How do I check if the HDD on my Mac Pro is failing?

Question

Level 2

445 points

How do I check if the HDD on my Mac Pro is failing?

I've been planning to retire my mid 2010 MacPro running Mojave and transfer everything to a new M1 MacMini. Today, the MacPro started doing a lot of beachballing in several different apps, requiring numerous restarts. Some apps would bounce in the Dock but never open. I tried running Disk Utility several times but it quit while examining snapshots.

I ran an Etrecheck report which I will attach here.

I previously had a suggestion to transfer only my user folder to the MacMini and install all 3rd party apps fresh. If the MacPro dies, can I restore my user folder from a Backblaze backup to the MacMini or does it have to be a transfer from the MacPro (I also have Time Machine backups of the MacPro.)

I'm afraid the need to get out of the MacPro is becoming more urgent. I hope the Etrecheck report suggests a problem that might be fixable.

Thank you!

Etrecheck report 1.8.25

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac Pro, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jan 8, 2025 3:44 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MrHoffman

Community+ 2024

Level 10

128,711 points

Jan 8, 2025 4:00 PM in response to pomme-homme

Overloaded, certainly. Lots of app activity doing, well, something.

Between Dropbox and Spotlight, and potentially some other participants, storage looks very busy.

The I/O speeds on the HDD look pretty good.

Might want to aim DriveDx on the HDDs here, as the built-in tools probably aren’t going to report all that much with what look to be third-party HDDs. On the off chance there is a problem.

I doubt CCC is directly restorable and bootable (and this source won’t be bootable on Apple silicon anyway), but a restore of that backup (somewhere else) can likely be the source for a migration. Check the CCC docs.

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 9, 2025 11:12 AM in response to pomme-homme

pomme-homme wrote:

Just to be clear: "documented, supported, and how many migrations are done" refers to using a Time Machine backup, correct?

"...using an up-to-date Time Machine backup from an old MacPro running Mojave to transfer everything to an M1 Mini running Sequoia" (or most any other Time Machine backup) would be "documented, supported, and how many migrations are done", yes.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 8, 2025 4:54 PM in response to pomme-homme

You seem to have fairly recent time machine backups.

Consider letting Time machine run and make an up-to-date backup, because that tends to be the most flexible, and you seem to be almost there.

Reply

Answer 4

Allan Jones

Level 9

73,046 points

Jan 10, 2025 10:21 AM in response to pomme-homme

pomme-homme wrote:

Thanks, no, my boot volume is the internal 1 TB SSD.

Then your drive speeds are appropriate to and expected of an SATA 3G SSD, Thanks for confirming.

Reply

Answer 5

pomme-homme Author

Level 2

445 points

Jan 8, 2025 5:34 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks, I like that idea. Do you see any problems using an up-to-date Time Machine backup from an old MacPro running Mojave to transfer everything to an M1 Mini running Sequoia...or would it make more sense to transfer only my user folder and install needed apps fresh?

Thanks again!

Reply

Answer 6

Jan 8, 2025 5:39 PM in response to pomme-homme

pomme-homme wrote:

Thanks, I like that idea. Do you see any problems using an up-to-date Time Machine backup from an old MacPro running Mojave to transfer everything to an M1 Mini running Sequoia...or would it make more sense to transfer only my user folder and install needed apps fresh?

That’s documented, supported, and how many migrations are done.

Reply

Answer 7

Allan Jones

Level 9

73,046 points

Jan 9, 2025 9:59 AM in response to pomme-homme

I agree with Mr Hoffman—these data:

Performance:

System Load: 6.69 (1 min ago) 3.91 (5 min ago) 1.74 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O usage: 14.28 MB/s

File system: 35.96 seconds

Write speed: 220 MB/s

Read speed: 256 MB/s

show your HDD to be relatively healthy for its age (File System is under about 45 seconds), and running at best possible speeds for that drive specification.

Those drive speeds are actually consistent with the Internal SATA 3GB SSD. Is the your boot volume?

Reply