MacBook Pro :: System Hangs With Colossal Hard Drive Activity
Jan 12, 2011
Been having a problem with my MBP recently, it's the 2008 model btw. This happens like 3 or 4 times a day it usually starts with me trying to change spaces and nothing happening, and the dock won't pop up when I mouse over the bottom. After doing this for say 30 seconds or so the active app will freeze too. I'll still be able to move my mouse it becomes unresponsive. iStat menus tells me that the hard drive is reading and writing at like 5 or 6 Mbps, and the the dock is taking up 200 or Mbs of memory. all the while nothing is happening. after a minute or two it come back slowly like I'll be able to scroll very jumpily for a bit and then the dock'll pop up and I'll whizz round the spaces I keyed in etc.
This is starting to get really annoying, I've tried resetting PRAM and the SMC thing (or whatever they are, the things you do when you turn the laptop off) and repaired the permissions etc. The only thing I can think of doing is a complete reinstall, but that takes a fair amount of effort so I was wondering if you guys had any ideas what's going on. On a separate note my laptop also does this weird sleep thing when I close the lid, it goes to sleep, then comes on again and there's HD activity and then goes to sleep again and so on and so on. This is pretty irritating because the laptop's roasting hot if you leave it like this for a while and it drains the battery. Meaning I've got to shut it down completely if I want to put it in a bag to go somewhere.
I have a new 17" MBP and recently it stopped going to sleep on its own. I can force it to sleep my apple menu or shutting the lid. I have tried everything I can think of... all programs closed, nothing running (to my knowledge) and in activity monitor it shows the disk activity writting every 20 seconds or so... my only conclusion is that it's not letting the HD become inactive long enough to send to sleep... can someone please help me with this?
I noticed lately that my Macbook Pro (late 2008) can get pretty slow because of hard drive activity. Strange this is, there seems to be quite a lot of activity from time to time even when I'm doing next to nothing (but surfing and mailing). how I can diagnose/fix this? Or do I need more memory (got 2gb).
I have a 13" mid 2009 MBP and due to issues with the superdrive I decided to buy the OWC data doubler kit and install it with a 120GB SSD from them. I also upgraded to 8GB RAM at the time but I do not believe that has anything to do with this. After I did this, my original HD freaked out and wouldn't even show up in target disk mode. Eventually I made a clone of the Snow Leopard install disks onto a USB stick using a friend's laptop and installed OSX fresh onto the SSD. Luckily I had a backup of everything so I have not lost anything. Even with the fresh install, however, I am having a lot of issues with the OS. When I try to boot the machine, it often takes 3, 4 or even 5 times to boot normally. As far as I remember, booting into safe mode works right away but that is obviously not a solution. Usually it starts by hanging at a blue screen once or twice, then I can get to the login screen but it is either kind of grayed out or it just freezes and I can't even move the mouse to type in my password. When I do safe mode it boots up without this issue, but even after that I often see the computer freeze up during use, which happened the first time I wrote this post. This problem also occurs when waking up from sleep. If the laptop goes to sleep by itself or I close it, I have to power cycle it to return to use. The keyboard will light up, but the screen never comes on so there is no way for me to log in. These issues are extremely frustrating and make me feel dumb for doing this in the first place, considering that everything worked ok before(minus the superdrive). Has anyone seen these issues before? Resetting PRAM and booting into single user mode are not helpful, I have tried them many, many times and I see the same issues. I saw somewhere else that I should try to remove the fonts, startup items, and loginwindow.plist files/folders and put them on the desktop, but even after doing that the issues persist.
I am getting HD noise like every 20 seconds. Even with no activity. Per the suggestions of another user, I typed this in terminal: iostat -w 1 disk0 And the sound seems to coincide with the output whenever the first column has a value other than 0. So it seems there is activity, it's just not user initiated. Is this some kind of energy saving feature that apple is doing or is it a logging application? Is anyone else having the same issues? Even if you're not, could you run the program and check for 1 or 2 minutes (without any other apps open or doing anything) to see if you also get a value other than 0 in the first column every so often and an associated sound?
I have a mid 2011 iMac with a primary SSD drive (256GB) and a secondary ATA drive (1TB).I have created several folders and sub folders for photos on the secondary ATA drive for safe keeping before burning to a DVD.However lately when I try to access these folders on the ATA drive the finder window is not showing these sub folders I have created and stored several photos in.And I get the spinning pinwheel of color as the system freezes up.
when occurs a suspension of hard drive activity, manually or after a period of inactivity, this suspension seems to be incomplete (a ventilator continue to run) therefore my mac (power-mac G5, OS 10.4.11) is unable to restart, no possible action from the keyboard (I must shut down and restart)
Info: PowerMac G5, Mac OS X (10.4.4), & PowerBook (10.3.9)
I've just got a new external HD, but it's not being recognised by Mac OS X (10.5.7). I assumed it was because it was in a Windows format, so booted Windows, but it then turned out it wasn't formatted at all. What is the easiest way to make this an HFS+ (the Mac OS extended format), and how do I do it as I can't see it anywhere on the Mac (including Disk Utility)?
I tried searching for info about this, but didn't come up with anything. My company just purchased me a new macbook pro, the 2.26 stock model. I recently bought a 500GB 7200rpm drive, so when the new machine arrived I just swapped out the stock drive with my 500GB. The 500GB has a relatively fresh install of Snow Leopard. Everything is running pretty well, although I feel like I'm seeing a little more sluggishness in some apps (Aperture, for one) than I expected. It's pretty impressive that an OSX boot disk can boot any mac, but I wonder if there's anything I ought to do�preference files I should delete, for example�to make sure that the OS and the new mac are in sync.
