Nic Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 I've been having loads of problems with my Mac Mini recently, with it hanging up a lot in the middle of a process for no reason and running slowly, then not restarting after shut down. Fortunately I have an extrenal hard drive that I am able to boot from, when I do this I get no problems. First I thought it could be some bug on the software I had on my internal hard drive, wiped the HD and reinstalled the OS, works okay at first then starts hanging again. I've dowloaded a few diagnostic programmes and have just been doing a surface scan of the HD and it has found some bad blocks (5 so far). It is still scanning and I think the software will allow me to repair the problem. Just wondered whether this could explain the problems I have been experiencing? I don't really understand what a bad block is, from my understanding it is a small section of the hard drive that has problems being written and read from. I'm hoping the software will fix the problem, otherwise I'm going to have to get it looked at for a second time under warranty (first time the processor and memory were replaced) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Posted December 17, 2005 Author Share Posted December 17, 2005 Up to 19 bad blocks now, it's taking for ever to scan the drive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suprasport Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 19 bad sectors are nothing they can come shipped with way more than that sometimes. there are thousands and thousands of sectors it could very well be a virus. there is one that i had once that gave me 3 minutes after a reload to connect to internet download a piece of software and install before it shut down. it stored itself away on the hard drive or memory or something forgot how many attempts it took me. do an update on your virus checker and see if that helps. allthough i am not saying it isn't the bad sectors but unlikely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Posted December 17, 2005 Author Share Posted December 17, 2005 Thanks, I've done a virus check nothing found, there are very few Mac viruses so I think this would be unlikely. I've never experienced any bad blocks on any of my macs before, I'll try getting rid of them and see if it helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suprasport Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 not 100% sure about mac's but can you delete the partition then make, make a fresh partition then format? formatting will miss the bad sectors out. this maybe what your software will do anyway good luck with it mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Posted December 17, 2005 Author Share Posted December 17, 2005 not 100% sure about mac's but can you delete the partition then make, make a fresh partition then format? formatting will miss the bad sectors out. this maybe what your software will do anyway good luck with it mate I've tried re-partitioning the HD, but didn't get rid of the bad blocks. The diagnostic software I'm using should identify the bad blocks then partition them out, but it is taking a long time to scan the 60GB HD. The hardrives used in the macs are the sames as in a pc, so should be similar process I would think. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregsupra4 Posted December 18, 2005 Share Posted December 18, 2005 Hi Nick, Can you let me know if the MAC os is 10.4.3 or 10.4.4(TIGER) Whilst both can give you these errors there is a different workround for each. Once I get this information I will let you know which fix to use. Just a thought if you are still on OS9 then you have a problem as there is no workaround. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Posted December 19, 2005 Author Share Posted December 19, 2005 Hi Nick, Can you let me know if the MAC os is 10.4.3 or 10.4.4(TIGER) Whilst both can give you these errors there is a different workround for each. Once I get this information I will let you know which fix to use. Just a thought if you are still on OS9 then you have a problem as there is no workaround. Hi Greg At the moment I have no OS installed on the internal HD (tried reinitialising and reinstalling a number of times with 10.4 but it just hangs all the time, after a while) I'm currently booting from my external HD which has 10.4 installed and running various diagnostic apps to scan the internal disc, all are highlighting bad blocks on the HD but get half way through the scan and then slow to a stop, so I can't run the fix to get rid of the bad blocks. I've tried adding a few partitions to the internal HD and scanning again but it still just grinds to a hault once it starts detecting bad blocks. I'm using Norton Systemworks, Drive 10, Drive Genius, TechTool Pro 4, Disc Utility and Disc Warrior, anything better you can suggest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted December 19, 2005 Share Posted December 19, 2005 Have you got a different disk you can swap in. That would be quick fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Posted December 19, 2005 Author Share Posted December 19, 2005 Have you got a different disk you can swap in. That would be quick fix. No I don't, the Mac Mini is under warranty, but I'm trying to avoid having to get it looked at again as I last time I was without it for 2 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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