Failing HDD or not?
My 27" iMac has started giving me occasional Beach Balls that I put down to a message about SyncServices (see another thread, might have that one resolved, when I'm sure, I'll update the thread), but at the weekend I've noticed I also have
kernel[0]: disk0s2 I/O Error
In my console logs. As per suggestions in an old thread I found here, I ran SMARTReporter and it, rather worryingly said "Failing" for the drive status. I've got everything very well backed up so am planning on running a bit longer with it while I work out how / where to replace it. Searching around, I have the 1TB Seagate drive that Apple, in the later model, then recalled as it was prone to failure. Of course, no such luck they should recall my year which leaves me searching for a replacement with the daft thermal sensor firmware, or a standard replacement and an Optical drive sensor cable...
Anyway, that's beside the point. While looking into these things, I got a hold of SpeedTool Pro as it has sector checking and SMART reporting, I've ran surface scans and the drive is (reportedly) absolutely fine. I've run the SMART tool and it also says the drive is absolutely fine. Disk Utility lists the SMART status as "Verified". I've turned on SMART monitoring and have had no messages in 2 days.
Confused, I got hold of AHT from my Snow Leopard install (Thanks for removing that from Lion Apple! 😀) and have run extended tests 3 times, and not a single fault is showing up.
But I STILL get disk0s2 I/O Error messages every few hours in the console log. It's fairly inconceivable that in 5 hours of extended testing I don't get a single problem reported, yet within a couple of hours of normal usage I get an error in the console.
So I am confused. 1 tool says failing, 3 tools say perfectly ok, 1 console log gives strange error messages.
Anyone any ideas? I see others in the past have reported these errors, and although the threads say "mate, looks like you have a failing drive", none of the threads are ever completed with "yep, my drive failed and I replaced it". I don't want to spend on a drive and find it's a logic board, or even a poxy SATA cable, but at the moment, all hardware tests are proving negative and no data appears to be corrupt.
I seem to be having a run of bad Apple luck at the moment, with a home button on an iPhone 4 less than 2 years old giving up completely (Yes sir, we can replace it for £139... hahaha) and now a 25 month old iMac with strange errors. I'm sincerely hoping this is not a true hardware fault...
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 27" i5