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My Air is freezing all the time!!

shuffles

shuffles

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 7, 2007
403
8
dublin, ireland
Two days ago my Air started freezing. It keeps on showing the spinning beach ball everytime I do anything on the laptop even when I move the cursor over the dock theres a 10 second delay on the magnification followed by the beach ball again! I can't do anything on my laptop!!

Theres nothing different I've done on it recently to make it do this!! Can anyone help? I've thought about using the install discs to wipe the laptop but will this help and if so will it delete all of my iTunes? I don't have an external hard drive so I cant let that happen
 
queshy

queshy

macrumors 68040
Apr 2, 2005
3,690
4
Open up the activity monitor. Anything unusual? If you're not sure, take a screenshot of it and we can maybe try and help.
 
S

stoconnell

macrumors 6502
Mar 22, 2009
446
0
Rockville (Despite REM's plea.)
I'd look into running a permissions repair on the hard drive and also look at making sure the disk is ok. Both of which can be done using the disk utility.

I second looking at system activity. You might also look at /var/log/system.log for any signs of recurring error message, etc.

good luck.
 
shuffles

shuffles

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 7, 2007
403
8
dublin, ireland
Sorry for the stupid question but how do I do that? Step by step guide would be great. Sorry! I need to fix/reboot it without deleting anything I think
 
shuffles

shuffles

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 7, 2007
403
8
dublin, ireland
Ok I went into disk utility and selected the 74.5 GB Samsung hard drive and it was all highlighted in red saying :

"This drive has reported a fatal hardware error to Disk Utility, If the drive has not failed completely, back up as much data as you can and then replace it with a working drive".

Is my comp completely screwed? How much will this cost? I don't have AppleCare.
 
GoCubsGo

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,742
155
The failing S.M.A.R.T status indicates the drive has failed its own diagnostics and the drive will most likely fail you completely and/or your data will be corrupt in due time. It would behoove you to backup your drive and call Apple. Do you have Apple Care or have you had your MB Air less than a year?
 
GoCubsGo

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,742
155
I will give you the generic answer (which applies to computers new and old) that hard drives fail. It happens. Apple doesn't make their drives so if your next reply is "damnit apple" then you're barking up the wrong tree.

Edit: I see you do not have Apple Care. That is OK. You CAN replace the drive, there are videos posted on YouTube™. To be honest, I was told opening my Mac Mini was actually harder than opening a MB Air.

YouTube™ videos on replacing hard drives in MB Airs.
 
shuffles

shuffles

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 7, 2007
403
8
dublin, ireland
Wat are you talking about I'm yet to tell you when I got it! I said 2008. I'm not blaming Apple. I know these things happen. I was just wondering why all of a sudden it happened thats all. Was just wondering if there was something I might have done to trigger it.
 
S

stoconnell

macrumors 6502
Mar 22, 2009
446
0
Rockville (Despite REM's plea.)
Hard drives (esp. mechanical ones) fail. It's the nature of the game, and one of the reasons I wanted to go the SSD route; however, SSDs are prone to failures as well but handle vibrations, drops, etc better. This is why back ups are important.

I would strongly recommend buying an external USB hard drive and using time machine. I carve a 500G external into 2 128G partitions that I do occasional Carbon Copy Cloner full disk backups and the rest I devote to time machine on a catch as catch can basis. This is not nessarily the most sound strategy (I should technically rotate a few external drives and keep one in another location or a fire proof safe, etc). You can also use a backup to the cloud service to back up your data.

You will definitely want to copy off as much of your valuable data as possible. Ah, missed the no Apple Care part. Since you have a Rev A, you are more likely to get a replacement outside of Apple. There were some recent threads in this forum about 3rd party SSD replacments working (if you want to go that route).
 
GoCubsGo

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,742
155
shuffles said:
Wat are you talking about I'm yet to tell you when I got it! I said 2008. I'm not blaming Apple. I know these things happen. I was just wondering why all of a sudden it happened thats all. Was just wondering if there was something I might have done to trigger it.
Click to expand...

Gear down big rig. I posted my reply before I saw yours and generally speaking the second a drive fails in a Mac people tend to think it's all Apple's fault. It was more tongue in cheek.

There is really nothing anyone does to trigger a hard drive failure under normal use. Just be happy you caught it in time to back up your data and shop for a new drive.
 
GoCubsGo

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,742
155
shuffles said:
Do u know how much Apple will charge for a new drive?
Click to expand...

Your cost through Apple is going to be much higher than you should probably pay. You can buy a PITA drive and replace it yourself. If you're truly not inclined then yeah, Apple will be happy to replace and charge you, cost is something I am unsure of.

Check out the videos and ifixit.com. Perhaps this is just some kind of project you'd like to undertake. It may be fun.

stoconnell said:
Hard drives (esp. mechanical ones) fail. It's the nature of the game, and one of the reasons I wanted to go the SSD route; however, SSDs are prone to failures as well but handle vibrations, drops, etc better. This is why back ups are important.
Click to expand...
We can argue this until we're both blue in the face, but I am not 100% convinced that the SSDs won't see their write capacity be exceeded one day on some of these Rev As. Sure, the SSD is hands down best with bumps and such due to the lack of moving parts, but they're not ever going to free from failure.
 
S

stoconnell

macrumors 6502
Mar 22, 2009
446
0
Rockville (Despite REM's plea.)
jessica. said:
We can argue this until we're both blue in the face, but I am not 100% convinced that the SSDs won't see their write capacity be exceeded one day on some of these Rev As. Sure, the SSD is hands down best with bumps and such due to the lack of moving parts, but they're not ever going to free from failure.
Click to expand...

I made no claim that SSDs were immune to failure. In some ways, they are a leap of faith in that the failure modes of HDDs are pretty well understood after many decades of use; whereas, SSDs just don't have that kind of track record (both good and bad). The SSDs also do not click (no heads to park) nor are there MTBF rating issues between drives that were predominantly designed for iPods vs. full out computers. The SSDs also have really nice read characterics. My other reason for moving to SSDs is that I have both a cat and a dog, and there have been numerous close calls with laptops being knocked off of tables :)
 
T

tempusfugit

macrumors 65816
May 21, 2009
1,112
1
Chicago
shuffles said:
Its a rev 1 Air from January 2008. DOn't have Applecare!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...


You're lucky its probably just an HD problem as these are amongst the easiest and cheapest things to replace. Figure out a way to back up your hard drive and buy a new one. A sad but very common truth for most computer users is the probability of HD failure at some point.

If for some reason you can't back your itunes stuff up, don't worry about stuff you've purchased. Emailing apple and explaining you lost your itunes data to HD problems will result in a 1 time only ability to re-download anything you've purchased provided it hasn't been removed from the store or altered and your account is in good standing. I just recently did that so if you're having problems, google itunes lost music or pm me.
 
ayeying

ayeying

macrumors 601
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
wpc33 said:
That makes no sense to me. Do you mean soft formatting, or hard formatting?
Please elaborate. I would really like to know!
Thanks.
Click to expand...

I was told the iPod's drives are formatted at a 512K blocks and the hard drives used in the Air are 4K blocks, which is why it doesn't work. I'm not 100% sure if its factual but it sounds real enough.
 
queshy

queshy

macrumors 68040
Apr 2, 2005
3,690
4
so, did you call Apple? Sucks this happened - but that's life. It's a hard drive, and sometimes that happens. Best of luck.
 
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