Hard drive problems?

I've noticed two things pop up lately that make me think I might be having hard drive problems. One is that Spotlight can't seem to find anything lately. The other is that Time Machine won't back up anymore, it just stays on Calculating changes. I've even left it running over night, and it never finishes.

After looking online I tried rebooting into safe mode and repairing the disk, but that didn't seem to do anything.

Any suggestions?

Open Disk Utility, select your hard drive from the list on the left...then check it's S.M.A.R.T. Status (at the bottom of the window). If a hard drive is going "bad" it will say something like "failing".

You could also boot from an OS install CD/DVD and try repairing the disk from Disk Utility.

Finally...you could also try "repairing disk permissions".

HTH,

- Nick

And further to what Nick has advised, you need to boot from the install DVD as you cannot repair a drive you are booted from in safe or any other mode. Pop the disc in, reboot and hold down 'C' immediately after the chime.

Go to Utilities in the Menu Bar, select Disk utility and hit the Repair button.

You do have the system install disc?

So I'm not able to boot from my install DVD, it just hangs at the apple logo. Any other suggestions?

Booting from the disc takes a while to go through the booting process, and does tend to hang on the Apple with the spinning gear for a while.
I've never timed it but it's 1-2 minutes, maybe a little longer.

Jhorra said:

So I'm not able to boot from my install DVD, it just hangs at the apple logo. Any other suggestions?

Click to expand...

What sort of disk are you trying to boot from:

- Is it the original "gray" DVD that came with the computer when new...or is it a gray disk you "acquired" sometime later?
- what OS version is it?
- Is it a black disk with a big "X" on it?
- Is it a "whitish" disk with a Snow Leopard on it?

...what the heck computer model do you even have? We need this info to help you!

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

What sort of disk are you trying to boot from:

- Is it the original "gray" DVD that came with the computer when new...or is it a gray disk you "acquired" sometime later?
- what OS version is it?
- Is it a black disk with a big "X" on it?
- Is it a "whitish" disk with a Snow Leopard on it?

...what the heck computer model do you even have? We need this info to help you!

- Nick

Click to expand...

Are your tech savy Mind reading abilities lacking today

I lost the original DVD, this is one that Apple Care sent me as a replacement for $15. I have Bootcamp installed, and when I hold down the option button it gives me the two hard drives as boot options, but it doesn't seem to see the disk as bootable.