Resolved I'm not sure if it's because of my MBP or not...

[ZapNZs]

This will tell you if the hard drive is likely failing or not, and it will give you the numbers you can provide to a technician https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

Depending on what the results are, this may determine what you will want to ask the technician to do or check.


If you decide to try it, posting these two screen shots of the stats would be helpful in seeing the drive specifics.

(There are other programs that can do this too, such as GSmartControl, but I don't have personal experience using them)

 

[a-m-k]

This will tell you if the hard drive is likely failing or not, and it will give you the numbers you can provide to a technician https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

Depending on what the results are, this may determine what you will want to ask the technician to do or check.


If you decide to try it, posting these two screen shots of the stats would be helpful in seeing the drive specifics.



View attachment 686614
View attachment 686615

(There are other programs that can do this too, such as GSmartControl, but I don't have personal experience using them)

Thank you, but I can't seem to get the whole screen into a screen shot when taking a picture..... Is there anything in particular you would like to know in the reading?

 

[ZapNZs]

Thank you, but I can't seem to get the whole screen into a screen shot when taking a picture..... Is there anything in particular you would like to know in the reading?

In the Problem Summary section, are there any problems listed?
In the specs section, what is the load/unload cycle count?
What is the overall health rating of the drive?

This should help give us an idea if the drive is on the brink of total failure or if the drive is OK and your issues might be related to something else.

 

[a-m-k]

I hope the file I attached is sufficient enough. I couldn't share it the way I know how to do easily. Please let me know if it's not helpful. Thank you.

 

[ZapNZs]

Your hard drive does not appear to be failing, even though it is aging and nearing the end of its service life due to the higher load/unload cycle count. While going to a SSD will help performance, I do not believe it is at immediate risk of failing in the short term. So if you want to continue to use the drive until you decide whether you want to upgrade your current computer or purchase a MBA, I don't think this will be a risk in regards to the hard drive itself.


If you would like to run a further diagnostic test before seeing the technician, the Apple Hardware Test will check for a variety of component failures, such as the RAM. This can help us rule out the probability that another part of the computer is failing. This explains how to use it:
http://osxdaily.com/2016/06/25/how-to-use-apple-hardware-test-to-diagnose-mac-problems/


When you see the technician, if you wish to continue using the current hard drive for at least a little while, you may want to request that they run a program called DiskWarrior on the drive. Because the drive appears healthy, and you had problems running DiskUtility, your issues could be related to a problem with the directory itself. DiskWarrior will repair this by rebuilding the directory. Most of the Apple Authorized Service Providers in my area will do this service free of charge: they may also offer it in the Apple Store.

I would also request that the technician run M.R.I., which will check your battery, in addition to a wide variety of other things, and provide more detailed information than the standard battery monitor can.

 

[a-m-k]

Your hard drive does not appear to be failing, even though it is aging and nearing the end of its service life due to the higher load/unload cycle count. While going to a SSD will help performance, I do not believe it is at immediate risk of failing in the short term. So if you want to continue to use the drive until you decide whether you want to upgrade your current computer or purchase a MBA, I don't think this will be a risk in regards to the hard drive itself.


If you would like to run a further diagnostic test before seeing the technician, the Apple Hardware Test will check for a variety of component failures, such as the RAM. This can help us rule out the probability that another part of the computer is failing. This explains how to use it:
http://osxdaily.com/2016/06/25/how-to-use-apple-hardware-test-to-diagnose-mac-problems/


When you see the technician, if you wish to continue using the current hard drive for at least a little while, you may want to request that they run a program called DiskWarrior on the drive. Because the drive appears healthy, and you had problems running DiskUtility, your issues could be related to a problem with the directory itself. DiskWarrior will repair this by rebuilding the directory. Most of the Apple Authorized Service Providers in my area will do this service free of charge: they may also offer it in the Apple Store.

I would also request that the technician run M.R.I., which will check your battery, in addition to a wide variety of other things, and provide more detailed information than the standard battery monitor can.

Thank you, the Disk Warrior app you mention might have been something I tried before, however, it might have been a demo. I'll see if I can get it back and use it again. I'll post the results here if I can get the app back. I might purchase and download the Disk Warrior.

