Late 2011 MBP Hard Drive Failure

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marcfromvic Author

Level 1

0 points

Late 2011 MBP Hard Drive Failure

Hi all,

2 days ago the 500GB Seagate in my MBP failed. This is what happened:

1. Tried to open an avi file in VLC

2. Mac froze with beachball. Started hearing clicking noises and a scratching sound from the hard drive

3. Tried to force quit the program - this didn't work

4. Held the power button and shut off the MAC

When I switched it back on, it wouldn't boot up. The grey screen with a small taskbar appeared, and the computer would shut down each time it tried to load - again with the scratching and clicking noises from the hard drive (which until now has been silent).

I booted into recovery disk, and tried repairing the drive - it failed. Disk Utility said the drive was irreparable and that I should back up my data and reformat it as soon as possible.

Over the last day I've used Disk Warrior (which said there was a hardware error and the drive was irreparable), disk utility, and a external booted system to try and scavenge what I could off the drive.

I finally gave up and formatted it earlier today. To my amazement, after I formatted it, Apple's disk utility ran a verification on the drive and brought up no errors. The SMART label in disk utility is also clean.

Given disk warriors inability to replace the index, the scratching noises I heard, and the initial problem, I was sceptical of this, so I downloaded SMART utility, ran it, and this is what I got:

Attributes:

Power on Hours: 981

Temp: 31c

Pending bad sectors: 909

Removed bad sectors: 909

Reallocated bad sectors: 478

CRC error count: 0

Errors:

Total Errors: 29846

Last error type: Uncorrectable Error

Last error time: 979

Tests:

Test Count: 2

Last Test Status: Completed: Read Failure

Last test Time: 980

Overall Status: FAILING

Now I cannot workout why disk utility would be telling me all is rosy, while Smart Utility is listing 30,000 errors and multiple bad sectors etc.

Given the scratching noises I heard (and still hear occasionally when seeking the drive) and other programs results, what is going on?

I have booked a genius bar appointment as I am not 100% with the integrity of this drive now and would rather replace it as I lost roughly 200GB of data with the latest format (my own fault for not backing up).

The Macbook Pro is 2 months old.

Thanks for anyones help or ideas they can give me

Marc

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on May 29, 2012 3:07 AM

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Answer 1

May 29, 2012 3:52 AM in response to marcfromvic

Marc,

In reality, Disk Utility is pretty basic in what it does...does more looking at file systems and their fragmentation, faults, etc. Other programs are better when it comes to the physical state of the hard drive, as you are seeing.

Since you are under warranty, definitely keep that genius bar appointment, have the techs run their diagnostics on teh drive, and let them replace it, which they will probably do based on what you have found on your own.

If the drive says it is failing, the sooner you get that taken care of the better. Do you have an external drive you can backup your data onto? If you do, a backup of as much as possible would be a good idea.

Good luck with the genius bar, hope it all works out well.

Ralph

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Answer 2

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

May 29, 2012 4:00 AM in response to marcfromvic

I would get three new HDDs. One for the MBP, one for Time Machine and one for a Clone that you can boot your MBP with. (also two enclosures for the two external HDDs)

You have verified the principal that all HDDs eventually will fail, some sooner some later. Unfortunately you also have demonstrated the problems that are caused with out backups. You are not the first and won't be the last.

The good news is that a replacement HDD should be covered by the warranty though the lost data is not.

Good luck.

Ciao.

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