I've been reading this site for a while now, first time I'm posting. I recently purchased 8 GB of RAM for my 2010 13" MBP. There are two 4 GB DDR3 PC3-10500 1333mhz sticks. When I install them in the laptop my computer does not get past the apple logo boot screen (the spinning disc freezes). However, I can boot into Windows (boot camp) without issues.
Also, when I pair either of the 4 GB sticks with one of my old 2 GB stock sticks the laptop boots up fine in OS X. The system profiler registers it as 6 GB of 1067 mhz RAM (the stock sticks are 1067 mhz)
I upgraded it from 250GB to a 500GB 7200RPM WD Scorpio Black. However the noise was definitely noticeable for me and I have changed it back to the 250 5400RPM GB Seagate Momentus. Sucks to have lost the money
Now the thing is I need 500 GB and I want it to be a internal hard disk. I was thinking about buying 500 GB 5400RPM Scorpio Blue or a Seagate 5400RPM Momentus. Not decided yet(any recommendation?). The problem is though I want to begin using my system. I want to install programs etc. Is there an easy way to copy the whole system to the new hard drive when it arrives?
I have another (windows) pc with an external NFTS disk.
I got a 2007 white MacBook, and I only have about 4GB HD space left. And that's after I did some emergency clearing out. It's obvious I need a new one, or to clear out more. I'm thinking both.I just got the free version of CleanMyMac, is that a good program to clear my HD out with?And, if I only want a drive that's 200GB-300GB, how much will a reliable one run me? I've seen 1TB drives for ?70, but I'm not sure if they're the right size for the MB.
7200rpm SATA disk (custom config when ordered uMBP) keeps stalling (beach ball) every so often. I used Disk Utility on my uMBP and it was corrupted so I repaired it and my system still hangs every 15-20 minutes. It does this no matter if I'm launching an app or just doing nothing. So I formatted my drive and reinstalled OSX Snow Leopard. It seemed fine but now it's doing it again. Using Disk Utility shows nothing wrong with the drive this time. I'm still under warranty but I don't want the downtime of taking this in.
I know I need a Phillips 00 Screwdriver but what screwdriver do I need to remove the hard drive shielding. I googled the topic but I kept getting conflicting information. Some people say I need a Torox T6 screwdriver while others say I need a T8 or does it really matter.
I just upgraded my hard drive in my macbook pro to the 500 GIG western digital 7200 rpm drive. Now it seems like my systems is a bit slower that when the 200 gig drive was in it.
I'm thinking about getting a bigger internal HD for my 15 inch macbook pro. Currently 250GB, want 750gb. I have Macbook Pro 15 inch unibody A1286. Will it fit? And will there be more heat coming from a larger drive? If so is it advisable to avoid a larger drive because of heat issues?
New member. Just got myself a new MacBook pro i5 15' to replace my old MacBook. I noticed when I opened the system profiler under ATA it said no hard drive was present or selected or something to that effect. Everything is running beautifully on the machine but I was just curious why nothing showed up. Any ideas?
I want to download a new software for my mac but a message pops up and says it recommends i back up my files on time machine. Can you back up on an internal hard drive or do you need an external hard drive to do it?
My safari v 5.1.7 hangs while trying to open iys homepage (ie. Yahoo) after a system update. Currently system version is 10.6.8 I have tried various methods such as emptying cache, reset safari and update DNS Servers in the Network. And none works.
I replaced the hd in my 13" macbook pro with a western digital blue, 500gb. My concern is that the computer is not as snappy as I think it should be. I understand that I might have installed a hard drive with a motion sensor and that the motion sensor of the hd may conflict with the motion sensor of the mac itself and that might be the source of the slowdown? If so, which sensor should I deactivate, the mac's of the hard drive's?
my friend internal drive failed today and i got a new Seagate 500 sata to replace it
1- boot from my usb stick OSX 10.9 installer, select Disk Utlity and create 1x partition Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and got an error: File system formatter failed
2- boot from CMD + R and had exactly the same problem
3- tried another used but good internal HD and same problem
4- used my other macbook Retina and start the setup connecting the new seagate w/ Apricorn SATA-USB and reboot after setup. working fine after boot
5- installed that new seagate w/ 10.9 installed and working from my MB retina in the defective MB 13 and NEW ERROR:
"SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple software".i replaced over 100x internal HD on Macbook computer in the last 10 years and NEVER see that problem..
I inserted the RESTORE CD and held the C key down. I get a message saying: This image has a missing or outdated checksum resource. Select another configuration. I want to clear the HD off so I can donate the computer, or dispose of it as the case may be. No idea what to do about this message.
I upgraded the hard drive in my 2006 model white MacBook. It now has a Western Digital WD3200BEVT... 320GB 5400rpm. I recently purchased a new 13 inch MacBook Pro, and would like to put the Western Digital hard drive in the new MacBook Pro. Both computers have Mac OS X 10.6.2 installed.My plan is to open the MacBooks and put the WD into the MBP. I'll boot from the reinstall disc that came with the MBP and install without formatting.
I usually just turn off my monitor at night but for some reason, the HD constantly makes spinning noise even then the computer hasn't been used for hours ( i don't run time machine ).
Is there any way to tell what process is causing this stupid HD activity? My previous Dell machine was so much more quiet than this POS. I prefer not having to explicitly put the machine the sleep every time.
