MacBook Pro Is my hard drive failing?

[Babyt]

i have a stock hdd in my 8 month old mbp.
i think its failing because my laptop is beach balling ALOT in random places, and I'm having to force quit programs such as pages or safari. Sometimes the load times are long and its just isn't smooth anymore, lots of lag.
Yesterday i was sitting in my room when my laptop started making a scratching noise [only way i could describe it] i know what my hdd sounds like normally cause its quite loud, but this was completely different.

also I backed-up my hdd with time machine, in case it does die. Is this enough? I'm really unsure on what to do.. i have ALOT of projects on my mbp from school and work that i don't want to loose, what i asking is if my hdd dies and Apple gives me a new one, can i use time machine to get EVERYTHING back smoothly, or should i use something like carbon copy cloner?

I have 8gb memory so its not a memory problem.

 

[Apple4me]

Take it to the genius bar. If they determine it's a bad hard drive, they will replace it. And, yes, you can restore everything from a time machine backup, I've done it

 

[psylichon]

Have you made any changes to your network setup recently? Added any iOS apps that interact with your MBP via wifi?

 

[Babyt]

Take it to the genius bar. If they determine it's a bad hard drive, they will replace it. And, yes, you can restore everything from a time machine backup, I've done it

the closest Apple store is about 2 hours away from me...

weird question but how do i do restore a backup? for future reference..

 

[Babyt]

Have you made any changes to your network setup recently? Added any iOS apps that interact with your MBP via wifi?

nope...

and this has been going on for a while.. its progressively getting worse...

 

[iP5]

Thought you replaced the drive with a Seagate hybrid?

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

 

[Babyt]

Thought you replaced the drive with a Seagate hybrid?

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

never got around to buying one.

 

[cindra]

I had all the same symptoms (except for the odd noises) on my MacBook Pro and I never did figure out what caused them. I recently reinstalled my OS completely from scratch (not from a previous Time Machine backup) and the symptoms stopped, so I'm guessing the Macs do get crapped up and suffer from fragmentation and other issues just like Windows computers do...I dunno.

 

[Babyt]

I had all the same symptoms (except for the odd noises) on my MacBook Pro and I never did figure out what caused them. I recently reinstalled my OS completely from scratch (not from a previous Time Machine backup) and the symptoms stopped, so I'm guessing the Macs do get crapped up and suffer from fragmentation and other issues just like Windows computers do...I dunno.

i don't know how to do that. and i don't want to loose stuff.
ill probably ask my professor [whose mac friendly] to show me how to do it.

 

[MuddyPaws]

I had all the same symptoms (except for the odd noises) on my MacBook Pro and I never did figure out what caused them. I recently reinstalled my OS completely from scratch (not from a previous Time Machine backup) and the symptoms stopped, so I'm guessing the Macs do get crapped up and suffer from fragmentation and other issues just like Windows computers do...I dunno.

Yes they do.

 

[acosmichippo]

You can try running the Apple hardware test. Turn your Mac off, back on, and hold "d" until a loadin screen appears. Might take a couple minutes. Then select the thorough test. The AHT isn't 100% accurate, though. It does sometimes pass things that are on the verge of failing or have not completely failed.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

If that passes, the next thing I'd do is a repair disk in Disk Utility.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1417

If you still experience problems after all that (especially unusual sounds), you might need to get Apple involved for warranty work. Since you're 2 hours away from an Apple store, you might be able to call their phone support and see what they can do for you.

And there are a few ways to restore time machine data. In the case of a new hard drive, you will get prompted to transfer data from another Mac, from a windows computer, from a time machine backup, or not at all during the Mac setup process. If you choose to not transfer then, you can do it later by opening "Migration Assistant".

Regarding fragmentation, OSX automatically hadles fragmentation of files 20MB and smaller. So if you are the kind of person that deletes or edits large files a lot (like movies or very large photos), then your hard drive can get quite fragmented

 

[Europa]

Regarding fragmentation, OSX automatically hadles fragmentation of files 20MB and smaller. So if you are the kind of person that deletes or edits large files a lot (like movies or very large photos), then your hard drive can get quite fragmented

Does disk utility repair the fragmentation?

 

[acosmichippo]

No, you have to get a third- party app to defrag, or just reinstall OSX.

I use iDefrag once in a while. Can't remember how much it costs... I think it was $20.

I hope Apple revisits their "20MB or less" strategy soon. Maybe that was OK for people 10 years ago, but now with iTunes movies, TV shows, high-pixel photos, etc... It's only going to get worse.

 

[Babyt]

You can try running the Apple hardware test. Turn your Mac off, back on, and hold "d" until a loadin screen appears. Might take a couple minutes. Then select the thorough test. The AHT isn't 100% accurate, though. It does sometimes pass things that are on the verge of failing or have not completely failed.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

If that passes, the next thing I'd do is a repair disk in Disk Utility.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1417

If you still experience problems after all that (especially unusual sounds), you might need to get Apple involved for warranty work. Since you're 2 hours away from an Apple store, you might be able to call their phone support and see what they can do for you.

And there are a few ways to restore time machine data. In the case of a new hard drive, you will get prompted to transfer data from another Mac, from a windows computer, from a time machine backup, or not at all during the Mac setup process. If you choose to not transfer then, you can do it later by opening "Migration Assistant".

Regarding fragmentation, OSX automatically hadles fragmentation of files 20MB and smaller. So if you are the kind of person that deletes or edits large files a lot (like movies or very large photos), then your hard drive can get quite fragmented

oh yes I'm constantly photoshopping and playing with large files.
I'll try these methods.


Do y'all think I should try a clean install and then put all my info back onto the mbp with time machine?

 

[acosmichippo]

Try what I suggested first. If that doesn't help, then that might be a good idea.

Of course, if it really is a bad HDD, then it's only going to prolong your frustration.

 

[iP5]

can you run a disk check for signs of trouble in OS X?

 

[acosmichippo]

disk utility can give you warnings if it detects something off. Not sure what exaclty it looks for though... probably just SMART failures.

Otherwise, there's the Apple Hardware Test built-into the hard drive.

 

[cindra]

I used my Time Machine backup, but I picked and chose individual files from it (music, documents, photos) rather than letting it restore all the files in it for me. I read that if you use Migration Assistant or restore from the backup it overwrites things so you're just wasting your time doing a new clean install because it will write the iffy stuff right back to the drive.

I did just run across this today; I don't know your habits but I know that you do graphic work--

http://www.macworld.com/article/163321/2011/10/mac_os_x_trojan_steals_processing_power_to_produce_bitcoins.html#lsrc.rss_main

 

[Babyt]

ok.. I'm going to wait till the weekend cause i need my mac for the week and in case something horrible happens.