I'll let you all know results with a screen shot when I can. Thank you.

 

[a-m-k]

View attachment 686595

I ran macmechanic and the I got more space listed. It still takes a few seconds to load. I am not sure if its fixed, but there are things unrelated that are different. I don't know how it happened.

 

[ZapNZs]

Thank you, the Disk Warrior app you mention might have been something I tried before, however, it might have been a demo. I'll see if I can get it back and use it again. I'll post the results here if I can get the app back. I might purchase and download the Disk Warrior.

I'll let you all know results with a screen shot when I can. Thank you.

I dont think they offer demo versions of it because you need to have it on a bootable USB flash drive to rebuild the main disk, and they wouldn't be able to control licensing. The App is something like $150 so it is pricy to purchase. Despite the higher price tag, it's a great program in that it repairs directory corruption that no other program can, including the built-in Disk Utility. Most places that work on Macs should have a version they use themselves and offer to customers, in many cases for no charge.



A free program that I sometimes use on slower Macs is called Onyx. In this App, there is the option to use an Automation feature, which executes multiple commands at once. For example, I could delete the system cache, execute the system scripts, rebuild the Spotlight index, and repair the system permissions at the same time. The advantage of this program is that it is free and makes doing certain tasks far easier than doing them manually. Before I use this on any computer, I always back up everything, since any App that performs any of those types of tasks (or does any type of cleaning for that matter) is modifying the system itself, and (while rare) this sometimes can cause issues.

If you were to:

1. perform the Apple Hardware Test (and/or have a tech run the MRI) and all items passed the check,
2. reset the PRAM and SMC,
3. run Onyx automation (and wait the several hours it takes to rebuild the Spotlight index and Helpd),
4. run (or have the tech run) DiskWarrior,

at that point I think you will have the computer running as good as it can with your current HDD. If the performance is still unacceptable, there won't really be much else you can do other than upgrading to a SSD and/or upgrading the RAM, should you desire.

 

[a-m-k]

Thank you, ZapNZs, I'm hoping to get in soon, I have to do things on specific days to accommodate to everyone else's needs. I was thinking that when I do get in, I'll also show the black magic screen test results. I am no where near 100 on either of the "odometers"......

 

[a-m-k]

I'm just posting with an update. A few minutes ago. I ran disk utility, with I have been doing for the past few months, not expecting anything to show up, the results came back with corruption. I don't know how to get rid of the corruption on my own. I don't think I ever had to deal with that before. I was thinking of waiting until Monday to call tech support again.

Though, something new and pretty odd happened that hadn't happened before when this all started. I think my OS reset and reinstalled on its own earlier today.

Should I re-run the disk utility again and get a screenshot to show you all here? I am guessing the corruption is screwing up my hard drive. I can read certain parts in terms of what takes up space and how much space is on my hard drive, just not the color coded bar graph.

BTW, once the corruption is taken care of, will I get my HDD to read as it's supposed to on the color coded bar graph again?

 

[3349793]

I'm just posting with an update. A few minutes ago. I ran disk utility, with I have been doing for the past few months, not expecting anything to show up, the results came back with corruption. I don't know how to get rid of the corruption on my own. I don't think I ever had to deal with that before. I was thinking of waiting until Monday to call tech support again.

Though, something new and pretty odd happened that hadn't happened before when this all started. I think my OS reset and reinstalled on its own earlier today.

Should I re-run the disk utility again and get a screenshot to show you all here? I am guessing the corruption is screwing up my hard drive. I can read certain parts in terms of what takes up space and how much space is on my hard drive, just not the color coded bar graph.

BTW, once the corruption is taken care of, will I get my HDD to read as it's supposed to on the color coded bar graph again?

I've been following this thread for a while, and your computer's symptoms point towards a failing HDD or a hard drive cable. As others have previously, I also strongly suggest replacing your clearly dying HDD with an SSD which is more reliable and lasts for a lot longer. If your computer reinstalled itself on its own, it's clear that there is something wrong with the hard drive.

Why don't you replace it and see if things get better?

 

[a-m-k]

Why don't you replace it and see if things get better?

