Possible SMART errors on hard disk

[SMARTERRORS]

So first off I was working late last night no issues (making music in logic pro x). Boot up today and I got the spinning wheel of death and a frozen OS when I tried to launch logic. Did a hard restart and got the same thing. Did a second hard restart, and got stuck at boot with loading bar about 50%.

So I booted in safe mode, closed all applications, removed all apps from login startup, did a SOFT restart. still stuck at loading bar.

So then I ran first aid on the hard disk through recovery mode, no errors were found, reset PRAM, still stuck at 50% loading bar on boot.

When trying to resintall OS through recovery mode I'm told my hard disk has SMART problems and will need to be replaced. Is there anything else I can try? I cannot boot into the hardware diagnostics (D or option+D) for some reason but safe mode (shift) and recovery (command+r) works occasionally.

Will I need to replace it? If so can I replace with an SSD without any other problems and what would the best way to back it up/transfer my info be? call me dumb but I dont have any backups, its not super imperative but would just save me some time. thanks for anybody who has input. pretty pissed rn.

if this is in the wrong sub my apologies

 

[lclev]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

SMART is the built in utility that keeps track of the health of the drive. If you have an indication from recovery of a SMART problem then that means it is time for a new drive.

Given that I do not know any information on your mac - like model and year, I am kind of shooting in the dark here. But you can replace the hard drive with an SSD - and I would recommend it. As to how to transfer data and apps - you indicated you could start it in safe mode. If that is true I would move all data off of it to an external drive. When you get the new drive install OS X fresh then move the data. Or you could try migration, but I really don't know if it would work with a failing hard drive. If you decide to try it you would need to buy an external enclosure for your current hard drive. Once you get your new SSD all up and running a fresh install of OS X attach the old drive in it's enclosure and try migrating your data and apps from the old drive. It may or may not work since we know the drive is dying.

I would also suggest you invest in Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. Both are cloning apps that work great. You attach an external drive and let the cloning app do your backing up. Then if your drive fails again you can boot from the clone and be in business again or let it clone to another new drive.

Lisa

 

[MacInWin]

SMART is a first indicator of a drive that is going to fail soon. As Lisa said, I would copy off anything you really want from that drive and replace it before it fails totally. You didn't say what Mac, so what to replace it with is a mystery, but back it up before it totally fails (and it is failing now).

 

[harryb2448]

SMARTY tells no lies. You are in the ma rket for a new hard drive. Other informatiuon is hard to provide as you have not told the computer or operating systemn details. Some are dead easy, some are dead hard.

 

[Slydude]

If your utilities are identifying S.M.A.R.T errors it’s probably time for a new drive. It’s hard to predict when the drive will fail since different utilities test different aspects of drive functioning. For a general overview of S.M.A.R.T and what it means give this a read. For a comparison of various utilities with some form of S.M.A.R.t status see this chart. The focus of the chart is mainly on other operating systems but there are a few OS X utilities mentioned.