Which Hard Drive is dying?

[matteusclement]

MP using 10.6.3
quad core
4 hard drives

it's been working like a beast for ages but it seems to be beachballing alot when I have to open a file that requires access to all drives (compressor for example).

I can hear one of the drives kicking up from "sleep" but it's more than just sleep... I feel that one is dying. If I want to find which one is causing the grief, which program do I use to do that?

 

[diazj3]

Smart Utility or Smart Reporter (free) should do a quick diagnosis of your hds.

 

[Magaman]

TechTool as well does SMART drive tests. I think they offer a Free full trial. I scored mine through a MacUpdate bundle deal

 

[Inconsequential]

SMART rarely reports HD failures.

With the two I had fail SMART said it was fine.

For a sure fire way of checking, yank the three non-OS disks out and see what happens, replacing them one at a time if it doesn't hang.

 

[matteusclement]

SMART rarely reports HD failures.

With the two I had fail SMART said it was fine.

For a sure fire way of checking, yank the three non-OS disks out and see what happens, replacing them one at a time if it doesn't hang.

PITA.... but true.

 

[cutterman]

Check the console log. If a drive is hanging there may be an error message identifying the culprit.

 

[matteusclement]

Check the console log. If a drive is hanging there may be an error message identifying the culprit.

where's that?

 

[cutterman]

where's that?

/Applications/Utilities/Console

 

[richard.mac]

the beachballing is happening as the hard drive that you are accessing needs to be 'woken up'. in Energy Saver preferences disable the option to put hard drives to sleep. this is fine as hard drives are designed to be constantly spinning.

 

[matteusclement]

i'll give that a try richard.

 

[SciFrog]

Same problem here, can't figure it out...