Something is broken, but I don't know what or how serious.

[Ruben Aune]

My Mac is broken, there were a lot of things that lead up to its current state, so I'll lay it out to the best of my memory in the hopes that it will help pinpoint the issue. If I have to buy a new SSD I can live with that, I might even attempt to swith out the logic board. But I'm not sending this old piece of scrap to be fixed by Apple for a month's worth of rent. And apologies for the wall of text.

A few weeks ago my Mac froze for the first time. It started with one app not responding (Firefox iirc), then the spinning wheel of doom, then I couldn't change apps at all and finally it froze becoming entirely unresponsive. I'd say it took about a minute from it slowed down until it froze completely. I rebooted it using the power button, and it worked fine so I thought nothing of it. Then a few hours later it happened again. And then again, but this time I got a flashing question mark folder on boot, so I booted in recovery mode and hit First Aid. The first time I tried I got a message that said first aid was unsuccessful and could not repair the volume, but when I tried again it seemingly managed to do it anyway and I got a green ding. I booted it up again and it worked fine, I backed up all my files just to be on the safe side, and sure enough after a little while it froze again.

After that I was in recovery mode several times, struggling with a lot of different issues, attempting all sorts of fixes that I found on various forums and support sites. At one point the startup disk wouldn't even show up in the disk utility, but rebooting once more solved that. I also surmised that unplugging the power cable would cause the machine to crash, but I I'm not entirely certain if that was coincidence or not.

In the end I managed to erase the startup disk and reinstall Sierra, hoping that a fresh install might solve the problem. Thought I did note it took a lot longer than what my screen told me (it would say "10 minutes remaining" for about 5 minutes, before it went down to "9 minutes remaining"). After the reinstall it seemed to work fine for a little while, but a few times the computer ALMOST froze, working for about a minute (with nothing happening) before it managed to catch up. Then the final time, it became unresponsive again, the very familiar spinning wheel of doom spooled up, and one by one the apps would quit, and then the screen turned black. I tried rebooting again, but this time I was immediately met with something new; a no parking sign. I booted it up in recovery mode and tried First Aid once again, this time it gave me a new error:

"First Aid found corruption that needs to be repaired, To repair the startup volume, run First Aid from recovery."

If I click "show details" the two last items are:

"Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Operation successful"

And at this point I stopped, thinking it would be smarter to seek help than to risk further damage with my inept meddling. The sheer number of different symptoms make me wonder if these might be the last dying breaths of my dear old computer.

Device: MacBook Pro 13'' (mid 2010)
OS: macOS Sierra
Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 320M
Startup disk: Crucial M4 2.5'' 256GB SATA III MLC Internal SSD

The SSD was installed by the previous owner before I bought it ca. 2013.

Thank you in advance.

 

[honestone]

Man, you have gone through a lot of pain! Is there any chance you have a more robust disk cleanup/maintenance/repair program like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior? Disk Utility is not a bad program, but the two I mentioned are better, and can do some things which Disk Utility can't.

Also, do you have the Crucial SSD partitioned? That should not matter much, but there seems to be an issue with the Partition Map. I use Tech Tool Pro (along with Onyx), and two of its features is Verifying, and Repairing the Partition Map.

When you did the OS re-installation, did you first completely Erase and Re-Format the Crucial SSD, and then did the fresh, clean, "virgin" installation of Sierra (by the way, which version of Sierra? The latest one is V10.12.6).

Finally, what software did you use for making the backup? And amore basic question, have you been making backups on a periodic basis?

 

[Ruben Aune]

I will check out the programs you mentioned, but I assume I'll need a USB drive or CD (which I don't have available right now) to use it, so it'll be some days before I have that opportunity.

I've never partitioned it. There is the OSX Base System which shows up in disk utility, but I don't know if that counts.

I erased the disk first, but it only took about five seconds which surprised me. I am pretty sure it was the latest version of Sierra, it was fully updated when the first crash occurred, although I didn't find a way of verifying that while in recovery mode.

I hadn't made any backups for quite a while when this happened, several months at least. I just connect an external HDD (some old from Western Digital) and drag and drop the important files onto it. Never used time machine or anything like that.

