Drive Failing?

[Washac]

Just looked at Disk Utility and it tells me I have a drive which is S.M.A.R.T Status : Failing

Also this message : The drive has a hardware problem that cannot be repaired.
Back up as much of the data as possible and replace the disk.

The drive still seems to be reading and writing OK, what on earth could be wrong with it ?

 

[AidenShaw]

Just looked at Disk Utility and it tells me I have a drive which is S.M.A.R.T Status : Failing

Also this message : The drive has a hardware problem that cannot be repaired.
Back up as much of the data as possible and replace the disk.

The drive still seems to be reading and writing OK, what on earth could be wrong with it ?

There are many different S.M.A.R.T. attributes - which one(s) is(are) failing? What are the details?

If you see a lot of "Reallocated sector" and "Pending bad block" failures, the drive is soon to be toast.

 

[Washac]

There are many different S.M.A.R.T. attributes - which one(s) is(are) failing? What are the details?

If you see a lot of "Reallocated sector" and "Pending bad block" failures, the drive is soon to be toast.

I did a Verify Disk and it does a list of checks that all come back OK and it finishes with this message : The Volume XXXXX appears to be OK.

 

[crjackson2134]

I did a Verify Disk and it does a list of checks that all come back OK and it finishes with this message : The Volume XXXXX appears to be OK.

I'm not an expert on this, but it sounds like the OS is doing a great job of keeping the file system intact even though the drive seems to be failing.

Drives are pretty inexpensive these days. Don't risk your data. I would replace the drive.

 

[Washac]

Thanks people, ordered a new one, it is only for storage so just have to move the stuff on it until the new one arrives.

 

[blesscheese]

I did a Verify Disk and it does a list of checks that all come back OK and it finishes with this message : The Volume XXXXX appears to be OK.

FYI, did you hit the "Info" button, when you have the disk highlighted? That will give you all the extra info about sectors, good/bad/reallocated.

Sounds like replacing the drive is a great idea, so the above is just for grins and giggles.

 

[AidenShaw]

Get SMART

I did a Verify Disk and it does a list of checks that all come back OK and it finishes with this message : The Volume XXXXX appears to be OK.

What is "Verify Disk" - does that run the S.M.A.R.T. self-test or is it an OS-level utility?

The disk maintains error logs and error statistics - look at those through S.M.A.R.T. for an accurate view of what's happened on the drive.

 

[Washac]

What is "Verify Disk" - does that run the S.M.A.R.T. self-test or is it an OS-level utility?

The disk maintains error logs and error statistics - look at those through S.M.A.R.T. for an accurate view of what's happened on the drive.

Sorry, yes Verify Disk is just OS level being part of Disk Utility that comes with the Mac OS. Just downloading the S.M.A.R.T utility for Mac and checked with that. Got a BIG red FAILED and this -
Reallocated Bad Sectors 4356.

 

[flowrider]

Just a Question - Since the drive is not a Boot Drive why did the OP use Disk Verify rather than Disk Repair? Yes, the disk is failing and should be replaced. But I'm puzzled by the use of Disk Verify rather than Disk Repair.

Lou

 

[Washac]

Just a Question - Since the drive is not a Boot Drive why did the OP use Disk Verify rather than Disk Repair? Yes, the disk is failing and should be replaced. But I'm puzzled by the use of Disk Verify rather than Disk Repair.

Lou

Why puzzled ? Right hand side bottom in the Disk Utility has Verify Disk and Repair Disk, both when chosen gave the same result, Oh and I am here reading my thread why not direct your question towards me, people here do not know why I did what I did, anyway it did not matter both choices lead to the same result.

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FYI, did you hit the "Info" button, when you have the disk highlighted? That will give you all the extra info about sectors, good/bad/reallocated.

Sounds like replacing the drive is a great idea, so the above is just for grins and giggles.

Just for the Grins n Giggles here is the result that the "Info" button gave me with the disk highlighted.

Name : XXXX
Type : Volume

Disk Identifier : disk2s2
Mount Point : /Volumes/XXXX
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : SATA
Device Tree : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/SATA@1F,2/PRT3@3/PMP@0
Writable : Yes
Universal Unique Identifier : 48CDEC36-50DC-3BC6-A01C-C57A8B9B468C
Capacity : 2 TB (2,000,054,980,608 Bytes)
Free Space : 1.53 TB (1,534,064,500,736 Bytes)
Used : 465.99 GB (465,990,479,872 Bytes)
Number of Files : 62,123
Number of Folders : 917
Owners Enabled : No
Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : Yes
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 2

Which does read a bit strangely because I do not boot from it and it does not have two partitions.

 

[flowrider]

Why puzzled ? Right hand side bottom in the Disk Utility has Verify Disk and Repair Disk, both when chosen gave the same result, Oh and I am here reading my thread why not direct your question towards me, people here do not know why I did what I did, anyway it did not matter both choices lead to the same result.

Sorry if I pissed you off The reason I asked the question is that Disk Verify is a passive test, it only reports errors. Disk Repair on the other hand has limited repair capability and sometime will repair a disk by mapping out bad sectors and etc. You may also want to consider Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro, they have more disc repair capability and can often times salvage a disk that Apple's Disk Repair can't. But, in any case, it's best to replace your offending drive. Again, didn't mean to incur your ire.

Aslo, IIMU that all HDDs and SSDs have at least 2 partitions. One is the the EFI partition and the other the storage partition.

Lou

 

[Washac]

Sorry if I pissed you off The reason I asked the question is that Disk Verify is a passive test, it only reports errors. Disk Repair on the other hand has limited repair capability and sometime will repair a disk by mapping out bad sectors and etc. You may also want to consider Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro, they have more disc repair capability and can often times salvage a disk that Apple's Disk Repair can't. But, in any case, it's best to replace your offending drive. Again, didn't mean to incur your ire.

Aslo, IIMU that all HDDs and SSDs have at leaf 2 partitions. One is the the EFI partition and the other the storage partition.

Lou

No problem, thanks for the pointer towards Disk Warrior and Tech Tool Pro, and the info regarding the partitions

 

[AidenShaw]

replace the disk ASAP

Sorry, yes Verify Disk is just OS level being part of Disk Utility that comes with the Mac OS. Just downloading the S.M.A.R.T utility for Mac and checked with that. Got a BIG red FAILED and this -
Reallocated Bad Sectors 4356.

That's very bad news - the disk is clearly failing due to major problems.

Even worse news will be if you look again and the number is climbing.

The reason the OS utility didn't report errors was because the disk is fixing the problems - but if sectors are going bad at a high rate it will soon die.

 

[Washac]

That's very bad news - the disk is clearly failing due to major problems.

Even worse news will be if you look again and the number is climbing.

The reason the OS utility didn't report errors was because the disk is fixing the problems - but if sectors are going bad at a high rate it will soon die.

New drive on order, sitting here at the moment copying all the files off the drive, thanks for your information etc

 

[AidenShaw]

New drive on order, sitting here at the moment copying all the files off the drive, thanks for your information etc

You're welcome.

If the number of bad sectors is higher when you're done, please post the new number here.

 

[Washac]

You're welcome.

If the number of bad sectors is higher when you're done, please post the new number here.

Number is the same "4356"