Issues with 2008 unibody Macbook hard drive

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Issues with 2008 unibody Macbook hard drive

Hello all,

I have a late 2008 unibody macbook, 2ghz with upgraded RAM to 4gb and a recently installed 1tb hard drive.

The mac was running fine until a few months ago when it started being very sluggish particularly on startup and even during general use. A while back I wiped and reinstalled using a time machine backup. Basically it has started playing up again and wanted to know if the hard drive is ruined and needs replacing. It is only 110gb full but when trying to wipe it again, disk utility says its SMART status is not supported.

Any help would be much appreciated

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Sep 5, 2013 12:09 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 5, 2013 7:26 PM in response to Jameslilford

To view S.M.A.R.T status, select the hard drive manufacture name on the left, not MacintoshHD.

Have you checked to see if the startup disk needs repairing?

Launch Disk Utility located in HD > Applications > Utillities

Select the startup disk on the left then select the First Aid tab.

Click: Verify Disk (not Verify Disk Permissions)

If DU reports errors, start up your Mac install disc to make repairs. Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard: How to Erase and Install

And remove all items in System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items

Same for HD > Library > StartupItems

Restart your Mac to see if startup is faster.

Tutorial: Resolving slow startup: Speeding up Mac OS X boot time | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews

Mac troubleshooting: What to do when your computer is too slow | Macworld

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Answer 2

Jameslilford Author

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Sep 6, 2013 2:46 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks for your reply Carolyn. It appears that as I expected the hard drive I installed last year is corrupted, the S.M.A.R.T status says it is not supported so it has somehow become useless. I have removed the drive and reinstalled the default apple one and everything seems to be working fine now. Basically I will not be using a CnMemory HDD ever again.

Is there any way to explain why the drive has been ruined? Maybe 1terabyte is too large? Think I will get a 500gb one next time, any suggestions for the most suitable/best to buy?

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