How do I tell if my hard drive is broken?

The AHT only tests the drive interface, not the drive itself. To check the health of the drive, run Disk Utility, click on the HDD device (not the Macintosh HD boot volume underneath). If the S.M.A.R.T. status on the bottom of the window is not Verified, the drive is circling the drain...

Given the age of the Mac, the SATA cable between the drive and the logic board is a know failure point. I'd try replacing it first. As a test for the drive, can take it out of the Mac, put it in an external enclosure, preferably Firewire for speed, and use it like that. Enclosures can be had from OtherWorldComputing, spare SATA cables (and how-to's) from www.ifixit.com.

I would try to isolate things one at a time. Go to the following site:

http://scsc-online.com

then go to the downloads section, and download their troubleshooting with Scannerz manual. There are two articles, one is about actually troubleshooting drive problems with Scannerz and the other is actually troubleshooting Scannerz itself. I don't remember which is which by name but they're all free so if you download both, just toss the one you don't need. Althought I suspect you don't have Scannerz(and probably don't need it) the troubleshooting stuff can tell you all about some of the other odd problems people run into, like interface cables. They also have a large downloadable book on troubleshooting drive problems but it's gigantic and it would take forever to read.

Courcoul's idea of of putting the drive in an external enclosure is a good idea because if it works fine, then you know the problem is with your system, not the drive. If on the other hand the drive won't work in an external enclosure then you know the drive itself is defective.

A bad SATA cable can cause the errors you're seeing, especially if it's making intermittent contact, which is often how they start to fail. I'd try to check the drive first and if works then worry about the system problem.

Hope this helps.

It sounds like it's most like the SATA cable. The reason I say this is as follows:

• They're known to be fairy susceptible to bad seating and damage
• Your original tests indicated an error only after a period of testing
• The drive can now apparently be seen (but for how long?)

One thing you might try is a massive file from the external drive to the internal drive. If there's an intermittent connection and it seems to be working now, if the intermittent contact separates during this time, you'll get a spinning beach ball and the operation will either fail, or delay and then continue. This might happen several times. This is basically the same thing Scannerz tests and I think they call it an irrepeatable irregularitiy. The only difference would be that you would be able to see the irregularities show up in test results, whereas here you would be looking for spinning beach balls and lock ups from the system.

If the logic board itself was having problems, I would think you would be having the same types of odd behavior even with the external drive. Systems today are so complex and have such tiny traces, any crack in a trace on the circuit board could lead to erratic behavior and be very difficult to isolate without an actual hardware tester. The most likely cause is the cable.

As an FYI, some of the Foxconn cables have been known to lose there insulation, or maybe they're just poorly insulated to start off with, and start making intermittent contact with case ground....not a good thing.

Sorry to butt in but I would try and reseat the RAM. To me it sounds like either the logic board is faulty or the RAM has worked it's way loose...or something has worked it's way loose. To go from a unit that works fine then goes kaput a day later just sounds like something worked its way loose to me, and you were inside the unit as welll.

Sorry to "counter butt in" but this might be of interest to you. I use the product Scannerz for testing, and SCSC just yesterday put out the following page on using Scannerz to isolate more complex problems on systems:

http://scsc-online.com/Advance%20Troubleshooting%20with%20Scannerz.html

Go to the site and do a search for the word "heat" and you'll see the following:

"If inconsistent irregularities or errors exist due to logic board faults, such as cracked traces or damaged connectors, their nature may vary as the system heats and cools. These can often be difficult to isolate because their nature is extremely erratic. If the problems are being caused by a faulty I/O cable, such as a FireWire, USB cable, or internal drive cable, the user may be able to actually induce errors or irregularities by moving the cable around during a test and seeing if specific cable orientations cause problems to vary."

and

"Irregularities that can be correlated to system heating should be considered significant."

(I copied and pasted that stuff from the web site..the fonts and colors are theirs, not mine) It's not a terribly long article but it points out a lot of problems in general terms, and unfortunately, the logic board damage seems to be the most likely culprit in your case.

You're right, it's a shame these things happen. I had a 15" Aluminum PowerBook and they're susceptible to developing cracks where the RAM chip sockets connect to the logic board. These eventually turn into breaks and some of the memory simply becomes invisible to the system. While they're in the process of breaking, it's a proverbial "food fight" of strange and erratic errors.

I don't have any of my manuals handy because I'm at home, but I think some of the newer units like yours have diagnostic ports that the Apple store can plug into and diagnose the system. You're units not that old, so maybe they'd do it for free. I suspect, however, they'll reach the conclusion that there's a system problem.

Retesting the RAM is a decent idea if you can do it for free. Maybe that article can point you in some other directions.

Good luck. I always have respect for those that actually open their systems up and make an effort to diagnose problems on their own.

Sevenupcan:

Did you ever find out what was wrong with the unit? Just curious.

Go to Disk Utility. Click 'Verify Disk' on your HD. 'Then repair Disk'.

I'm glad I was able to be of help. Hopefully the RAM will fix it. Let us know what happens.

Some more info overload 😝

Mac OS X 10.8x Help: Checking a disk to see if it’s going to fail

Failing Hard Drive Sounds

How to Tell When Your Hard Drive is Going to Fail

=====================

Be prepared for hard-drive failure