OS High Sierra killed my Mac book pro

If you are getting S.M.A.R.T. errors, High Sierra did not do this. It just happened to be doing a lot of writes during the install that sent, the already in trouble disk, over the edge. Your disk has been dying for awhile, most likely doing lots of retires, and running slower than it should, when it finally started throwing errors that caused macOS take notice (disk controllers do retries without telling macOS it is doing it; macOS only knows there is an issue when after a single read retires hundreds of times and the disk does not succeed, then it tells macOS it could not read the data).

Rotational disks fail. Some fail young, some fail old, but eventually they all fail.

I've had more disk failures than I care to count, so I always maintain backups (multiple backups, using different backup utilities, going to different backup devices, with some of them stored off-site). I've been using computers for 45+ years as a programmer, and admin and as a user. Disks fail. Computers fail. Networking gear fails. Keyboards fail. Mice fail. Monitors fail. Some faster than others, but if you use it long enough, it will fail. And if it doesn't fail, it is only because the tech is so old it doesn't work with anything any more.

Hopefully have have current backups.

if I hadn’t of updated my MB Pro it would still be working now.

I’ve never had any problems with it and the performance is/was still mint.

Maybe, and maybe the disk would have failed next Tuesday. That disk was on the edge. Your old macOS version would not have stopped the failure. If your typical use did not do a lot of intense disk reads and writes (along the lines of an install that is replacing files, and adding new files (5'ish GB worth) in a short interval the old macOS version may have laster a bit longer, but eventually you have done something that would have pushed that disk over the edge.

I have always backed it up with time machine automatically to a external cloud drive. So I have no problems with data.

That is very good, and smart on your part.

If you are keeping this Mac Pro, you might consider getting an SSD. It will make your Mac Pro even faster.

<http://MacSales.com> is my SSD vendor of choice.

I guess I’m more annoyed that I put it off because I’ve heard so many issues with updating

Although there have been some widely scattered issues with HS listening to the complaints at the ASC and other sites is like visiting the ER of your city's biggest hospital and judging the health of the overall city on what you see. Remember those that post problems here are but a minuscule fraction of the users throughout the world using the same system.

Before you upgrade to any new system make sure you have all issues with your current system ironed out and a current backup of your disk.

If you have access to another Mac you can download the app and based on the model and year you got it you should be able to get the necessary info. Also on the MacBook Pro there should be info on the underside or inside the battery compartment that will give you the needed info regarding year, model.

Ga236 wrote:

Perfect bob thanks.

What will be the easiest way of finding my MB Pro’s Spec info? In its current state.

Somewhere on the case will be the serial number. Of course, it will be in a tiny font that would make a Lawyer envious 🙂

Once you have the serial number, you can take it to a site such as EveryMac.com and look up the Mac's specs

<https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup>

Hold down the Option key and go to the menu and select System Info.

In the first window under Hardware get the model number of your Mac:

Next download and run MacTracker. This app has all of the specs for all Macs ever built.

It's an amazing app.