Brand new Intel iMac with hard drive failure?

I have a two week old iMac. I shut it down last night. When I started it this morning I got a folder with a question mark. I had no warnings or indications of any problems prior to this. I had just loaded some Disney pictures and have no backup of them except an iPod that was synced last night. I used the OS install disk utility to look and there is no volume and no option to verify or repair. This is a maxed out iMac with 750 gig drive. Is this a known problem. Is there anyway to get the data? Do I need to start backing up every time touch the computer? Also are the songs and pictures on the ipod the same quality as the originals? Can I get them back?
The funny thing is, I had bought this computer to replace another one that was flakey with kernal panic. This is the end of the school year and my wife (a teacher) uses this one for paper work. I thought I had done a nice thing for her. HELP!!!!

Yes HDDs can go bad, right out of the box. All manufacturers have hardware failures of new product. We have had them reported here on occasion. In fact, we are more likely to hear about the failures than the millions of folks that got good ones. People don't post, "Hey, I got my new Mac and the HDD is fine!"
The question mark at startup is an indication that the Mac can't find its boot volume and HDD failure is one scenario to explain why it can't. The good thing is that it is covered by Apple's warranty, so you need to call Apple Care and initiate a claim to get a replacement/repair in the works asap.
I know that is a pain, but it happens occasionally.
The music and photos on your iPod should be exactly what is on the HDD. The exception may be photos that you have altered in iPhoto before transferring them to the iPod. iPhoto manages originals separately from modifieds. I don't have an iPod, but in the case of a modified photo, I doubt the original was also transfered.

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Rebuilding aMacBook 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, hard drive failure so rebuilding system. Aircard will not stop self-assigning IP address. Any ideas how to resolve successfully?

Had hard drive failure on MacBook 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, so had to rebuild the OS on new drive. Was on Lion 10.7.5 prior to failure, but had to reinstall Snow Leopard 10.6.3 since that was most recent OS on media I had. After finally getting ethernet connection to router working, was able to get to internet and download / upgrade to 10.6.8. I assume I can probably buy the upgrade to Mountain Lion 10.8 from there.
Problem is this, Airport will not stop self-assigning IP address for my wireless connection, and unless I can get wireless back on this laptop, doesn't make a lot of sense to continue the rebuild and reinstall of all the software that was on it prior to HD failure. Only way to my home network and router is ethernet now. Everything else on my network (Apple MacBook Pro laptops, iPhones, desktops, and non-Apple printers and laptops) is hooking up to router wirelessly fine.
Any ideas how to resolve successfully so that the airport will stop self-assigning and allow the router to assign the IP address?

When see the beachball cursor, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Anyone using a NEW intell iMac with Logic?

I've got many great responses on both sides to my question regarding my quest to determine which machine to use with Logic -- new Mac Pro (the ultimate) or new iMac (likely cover my bases for a long while and save major cash now). One point raised against iMac was fan noise smack dab in the middle of the listening field with the older iMacs. So a sub question to my original is this:
Are there any NEW intell iMac users out there who are using Logic? Is fan noise a problem? Generally, how do you like the iMac's feasibility as a music workstation with Logic? How many tracks/effects are you running and how is it working for you?

Before those concerns are completely alleviated, go over to the iMac hardware forum and do a search for firewire issues. Like actual physical problems with the jacks on the 20" iMac and having drives just completely "disappear".
the reason you will find issues including firewire ones on the imac forum is because it is a forum for people with issues. it may or may not be the case that there is a subsantial issue with FW on the intel imacs, but obviously people who are having issues are going to pop up there making it seem like everyone is having an issue.
for certain types of music production, an imac would be completely unsuitable. but for others it will be ideal.
there drawback of having 800 and 400 FW bus shared is that if you have a 400 device it will slow down 800 devices to 400. that means it would be ideal for impiro to have either both FW drive and interface as 800's or not go to any further expense of getting an 800 hard drive to use for audio since he would not beneift from the speed.
not a great big deal IMO.
iMac DOES lack expandibility, but it doesn't lack horses. actually i would say (and have said) that impiro would do better with an older tower to allow for expandability because he doesn't need that many horses to do what he needs to do. and i certainly feel that it is unnecessary to spend money on a computer that would be better spent on other things relating to the move to computer based music mixing.
never-the-less, the kind of live musician-audio-based music impiro is going to be making is childs play for modern computers. he will be able to run loads of tracks and plug-ins before a new imac will even break a sweat. even with an interface and a FW drive on 1 bus running at 400. he just won't be able to run loads and loads.
and man....even if he decides to get more heavily into it and start buying third party cards and this that and the next thing he can look at the next computer being a tower. personally, i am changing my computer every 3 years or less - it'll take him at least that long to find the ceiling on a new imac.

