Hard Drive Help (Words Of Wisdom)

[DigitalGod]

I am running DP on my Powerbook 12" 1.33ghz 512meg of ram.
My machine is 18 months old and I am beginning to have HD trouble.
Whinning and beach ball hell.
It is an 80gig 540rpm apple order drive.

Before I replace it I have a few questions for those of you wisemen in the know....

Can I use 1 usb drive (2.0) to start my laptop (system software) and also to run apps like DP- successfully?...if anything, at least until I get a new internal HD.

If yes what should I get? There are alot of $120 usb 2.0 drives

I believe I once read of troubles with Firewire 828mk2 with a HD on same line??

Any informed feedback appreciated.\\

[thgmusic]

I am pretty certain that you cannot boot from a USB drive. I just did a quick search on the Apple support page, but couldn't find corroboration for that.

Anyone else with either confirmation of this, or contrary evidence?

Thanks,
Brad Pearson
THG Music
Spokane WA

[studiodog]

I did a search there as well. No boot from USB apparently.
If it's only 18 months old it shouldn't be bad. It's probably just a software problem. I'd try a full erase and reinstall. That should fix it unless it is a hardware problem.

If you do have to get a new internal drive you should know that 7200 rpm is available for PBooks.

[jaffi]

First thing you should do is open up Disk Utility and check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your drive. If it says verified then it is "supposedly" ok, then I would just repair permissions. If it says something other than verified you are having hardware problems.

[DigitalGod]

Hi, thanks for the replies.

Okay so it did show up as SMART failure a week ago.

I decided to reformat anyway yesterday (right or wrong?)

I did a zero level reformat, it took many hours...

I then had HD problems after reinstall of OSX (wouldn't see Sampletank install cd, would fereeze-beachball style)

I then did a regular HD erase and another reinstall, everything seemed fine until I started using DP with Sampletank, crashing...more beachball.



The problem with HD actually appears to have begun in Sept. I had just started a weekly radio show that is pre-recorded. I naturally wanted a record of my 1st show. I left my computer on overnight recording my show and I awoke one morning to the whinning of the HD and a DP had crashed. (the computer had been running/recording approx: 7 hrs)


After then the problem went away after restart but periodically returned.

I guess it is a new internal HD for me...7200rpm, 8mb you say...just as well maybe, mine was a 5400...now to find the $$$ to pay for it.

[jonnyfive]

Yeah, I have a 12" 1.33 too, and my 80G HD died too, but then again mine "fell" of a table. I looked into getting a hitachi 7200, but I couldn't find one for sale in the US. Apple ended up replacing the drive, so if you have apple care they should replace it for free, free is still better imo than 7200rpm, but check out this review of the seagate momentus 7.2k
Good Luck.

PS Disk warrior somehow repaired my disk enough (from unbootable) to back up all my info, fyi.

[DigitalGod]

Weirdest thing, after two days of HD whining when I tryed to reboot (and no HD recognition from OSX disc, I now am writing this email from PB. Don't know how long it will last. Unfortunately I have no extended apple care.

Que sera-sera

New HD for me.

[studiodog]

You've probably read it but this thread is down a few on this page.

Advice wanted in upgrading laptop hard drive