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MacBook hard drive failure epidemic

I'm an IT guy at a medium size ad agency and I've had 3 MacBook hard drives die in the a similar way in the past 3 months. I'm told that the computer was on low battery when they put the machine to sleep and the next day (or later) that machine failed to restart. Even with the power adapter a restart produced only a flashing question mark. All the user's information is completely gone and not retrievable.

Here are the troubleshooting steps I've completed with no positive results:
1) Reset PRAM and PMU
2) Startup from install disks and run Disk Utility. DU doesn't even see the drive! Even Target disk mode doesn't reveal the drive.
3) Archive and install; the installer doesn't see the drive
4) Swapped the drive into another machine; drive not recognized
5) Disk Warrior, Data Rescue, DDRescue, SpinRite can't see the drive.
6) Moved the drive to an enclosure and still doesn't not mount or appear for programs in item 5
7) Put the drive in the freezer for a weekend (thawed for 1 day) and tried again.
-- No I'm getting desperate... and ******
7) I buy a matching replacement drive (Fujitsu 2.5" 60GB SATA) and swap the electronics. No difference.
** all machines were fairly up-to-date (10.4.8-10.4.9) and we do have a backup system and plan in place but it's not always reliable with active email databases (Thanks Microsoft).

All three of the drives prviously mentioned exhibited this same behavior. It is probably a problem in the boot sector of the drive. But what could have happened to this drive that you can't even format the drive? It's not crashed heads or a few bad sectors. There has be a way to access these drives.

I have about 20 MacBooks in circulation and plan on getting more, but I won't be able to keep people's faith if their email and documents keep getting trashed.

MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on May 15, 2007 9:52 AM

Reply
91 replies

May 17, 2007 9:06 AM in response to Kevin Duane

Odd- same thing happened to me this morning. Screen froze, I restarted, and got a folder with question mark. Started with Disk Warrior but my drive wasn't seen. Would like to try AppleCare CD but can't eject Disk Warrior.

I'll keep trying same things you did and whatever else I can think of in the meantime. First time in 10 years and 5 macs I've ever had a problem, so I can't whine. Yet.

MacBook Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.9)
MacBook Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.9)

May 17, 2007 10:49 AM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

I have and am getting a replacement but it still doesn't answer the REAL question about what is wrong with these drives and why are they completely unaccessible/unusable. And is this going to happen to all the MacBooks I'm responsible for.

I've also heard that even if you ask nicely (w/$$) Apple will not let you keep the dead drive. I have a backup system but would like to still do forensics on the drive.

May 17, 2007 11:58 AM in response to Kevin Duane

Just got off the phone with AppleCare and getting a new hard drive tomorrow. He offered to send a drive but I need to go near an Apple store tomorrow so I'm getting one there. Good chance to talk about case discoloration & battery as well.

It doesn't sound like keeping the old drive will be a problem, but if it is I'll just have a new one sent. I would like to try to recover what hadn't been backed up.

I had a 160GB SATA 2.5 as an external drive which screwed up within 3 months this year. I doubt that SATA is the problem, but I WAS bummed to lose the music I had on there.

MacBook Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.9)

May 17, 2007 1:04 PM in response to Kevin Duane

Did your drive crash after it went to sleep? or the battery fully drained out?

I have been reading some interesting and slightly disturbing posts about SafeSleep mode and how it can hose your drive.
http://www.silvermac.com/2006/how-to...ro-hard-drive/

Here's a quote from that article:
This is what Apple’s MBP manual states:
Warning: Wait a few seconds until the white sleep indicator light on the display latch starts pulsating (indicating that the computer is in sleep and the hard disk has stopped spinning) before you move your MacBook Pro. Moving your computer while the hard disk is spinning can damage the hard disk, causing loss of data or the inability to start up from the hard disk.

I don't know how or if it is related but if the battery is running out of juice (as my users reported) and the computer goes to sleep maybe it corrupts the disk with the SafeSleep ram dump.

May 17, 2007 1:09 PM in response to Kevin Duane

Posted about this back in January ( http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3993207#3993207) so it's been going on for some time now. Personally, I think it's either the sudden motion sensor (useless POS feature) or a mainboard problem. Apple didn't know what to do about it at the time, they just wanted to replace the drive. But it's not the drive.

This new update doesn't look like much of a screamer, so I imagine they finally addressed the problem in these new models (one can only hope).

