Drive Unrepairable via Drive Utilities, Third Party Tool?

[chrison600]

Hi all,

My wife's MacBook Pro has had pretty bad performance for a while now, so while it was available I did a drive scan. The scan resulted in a prompt to do a repair from boot, which resulted in a message to backup, reformat, and restore. Wow.

Before doing that, I looked online and found that there are third party solutions that are apparently able to repair drives when the OSX Disk Utility cannot, namely Tech Tool Pro, Drive Warrior, and Drive Genius. There is a lot of debate as to which is safe to use and/or does the best job.

I'm not a tech pro, so I don't need nor want to buy all three. Which would be best for an individual who just wants to repair a drive when Drive Utility cannot?

Chris

 

[pigoo3]

Hi all,

My wife's MacBook Pro has had pretty bad performance for a while now...

The big question may be…is this hard drive repairable? If it's a dead or dying HD…then it's probably not repairable.

- Nick

 

[RadDave]

Hi all,

My wife's MacBook Pro has had pretty bad performance for a while now, so while it was available I did a drive scan. The scan resulted in a prompt to do a repair from boot, which resulted in a message to backup, reformat, and restore. Wow..................

Hi Chris - welcome to the forum! Now, I'm not one of the hardware gurus here and I'm sure that several will 'chime in' shortly - but to start the conversation: 1) How old is the MBP; 2) What OS X is installed; 3) Do you have any form of backup, e.g. Time Machine (TM), Cloned bootable disk (such as Carbon Copy Cloner), or at least her important files on an external HD, USB flash drive, or in the cloud (we use Carbonite on my wife's Mac)?

The information presented in your OP likely indicates a failing HD - I'm assuming initially that you opened 'Disk Utility' to verify the disk - correct? A healthy HD/partition should look like the one attached (my MBPro) w/ the S.M.A.R.T. status verified (blue arrow) - you likely went to disk repair from a recovery boot which generated the information described by you.

BUT, the first necessity is backup, so at least get her important files onto another device or in the cloud (or both), if not already done - I'm not sure if you have not been running TM and/or cloning software whether those procedures would even work now w/ the status of your HD - others will need to address those questions. Dave
.

 

[Verities]

My HD is damaged also and the option to verify or repair the encrypted drive is unavailable from the utilities menu in the restore program.

I can repair the entire virtual drive but not the partition. Recent Yosemite upgrade from 10.6.8.

??

 

[chrison600]

It's a 2009 MacBook Pro running Mavericks. The reason I ran the scan is because she's had chronic problems with available space which I thought were related to the performance issues. She has a 250GB drive that has been bordering on full for a long time. I started to question why she's full at 250GB, that's crazy.

There was never a crash or a recovery.

We do have Time Machine backups to an AirPort Extreme 2TB.

Chris

 

[RadDave]

It's a 2009 MacBook Pro running Mavericks. The reason I ran the scan is because she's had chronic problems with available space which I thought were related to the performance issues. She has a 250GB drive that has been bordering on full for a long time. I started to question why she's full at 250GB, that's crazy............

Hi again - well another issue introduced, i.e. an apparent full HD - normally, at least 15%-20% of drive space should be 'free' just to allow for normal 'housekeeping' and installation of new software. SO, why is this drive virtually full - if not already done, go to Apple -> About This Mac -> More Information -> Storage which should generate a dialog box like the one attached from my MBPro (early 2013 model w/ a 256 GB SSD). Please post a screen capture (use CMD-Shift-4 - open in Finder & reduce image size for net posting); of course, there are other apps for a more detailed analyses of disk space but this is at least a start. Dave
.

 

[pigoo3]

It's a 2009 MacBook Pro running Mavericks. The reason I ran the scan is because she's had chronic problems with available space which I thought were related to the performance issues. She has a 250GB drive that has been bordering on full for a long time. I started to question why she's full at 250GB, that's crazy.

A Mac with a full HD will just lockup…and then you won't be able to do anything with it. We recommend not letting the HD get more than 80% full for best efficient running. So approx. 20% free space (or more) needs to be created.

- Nick

 

[chrison600]

Here it is:

Chris

 

[pigoo3]

Same answer as above. Need to free up more space.

- Nick

 

[RadDave]

Here it is:

Chris

Hi Chris - have to agree w/ Nick - you're wife needs much more 'free' space and looks like you could clean out the 'Movies' as a starter - you might want to obtain the utility Onyx (DL the version appropriate for your OS X) and tidy up the HD; then see what Disk Utility tells you? Dave

 

[johnodd4]

I think you should think about a larger drive:

honestly a 1tb western digital hard drive will only cost 150.00 and it would be better for that machine to have a larger drive but weird is the other statement in your drive report lets do the math here

250 gig hard drive.

lets do the math here because somethings fishy add it up.

 

[chrison600]

Onyx says to repair the drive via the OSX Drive Utility, which is what failed in the first place. Should I try a third party repair tool? If so, which one?

