mac hard drive diagnostic and repair utilities

The other typical problem is operating system errors. Photo by Wesley Fryer Check to see if the repair is free: Check your serial number with Apple If the hard drive works on another computer, then it isn’t your hard drive. The best way to figure this out is to remove your hard drive and try it in another Mac. The Mac exhibits all the same symptoms as a failed hard drive. If you have a MacBook Pro, the ribbon cable that connects the hard drive to the rest of the computer can go bad. If you’ve tried all this and are still having problems, there could be something wrong with your Mac other than the hard drive. If it detects a hard drive error, the program warns you. During its diagnostic process it will repair and optimize the drive. The program creates a Recovery flash drive. You’ll need to boot your Mac off a Disk Warrior flash drive to do testing and repair. It can also do more diagnostics on your drive. It often fixes problems Apple’s utility can’t. If Disk Utility reports a problem it can’t fix, it is time to try a third party utility. Glitches and improper shutdowns might leave things scrambled.

The Mac’s journaled file system usually keeps things in order. Does your Mac Support Apple Diagnostics? Apple explains which models support this here Your Might Have a Confused Hard Drive The diagnostic will report any problems, including the hard drive. That runs a full hardware test on your Mac. Some Macs have a built-in hardware diagnostic. If Disk Utility finds any problems, try rebooting and see if everything is working. The utility will fix any problems or warn you of a S.M.A.R.T hard drive error.

Select Disk First Aid to test the hard drive for problems. At the bottom of the list is Disk Utility. When you reboot, you’ll see the OS X Utilities window. Don’t have recovery mode? You’ll need an offline Mac installer Reboot your Mac and hold down the command and r key down at the same time to enter Recovery Mode. Apple’s Disk Utilityis the first place to start. Don’t proceed before you try to make a backup. Again, you should already have a backup of your Mac. If you suspect your hard disk is failing, it is time to make a backup. That could be because your Mac is waiting on the hard drive. Other times you’ll get the spinning rainbow wheel, letting you know your Mac is waiting on something. After turning off your Mac and turning it back on, the system boots just fine. no symbol at startup or a flashing folder with a question mark.

Sometimes you’ll get the prohibitory no symbol at startup or a flashing folder with a question mark. Not all drives exhibit symptoms in this way.

Mac hard drive diagnostic and repair utilities