[Sneaky Snake]

The 200 GB Toshiba drive in my Macbook Pro is dying I think. I get random hangs while loading stuff, and it seems to take forever to access it sometimes. Are those symptoms of a dying drive? It still has 112 GB's free.

[Hansi]

Well those kind of things can be attributed to software issues, mother board issues, files system issues or HDD/Memory hardware issues. The best way to check it is to perform archive & install to exclude software isseus, run Tech Tools Pro or DiskWarrior to exclude files system issues and then initiate multi file (1000+) small read/write on the disk. If it's still exhibiting the same issues then exchanging the memory or HDD is the next logical step. If that doesn't help, it's the motherboard that is at fault.

[the Battle Cat]

I just recently had that problem with an external drive. Get the newest Diskwarrior and repair your disk, it resolved the problem for me.

[Sneaky Snake]

Hansi, on October 23rd 2009, 09:45 PM, said:

Well those kind of things can be attributed to software issues, mother board issues, files system issues or HDD/Memory hardware issues. The best way to check it is to perform archive & install to exclude software isseus, run Tech Tools Pro or DiskWarrior to exclude files system issues and then initiate multi file (1000+) small read/write on the disk. If it's still exhibiting the same issues then exchanging the memory or HDD is the next logical step. If that doesn't help, it's the motherboard that is at fault.

I just did a total wipe of the HDD, and then a fresh install of SL a few weeks ago, so that'll take care of software issues. I don't own Diskwarrior or Tech Tool, but since the install is so fresh, and I've only installed a few things since the SL install (there's only 60 GB's used in OS X) would that mean that the file system stuff wouldn't be a problem?

I really hope it isn't the motherboard

[Jude]

Diskwarrior is great. Drive Genius is also very good.

I was going to suggest that perhaps your hard drive was too full (it's best to leave 10% free space), but if you recently wiped it, that's probably not the case.

When you use Disk Utility (or whatever Apple is now calling it on the later OS), does it say that the S.M.A.R.T. status is verified when you select the hard drive?

Also, use the activity monitor to see if your machine is running apps that are eating a lot of CPU.

[Sneaky Snake]

Jude, on October 24th 2009, 06:28 AM, said:

Diskwarrior is great. Drive Genius is also very good.

I was going to suggest that perhaps your hard drive was too full (it's best to leave 10% free space), but if you recently wiped it, that's probably not the case.

When you use Disk Utility (or whatever Apple is now calling it on the later OS), does it say that the S.M.A.R.T. status is verified when you select the hard drive?

Also, use the activity monitor to see if your machine is running apps that are eating a lot of CPU.

Its says that the S.M.A.R.T Status is verified, also CPU usage isn't an issue, I've had Activity Monitor open a few times, and everything is normal, also I can here the fans speed up on the MBP (they're quite loud) when the CPU is operating at 50%+. Is there any way to check the drive using a free app or test ?

The worst/biggest hangs occur when I open iTunes, my library is about 23 GB's.

[Jude]

Is the hard drive making funny noises, like grinding noises? If so, it probably is dying..

Another thing to check with Activity Monitor:
Network Usage
If the Data Out is registering when you aren't using the internet, somebody may be making use of your computer without your permission (Do you have Internet Sharing on?) and causing a lag for you.

[the Battle Cat]

Ouch. My external just took another nose dive and running Diskwarrior told me there was a mechanical malfunction on the disk, that it was only going to get worse, that it could not write the new directory to the disk and to get the data off the disk as soon as possible. Fortunately it is only used for backup, but still, ow.

So anyway, the reason I bring this up here is that Diskwarrior 4.1.1 can also tell you if your disk is trashed.

[Sneaky Snake]

the Battle Cat, on October 24th 2009, 11:23 AM, said:

Ouch. My external just took another nose dive and running Diskwarrior told me there was a mechanical malfunction on the disk, that it was only going to get worse, that it could not write the new directory to the disk and to get the data off the disk as soon as possible. Fortunately it is only used for backup, but still, ow.

So anyway, the reason I bring this up here is that Diskwarrior 4.1.1 can also tell you if your disk is trashed.

Thanks, so based off of your experiences its worth the price then?

[Jude]

For all the trouble it has saved me over the years, I would say that it's worth the price to get DiskWarrior. Also, when you upgrade your Mac or OS and you need a newer version of Diskwarrior (I'd hang on to the old ones, too, to use on your older Macs), you can get a discount on the new versions just by giving them the code on the first one you bought.

Jude

[the Battle Cat]

Sneaky Snake, on October 24th 2009, 03:05 PM, said:

Thanks, so based off of your experiences its worth the price then?

I've been using Diskwarrior for years, it has pulled my fat out of the fire many times. It is well worth the money. I use Diskwarrior every month to rebuild my disks. I used to use Norton Utilities to rebuild disks but that went down hill fast. Then I found TechTool which is pretty good and does a lot more than rebuild disks but Diskwarrior can save disks that Norton, TechTool, and Disk Utility gave up on. Get it.