Dying hard drive

[Designer]

I think my hard drive is soon to expire. I would like to know what I should do to:

Back up my data.

Change out my hard drive.

 

[honestone]

Need to know the following:

1. The exact Mac model you have.

2. The exact Mac OS you are using.

3. Have you been making any backups to an external device? And if that is the case, what software are you using?

4. Have you performed any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs?

5. What makes you suspect that the hard drive is "about to expire"?

 

[Designer]

1. 2.

3. No, I responded in my welcome thread.

4. No. Don't really know what to do there either.

5. I am getting lots of "spinning daisies" and the computer seems to have periodic episodes of not doing anything except showing me the daisies. I read somewhere that this is an early sign that the HD is having "issues".

I am considering replacing the mechanical HD with a SSHD, and buying that and the replacement kit from OWC. That's the same place I bought my ram upgrades.

 

[honestone]

OK, good information. In that other thread, you stated:

"5. I tried to back up my photos onto the Toshiba SSHD, but it will not create a new folder."

Is that Toshiba SSHD external to your iMac?

Also, the "issues" you mention definitely would say that hardly any (if any) disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs have been done on the internal HD inside your machine. As it is, your iMac is only a little over 4 years old. Typically, hard drives last 5 to 7 years, so with some "care", the drive could possibly be resurrected.

Here are some steps you should at least try:

1. Assuming the Toshiba SSHD (I assume you actually mean SSD) is in an external case, launch Disk Utility, and have it perform First Aid on that drive. Also, if you have nothing important on that drive, and can afford to lose whatever is there, have Disk Utility Erase, Format, and if necessary, partition the drive.

2. Make a backup to that drive. Time Machine is OK, but recovery is not so smooth from a Time Machine backup. The other way to backup is to purchase backup/cloning software to make a bootable backup/clone of your entire system. SuperDuper! (I use it) and Carbon Copy Cloner are the two best choices for doing that. These links describe each of those fine products:

SuperDuper! - http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Carbon Copy Cloner - https://bombich.com/

3. After you make the backup, download the excellent, venerable, well reviewed, and free program called Onyx. You can get it from here:

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

Make sure you get the correct version, which would be the second one on that list, V3.0.1 (since you are using Yosemite). That program has a number of useful, cleanup tasks.

4. If you do make a bootable backup/clone, you can boot your machine from that, and launch Disk Utility form there. If not, there is a hidden Recovery Partition on your internal drive that you can boot to. This link describes that partition:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

As you can see, you can launch Disk Utility from there. The reason for either of these approaches is that you will be running Disk Utility to perform first aid on your internal drive, and you need to be doing that via an "isolated" environment.

Disk Utility should be able to give you an indication if the drive is beyond repair (probably is not). It would be wise to invest in a more advanced disk maintenance program like TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior. I have both, but I use TechTool Pro every week as part of my weekly disk cleanup/maintenance/repair (hardly ever need repairs), and backup processing. These links describe those products:

TechTool Pro - https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro

Disk Warrior - http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

 

[Designer]

Thanks again, honestone!

Yes, the Toshiba is a USB-connected external drive.

I have just finished the backup to that drive and to my Time Capsule.

Apparently I was trying something the hard way; make a folder and then migrate the data to the external drive. Using Time Machine backup and directing the copies to the Toshiba and the Time Capsule was easier than what I had thought.

Now that I have my complete hard drive backed up, I can get the internal drive replaced.

I am going to check the link to Super Duper now.

Jim

 

[honestone]

OK, the external drive is fine. But, I would not yet go out and purchase a new one to replace the internal drive. Given that you have a backup, via Time Machine, you actually can 1) still download and run Onyx, and 2) you can proceed boot to the hidden Recovery Partition on your internal drive. This link describes that partition:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

As you can see, you can launch Disk Utility from there. The reason for either of these approaches is that you will be running Disk Utility to perform first aid on your internal drive, and you need to be doing that via an "isolated" environment.

I would recommend doing those two tasks first. But, SuperDuper! will still be a good investment, as will either purchasing TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior. It will be wise to proceed with those purchases, whether you can fix your current drive, or buy a new one.

 

[Designer]

OK, the external drive is fine. But, I would not yet go out and purchase a new one to replace the internal drive. Given that you have a backup, via Time Machine, you actually can 1) still download and run Onyx, and 2) you can proceed boot to the hidden Recovery Partition on your internal drive. This link describes that partition:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

As you can see, you can launch Disk Utility from there. The reason for either of these approaches is that you will be running Disk Utility to perform first aid on your internal drive, and you need to be doing that via an "isolated" environment.

I would recommend doing those two tasks first. But, SuperDuper! will still be a good investment, as will either purchasing TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior. It will be wise to proceed with those purchases, whether you can fix your current drive, or buy a new one.

When I spoke with OWC yesterday, the tech said he thought my HD was probably just fine, just cluttered. I ran the disk utility, and I have an appointment to take my computer in to Best Buy on Monday. I have Black Tie coverage, so they can run their diagnosis and tell me if anything needs work.

