from Time Machine Backup". Otherwise, continue
- Go back to the Install application and continue the install as usual
- After performing the install, restore files and applications from Time Machine as needed. If the system asks you, do not use the drive for Time Machine! Go into the Time Machine system preferences, turn it on, then go to the menu bar item, hold down Option and select "Browse Other Time Machine Disks"
Assuming 25mb/s, are you kidding me? I hardly get 25mb/MINUTE on the internal.
On that note, I think it's safe to say it is completely shot. I've called CompUSA's third party warranty line, and boy was the lady a real jerk. She kept nagging me about a "model number" .. I would try to tell her that the only "model number" or anything starting with an "M" that I know of was probably on the box itself for merchandising reasons. Which I threw away, because.. well, it's a huge box! lol. I kept telling her that Macs are (generally) categorized via serial numbers, model "type", etc. She said "I have to have your model number to process your claim", and I would tell her, "I've called before, and the guy asked for a model number, I told him I couldn't find one, he got an Apple specialist and that guy told me It's ok, we can go through with just your receipt information and serial number." but she wouldn't have any of that. She went on to say "I don't know what you mean by 'go through', what does that mean?" ... hello lady, YOU just said it yourself a minute ago when you told me I couldn't be processed without a model number... she was playing stupid.. well.. at least I think she was playing.
Anyways. I finally told her, I've looked all over my iMac, I've looked underneath, I've searched through System Profiler, no model number.. You know I have the warranty, now finish the claim.
..So she did :]
Anyways, some guy from "MPD" will be giving me a call within 1-3 business days to schedule a fancy in-home repair. How do you like that? ;]
Either way, I'm getting a new internal, and making him diagnose it to be 100% sure.
It sucks, but like you said, hard drives just die. This one's had a good 2 years of me kicking it around, I guess that was too much. lol.
Thank you for all your help nevertheless and putting up with my frustratedness!
On that note, I think it's safe to say it is completely shot. I've called CompUSA's third party warranty line, and boy was the lady a real jerk. She kept nagging me about a "model number" .. I would try to tell her that the only "model number" or anything starting with an "M" that I know of was probably on the box itself for merchandising reasons. Which I threw away, because.. well, it's a huge box! lol. I kept telling her that Macs are (generally) categorized via serial numbers, model "type", etc. She said "I have to have your model number to process your claim", and I would tell her, "I've called before, and the guy asked for a model number, I told him I couldn't find one, he got an Apple specialist and that guy told me It's ok, we can go through with just your receipt information and serial number." but she wouldn't have any of that. She went on to say "I don't know what you mean by 'go through', what does that mean?" ... hello lady, YOU just said it yourself a minute ago when you told me I couldn't be processed without a model number... she was playing stupid.. well.. at least I think she was playing.
Anyways. I finally told her, I've looked all over my iMac, I've looked underneath, I've searched through System Profiler, no model number.. You know I have the warranty, now finish the claim.
..So she did :]
Anyways, some guy from "MPD" will be giving me a call within 1-3 business days to schedule a fancy in-home repair. How do you like that? ;]
Either way, I'm getting a new internal, and making him diagnose it to be 100% sure.
It sucks, but like you said, hard drives just die. This one's had a good 2 years of me kicking it around, I guess that was too much. lol.
Thank you for all your help nevertheless and putting up with my frustratedness!
I also had problems with copying speed from an external USB drive to my internal one. But the problem only appeard for my movie folder on that disk, which seemed a bit odd to me and found a bit weird soloution to it:
I checked the information for the movie folder (apple+i) and compared them to the ones of a 'no problem' folder. For some reason the 'sharing & permission' section of my movie folder had two entries for me on saying 'read & write' and the other saying 'custom' above it.
I changed 'custom' to 'read & write' and everything went back to normal.
I now have reading and writing speed of 20 MB/sec. Before had 500kb/sec.
Don't now if this works for you, but it might be worth checking.
I checked the information for the movie folder (apple+i) and compared them to the ones of a 'no problem' folder. For some reason the 'sharing & permission' section of my movie folder had two entries for me on saying 'read & write' and the other saying 'custom' above it.
I changed 'custom' to 'read & write' and everything went back to normal.
I now have reading and writing speed of 20 MB/sec. Before had 500kb/sec.
Don't now if this works for you, but it might be worth checking.