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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > iMac C2D hd problems

iMac C2D hd problems
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kamina
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Feb 28, 2010, 12:55 PM
 
I've been having strange disk problems with my iMac C2D lately. Almost every time I run "verify disk" I need to boot from the installation cd to repair the disk (orphaned inodes etc). I occasionally have time machine just hanging at "calculating changes" for several days, applications not starting or stopping etc (and these all seem to be connected).

I have swapped the disk a couple of times, last time was about half a year ago (and I did a fresh snow leopard install after), currently the disk is a WD 1TB caviar black. I have also once tried to reinstall restoring from time machine a short while ago. Smart status for the disk is listed as verified, and I ran memtest for 24 hours without any errors.

Anyone have a clue what I could try next to debug the problem? I did not figure out a way to ran a full surface scan on the disk.
     
seanc
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Feb 28, 2010, 03:08 PM
 
Install the latest SMART Reporter (2.4.8).
Click on the icon in the menu bar, go to Preferences.
On the Hard Disks tab, right click your hard drive and select 'Check S.M.A.R.T. Attributes'.

Scroll down in the window that opens and paste the following data in code tags:
Code:
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 1 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 185 182 021 Pre-fail Always - 1716 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 785 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 997 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0033 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 750 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 717 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 157 157 000 Old_age Always - 130359 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 116 100 000 Old_age Always - 31 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0009 100 253 051 Pre-fail Offline - 0 SMART Error Log Version: 1 No Errors Logged
     
kamina  (op)
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Feb 28, 2010, 05:21 PM
 
Code:
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 253 225 021 Pre-fail Always - 7250 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1106 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 2037 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 575 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 14 193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 1106 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 106 100 000 Old_age Always - 44 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
     
seanc
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Feb 28, 2010, 05:28 PM
 
There's nothing wrong with that disk according to the information you've provided.

Have you added any RAM?
     
kamina  (op)
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Feb 28, 2010, 05:37 PM
 
Yeah, but I added the ram when I bought the machine (would that have been end of 2006? I also ran memtest for 24 hours (booted from cd) which should find so bad errors (that they cause continuous corruption). I feel the problems started when I got this disk, but I did also install a new operating system so it might not be related.

BTW, what's up with your high load cycle count? You have an older WD disk (green power or similar)?
     
seanc
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Feb 28, 2010, 05:41 PM
 
I have a Western Digital Blue drive (WD5000BEVT). I have Green drives in my PCs.
It's in my MacBook Pro, so it gets open and shut a lot, especially since I have to do that to get my keyboard/trackpad working again.
     
reader50
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Feb 28, 2010, 08:34 PM
 
"Verify disk" is not reliable when used on the drive you are booted from - it is likely to report bogus errors. To verify the internal drive, you should first boot from a different source.

Note: if you partition the internal drive, you can reliably verify one partition while booted from the other one.

How full is the internal 1 TB drive? Also, how big / full is the Time Machine drive? And have you verifed the TM drive (with TM turned off)?
( Last edited by reader50; Feb 28, 2010 at 08:41 PM. )
     
AKcrab
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Feb 28, 2010, 08:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc View Post
... especially since I have to do that to get my keyboard/trackpad working again.
Eh? What have you done to try and fix this?
     
seanc
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Feb 28, 2010, 08:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by AKcrab View Post
Eh? What have you done to try and fix this?
Upgrade to Snow Leopard, reboot, stick paper under the battery, reset PRAM/SMC. Reboot/sleep will get it to work for some unknown amount of time. I've finally gotten fed up and booked a genius appointment. Lets not hijack this thread much more...
     
   
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