MacBook HDD Problems

[TaterSalad]

My sister's Macbook HDD is failing. Unfortunately, she has no redundancy whatsoever. I haven't been able to run any S.M.A.R.T tests or other diagnostics just yet. I have only been able to remote into it breifly. In the short time I was in, I did see several I/O errors in the console among sporatic problems. She has had this Macbook for about 3.5 years and tots this thing around everywhere. I'd say there is a 90% chance that she's having a mechanical problem in her HDD.  I've told her to turn it off until I can get to it. Some how the computer still boots up, but accessing certain (often large) files will give you I/O errors.

 

So I guess my question is, what do you guys think the best approach to recovery? There are a few high priority files like documents, photos, and an iPhone backup image. (Her iPhone also died the same week. When she tried to restore her phone from the iPhone backup file, she got I/O errors and couldn't restore her iPhone data. But that's another issue.) Everything is else not a big loss.

 

Because her hard drive is still bootable, I assume it will be mountable in a Linux environment. Macs use the HFS filesystem, which shouldnt be a problem to handle.

 

I'm thinking I should probably mount the drive in my unRAID box, and try to copy the data to a good drive. Then when certain data cannot be read, possibliy use a data recovery software to retry the read until it gets a good read?

 

Any recommendations for data recovery software? Or pointers on good practice and methodology for mechanical hard drive failures?

 

Maybe after I get this fixed, I will explain to her the importance of backups.

 

Thanks.

[bkasten]

There should be a system disk that came with the computer when it was purchased. Boot from that CD/DVD and run the "Disk Utility" from there. That should tell you if the issue is hardware or software (bad pointers etc.)

 

In my experience, with Macs, if it the HDD failed, it will not boot, but if there is something else, it is ususally recoverable using the disk utility.

 

I would start there first.

 

Bruce

[TaterSalad]

I considered poking around with Disk Utility, but from my experience Disk Utility is mostly designed for recovering from filesystem errors. I'm thinking this is likely something mechanical considering the wear and tear this Mac has. Are you suggesting that my mechanical failure assumption might be a bit premature?

[bkasten]

Yes, or at least maybe. 

 

I would want to make sure that it was NOT mechanical first. I have fixed a lot of Macs in my time (professionally) and I really would start with the disk utility.

 

It could very be that the HD is failing, but I would personally verify it first.

 

Bruce

[SSD]

A little off topic, but answer may be similar to OP question ...

 

If I wanted to upgrade the disk in a MacBook, preserving the OS and all installed programs, how would I do that?  I want to upgrade my daughters drive with one of the Seagate hybrid drives, and not sure how to do it.  She loves the Mac, but all I know are PCs.

 

Thanks!

[christuf]

A little off topic, but answer may be similar to OP question ...

 

If I wanted to upgrade the disk in a MacBook, preserving the OS and all installed programs, how would I do that?  I want to upgrade my daughters drive with one of the Seagate hybrid drives, and not sure how to do it.  She loves the Mac, but all I know are PCs.

 

Thanks!

 

OS X has an exceptional Migration Assistant to help you with exactly this.

 

Here are some details on its use:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4413

[Chris Pollard]

A little off topic, but answer may be similar to OP question ...

 

If I wanted to upgrade the disk in a MacBook, preserving the OS and all installed programs, how would I do that?  I want to upgrade my daughters drive with one of the Seagate hybrid drives, and not sure how to do it.  She loves the Mac, but all I know are PCs.

 

Thanks!

 

Backup with Time Machine to a USB Disk,  Install the New HDD and then follow these instructions :-

 

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html

 

 

[prostuff1]

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

If it were me I would use Carbon Copy Cloner from bombich software.

 

I use it to make clones of drives and then transfer those drives to be internal drives.  I love this software and use it, along with Crashplan, to keep backups of my Mac.  I have an old IDE 160GB external drive I clone to about once every other week.  This gives me a bootable backup should something decide to go completely fubar.

[TaterSalad]

It would seem my thread has been hijacked.  Both Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine are good solutions. CCC is great for a quick drive clone. Time Machine is designed for automated backups, from which you can easily restore from. I'd use CCC to clone her drive, then configure Time Machine for automated backups. Then in future, restoring from backup via Time Machine should be dead simple. Best of both worlds.

 

Now back to my original problem.  I finally got my hands on the dying MacBook and things are not as bad as I suspected. Looks like bkasten was right and that it may not be a mechanical problem. (Hence the thread title change) I used Disk Utility and DiskWarrior 4 to scan my hard drive for problems and run a SMART test. Out of the three or four I/O issues I was seeing, all of them were due to a few problematic plist files that had been corrupted. SMART tests said the drive was functioning normally. I deleted the corrupted files and the problems seem to have subsided, though it was sometimes hard to reproduce before.

 

So I am wondering if I still need to replace the drive. Could a bad drive be the culprit of 3 corrupted files? Or was this just likely a file system error?

[bkasten]

I am glad if I provided any help!! 

 

If I remember the orginal post, this laptop is 4-5 years old?

 

Now might be a good time to replace the drive. Especially if it has been used a lot. Like I said (I think I said this before?) in my experience, when a drive goes in a Mac, there is no warning, it is just gone. 

 

4 - 5 years out of laptop drive is doing pretty good. Yes, it may be time for an upgrade.

 

Bruce

[Chris Pollard]

smartreporter gives a little green hard disk in the task bar which turns red/yellow when smart thinks the drive is dying.

[TaterSalad]

Thanks everyone. I will likely be replacing the HDD tonight.

[defected07]

I plan to use CCC tonight just as a back up of my files in case I need anything (also have a TM back up of some files--but not everything) so that I can finally do a full format.  Have had my MBP for over 4 years and have never formatted once!  It's frozen a few times in the past few weeks so I think it needs a bath.

[neilt0]

Thanks everyone. I will likely be replacing the HDD tonight.

 

If she's rough with the laptop, use an SSD.