Are these signs of upcoming hard drive failure?

I upgraded the HD in my 2006 MBP in late December from 120 GB to 640 GB (Samsung Spinpoint). At the same time I also upgraded my RAM from 1 GB to 2 GB and I installed and ran Onyx to clean up my computer

All these things shortened my start-up time from about 2 minutes to about 30 seconds and my computer was performing much better

In the last week things are starting to slow down considerably. The computer frequently stops to think for about 5 seconds, and start-up time has gone back to about 60-90 seconds. Most of the time it stops to think I'm on the internet changing pages (but that's also my most frequent activity on the computer). Just a few minutes ago I opened up my computer for the first time today and three programs were running. I closed one, and before I could close the other two I got the happy, spinning, beach ball thing. After waiting for about 15-20 seconds it was still there. I tried force-quitting, but the force quit dialogue box wouldn't even open. After waiting several minutes I finally forced a shut down by holding down the power button.

I have run Onyx again to clean up everything, but that didn't help (I did that a couple of days ago).

I'm sure there are other things I can try, but I want to hurry up and decide if this is related to the new hard drive because its warranty is almost up (60 days I think).

If there's something else I can be doing please let me know! It's frustrating to know I put in about $130 worth of upgrades and the benefit (other than HD space) was so short lived.

Practically all hard drives have 3 yr warranty from the manufacturer and I'd be surprised if Samsung was any less - maybe 60 days to exchange from the seller?

How much free space do you still have on the OS X partition?
And how much stuff have you moved on/off the drive?


A several minute wait though - probably is indicative of a bad drive.
Been seeing a lot more of this behaviour the last year or two vs what we all came to know as the dreaded clicking sound.

(Everything I know about Samsung's customer service, I would use the sellers return policy instead of going through Samsung if at all possible.)

There are a few things that I'd recommend trying:

Reset the PRAM/NVRAM

1. Shut down your computer.
2. Press the power button.
3. Immediately hold down Command-Option-P-R simultaneously.
4. Wait until your hear the computer chime for a second time and then release the keys.

For more information on resetting the PRAM/NVRAM, see Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM and When to reset NVRAM or PRAM.

Perform a disk verification from within Disk Utility

1. In the Finder, open the Applications folder, and then open the Utilities folder.
2. Double click on Disk Utility.
3. Select your disk from the left hand column.
4. Click on the "First Aid" tab and then click on "Verify Disk".

For more information on verifying and repairing your disk, see Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks.

Run the Apple Hardware Test
Depending on the version of Mac OS X that your computer shipped with, the Apple Hardware Test will either be on the Mac OS X Install DVD or the Applications Install DVD. For more information on how to run the Apple Hardware Test, see Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test.

Does your hard disk make any noise, such as a faint and repetitive click? Are these 5 second pauses occurring on an interval (for example, every 15 seconds the computer will temporarily stop responding)?

bobtomay said:

Practically all hard drives have 3 yr warranty from the manufacturer and I'd be surprised if Samsung was any less - maybe 60 days to exchange from the seller?

How much free space do you still have on the OS X partition?
And how much stuff have you moved on/off the drive?


A several minute wait though - probably is indicative of a bad drive.
Been seeing a lot more of this behaviour the last year or two vs what we all came to know as the dreaded clicking sound.

(Everything I know about Samsung's customer service, I would use the sellers return policy instead of going through Samsung if at all possible.)

Click to expand...

Thanks a ton. Yes, I was referring to the seller's return policy (Newegg). I haven't checked into Samsung's warranty.

I have also noticed a little clicking type sound (forgot about that in the OP) coming from the left speaker....although I wouldn't describe it as clicking. It sounds more like a small piece of paper got caught in the fan and it kinda rattles....like you're blowing through a kazoo.

Sounds like i need to contact Newegg!

I would try at least a little troubleshooting before calling newegg.

For sure I'd do the verify disk suggested by Kreylonus above and then a repair if it's suggested.

Next thing I do is restore the drive from my bootable backup (after making sure the backup runs fine and does not exhibit the same issues).

Kreylonus said:

There are a few things that I'd recommend trying:

Reset the PRAM/NVRAM

1. Shut down your computer.
2. Press the power button.
3. Immediately hold down Command-Option-P-R simultaneously.
4. Wait until your hear the computer chime for a second time and then release the keys.

For more information on resetting the PRAM/NVRAM, see Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM and When to reset NVRAM or PRAM.

Perform a disk verification from within Disk Utility

1. In the Finder, open the Applications folder, and then open the Utilities folder.
2. Double click on Disk Utility.
3. Select your disk from the left hand column.
4. Click on the "First Aid" tab and then click on "Verify Disk".

For more information on verifying and repairing your disk, see Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks.

Run the Apple Hardware Test
Depending on the version of Mac OS X that your computer shipped with, the Apple Hardware Test will either be on the Mac OS X Install DVD or the Applications Install DVD. For more information on how to run the Apple Hardware Test, see Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test.

Does your hard disk make any noise, such as a faint and repetitive click? Are these 5 second pauses occurring on an interval (for example, every 15 seconds the computer will temporarily stop responding)?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions.

I tried all these last night and the problem is still here. I shut down the computer last night and this morning it took it over a minute and a half to boot, and it's still having to stop periodically to think. I haven't timed the pausing times to look for a pattern, but I don't think there is one. The times I remember it pausing is when I open a new web page or application.

On a brighter side, I'm not hearing that rattling sound anymore. My guess it was something with the fan.

Download and use this little utility:-

corecode->SMARTReporter


It will advise you if the drive is on the way out.

Okay, I've run all the suggestions in this thread to no avail. Is there anything else I can look at or try? I have found that using Chrome or Safari gets rid of the pauses while browsing the internet, so that is obviously a firefox problem (which sucks because I prefer Firefox to both of those).

The computer is still incredibly slow to load on start-up or restart. Any other suggestions? Here's what it does at certain time intervals during the restart process:

0-30 seconds: Screen with apple logo
30-75 seconds: blue screen with black mouse pointer. I can move the curser around during this time.
75-100 seconds: My desktop background with no icons or menu bar
100-105 seconds: desktop with icons and menu bar loads

Keep in mind that as recently as 3 weeks ago it did a complete restart with a loaded desktop in about 35 seconds.

A few more questions:

1. Have you updated or changed any software since or around the time that this issue started to occur (e.g. updated Mac OS X itself).
2. Do you happen to have Boot Camp configured on your Mac?
3. Do you have any external devices plugged into your Mac, like a USB keyboard/mouse, external hard disk, etc?

Kreylonus said:

A few more questions:

1. Have you updated or changed any software since or around the time that this issue started to occur (e.g. updated Mac OS X itself).
2. Do you happen to have Boot Camp configured on your Mac?
3. Do you have any external devices plugged into your Mac, like a USB keyboard/mouse, external hard disk, etc?

Click to expand...

1. Installed software for a new wireless printer near New Year's Day and installed Skype last night...but other than that no. I've often wondered if the wireless printer could be the problem, but I installed that near the beginning of January, and it ran fine for several days after that.

2. No

3. No

AUZambo said:

1. Installed software for a new wireless printer near New Year's Day and installed Skype last night...but other than that no. I've often wondered if the wireless printer could be the problem, but I installed that near the beginning of January, and it ran fine for several days after that.

2. No

3. No

Click to expand...

What version of Mac OS X are you running on your MacBook? You can find out by going to the Apple menu and then clicking on "About This Mac".

Also, have you tried re-installing the latest combo update that corresponds the version of Mac OS X that you are running? The combo updates can be downloaded from Apple - Support - Downloads