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Hard Drive Puzzler
#21829 05/07/12 05:17 PM
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ryck Offline OP
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On the weekend I had a hard drive noise - somewhat like a hum but slightly higher in frequency - which lasted for about 15 minutes and then went away.

This morning I had it on booting and it continued. My first thought was to do a clone backup but I couldn't as Super Duper stopped, saying the drive is too big. That shouldn't have been the case.

I checked the drive size and the system thinks it's about 60 GB larger than it actually is. (It is a 320 GB drive with 79GB of material) I went through the folders one at a time (Applications, Library, Data. et cetera) and the sizes on the hard drive were not different from the SD Clone drive.

Thinking I should check things with Disk Warrior and TechTool Pro I tried to reboot from the clone. It got as far as loading the desktop but there was no Menu Bar and no Dock.

I did a forced shutdown (holding power button) but when trying to reboot it simply went back to the clone. I forced the shutdown again and turned off the clone drive. Then it booted to the main drive.

I figured that maybe a TechTool Pro eDrive might be a way to go, so I tried an eDrive install. It got as far as the System folder load but got hung up. After a few minutes I noticed the same names flashing over and over. To be sure, I let it go for another four minutes but that only confirmed what I had seen. I stopped that install.

I've rebooted to the main drive and I am NOT hearing the hard drive noise but a "Command I" of the drive still shows 60MB more than is correct. (i.e. 199GB instead of 79GB)

When I look at the drive with "About this Mac" it shows:

Capacity: 320.07 GB (320,072,933,376 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HDP725032GLA380
Revision: GM0KA59A
Serial Number: GEK033RG2LA1WC
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 7200
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
Writable: Yes
BSD Name: disk0s1
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 319.73 GB (319,728,959,488 bytes)
Available: 200.24 GB (200,238,567,424 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

As I submit this, the drive is silent. So, I'm puzzled.

Last edited by ryck; 05/07/12 05:18 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
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Re: Hard Drive Puzzler
ryck #21848 05/08/12 12:37 AM
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I'm a little unclear on your size references.

Quote:
I checked the drive size and the system thinks it's about 60 GB larger than it actually is. (It is a 320 GB drive with 79GB of material)

Do you mean the system thinks it's a 380 GB drive? Or do you mean the system thinks it's got 139 GB of material on it? If the latter, I don't know what to make of your reference later to "199GB instead of 79GB."



dkmarsh—member, FineTunedMac Co-op Board of Directors
Re: Hard Drive Puzzler
dkmarsh #21850 05/08/12 04:37 AM
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ryck Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: dkmarsh

I'm a little unclear on your size references.

I'm not surprised when I look back at my incredibly bad math and what I wrote in my rush. blush The 60GB should have been 40GB....as in, the drive has 79 GB of data but the system shows 119. And, of course, it follows that I should have said "119 instead of 79GB". blush blush

I've since been doing some more checking and have now found the 60GB. The Users folder is 59.38. I hadn't looked at it completely because I began by looking at individual Users (Wife, Visitor account, Daughters) and, since they were were just a few MBs, I assumed everything of substance was already accounted for in the main Library. I didn't bother checking the last User (me) which had a bunch of stuff I've now told Super Duper to ignore...backups of some of my DVDs...for the sake of getting other data backed up.

So, I guess all fingers can point at me. A local electronics store has a 320 GB drive on sale so maybe I'll spring for a backup drive the same size as the internal drive.

However, all of that aside, I still don't know what the hard drive noise was about (it now seems to be gone)....or why the clone wouldn't properly boot the computer, although it does now.

Last edited by ryck; 05/08/12 04:40 AM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Hard Drive Puzzler
ryck #21851 05/08/12 09:26 AM
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For the noise issue, see if anything at this site rings a bell.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Hard Drive Puzzler
ryck #21852 05/08/12 01:08 PM
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Since you have TechTool Pro, I would run their S.M.A.R.T. test to see if any of the parameters are out of line. TechTool reports the individual S.M.A.R.T. values and not just the relatively useless aggregate score and the last drive I had fail passed the aggregate test, but failed one of the individual test parameters. I would also run the Surface Scan to see if there are any bad sectors on the disk. The surface scan is, by far, the best indicator of impending hard drive failure.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Hard Drive Puzzler
jchuzi #21853 05/08/12 02:35 PM
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ryck Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: jchuzi
For the noise issue, see if anything at this site rings a bell.

Thanks. I didn't hear anything like my sound but I've bookmarked the site for future reference. I have to say, some of those sounds were pretty scary and I think one even sounded like a car I once owned.

Last edited by ryck; 05/08/12 02:39 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Hard Drive Puzzler
joemikeb #21855 05/08/12 02:38 PM
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ryck Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Since you have TechTool Pro, I would run their S.M.A.R.T. test to see if any of the parameters are out of line

Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I would also run the Surface Scan to see if there are any bad sectors on the disk. The surface scan is, by far, the best indicator of impending hard drive failure.

Done and done.

The SMART Test gave a pass on all factors and the Surface Scan didn't find even one bad sector. I'm starting to wonder if I just experienced a bit of aberrant behaviour - with the drive, that is, not me.

Last edited by ryck; 05/08/12 02:40 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Hard Drive Puzzler
ryck #21859 05/08/12 05:50 PM
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The sound may not be the hard drive. Sometimes it is difficult to tell. If you are still covered under AppleCare I would take it in if the noise recurs.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Hard Drive Puzzler
ryck #21871 05/08/12 08:38 PM
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The two big noisemakers are fans and hdd. If the hdd is having a bearing going out it can develop a nice loud hum that can come and go. SMART is mostly worthless for this, don't rely on it. Besides trying to narrow the location of the noise, keeping a good current backup is your best course of action.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department

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