Hard Drive Failure on MBP?

tonyallsopptonyallsopp
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
A few weeks ago I had some problems with my MBP, I had downloaded a few bits of software (a bit of software to give the secondary clicking on the trackpad - before the 10.4.7 release). I'm not sure if installing this was what caused the problem, but when I rebooted the machine the next day, I got the kernal panic screen.



I took it to my local Mac specialists, and they managed to get it up and running again, but mentioned that I might have a problem with the hard drive, and if so I would have to send it back to Apple. However they were very reluctant to make this diagnosis, and as yet I don't know if there is a problem with the HD.



But now when I boot up, just before the white "Apple" screen, it flashes the icon that means the system folder is missing, even though everything is still there, and in fact the OS was only installed a few weeks ago. I have been told that this is also a sign of possible HD failure. Can anyone tell me? Or does anyone know a sure-fire test on how to find out if my HD has problems?



Thanks in advance.

Tony

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 1
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    The question mark that briefly flashes up probably just means that the startup disk isn't properly registered in EFI, so it has to look for bootable partitions. To fix this:



    1.) Open system preferences



    2.) Click on "startup disk",



    3.) Select the folder in the list labelled "Mac OS X 10.4.x, etc.".



    4.) Close system prefs and re-start; the brief flashing question mark should be gone.



    For the "is my hard-drive breaking?" question:



    1.) Launch disk utility, which is in /applications/utilities



    2.) Select your hard drive from the list on the left (it'll probably be at the very top, with a name that starts with the drive's capacity, then an alpha-numeric string, then "media").



    3.) At the bottom of the window should be information about the disk, including "S.M.A.R.T. status:". Ensure that says "verified".



    4.) Click on "verify disk" to make sure it's O.K. (since this is your startup disk, I'd suggest quitting all your apps before doing that).



    Finally, back everything up, even if it all looks O.K.
Sign In or Register to comment.