2013 13" Macbook HDD Issue

[howdy-doo]

Hi All,

Hopefully someone can help. I'm currently trying to fix my sisters 2013 13" macbook which has had an error where the laptop shut off, then upon restarting a grey folder with a ? flashes on the screen.

I've seen that this is due to either a faulty HDD or cable connecting the HDD internal to the computer. Both of these have been replaced and a I have put a fresh install of OSX on to the macbook, however after around 10-15 minutes of operation the laptop stalled and forced a hard shut down (holding down the off button), and upon restarting has persisted with the same error message. I made sure the part number for the hard drive cable was the same as the one being replaced, and the new hard drive has been checked booting up as an external drive and seems to work fine.

Any idea if anything else could be causing this?

Extra info; When my sister was using it, she used to push it too hard having around 20+ tabs open at once, and all kind of back up bloatware programs working in the background which ran the laptop very hot, and made it so slow that it was an inconvenience to turn it off, so it stayed constantly on. As she has been travelling recently in hot countries the laptop has been in a packed bag a fair bit so I'm worried the continual very hot (too hot to have on your lap) operation has damaged something internally. I've checked the fans as well and they are cleared so cooling shouldn't be an issue now.

Thanks for any help

 

[honestone]

What exact Mac OS are you using?

Also, when you installed that OS, did you "migrate"/copy needed "stuff" from a backup?

And, the question I always ask: has she ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs? One can actually do a good amount of disk cleanup on their own, and there are some excellent products available (both free and commercial) that help with those tasks.

Here are a couple of free programs she can download and run:

Onyx - Available from here: https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html (Make sure she downloads the correct version)

AppCleaner - Available from here: https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

Malwarebytes - Available from here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/ (can detect adware and remove it)

GrandPerspective - Available from here: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ (nice, graphical way to find large files)

There is another excellent virus detection program available, called ClamXAV. It is available from here:

https://www.clamxav.com/

One can use it for free for 30 days. It works very well (although does take some time).

 

[howdy-doo]

What exact Mac OS are you using?

Also, when you installed that OS, did you "migrate"/copy needed "stuff" from a backup?

And, the question I always ask: has she ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs? One can actually do a good amount of disk cleanup on their own, and there are some excellent products available (both free and commercial) that help with those tasks.

Here are a couple of free programs she can download and run:

Onyx - Available from here: https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html (Make sure she downloads the correct version)

AppCleaner - Available from here: https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

Malwarebytes - Available from here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/ (can detect adware and remove it)

GrandPerspective - Available from here: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ (nice, graphical way to find large files)

There is another excellent virus detection program available, called ClamXAV. It is available from here:

https://www.clamxav.com/

One can use it for free for 30 days. It works very well (although does take some time).

Originally I swapped out in the internal cable and used the original hdd and it booted up fine, but after around 15 minutes of operation it came up with the folder error, I believe she was using Yosemite but I could be wrong.

This is when I booted up from the new drive which was a fresh install of high sierra I installed on to the drive from my own macbook before putting it in hers, however again after around 15 minutes it had the same error.

As far as I'm aware no disk repairs or cleaning was ever done, and I'm doubtful that she would do any anyway.

I tried booting up holding cmd + R before and the disk wasn't even showing up to reinstall the OS or run any form of disk utility.

Thanks for your help

 

[honestone]

First, what brand/model is the hard drive?

Secondly, I assume you did not "resurrect" anything from the old hard drive, is that correct?

Third, it sounds like she has no backups. Correct? If so, she is just asking for trouble.

Fourth, High Sierra has definitely not been a "pleasant" experience for a number of folks, both here and on other forums (you can look at these threads to see what I am talking about:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/further-update-on-high-sierra-os-10-13-2.224181/

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/more-disappointments-with-high-sierra.224186/)

It might have been better to upgrade to an earlier version of the Mac OS, like El Capitan or Sierra.

Finally, with no disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, again problems will definitely arise.

 

[howdy-doo]

First, what brand/model is the hard drive?

Secondly, I assume you did not "resurrect" anything from the old hard drive, is that correct?

Third, it sounds like she has no backups. Correct? If so, she is just asking for trouble.

Fourth, High Sierra has definitely not been a "pleasant" experience for a number of folks, both here and on other forums (you can look at these threads to see what I am talking about:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/further-update-on-high-sierra-os-10-13-2.224181/

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/more-disappointments-with-high-sierra.224186/)

It might have been better to upgrade to an earlier version of the Mac OS, like El Capitan or Sierra.

Finally, with no disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, again problems will definitely arise.

Sorry not sure what brand or model it is, however the new drive is a hard drive with a solid state portion, it's 1tb overall, but I think it's around 5-10gb of ssd, it's been tested externally booting via usb and seems to work fine, only internally does it encounter any issue.

No it's a completely clean install, nothing from the old drive was transferred over.

She has some back ups of pictures etc, but nothing akin to a time machine backup, just manually moved items.

I'll have a try with an earlier version, but the original hdd was working perfectly booted as an external drive via usb, that's what has made me presume it may be something internal which has broken.

Yeah I kept telling her to do even some basic clean up on the drive but I don't think she thought it too necessary or just forgot