Q: Mac keeps freezing after Mavericks 1.9.2 clean install

The problems you seem to be having are really erratic. If you have access to another external bootable drive, try and boot from it. If you have bootable media like install media, see if it will start from that. The idea being to make sure the logic board is working properly. If the logic board is working properly, I can think of the following possibilites:

• The USB case is under powered or marginally powered. I know you tried this already, but try the same NVRAM reset experiment with 2 USB cables plugged in again. Some USB cases have two USB ports on them, one that's used for data and one that's used to provide supplemental power. If the drive draws too much power, 2 USB cables need to be used to power them up properly. This is a characteristic of very low cost enclosures. Marginally powered might explain the "shows up one time and not the next" syndrome. I think you tried this already. I haven't been following this thread that closely. I have a case sitting here, not 3 feet away from me that has this same syndrome - works fine with one drive, on another it will turn the drive activity  lights on but do nothing more, with another drive it will work sometimes with one port plugged in, and yet with another drive, it won't work at all.

• The drive is just plain failing and failing hard. The "It just found 86 bad blocks" comment during a test is typical of a failing drive. It's not unusual to see them crop up once in a while and get remapped, but 86 is alot, and I assume at that time you made the comment, the test wasn't even done. That's typical of bearing failure. The platter wobbles, albeit in tiny increments, but the drive heads ride over the platter in a distance of nanometers. It's enough to cause the drive heads to start gouging into the media and rampantly destroying sectors. It could be the bearings associated with the acuator as well, but it doesn't really matter, it would signify the drive is dead or dying.

At this point I'd be most concerned about verifying whether or not the logic board can go through basic start up routines and loading of even basic install media, because that would tell you the logic board is working. The best idea I can think of is to try and either boot from another drive, if you have one, or find someone locally that can put their systems into target mode allowing you to boot from it. Try to maintain consistent test conditions.

I hope these comments help in some way. Problems like this can be a real b*tch to solve.

Oh, and another comment I should add is about the "Windows Drivers." Alot of this stuff is add-on products that the manufacturer of the enclosure gets paid a commission for if you end up buying some third party product. This is typically backup software, or God knows, anything else. I actually looked at one enclosure that had a "dating service" supplied in its "drivers" set. Just exactly, what are they "driving?"

Mr JD has a good point. It may just be that the drive is nearing the end. The purpose of this whole thing with the enclosure was to determine if it was the drive or the cable. It's certainly looking like the drive at this point. Do you have access to another bare drive you can use as a test?

Hi Suhov and Bob and all.

At last, I am home again.

Then my Finder crashed every minute, took me an hour to find out that it this caused by GoogleDrive and had to uninstall GoogleDrive. Had to sync everything to another Cloud service.

OK, now this brain teaser:  I still have the impression that that are two possible causes, the Mushkin Ram, or a software crap.

Not much to see in your original etrecheck list. It would be interesting to see a problem report.

What is a bit frustrating to see that there is so few on your main disk:

"Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 749,3 GB (730,77 GB free)"

you have said that it is the original disk and that DiskUtility did not give any error except the canceled blocks.

Do you by any chance have system components or the user library moved on another disk? It can hardly be that everything is on your main disk (18.5GB). Did you ever use tools like CleanMyMac or Mackeeper, and the like, to "clean" your mac?

I think Bob was on the right track about the disk: a small chance that it is having some issues, but still.... To follow that thought, we do not need any disk tools for repair (like DiskWarrior), but we can do a scan with a tool that does more than read the s.m.a.r.t. data, I don't know any such tool. Lately there is a tool however on the Appstore that has new formulas built in that do a sort of health calculation, called DriveDx. It is paid software. From the developers website (binaryfruit.com/drivedx) you can download a trial, we do not need it but for one time only, so a trial is OK, we can uninstall it afterwards and no money lost.

Lex

Reading from your post in my mail: this DriveDx list, I think, means that the disk is OK, but the disk controller is having an issue. I would not spend any more time and replace the disk for a new one (500GB about 60$).

Just to add something... Lex, good idea on the test, and it sounds like we eliminated the cable, which is good news since that cable costs almost as much as a new drive. One thing I'd like to know is if the new drive works in the enclosure that Suhov bought. At least we'll know if the enclosure is good for future use. Suhov, all you'd have to do is put the new drive in the enclosure and see if you can see it with Disk Utility. I hope it's good, those enclosures are great for both troubleshooting and backup, and it's always worth having one around.

On your Mac Pro, I read that as the drive is going to fail at some point relatively soon. Lex? You know this software.

One other thing on the MBP. Since you have to replace your old drive, you might want to consider a hybrid like this. Not as overall fast as a true SSD, but significantly faster than a regular HD from what I've read and much cheaper than an SSD.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Solid-Hybrid-2-5-Inch-ST1000LM014/dp/B00B99JUBQ/re f=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1397408879&sr=1-1&keywords=seagate+hybrid+2.5

@suhov: I am referring to the main drive WesternDigital, but the other one is clearly failing.

@Bob I think a little test with the external enclosure with a good disk, will clearly show whether it is good or not.

After all you have to keep on helping here you already foud the "solution" in your first post .

Reading the whole thread again, I must say the Java developer also had the impression based on the bad blocks (which is not really the cause, but the disk was failing).

@Suhov again: maybe you buy two good disks of a good brand, but never use the socalled 'smart' diskutilities software that come with the disks; just partition GUID Partition table, and format Mac OS Extended (journaled).

Lex

(not all your posts are here when I type this).

@All: your posts are not yet in my thread here. But to explain my earlier post: one disk really failing, the other one having a problem. So TWO new disks.

You need the enclosure and CCC to do the swaps.

"I was so excited I accidentally pressed on it as a solution".

No problem Suhov, I am here just for fun, and I am not interested in points at all, and I think, that is also true for most of us here.