 

[honestone]

I would not necessarily trust the folks at Best Buy, as most of them are "Windows oriented". You should still download Onyx and run its useful tasks. Also, how did you use Disk Utility to check out your drive? Did you just boot it after you booted up your machine nor,ally, or did you boot to the Recovery HD partition and run it from there? Doing it the first way does not allow the drive to be repaired at all, but booting it via the Recovery HD partition is much preferred.

 

[Designer]

I would not necessarily trust the folks at Best Buy, as most of them are "Windows oriented". You should still download Onyx and run its useful tasks. Also, how did you use Disk Utility to check out your drive? Did you just boot it after you booted up your machine nor,ally, or did you boot to the Recovery HD partition and run it from there? Doing it the first way does not allow the drive to be repaired at all, but booting it via the Recovery HD partition is much preferred.

O.K., I just don't remember exactly, I'm not sure, so I will have to look for that. This morning I ran "verify disk" and the "repair" button was enabled, but when I clicked, nothing changed. The "permissions" button was grayed, so now I need to figure out how to access the Recovery HD function.

 

[Designer]

Yesterday I paid for Onyx and Gemini, but as yet have not been able to use them. I might need to ask for a refund and get it from the iTunes store.

 

[honestone]

Onyx is free! Here is the link to the site, one more time:

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

You will not be asked at all to pay for it. Again, make sure you get the correct version, which would be the second one on that list, V3.0.1 (since you are using Yosemite). That program has a number of useful, cleanup tasks.

Also (and to repeat), here is the link to the site that talks about the Recovery HD partition:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

As you can see, the keyboard combination you use to get to that partition, when you boot up your Mac, is the Command and R keys.

Regarding what you encountered about Disk Utility, that is exactly what I was getting at. Starting Disk Utility from the same partition that the OS is on (not the Recovery HD partition) results in not being able to any kind of repairs on your internal drive. You need to start Disk Utility in an "isolated" environment in order for it to be able to do repairs on your internal drive. As I also stated above, you can either do that after booting to a bootable backup/clone mace by either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner, or by booting your Mac (via the Command and R keys) to the hidden Recovery HD partition.

 

[Designer]

Oh. This is all new to me, but I will try it. Thanks.

 

[RonProchot]

Oh. This is all new to me, but I will try it. Thanks.

Hello Designer. I would just like to confirm that the info you have been receiving from 'honestone' is pretty much dead on. Although I have no experience with Onyx, or SuperDuper, Apple's recovery disc, TechTool Pro and DiscWarrior have saved my bacon many times. I have also found that when my drives get sluggish - or slow - optimizing the drives via DiscWarrior and/or TechTool Pro makes a substantial difference to their performance - at least on non-SSD drivers. That being said, I recently replaced my 350GB HD on my 2008 iMac (24") running OSX 10.10.5 with a new OWC 959GB SSD, and have had a substantial improvement in performance. I still use TTP & DW for my non-SSD drives however and find that periodically running these applications certainly make a big difference, as does running Disc Utility from Apple's Recovery Disc. Good luck.

 

[Designer]

Thanks, everybody!

I was unsure how exactly to run any diagnostic software, and my computer was still covered under Best Buy's Black Tie tech coverage, so I took it in and they ran the diagnostics and pronounced my HD was in perfect health (after a good flush). So it works fast, and no malware.

 

[honestone]

Hello Designer. I would just like to confirm that the info you have been receiving from 'honestone' is pretty much dead on. Although I have no experience with Onyx, or SuperDuper, Apple's recovery disc, TechTool Pro and DiscWarrior have saved my bacon many times. I have also found that when my drives get sluggish - or slow - optimizing the drives via DiscWarrior and/or TechTool Pro makes a substantial difference to their performance - at least on non-SSD drivers. That being said, I recently replaced my 350GB HD on my 2008 iMac (24") running OSX 10.10.5 with a new OWC 959GB SSD, and have had a substantial improvement in performance. I still use TTP & DW for my non-SSD drives however and find that periodically running these applications certainly make a big difference, as does running Disc Utility from Apple's Recovery Disc. Good luck.

Thanks for the endorsement, Ron. You can still use TechTool Pro (or Disk Warrior) with SSDs, with the only task that does not apply to SSDs being Volume Optimization. But yeah, SSDs make a HUGE difference in performance. I noticed that when I replaced the slow (5400 rpm), 1 TB internal HD that came with my late 2012 Mac Mini with a fast Samsung 840 Pro 256 gig SSD. It was like night and day with the improvement in performance.

 

[honestone]

Thanks, everybody!

I was unsure how exactly to run any diagnostic software, and my computer was still covered under Best Buy's Black Tie tech coverage, so I took it in and they ran the diagnostics and pronounced my HD was in perfect health (after a good flush). So it works fast, and no malware.

That's good the issues are gone, but it would be wise to become more familiar with using tools such as Disk Utility, Onyx, TechTool Pro and Disk Warrior. I suspect the coverage you have from Best Buy will not last forever.