MacBook Pro 13" (mid-2012) very very slow - is my harddrive broken?

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Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro 13" (mid-2012) very very slow - is my harddrive broken?

Since a few days, my Macbook has been acting up. It boots & acts slowly, but without error, but even simple things like clicking a link on a website can take 30 seconds to react. There is 300gb+ space on the HD. The last time machine backup (20 gb) took ~12 hours. I tried a virus scan (nothing came up), activity levels for both cpu and memory are low (less than 10%). Tried running disk utility, it found some errors but allegedly repaired them. Apple Hardware Test says everything is fine. Anything else I can do to nail down the culprit? I'd like to be sure before I make an investment, if it is the harddrive i'll likely switch to SSD on this occasion.

Thanks for any help, pardon the brevity, am typing this on my phone. Hope I didn't miss any crucial information.

J.

Posted on Jun 24, 2014 11:33 AM

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Answer 1

dominic23

Level 10

83,916 points

Jun 24, 2014 11:52 AM in response to ichflippaus

OS X Mavericks: If your Mac runs slowly?

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13895

Startup in Safe Mode

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14204

Repair Disk

Steps 1 through 7

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836

Reset SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Choose the method for:

"Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".

Run Etrecheck and look for and remove third party apps that may slow down the computer.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6173

If you are running any Google apps, try without those.

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Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jun 24, 2014 11:58 AM in response to ichflippaus

If this started happening without your having made any changes and without a warning of low disk space, then it's likely that the startup drive, or some other hardware component, is failing. Back up all data immediately, then run Apple Diagnostics or the Apple Hardware Test.

Even if the test is negative, you should make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested more thoroughly.

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Answer 3

ichflippaus Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 10, 2014 2:59 AM in response to ichflippaus

Three weeks later, it turns out that this was due to a defective hard drive cable.

I ran all the test you suggested, however these didn't fix the problem, but they did help narrow down the problem. I also ran Ubuntu on a LiveCD which worked smoothly, so I suspected it is the hard drive and bought a replacement. This however failed to format after I put it in.The error message was "partition failed wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed". Some further research revealed that this was most likely due to a defective cable, so I replaced that as well, and now everything runs like a charm.

Positive side effect: Replacing the HDD with an SSD massively sped up the machine. Boot times are down to 15 seconds from 2 minutes. It feels like a new computer. Thrilled.

Thanks again for your help!

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