Is My Hard Drive Dying?

[barreltone]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a used Mac Pro, with a 1 TB Western Digital HD as the start-up disk. Twice now, in the last two weeks, the computer has crashed when doing fairly normal things (like browsing the internet). After reboot, I verified the disk both times, and it came up with errors, so I repaired from the SL DVD.

On my old G5 machine, I never had errors on a hard drive. Was I just lucky? Does this point to a potential hardware problem, or (please say no) do I need to start over and reinstall the OS and everything else again?

Any advice much appreciated!

Thank you!
Matt

[FMiguelez]

.

What kind of errors did Disk Utility report exactly?
Were they supposedly fixed and came up again in another repair?

[kgdrum]

fwiw I just bought a used MacPro.
The 1st thing I did was buy a new HD,actually I bought 2 identical HD's.
I will clone the boot drive so if it goes bad I will have all of my authorizations intact.
imo HD's are so cheap now,I'd rather start with a fresh new drive and have one less worry with setting up a used Mac.
good luck
KG

[bdr]

I agree with the others...I wouldn't take a chance on it. 1TB hard drives are pretty cheap here in Australia so they must be basically giving them away in the US. Get superduper or carbon copy cloner and back up nightly. My samples drive died a little while back and it was the one drive I hadn't backed up because I have all the original install disks..After spending hours and hours reloading all my sample libraries it's now got it's own backup drive also.

[barreltone]

Hi again, and thanks for the replies! FMiguelez, they were some time of volume mismatch, where it is so many files, but it thinks it's fewer, or something. Both times I verified again right after the disk repair, and the analysis came up with no problems after repair.

kgdrum, bdr, I totally get what you're saying about getting more drives. I think that's what I'll do. Clone it and back up to be sure.

Thanks again, everyone!

Matt

[mikehalloran]

Drives are cheap. If you suspect one replace it ASAP.

Then get a 2T drive and use it for Time Machine.

[daniel.sneed]

[...]I will clone the boot drive so if it goes bad I will have all of my authorizations intact.[...]

Some will and some won't. For some are HD related, while others are processor related.
But, for sure, a clone is still a great time saver in any kind of wreck.

[mikehalloran]

Cloning your hard drive will leave your iLok authorizations alone as well as serial number and MAC address verifications.

DP and other disk based authorizations will need to be re-done - no big deal unless you don't have the disks.

Internet authorizations such as Finale, IK and many others may require a call to tech support if not de-authorized before you switch drives. Explaining that the original hard drive crashed is a valid explanation and no one has given me grief over it.

Interestingly, moving your hard drive to another bay may require re-authorization also. If so, move it back, de-authorize and re-do after the swap or run the CD again if DP.

And no, there isn't a software program that gets around some of this. The software makers really, really don't want you to be able to pirate their wares.

[FMiguelez]

And no, there isn't a software program that gets around some of this. The software makers really, really don't want you to be able to pirate their wares.

How insensitive from their part!

[kgdrum]

I stand corrected a few auth's will need to be to be redone but many will not.
All in all we all seem to agree, hd's are so inexpensive now the OP should replace the original boot drive as well as backup.

[mikehalloran]

I stand corrected a few auth's will need to be to be redone but many will not.
All in all we all seem to agree,

Yep.

hd's are so inexpensive now the OP should replace the original boot drive as well as backup.

Again, yes!

For the main drive, a 1T, 1.5T or 2T drive spinning at 7,200 RPM is the basic requirement these days. There are only 4 makers anymore. I prefer the ones with 5 year warranties. BTW, an OEM drive means it comes bare - no software or cables, sometimes without mounting screws - if replacing an installed drive, you don't need that stuff anyway. Prices for 3 year 1T drives begin around $54.
Seagate 1T 7,200 RPM 5 year warr. $59.99
http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0334293" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
WD Caviar Black 5 year warr. $98
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western% ... D1002FAEX/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Backup drives can be slower, low-power "green" drives. You do not need speed for Time Machine. The WD 2T is out of stock at OWC but Micro Center still has them as well as the Seagate.
Seagate 2T w/ 5 year warr. $79.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0340562" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
WD Green 2T with 3 year warr, $79.99 (2 years ago I paid $214 for one of these!)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0331601" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

OWC has the new 3T WD Green. A $70 PCIe card to double the transfer rate from 3G to 6G is included in the $207 price.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western% ... 30EZRSDTL/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For G5 owners: Older G5s have a SATA transfer rate of 1.5Gs Many of the newer 6G compatible drives will not work in those machines. OWC lets you know which are incompatible but other vendors do not. The 1T and 2T drives listed above do as I have used them in my 1st gen G5.