Fried Hard Drive?

Tricked

Hi,

I was shutting down my mac yesterday and safari froze so I held in the power button to shut down. When I rebooted the laptop the screen was stuck on the introduction spinning gear screen. I turned it off again, inserted the original software disc and tried to boot it from that by holding in C. When I got to the installation screen it said 'searching for hard drives' to install the software onto. After a few minutes it stopped searching and I could only click 'go back'.

Does this mean my hard drive is knackered? If so how much would a replacement/repaird cost? It's less than 2 years old and for a MacBook Pro 500gb. Any advice would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

Sad Professor

When booted from the install disc, but before you enter the installer, open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. See if the drive is showing up there. If so, try repairing it.

But yeah, it sounds like the hard drive is gone. It's easy and cheap enough to replace. You can do it yourself. Any 2.5-inch SATA drive should do the trick.

What exact model Macbook Pro is it? Is it a mid-2009 model? 13-inch unibody?

Tricked

Thanks for you're reply. I went into disk utility, clicked the 250gb Toshiba Hard drive icon, under which the macintosh HD icon is. I clicked repair and halfway through it I got a notification telling me that it failed and to back up as many files as possible and reformat the disk.

I'm new to all this so would it be better to drop it into a specialist or would a replacement be easy enough to do myself? The macbook was bought in August 2009, 13inch unibody. I thought it was a 500gb drive, but not 100% sure. I got a quote for €230 to get a new HD is it's the 500gb. Is this a lot?

I have most of my files backed up on and external drive. Would it be easy enought to restore all these if I opted to replace the drive myself?

Sad Professor

€230 is insane! Do it yourself, it's easy. Just make sure you have the right screwdrivers. Assuming it's the same model I have (mid-2009), then follow Apple's own guide here. You can get a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive for €50-80. Have a look on Komplett.

How are the files backed up? Time Machine?

stimpson

Try partitioning the drive in disk utility and restoring from time machine (if thats how you backed up)

I'm currently restoring my MacBook after a borked Boot Camp install this afternoon. PITA but it's not like I lost any data. It's times like this that I understand why Mac users have a reputation for smugness.

Tricked

Thanks again for the replies, glad to hear 230 is pricey! I'm not really sure what partitioning entails but as far as I can tell the hard drive is entirely scrapped. When I boot from the installation cd it doesn't even recognize the drive.

That screwdriver must work miracles for €50! It still sounds worth it as altogether with the new HD it seems to be half the price.

I have the files backed up on a time machine slot of a terrbyte drive. When I install the new HD is it a simple process of openning up time machine and clicking restore? Is there anything else I should do before starting the process? My last update was about a fortnight ago so not too many files should be missing.

Thank God for Boards!

Tricked

Here's a picture of the screws SadProfessor. Are these the same as yours do you think?

Not sure if that pic is working, here's the link http://s1094.photobucket.com/albums/i445/mcdonnp1/

Sad Professor

The screw doesn't tell me much I'm afraid. But if it's a 13-inch Macbook Pro and you got it in 2009, then it's definitely the same model I have, so the guide I posted is all you need.

The screwdriver shouldn't cost that much. Tesco were selling a box with all types of different screwdrivers for only a few euro a while ago.

As for restoring from TM, yeah it's straight-forward enough. You'll need to boot from the install disc. See here.

stimpson

A standard jewellers screwdriver set will sort that out.

To be honest, I'd be surprised if the drive is screwed. When you booted from the OSX CD and went into Disk Utility, if the drive is showing up there then it should be OK to partition it and restore with Time Machine.



See where it says 160.04 GB Hitachi (or whatever you have) If you click that then you should be able to click on the Partition tab on the right hand side and select a new Volume Scheme which delete the existing partition and create a new one. You can then attach your Time Machine drive via USB and restore your latest backup.

Tricked

Hmm, I went into partitition and clicked to create a new partition but got the following error message:
Partitition Failed with the error: POSIX Reports: The operation couldn't be completed. Cannot allocate memory.

Any ideas?

stimpson

There is a thread on apple.com about this. This has been suggested as a solution - worth a try


Hello,

my name is Walter, I'm from Berlin. I had the same problem on my MBP 17" 2.6 from April 2008. I made many replacements of HD's but the last three week I was near to get crazy.

I also get this message:

+POSIX report: The operation couldn't complete+
+Cannot allocate memory+

I thought the the new hard disks are damaged, but today I replaced the third HD and the problem was the same. So I asked some users of the german MacTechNews and there I get the information about this discussion on Apple's website.

I couldn't find a solution, only that the problem could be on SnowLeopard. So I called the german Apple-support. He was very friendly and we talked about the problem. Apple knows about the problem and he told me to do two important things before the replacement:

*1.) SMP-reset*

My MBP is from April 2008, so I can get out the battery. To do the SMP-reset shut down the computer, get out the battery and press the power button for 10-15 seconds. The get the battery back.

*2.) PRAM-reset*

After SMP-reset get in the battery and press the following keys on your keyboard: _*P R alt cmd_*
While you press this four keys, press the power button to start the computer. You have to press these four keys _*so long as you Mac makes two times the start tone.*_

So you made the SMP- & PRAM-reset. These two methods set the hardware drivers back. These drivers are the problem for the POSIX report under Snow Leopard.

After this I could replace, formate and backup my new WD BlackScorpio 500GB in 1 hour.

I hope this solution will help and I also hope that Apple will inform users about the problem. I don't know how this work on unibody MB/MBP 'cause you can not replace the battery for a SMP-reset. Maybe this is only a problem of "older" Books. But I think it is a problem of SnowLeopard.

Best regards from Berlin
Walter

PS: don't be worry about my bad english

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2146924?start=210&tstart=0

Tricked

Wow looks good, thanks Stimpson, I'll give that a shot when I get a screwdriver.

While I'm at it and openning the mac, my battery has displayed a 'service battery' warning for a while. Are these equally easy to replace or would I need to go through a reseller?

Sad Professor

The battery isn't considered user-replaceable. Apple insist on doing it for you despite it being very easy to do yourself. They won't sell you the battery though. However, an Authorised Apple Service Provider should replace the battery for you for €129 including labour. Be careful they don't try and scam you.

Alternatively you could get the battery from Ebay and do it yourself, but you are taking a risk as it might not be genuine. Unless somebody else can recommend a good site for getting a genuine Apple battery, I think I'd just suggest going the AASP route. 129 isn't too bad and is what the old replaceable batteries used to cost anyway.

Tricked

Thanks again. Going to search for a new drive now and will let you know if I get sorted. Brilliant advice!