I have to play the "wait your turn" game with my family. I am unable to get out on my own. I am not technically advanced enough to go and pick up a part on my own. (Everybody's afraid I'd get the wrong part. I admit, I am confused by something I read and have saved.)

Is the "it" you talk about the HDD? I would have done that a long time ago, but people in my family don't have enough faith in me to do this on my own. (At least getting the right part. I won't uninstall my old HDD and install the new SSD.)

BTW. It seems as if the corruption is still there. I ran Disk Utility a second time, and it's still there....

 

[ZapNZs]

I'm just posting with an update. A few minutes ago. I ran disk utility, with I have been doing for the past few months, not expecting anything to show up, the results came back with corruption. I don't know how to get rid of the corruption on my own. I don't think I ever had to deal with that before. I was thinking of waiting until Monday to call tech support again.

Though, something new and pretty odd happened that hadn't happened before when this all started. I think my OS reset and reinstalled on its own earlier today.

Should I re-run the disk utility again and get a screenshot to show you all here? I am guessing the corruption is screwing up my hard drive. I can read certain parts in terms of what takes up space and how much space is on my hard drive, just not the color coded bar graph.

BTW, once the corruption is taken care of, will I get my HDD to read as it's supposed to on the color coded bar graph again?

You need to boot into the recovery partition and repair the disk, as you can not repair a startup disk while the operating system is loaded.
This is how you repair the startup disk (the layout looks different as it is an older version of OS X, but the methodology is the same.

If Disk Utility is unable to do this, the golden standard for this is DiskWarrior, as it can repair even the worst directory corruption that OS X itself cannot recover from. Everything else is Micky Mouse technology compared to DiskWarrior, IMO.
[doublepost=1486166214][/doublepost]

BTW. It seems as if the corruption is still there. I ran Disk Utility a second time, and it's still there....

If you booted into the recovery partition, attempted to repair the corruption multiple times, and it failed to do so, you need DiskWarrior or a fresh reinstallation of the OS where you wipe the hard drive and reinstall OS X from a bootable USB flash drive.

As DiskWarrior costs as much as a SSD, if you can't find someone in your area that will use it on your computer for free, it would make more sense to buy a SSD instead of DiskWarrior. We can tell you which part to get, how to install it, and how to install a fresh copy of OS X on the new drive.

 

[a-m-k]

How do I boot into the recovery partition?

 

[a-m-k]

I've been getting this image a lot lately, too.... The lack of the time on the right hand side.....

 

[ZapNZs]

How do I boot into the recovery partition?

This is how you repair the startup disk (the layout looks different as it is an older version of OS X, but the methodology is the same.
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/08/repair-boot-disk-mac-os-x-disk-utilit/


How to Repair a Mac Boot Disk with Disk Utility in OS X

1. Reboot the Mac and hold down Command+R to boot into Recovery, or hold down OPTION
2. Select “Recovery HD” at the boot menu
3. At the Mac OS X Utilities screen, select “Disk Utility”
4. Select the boot volume or partition from the left menu and click on the “Repair” tab
5. Repair Disk is now possible, click on “Repair Disk” to repair the boot volume
   (Note that with OS X Sierra, I'm not sure if you still have the "Repair Disk" button or not when in the Recovery HD...it might say something slightly different, like 'First Aid', which you would then click, and then upon finding corruption, it will give you a popup notification and the option of clicking OK to repair the disk - someone else could verify this)
   (Also Note that you may need to try this/repeat this more than once, until Disk Utility stops finding corruption [or fails to repair the problem])

 

[a-m-k]

This is how you repair the startup disk (the layout looks different as it is an older version of OS X, but the methodology is the same.
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/08/repair-boot-disk-mac-os-x-disk-utilit/


How to Repair a Mac Boot Disk with Disk Utility in OS X

1. Reboot the Mac and hold down Command+R to boot into Recovery, or hold down OPTION
2. Select “Recovery HD” at the boot menu
3. At the Mac OS X Utilities screen, select “Disk Utility”
4. Select the boot volume or partition from the left menu and click on the “Repair” tab
5. Repair Disk is now possible, click on “Repair Disk” to repair the boot volume
   (Note that with OS X Sierra, I'm not sure if you still have the "Repair Disk" button or not when in the Recovery HD...it might say something slightly different, like 'First Aid', which you would then click, and then upon finding corruption, it will give you a popup notification and the option of clicking OK to repair the disk - someone else could verify this)
   (Also Note that you may need to try this/repeat this more than once, until Disk Utility stops finding corruption [or fails to repair the problem])

