How do I check the hardware of my iMac?

Question

I have a late 2012 iMac that I suspect has something failing in terms of disk or USB.

This is what is happening:

Some programs freeze from times to times. Once that happens, there is no way for the program to run again. Just a restart of the iMac will solve that.
WHen #1 happens the computer fails to shutdown. I have to force shutdown.
I have 4 USB external drives connected to a USB HUB that is connected to the Mac. From times to times, all these disks disconnect.
I am unable to boot in diagnostic mode. Restarting the computer with D pressed makes the computer reach a white page that does not go anywhere. Restarting the computer with Option D (diagnostics over internet) shows a screen that appears to be loading something. It takes centuries for the progress bar to advance 1/100 of a pixel. For the pace of that progress bar I estimate 8 hours just to show the diagnostic screen, if anything is loading at all.
Restarting the computer in recovery mode over internet, shows the spinning globe. Same thing, slow as hell. I estimate 2h just to show the recovery screen.

I am suspecting the disk is failing. That late 2012 iMac uses a spinning disk that I suspect is going bad. All fsck to that disk shows two, what I think is bad sectors. The SMART screen shows nothing wrong with the disk.

But, running smartctl shows me this for the Macintosh HD.

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     APPLE HDD WDC WD10EALX-408EA0
Firmware Version: 07.01D03
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Thu May 28 00:34:24 2020 WEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                    was completed without error.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever 
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:        (16800) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:            (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:    (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:    ( 194) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:          (0xb037) SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       1
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   181   173   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       3933
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       9305
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   065   065   000    Old_age   Always       -       26100
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       9284
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   192   192   000    Old_age   Always       -       6185
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   199   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       3115
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   095   093   000    Old_age   Always       -       52
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x0036   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       18

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Aborted by host               10%     21652         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

and for the Macintosh HD - Data:

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     APPLE HDD WDC WD10EALX-408EA0
Firmware Version: 07.01D03
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Thu May 28 00:33:11 2020 WEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                    was completed without error.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever 
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:        (16800) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:            (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time:    (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:    ( 194) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:          (0xb037) SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       1
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   181   173   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       3933
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       9305
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   065   065   000    Old_age   Always       -       26100
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       9284
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   192   192   000    Old_age   Always       -       6185
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   199   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       3115
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   095   093   000    Old_age   Always       -       52
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x0036   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       18

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Aborted by host               10%     21652         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

But I am not sure if I understand these enigmatic reports.

Do these numbers make sense as a failing disk?

I’d bet its a drive issue given that you’ve got an 8 year old drive in there. The SMART Info you posted is just whether it’s supported/enabled. Start with diskutil info disk1 | grep -i smart if it says anything but “Verified” it’s failing. However, it might pass but still be bad. If you get “Verified” run a more comprehensive test like [DiskDrill][https://www.cleverfiles.com/) for a full test — Allan, May 28 '20 at 00:11
I’m actually still using my 2012 iMac after fixing my failed HDD. See: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/239723/119271. Fusion drives are tricky, so let me know if you need a walk through on setting it up for Mojave or Catalina — Allan, May 28 '20 at 00:13
It says Verified but like you said, this is an 8 years old disk in there. As far as I know this Late 2012 has no PCIe, so I am not able to put a blade SSD in there. I have purchased the OWC kit with the sensor for the disk and I am buying a 2TB SSD to replace the spinning disk. I will go full SSD. I am wondering how much fast the computer will be. — Duck, May 28 '20 at 02:31
Do diskutil list to confirm. Also run DiskDrill diagnostics. It’s free. — Allan, May 28 '20 at 02:43
@SteveChambers - I say on my question that this does not work for me. — Duck, May 28 '20 at 21:02

How do I check the hardware of my iMac?

0 Answers0