 

[honestone]

OK, a couple of things:

1. First, and foremost, is that you really need to start making backups on a frequent basis. Just dragging and dropping is not going to cut it. Given that you have an external drive, you just need to select the software you want. Time Machine is fine, but I prefer SuperDuper!, which makes a bootable backup/clone of one's system. I can just boot my Mac from that backup, and it is basically the same as having another computer. SuperDuper! costs $27.95 (it can be used in demo mode, although that mode has most of the program's advanced features turned off, which I don't use anyway). Carbon Copy Cloner is another excellent, similar program that costs $39.95. The main difference between the two of them is that Carbon Copy Cloner backs up the (hidden) Recovery HD partition, whereas SuperDuper! does not. That is not an issue for me, as 1) I have Tech Tool Pro for repair needs (I'll explain below one of its neat features), and 2) I can boot my Mac from the backup. Also, that Recovery HD partition gets created anyway on a fresh, clean installation of the OS. Also, there are ways of re-creating it. Again, though, for me, I really do not need it. Here are links for SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner:

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

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

Either of them makes recovery WAY, WAY easier and faster.

2. When you install Tech Tool Pro, you can create an eDrive, which basically makes a "isolated", small partition on your internal drive. You can then run Tech Tool Pro from there, and it is the same as running it externally. From what I understand, Disk Warrior ships on a flash drive, which I believe is bootable. Here are links for both of those products:

Disk Warrior: https://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/?gclid=CNnR5OPYp9YCFUGSfgodfJsBjA

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

I have been using Tech Tool Pro for so many years, and I depend upon it. It actually contains more "features" than Disk Warrior, but I have read about some instances where only Disk Warrior could do the repair!

Again, you can't go wrong with either one.

3. Another excellent (and free!) product I use is Onyx. It is an effective disk cleaning tool that cleans out certain "items" to help keep one's system healthy. It has been around for a long, long time, has had numerous excellent reviews, and is solid. Here is the link for it:

https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Note that there are separate versions for each Mac OS, so like me, you would need version 3.9.2. Like Tech Tool Pro and SuperDuper! (and a couple of other third party products), I depend upon it.

Also note that Onyx has not yet released a version that is compatible with with High Sierra, OS 10.13. Same for Tech Tool Pro. SuperDuper!, though, just came out with that new version, and it is compatible with "this iteration" of High Sierra. Besides Tech Tool Pro and Onyx, there are 2 more programs (1Password, and Logitech Control Center) that will have the High Sierra upgrades available before I "move" from Sierra, OS 10.12.6, to High Sierra, OS 10.13.x. That's fine by me, as there is nothing in High Sierra that I "absolutely" must have.

Finally, one can actually do a lot of disk cleanup on their own. For example, yesterday Titanium Software released a new version for Onyx. After downloading, installing, and testing it (worked fine, as expected), I removed the prior original download file from my system. I did the same earlier today with SuperDuper!. No reason to have unneeded stuff on either of my Macs. I also permanently remove deleted EMails in Outlook 2016 (my EMial client) as often as I use it (of course assuming I get messages). I believe in keeping my Macs "lean, mean, and clean". That has always served me well, as I rarely (if ever) have issues.

 

[Ruben Aune]

I could never really bother with backup programs because there's rarely anything that needs to be backed up, and it just seems like a massive hassle. I don't want it to bother with the games I install and uninstall, that would be utterly pointless, and most documents are in the cloud anyway. It's only when it comes to sensitive files that I go to physical external drives, or larger files like movie or music projects. I didn't come here to get ads for random software, I just want to pinpoint the issue and fix it, be it hardware or software. Can restoring from a backup really fix a problem that a clean install can't fix?

I'll have a look at the disk utilities you've mentioned, then come back to you ))

 

[honestone]

That kind of approach about backups is certainly counter productive. If you had a bootable backup, you could in fact boot your machine from that backup, and see if you still have the issues you are having. If the issue goes away while running the backup, then you could do one of the following:

1. Erase and re-format your internal drive. Then do a clean, fresh, "virgin" installation of the Mac OS you want. Finally, use Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy stuff from your backup.

2. Erase and re-format your internal drive. Then do a complete restore from the backup.

If the issue remains even with running from the backup, then there is (most likely) a software issue, and for that, you would want to still Erase and Re-Format your internal drive, then do a clean, fresh installation of the Mac OS you want, and then just "migrate"/copy your "account" stuff from the backup. Unfortunately, you'll then need to re-install each of your apps one by one.

But maybe I am just waisting my time trying to assist you, given what you stated above. I was not providing ads for random software, but instead just trying to point them out for you.

So, it's up to you how to proceed. Hope you find a solution, even with the "ads" I provided.