Thank you, ZapNZs. I don't want to come off sounding ungrateful for all your help, I've used a lot of it, however, I think I'll give a call as soon as my phone finishes charging. That way, if things need to be done they could do it for me like last time. (Screen share.) However, I am not sure how beneficial that will be to me, they might just tell me things I already know. Right now, best case scenario, I'll just need a new HDD. (Which I will replace with a SSD by suggestion from someone from this site.

I'm hoping that maybe a "downgrade" and fresh reinstall of the most recent OS X disk (yes, that old, unfortunately) will fix the psycho behavior that just happened. (I got an alert for a birthday that was set for tomorrow, yeah, I know you all are thinking big deal, right, but the birthday that I was notified about doesn't happen until November.)

 

[a-m-k]

I thought for sure I would have this taken care of via Mac tech support. I guess it looks like I'll be getting a new SSD. Though, before I start my search, can I do anything to try to detect the existence or non existence of my current HDD?

 

[ZapNZs]

Thank you, ZapNZs. I don't want to come off sounding ungrateful for all your help, I've used a lot of it, however, I think I'll give a call as soon as my phone finishes charging. That way, if things need to be done they could do it for me like last time. (Screen share.) However, I am not sure how beneficial that will be to me, they might just tell me things I already know. Right now, best case scenario, I'll just need a new HDD. (Which I will replace with a SSD by suggestion from someone from this site.

I'm hoping that maybe a "downgrade" and fresh reinstall of the most recent OS X disk (yes, that old, unfortunately) will fix the psycho behavior that just happened. (I got an alert for a birthday that was set for tomorrow, yeah, I know you all are thinking big deal, right, but the birthday that I was notified about doesn't happen until November.)

A fresh reinstall of an older version of OS X is a more complicated process than repairing the disk because you will need to create a bootable USB installer, boot to the installer, format your hard drive, check the disk for errors using Disk Utility, and then install OS X. It's a moderately complicated series of tasks. Alternatively, you can take it to the Apple Store and have them do this, but I'm not sure if it is free or not when out of warranty.

The method I described for repairing the startup volume should fix many (possibly all) of your issues. Through process of elimination, it seems highly probable that directory corruption is causing the problem, and it is not unusual for directory corruption to cause weird behavior as you have described.

Further, if you want to use Migration Assistant to import your files from your existing HDD onto your new SSD, it is best practice to first repair the HDD, as we have determined your disk has corruption, and over time this can get worse until the computer may not even turn on.

Apple encourages Users to do the same repair procedure I have suggested...This link is directly from Apple, and describes the same procedure. If you have not already, I highly recommend doing this, or having a Genius at an Apple Store do the same.
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22243?locale=en_US

 

[a-m-k]

I had a long call with an technician. I had things reset via-screenshare, and a reset of the OS. (Yes, I still have Sierra.) The technician agreed that at this current state, my MBP is insanely slow. So, hopefully, I can get an SSD soon. I just have to get things figured out. (Wiether or not to go out with someone who is far more technical than me who can take the faulty HDD out and swap it for a new SSD.)

Yes, I know you all told me this a long time ago. I won't get into a story why it took this long to get someone (offline and unrelated to ) to understand.

Thank you all so much, and when I finally get this fixed, I'll run the black magic screen test again and post the difference.

 

[a-m-k]

As of right now things are doing better. The Black Magic Disk Speed Test has me skeptical. A certain game I play doesn't seem to lag as much as it did when I downloaded an app after it was suggested to me that I use my MBP like normal for a little while. I haven't replaced anything yet and I might have changed my mind. I may just end up getting a faster SSD rather than replace my MBP.

BTW. Is there a disk speed test where the window can fit onto the screen, then again, I don't understand the numbers on the bottom anyway....

