Hard disk problem or?

Matsaki

Matsaki

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I have been fighting with a strange problem for some Months now. I have changed Hard Drive on my Macbook Pro C2D 2.4GHz to a WD 500Gb 7200rpm Black Scorpio. It runs fine for some time but later the system stops working (spinning ball) and is I think the programs can't write to the Hard Drive any more.

I can't restart and some times not even from the Recovery HD. When I start up from a cloned external drive, some times Repair Disk helps, but I have the erros's "Invalid content in Journal". A seccond repair is needed and some times the problem is fixed and the computer works for a few more days.

I have changed the hard disk three times now, but always get the same problem. So I start wondering if it's really the hard disk that's the problem?

If I disconnect the power cord and battery I can later start up from the Recovery HD which reports no errors, and then the computer works just fine again. (Next time I will try to just disconnect power and restart directly. No repair.)

What's going on here?
 
OK. If you clone a hard drive and you get the Invalid content in journal message, then you appear to have corrupted your backup. I suggest tthree courses of action:
  1. Run Disk Utility>Disk First Aid on the backup or on the cloned HD.
  2. If No. 1 does not fix the problem, then run File System Check (fsck -fy) from the command prompt in Single User Mode.
  3. If No. 2 does not fix the problem, then do a clean install of your OS and applications.
 
I'm a Mac user since 1989 so believe me. I have done all the ABC stuff, and DEF too. But then I'm stuck :(
 
Could it be, by looking at your MBP's specs below, that, because you list 3 Gb RAM, that you have mis-matched RAM modules? Your MBP originally came with either 2 or 4 Gb of RAM; I'll have to assume that yours came with 2 Gb, and you added 1 Gb. RAM is very cheap right now, replace ALL of yours with at least 2-2 Gb's (4 total) or more. At the very least, replace that 1 with a 2 of exactly correct specs.
 
It crossed my mind. But I bought the Mac with 3Gb RAM from a Apple shop (RAM was more expensive then and I was stupid just to buy 1Gb extra).

But it don't really make sense as I can reboot from an external drive without problems when I can't boot from the internal drive.

Also the first times I had this problem I used tools as DiskWarrior etc. and decided to erase the hard drive to reinstall from TimeMachine. I could not even erase the disk as it was locked? First after I took it out and put it in a external USB case I could do what I wanted with the hard drive.

I will upgrade to 4Gb anyway soon.
 
'mismatched' RAM modules would not cause this issue, and not likely cause or contribute to any problem, other than violating that great rule "There is no downside when adding more memory" :D
I would more suspect a faulty SATA data cable, or the SATA controller is starting to fail.
 
DeltaMac said:
I would more suspect a faulty SATA data cable, or the SATA controller is starting to fail.
Click to expand...

That make more sense. Unfortunately I guess the only way to find out is to buy a SATA cable. And if the problem remains it's likely to be the SATA controller, that is not changeable :(

My motherboard was replaced for a graphic card problem only one year ago. Maybe that motherboard have issues?
 
Do you have your original restore DVDs, which would have Apple's hardware test?
If you run that test, you may get a failure code for the drive controller.

Have you tried monitoring the various temp sensors to see if this is somehow heat related?
 
I have Lion installer but that don't have any hardware test. I have run hardware test with TechTool Pro before and had no errors. I don't see any heat problems. The highest temperature has the CPU Diode which goes between 60-70C (140-160F).

As there is a new motherboard I'm googling if there is a EFI firmware update that I missed? A bitt farfetched but...

NEWS! I found how to make a hardware test from Apple DVD by installing the ATH from my older 10.5.2. So let's see if I get some answers?
 
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If you have your original grey DVDs, then you insert the DVD with hardware test on the label in the drive, and restart while holding the letter D.
It doesn't matter what OS version you have installed on your hard drive. The hardware test does not use your installed OS X version at all.
 
Now I have a new error. Same problem occurred and I tried the way I always do. Disconnect all power. Connect again and then run "Repair Disk". But now I get the error Incorrect number of thread records and in Disk Utility the disk can't be mounted or repaired.

But then I can boot from the disk again anyway? And when I run Verify Disk on booted disk I still get the same error Incorrect number of thread records.

I think this is a very strange phenomenon.
 
Are you trying Disk Utility while booted from your Lion repair partition?

Lion Disk Utility has different repair tasks when selecting the hard drive, or your partition. Be sure to try the Repair Disk after selecting both the disk, and the partition one at a time.

If your problems have started since you replaced your original hard drive, then I suspect the new hard drive. I think you said that you have tried more than one, so then you should try different SATA data cables - or even try a completely different brand of HD.
 
Good news!
I changed the SATA data cable and all is working fine now for two weeks. :)

I also bought a 4Gb RAM (the cheap OWC one) so now I have 6Gb and hints are going much faster...

Thanks guys!
 
Matsaki said:
Good news!
I changed the SATA data cable and all is working fine now for two weeks. :)

I also bought a 4Gb RAM (the cheap OWC one) so now I have 6Gb and hints are going much faster...

Thanks guys!
Click to expand...
There is a huge difference between 4 Gb and 4GB.
 
MisterMe said:
There is a huge difference between 4 Gb and 4GB.
Click to expand...

Between 4 and 4 Gb?? I think maybe you are to tired or had one drink to many :)

But I understand. I had 3Gb RAM before, and now I have the maximum 6Gb.

All though I would not mind 8Gb (if it was possible) and a SSD disk :)
 
Matsaki said:
Between 4 and 4 Gb?? I think maybe you are to tired or had one drink to many :)

But I understand. I had 3Gb RAM before, and now I have the maximum 6Gb.

All though I would not mind 8Gb (if it was possible) and a SSD disk :)
Click to expand...
DeltaMac is correct. FWIW, I do not drink. As for your memory, just about every Mac today has at least 4 GB RAM in the standard configuration. I have no idea why you would want to downgrade to 8 Gb RAM.
 
Maybe I am to tired then. As you can see I had one 1Gb and one 2GB (= 3Gb) And then I bought a 4Gb and exchanged the 1Gb. So now I have 6Gb. What downgrade? I said that I would not mind to have 8Gb RAM if it was possible on this machine.
 
As this is just another example of the "detail police", I hope this doesn't continue too far :D
So you now do have 6 GB - but not 6 Gb?
And 6 GB is certainly 6 times larger than 8 Gb

I'm sure you are not avoiding your shift key on purpose :D
 
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