May 17, 2007 4:40 PM in response to Kevin Duane

I have and am getting a replacement but it still doesn't answer the REAL question about what is wrong with these drives and why are they completely unaccessible/unusable.


Apple isn't going to provide you with an answer like that. It's unlikely, without the drives, that anyone here could answer that question either. Most likely they want the drives to diagnose on their own to determine what's happening.

-Doug

May 17, 2007 9:31 PM in response to neonsox

Same thing happened to my MacBook this evening. It froze/locked up. I tried to reboot, and it will not reboot. I occasionally get the shadow-folder with the question mark, but that's it. It's also clicking and making odd noises, like something came loose inside. I tried rebooting from a disc, but it did nothing, and now the disc is stuck in the CD drive.

I tried making an appointment at the Apple store to have it looked at, but it keeps telling me all appointments are booked. I guess I should call Apple Support now? I make much of my living using the MacBook.

May 18, 2007 1:54 AM in response to Nebula1400

Yep same thing happened to me last night too. I managed to get the disk that was in there out in the end by putting the MacBook on a flat surface, then rebooting using the 'hold down trackpad button' method and also hitting the eject key a few times - can't say for sure which button did it as nothing happened at the start when I booted holding down the trackpad button. It came out eventually though. Booted up with the install disk and DU can't see the harddisk. Off to the apple store - what are my chances of recovering anything from this drive? I'm guessing not good 😟

May 18, 2007 4:54 PM in response to Ticky

I just got back from the Apple store. I was told I couldn't keep the old drive so I'm going to install one I got from a friend when he installed a 160GB in his MacBook. The repair order noted that the drive was bad and I chose to do the work instead of them. I guess I'll see how it works out if it happens in the future and I try for a replacement MB.

Now that I'm home I tried installing it in an external SATA case and it makes loud clicking noises. So much for getting my work off of it.

And Nebula1400, sorry but what you hear is the hard drive death rattle.

On the good side, Apple was willing to do the HD swap and while I was there swapped the battery and changed the discolored case.

MacBook Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.9)

MacBook Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.9)

May 18, 2007 5:24 PM in response to Kevin Duane

Kevin - if the hard drive on your computers are dead then I don't see how Safe Sleep could be the cause. All Safe Sleep is doing is saving the computer's state to the hard drive so that if power is totally lost, you can start your computer with your programs launched and your files open just as they were when the computer was put to sleep. (I'm sure you already know this but others reading the thread may not.)

Assuming the battery become depleted while the data was being written, the safe sleep would fail. Sure, I can see how this might cause a hosed directory resulting in data loss but not killing the drive altogether. What I do find very likely is that the users didn't wait for the computer to go to sleep before moving their computer and that this resulted in the death of their drives. It is also possible that the drive manufacturer had a bad run, though I've not heard any rumblings of this type.

May 18, 2007 6:01 PM in response to dwb

I think I agree and according to Apple’s MBP manual:

Warning: Wait a few seconds until the white sleep indicator light on the display latch starts pulsating (indicating that the computer is in sleep and the hard disk has stopped spinning) before you move your MacBook Pro. Moving your computer while the hard disk is spinning can damage the hard disk, causing loss of data or the inability to start up from the hard disk.
-- thanks to: http://www.silvermac.com/2006/how-to-save-your-macbook-pro-hard-drive/

I hope this doesn't become a huge problem because I tested it with my MBP with 2GB ram and it takes about a good minute for the sleep light to start oscillating. I also hope someone figures out how to recover these drives when they do fail because all other previous methods don't seem to work.

I even got desperate enough to move the platters to a duplicate model drive and results were still the same. It was kind of fun and not that hard to do with some practice (used other old drives).

Thanks for the reply.

Kevin - if the hard drive on your computers are dead
then I don't see how Safe Sleep could be the cause.
All Safe Sleep is doing is saving the computer's
state to the hard drive so that if power is totally
lost, you can start your computer with your programs
launched and your files open just as they were when
the computer was put to sleep. (I'm sure you already
know this but others reading the thread may not.)

Assuming the battery become depleted while the data
was being written, the safe sleep would fail. Sure, I
can see how this might cause a hosed directory
resulting in data loss but not killing the drive
altogether. What I do find very likely is that
the users didn't wait for the computer to go to sleep
before moving their computer and that this resulted
in the death of their drives. It is also possible
that the drive manufacturer had a bad run, though
I've not heard any rumblings of this type.




MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

MacBook hard drive failure epidemic

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