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armand_tamzarian · Apr 28, 2007, 01:01 AM

I am the proud new owner of a Mac Pro 2.66Ghz, 2GB RAM, with a 750 GB hard drive, running 10.4.9. I am fighting one very frustrating issue with Disk Utility, much of the time I launch Disk Utility it will simply hang and become unresponsive with a message of Gathering Disk Information. I have noticed that if Disk Utility hangs, if I run Software Update, it too will hang and never complete Checking for new software. Finally, if the Mac is in a state where Disk Utility and Software Update become unresponsive, if I try to install software, the installer will not be able to recognize any hard drives to install the software to. I simply reboot, and the issue seems to be fixed, temporarily. Anyone else seen this or having problems with this?

bearcatrp · Apr 28, 2007, 07:37 AM

Going through this right now with my 2ghz mac pro. Thought it was a certain program doing this but after wiping the hard disk, trying to install, I called apple. They think it was the hard drive so sending me another one. Whats funny is, after it cooled down, I was able to install everything, ran all tests, verified disk, repaired permissions, which came up good to go only to crash a couple hours later. I will wait for the hard drive before I waste any more time on it. You didn't by chance have temp monitor running on your system?
Randy

armand_tamzarian · Apr 28, 2007, 10:55 PM

No, no temp monitoring going on. I think I will call, but it seems weird that a hard drive (hardware) issue would be so intermittent. Have worked on hardware and software for many years and this would seem to counter most of my experience.

bearcatrp · 08:01 AM

Know what you mean. I have been around computers since 84 and this one stumps me. If I let the macpro sit overnight, I can reload the OS but as it starts to warm up, it starts to lock up. My hard drive is a western digital. I pulled it out yesterday waiting on the new one from apple. I can turn it real fast and hear it like something is dragging on the disks. I am currently looking at other brands of hard disks to get away from WD. Not sure which is better to get though.
Randy

Edit: What gets me is I ran the hardware test, verify disk, and fixed permissions, and all came back good.

ChrisB · Apr 29, 2007, 02:31 PM

Sounds like a defect on a design of a drive, or the Mac when it comes to dealing with heat.

What was the temperature of the drive like when you touched it after opening up your Mac?

bearcatrp · Apr 29, 2007, 07:09 PM

Didn't check it but tried to reinstall, got it, but died when doing the 4.9 update. I am waiting for the other hd from apple before doing anything. If it dies with this one, its going back.
Randy

bearcatrp · Apr 30, 2007, 11:43 AM

Well, got the itch to try again. Yanked out the ram from the riser B, which left only 1gb. Install went well. Rand check disk, repair permissions and so far all is well. I did do a PRAM reset each time I did anything with the ram moduals. Put the ram I pulled (2x512) on riser A and the other 2x512 to riser B. Reset PRAM again, seems to run good sofar. I did not update anything so running 4.8 right now. I installed boinc to run worldcommunitygrid again so this should test it real good. Should know by this afternoon if it dies again.
Randy

armand_tamzarian · May 9, 2007, 10:17 PM

I finally tracked the issue down to an external firewire (Lacie) drive. The drive has to be mounted for the Disk Utility to successfully launch. I typically will unmount the drive if I am not running backups to it. If I have unmounted the drive, then kick off Disk Utility it will hang. If I mount the drive, then kick off DU, it runs fine. Kicking myself that I didn't realize it earlier.

analogika · May 10, 2007, 03:54 AM

That's very strange.