Mac suddenly started 'lagging' and messsing up.

[mrk123]

Yeah it's a 13" 2011 early I would say.

I have a 500gb Western Digital. I think there is about 250gb on there.

I am now just collecting all pictures and work adobe files and securing them on my external drive (not in safe boot mode as Tuxura would not show up in that mode but everything seems to be working right now).

And I never got round to putting in a proper updating system like a work flow, I just drag and drop important files every few weeks or so and update on my external that way. Like I say I am now tech head.

So with this info being a 13" 2011 MBP, what drive should I go for? Right now money is not the most abundant thing.

Where can I get one from?

 

[chas_m]

You should be able to find bare 2.5-inch hard drives of 500GB and up very cheap from a wide variety of sources, from office supply stores to Costco to pretty much any computer dealer. You can often order them online from places like macsales.com or Amazon for even cheaper, but of course you have to wait a bit for them to get there.

Again I will strongly suggest that you not rely on any backups made to the Tuxera volume. That is going to make restoration WAY WAY more tricky and difficult than it would be with a Mac-formatted external.

 

[mrk123]

I will get on ebay or amazon now.

As for Tuxura back up, all I am doing right now is going through my computer and putting order to all my files and dragging and dropping them in appropriate folders (pictures, music, work stuff) etc. At least then they are safe on my hard drive?

As for things like software (adobe and the rest) how is best I save these... Is it a case of dragging and dropping on time machine or something ?

 

[dtravis7]

According to the specs for your machine apple gave you a 320GB 2.5" drive. Since $$$ is tight for you right now I would try and get a 500GB 2.5" SATA drive. I really like Western Digital but HGST and Seagate will work.

If it were my MBP and I wanted a 500GB I would go with this. Price is not bad since it's one of their more high end Black series and has a full 5 year warranty.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236562

 

[MacInWin]

Depending on where you are OWC can sell you a good replacement drive. They have videos at their website on how to replace an HD in just about every Mac made. It's not that hard to do.

And I concur, ignore johnodd44's comments and go with the folks who know. The major causes of slowdowns on Macs is 1) too little free space on the drive and 2) imminent failure. What causes the slowdown is that the drive tries to read or write to the disk and retries until it succeeds or finally fails. Failing drives take more and more tries before recording success, so the drive gets slower and slower before it eventually just dies altogether. Sometimes the decline is precipitous, and it looks like the drive died overnight, other times it is slower, like what you are seeing, but the end is inevitable, I'm afraid.

 

[mrk123]

Well suppose I am lucky in some senses as I am backing up all my data now.

I am a novice when it comes to mac tech... really.... I have backed up all files like pictures and work files and music, but what about programs like adobe and everything else... How can I copy this across? Or am i best just getting it all over again?

 

[MacInWin]

Some programs will backup/restore just fine. Some, however, have a "registration" or "Activation" process that limits the number of copies you can install. They "phone home" when installed or invoked to verify that they are legit copies. Microsoft and Adobe both use those methods. So what that means is that for Office and any other MS product, you are going to need to "deactivate" or "de-authorize" the installed copy first, then you can reinstall/reactivate after replacing the drive. Adobe, other than their freebees, also have activation codes, so you need to go through that process with them, also. Make sure you record the codes on the software so that you can reinstall them. My experience with Adobe is that they are fairly forgiving if you call and say the HD died so you need to get a new code. I don't know how MS works, I don't have any MS products.

 

[mrk123]

Might just have to forget all my programs, I don't have the tech know how to do all that!

 

[chscag]

I don't know how MS works, I don't have any MS products.

MS products will auto-activate via the net provided you have your original Product ID code. It works even when switching hardware. I've moved Office 2011 three times since I first purchased it and have never had a problem re-activating it.

 

[johnodd4]

This is why i recommended oynx to check the drive because it can tell him if the drive has bad sectors on the drive. this would explain that the drive is going out because usually right before a drive is about to die it will have bad sectors and header loss.

 

[MacInWin]

Johnodd44, that is just not correct. The way both DU and Onyx check the drive is for final outcome, i.e., did the read/write succeed? What neither checks for is how many tries it took for the drive to complete the task, which is what is causing the slowdown. It has nothing to do with bad sectors on the drive, but with the condition of the hardware at the moment. DU and Onyx will detect bad sectors, but you can have bad sectors on an otherwise well working drive and have no problems at all. And you can have NO bad sectors on a drive that has internal failure imminent and therefore is slowed down.