Chris

 

[pigoo3]

Onyx says to repair the drive via the OSX Drive Utility, which is what failed in the first place. Should I try a third party repair tool? If so, which one?

Since this computer is running Mavericks…boot the computer into the Recovery Partition by restarting the computer & pressing the 2-key combo…command + r.

Once there…launch Disk Utility…and try repairing the disk.

- Nick

 

[lclev]

Okay, hard drive is full, there is a time machine backup, obviously his wife needs a new much larger hard drive. Repairing looks like a lost cause unless there isn't a recent or complete backup and the OP is trying to recover files.

I vote for the new 1TB drive johnodd4 suggests or even a new 500GB SSD - talk about a way to boost system speed!

Lisa

 

[pm-r]

+1!!!

And I'd also suggest using a WD Black 2.5" 7200RPM replacement drive. Only a few dollars more than a regular drive and still well under $100.00. $60.00 - $80.00 on sale and a five year warranty!

500GB as a minimum.

Luckily there is a current backup it seems, otherwise it would be $100.00± for some utilities like DiskWarrior for possible recovery and rebuild.

 

[pigoo3]

I see two options:

1. The spend no money option.
2. The spend money option.

Option #1: Boot into the Recovery partition, launch Disk Utility, and see if the drive can be repaired. If so...no money spent...and computers owner needs to figure out how to create more free disk space.

Option #2: As "pm-r" excellently suggested...these alternate drive repair programs can cost around $100...and who knows...the drive may not be repairable...or these apps may not be able to repair it (so could be $100 spent on an app for nothing). So better off spending $100 (or less) on a brand new bigger HD!

- Nick

p.s. Of course if option #1 doesn't work...then Option #2 should be the automatic choice! The drive doesn't seem to be "broken" yet...since we got the drive contents info previously...and there's a TM backup.

 

[pm-r]

Actually Nick you make some valuable points.

Going with the "no money" option, I was assuming that the drive was normally super-stuffed FULL.

And thinking about that, and the OP seems to have also questioned why so full, it wouldn't be the first time that I've encountered TM doing complete backups onto the boot drive, so much so that the Mac became useless with a super full drive.

Using an application like GrandPerspective it was easy to see and locate the cause. And then Trash accordingly.

So it might be a good suggestion to use GrandPerspective, after a small amount of space has been made for it - as that HDD looks like it FULL to the brim.

 

[pigoo3]

I always like to consider a "no cost" option if possible. Of course if the OP wants a larger HD...then great.

I sure hope that the OP is not having TM backups written to the same internal drive that is for day to day use. Of course not a great idea if the drive completely crashes...and like you said "pm-r"...TM will fill the drive with backups.

I'm still not 100% clear if the OP's HD really needs repairing...or if the main problem is that it's basically full. And to add...is it getting full due to TM backups??

- Nick

 

[chrison600]

Booting into recovery partition and running Disk Utility is what generates the prompt to reformat and restore. That's why I'm looking into third party possibilities. TM backups are to a networked AirPort Extreme drive.

I'm looking for advice as to which, if any, third party drive repair software I should try.

Is the drive needing repair because it's full, or is it full because it's needing repair?

Chris

 

[pigoo3]

Booting into recovery partition and running Disk Utility is what generates the prompt to reformat and restore. That's why I'm looking into third party possibilities. TM backups are to a networked AirPort Extreme drive.

Thanks very much for the info. That helps clear things up (at least for me).

I'm looking for advice as to which, if any, third party drive repair software I should try.

I know that you asked this question at least 3 times. The truth is…I don't think that there are many folks that have purchased & used these apps (at least among Mac-Forums members that visit & help frequently).

There are two categories of problems with a hard drive:

- software based problems
- hardware based problems

These hard drive repair apps help with hard drive software based problems. Apple includes "Disk Utility" for these situations. I'm not saying that these apps (Drive Genius, Tech Tool, etc.) can't be better than Disk Utility…I'm just saying that it is rare for someone to need these apps.

If the hard drive is experiencing hardware based problems (mechanical problems)…then spending $100 on one of these apps will be a complete waste of money.

So…you can spend $100 purchasing one of these apps…and it possibly be a complete waste of money. Or spend the exact same $100 (or less) on a replacement hard drive…and basically forget about repairing the current HD.

If you spend $100 on one of these repair apps…and it doesn't help. Then you're going to have to spend $100 or less for a replacement HD. Then the total cost of this project will be around $200 instead of $100!

So three options:

1. Free up some hard drive space on the HD (20% free space)…and try running the repair function of Disk Utility one more time. If this doesn't work…just buy a brand new replacement HD…and don't bother spending cash on one of those repair apps.

2. Since you have a Time Machine backup. Erase & reformat the HD. Reinstall the OS…then restore a backup from Time Machine (you may still need to deal with the almost full HD problem).

3. Just replace the HD. Not only will this ensure that there are no hard drive repair problems…a larger HD will solve the "full hard drive" issue as well!!!

- Nick