 

[treekram]

As of right now things are doing better. The Black Magic Disk Speed Test has me skeptical. A certain game I play doesn't seem to lag as much as it did when I downloaded an app after it was suggested to me that I use my MBP like normal for a little while. I haven't replaced anything yet and I might have changed my mind. I may just end up getting a faster SSD rather than replace my MBP.

BTW. Is there a disk speed test where the window can fit onto the screen, then again, I don't understand the numbers on the bottom anyway....

The Blackmagic app should fit on the MBP screen unless you have some sort of magnify/zoom setting in effect. My opinion is that the checkboxes with the numbers towards the bottom aren't of much use anyway.

That you had problems with the game when you first used but don't now could be due to a number of factors except a battery problem. My best guess is that your computer was using more memory at the time when you first played the game compared to what you normally use and with your slow, possibly failing HDD, the computer freaked out when it need to swap some memory to disk. So I'll mention again that when you replace the HDD, you should really upgrade the memory to at least 8GB (you would need to replace the memory you currently have).

 

[a-m-k]

The Blackmagic app should fit on the MBP screen unless you have some sort of magnify/zoom setting in effect. My opinion is that the checkboxes with the numbers towards the bottom aren't of much use anyway.

That you had problems with the game when you first used but don't now could be due to a number of factors except a battery problem. My best guess is that your computer was using more memory at the time when you first played the game compared to what you normally use and with your slow, possibly failing HDD, the computer freaked out when it need to swap some memory to disk. So I'll mention again that when you replace the HDD, you should really upgrade the memory to at least 8GB (you would need to replace the memory you currently have).

Thank you. How do I adjust the zoom in/zoom out settings?

 

[a-m-k]

I ran macmechanic and the I got more space listed. It still takes a few seconds to load. I am not sure if its fixed, but there are things unrelated that are different. I don't know how it happened.

Look at the gigabytes available in the second picture. I'm pretty happy with that. Is my HDD repairing itself via Disk Utility because I've been running it every other day or so and it always comes back with some corruption. Yes, sometimes getting the window pictured above is sometimes slow, but it doesn't take that long. Should I run disk utility tomorrow and see if I get more gigabyte improvement of my HDD? (Not necessarily what's available on it. Just the overall gigabyte size.) Could I be "fixing" my HDD and not know it because I'm running Disk Utility. I have also been using MacMechanic daily,
too.

Please let me know if you want/need me to run other apps and share results. At this point, I am very happy. I almost gave up on it weeks ago. I'm not plugging my iPhone or iPod into any of the ports because I don't want to accidentally do something until I can actually have someone offline look at it once I explain what has been happing. Worst case scenario is probably is just me needing a new HDD which will be upgraded to a SSD.

I'll keep checking the available space to see if it keeps growing.

 

[ZapNZs]

View attachment 689093
Look at the gigabytes available in the second picture. I'm pretty happy with that. Is my HDD repairing itself via Disk Utility because I've been running it every other day or so and it always comes back with some corruption. Yes, sometimes getting the window pictured above is sometimes slow, but it doesn't take that long. Should I run disk utility tomorrow and see if I get more gigabyte improvement of my HDD? (Not necessarily what's available on it. Just the overall gigabyte size.) Could I be "fixing" my HDD and not know it because I'm running Disk Utility. I have also been using MacMechanic daily,
too.

Please let me know if you want/need me to run other apps and share results. At this point, I am very happy. I almost gave up on it weeks ago. I'm not plugging my iPhone or iPod into any of the ports because I don't want to accidentally do something until I can actually have someone offline look at it once I explain what has been happing. Worst case scenario is probably is just me needing a new HDD which will be upgraded to a SSD.

I'll keep checking the available space to see if it keeps growing.

The directory is not repairing itself. You can only repair directory corruption by booting into the recovery drive & running Disk Utility from this recovery drive, because you cannot repair a hard drive's partition if that partition has an OS installed & is running. When you run Disk Utility with the operating system loaded, certain repair actions cannot be performed because you are running Disk Utility from the partition that needs to be repaired.

As far as I personally know, there is no other way to repair directory corruption except Disk Utility via the Recovery Drive and Disk Warrior. Someone else could confirm this or vice versa.