After isolating an issue on your Mac to a possible hardware issue, you can use Apple Diagnostics to help determine which hardware component might be causing the issue. Apple Diagnostics also suggests solutions and helps you contact Apple Support for assistance.
This drive also perhaps the most interesting drive on test here. You can use the WD My Passport Wireless Pro like a standard wired hard drive, but it also has integrated Wi-Fi and a 10-hour. Mac OS includes Disk Utility, a tool for formatting, testing and repairing hard drives. Disk Utility’s test and repair option is called First Aid. Always back up your data before running First Aid scans on your hard drive. If a bad sector is found, data that had been available can be. WD My Passport For Mac (Best Overall) The Western Digital 2TB My Passport For Mac is the perfect. On your Mac, choose Apple menu Restart, then press and hold the D key while your Mac restarts. When the Apple Hardware Test chooser screen appears, select the language you want to use, then press the Return key or click the right arrow button. If you don’t see the chooser screen, Apple Hardware Test may not be available on your Mac.
If your Mac was introduced before June 2013, it uses Apple Hardware Test instead.
How to use Apple Diagnostics
- Disconnect all external devices except keyboard, mouse, display, Ethernet connection (if applicable), and connection to AC power.
- Make sure that your Mac is on a hard, flat, stable surface with good ventilation.
- Shut down your Mac.
- Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold the D key on your keyboard. Keep holding until you see a screen asking you to choose your language. When Apple Diagnostics knows your language, it displays a progress bar indicating that it's checking your Mac:
- Checking your Mac takes 2 or 3 minutes. If any issues are found, Apple Diagnostics suggests solutions and provides reference codes. Note the reference codes before continuing.
- Choose from these options:
- To repeat the test, click ”Run the test again” or press Command (⌘)-R.
- For more information, including details about your service and support options, click ”Get started” or press Command-G.
- To restart your Mac, click Restart or press R.
- To shut down, click Shut Down or press S.
If you choose to get more information, your Mac starts up from macOS Recovery and displays a web page asking you to choose your country or region. Click ”Agree to send” to send your serial number and reference codes to Apple. Then follow the onscreen service and support instructions. When you're done, you can choose Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu.
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This step requires an Internet connection. If you're not connected to the Internet, you'll see a page describing how to get connected.
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If holding down the D key at startup doesn't start Apple Diagnostics:
- If you're using a firmware password, turn it off. You can turn it on again after using Apple Diagnostics.
- Hold down Option-D at startup to attempt to start Apple Diagnostics over the Internet.
El Capitan’s Disk Utility is a handy tool for troubleshooting and repairing your hard drive (whether you’re noticing that your Mac has slowed considerably or you have problems opening files and applications). You can find it in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder. From Launchpad, click the Utilities folder and then click the Disk Utility icon.
In the left column of the Disk Utility window, you can see
- The physical hard drives in your system (the actual hardware)
- The volumes (the data stored on the hard drives)
You can always tell a volume, because it’s indented below the physical drive entry.
- Any CD or DVD loaded on your Mac
- External USB or Thunderbolt hard drives
- USB flash drives
- Flash drives (like thumb drives) are external hardware devices that you can add to your Mac for additional storage room or as secure places to back up your data.
Here, you see one internal hard drive (the 1TB SATA entry, which is selected) and one USB external hard drive (the Toshiba entry). The hard drive has three volumes (Wolfgang, Ludwig, and Johann), and the USB drive has one volume (Time Machine).
Disk Utility also fixes incorrect file permissions automatically. Files with corrupt or incorrect permissions can
- Make your Mac lock up
- Make applications act goofy (or refuse to run)
- Cause strange behavior within a Finder window or System Preferences
Using Disk Utility to repair your hard drive carries a couple of caveats:
- You can’t repair the boot disk or the boot volume if OS X won’t run. This statement makes sense because Disk Utility is launched from your boot volume. (The boot volume is usually your Mac’s internal hard drive, where El Capitan is installed.) If OS X isn’t booting completely or is locking up, you can’t launch Disk Utility.
To repair your boot hard drive if OS X isn’t running, you need to boot your Mac from El Capitan’s Recovery HD volume. Hold down the Option key immediately after you hear the start up chord to display the Mac OS X boot menu, and choose the Recovery HD volume. When the Recovery window appears, run Disk Utility. Because you’ve booted the system from the Recovery HD volume, you can repair problems with your start-up hard drive.
Select your boot hard drive or volume in the sidebar at the left, and the First Aid button should be enabled.
- You can’t repair CDs and DVDs. Because CDs and DVDs are read-only media, they can’t be repaired (at least not by Disk Utility).
If your Mac is having trouble reading a CD or DVD, wipe the disc with a soft cloth to remove dust, oil, and fingerprints. If that technique fails, invest in a disc-cleaning contrivance of some sort. Look for a CD/DVD cleaning kit.
If OS X El Capitan is running fine, and you need to repair a disk or volume, follow these steps:
- Save all open documents, and quit all running applications.
- Click the Spotlight search icon on the Finder menu bar, type Disk Utility, and press Return. (From within Launchpad, click the Utilities folder and then click the Disk Utility icon.)
- In the list on the left side of the Disk Utility window, click the disk or volume that you want to check.
- Click the First Aid button and then click Run to confirm.
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If Disk Utility does indeed find errors, they’ll be fixed automatically. Would you expect anything less from our favorite operating system?