Performance issue with brand new intel iMac extreme

I am at a loss to explain a problem I've been having and I thought I might put it out to you guys.
In September I purchased a macbook Pro (2.4 ghz, 4 GB RAM) to use in video editing with Final Cut Pro, and for the most part I've been thrilled. I use 1TB LaCie external drives connected via FW800, and perform Multiclip editing with 4-5 video streams at a time and only on occasion have dropped frames during the editing process.
In December I determined that I needed to have an additional system, and thought a 2.8Ghz Intel iMac extreme would be an excellent choice, since for the same price I could get a little more power in the processor, more hard drive space and a bigger screen to work on. When we picked up the new system in the store (The Grove Apple Store in LA), we had them upgrade the memory to 4GB.
Since day one we have had performance issues, including problems playing streaming and DVD video, severe delays mounting and unmounting drives (firewire and USB) and application images, and freezing while doing even simple tasks like printing or checking email. These problems occur even while there are no external drives are connected. I have none of these issues with the Macbook Pro, which has virtually an identical set of programs installed, and both running the same version of Leopard.
I already took the original iMac back to the store, and they exchanged it, but did not have 4GB sets of RAM in stock so they took the RAM from the original machine and put it in the new one. They said if I continued to have problems then it was most likely the RAM and I should come back when they got more in stock. I DID have the same problems with the new machine, and took it back to the Apple Store and they swapped the memory. It seemed to improve the issue, but now I'm seeing the same severe performance issues again.
All tech support can do is tell me to do a PRAM reset, which seems to improve things very temporarily (but that may be my imagination) or have me restart, which at least has the ability to make the printing of documents capable.
What I'm wondering is if it is likely that the RAM is the issue and I just got another bad batch, or if the iMac has some weird glitch that isn't present in the macbook Pro...?? Or could I have possibly gotten 2 bad systems in a row? It's extremely frustrating, and I KNOW it shouldn't be this way! It's so bad I get better performance out of my single-core G5 tower! How do I get a good working system that operates like it should? Am I better off getting another Macbook Pro? I'd rather not for several reasons...
I have xbench on both the MBP and the iMac and can provide test numbers if they'll help, as well as any other info.
Thank you so much for reading my novella of a post and also for any insight you have!
Best,
Travis

Hi!
I got the same problem with my MacBook when it still was new in may 2006. It was supposed to be one of the faster Laptops around but it was soooo slow it drove me nuts. I can only advise to have a look if there is something hugging up your RAM and run some tests using these programs on your machine:
Xbench:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10081
MenuMeters:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10451
If they show any unusual results you might have your problem...
As to my problem with the MacBook: I did a complete re-install (writing the harddisk over with zeroes) and suddenly everything was just fine. (But be sure to back all your files before that, I learned this one the hard way.) I know it is just a standard answer, but it worked out for me this time...
Hope this helps in some ways.
Cheers,
Rene

Brand new 27" iMac with Snow Leopard has constant hard disk activity

I just purchased a new 27" iMac which was an upgrade for my 24" with Leopard. I have used my older machine for a good year and not noticed any hard drive activity when idle.
Now on the new machine with Snow Leopard I constantly get hard disk activty every few seconds.
This will happen from:
1) Restart
2) leaving at login screen
3) loggin in and not running anything.
4) Computer screen in sleep mode.
5) well, all the time really.
I have looked at the activity monitor and can see spikes every 5-10 seconds.
I have turned off all processes possible, watched processes for CPU spikes, etc to no avail.
Is anyone else having the same problem and if so can they suggest a fix? I originally thought it may be something writing to a log every so often but I have no idea what and how to find it.
Using iStat just confirms the activity.
Hope you can help as this is driving me mad!
Message was edited by: RedDwarfUK

RedDwarfUK wrote:
I havent really installed much as well. Here are the list of programs I have installed.
Adium
Firefox
New icons
app cleaner
skype
spotify
chicken of the VNC
GoToMeeting
Cisco VPN Client
Xmarks for safari and firefox
I would start by checking each of these items, making sure you have the latest versions of each & that they are compatible with Snow Leopard. Do the same for any Firefox extensions or any plugins associated with any of these applications. In particular, chicken of the VNC hasn't been updated since 2006 & what little compatibility info I can find for it suggests it supports only Tiger (10.4) & 10.3.9. The Download Xmarks page indicates that it is beta software.
Also note that some of these items may do more than just run as applications. On first run or install, some might install startup or login items, or preference panels that remain in effect even when the application is not running. Check /Library/StartupItems & /System/Library/StartupItems -- both are empty by default, so anything you find in them is suspect. Likewise, check the System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items tab. Anything you find in them that does not appear to come from Apple (like iTunes helper) is suspect. Also check the "Other" category of System Preferences.

IMAC Fusion Hard Drive failure, help with data recovery

I've got a Late 2012 iMAC 27 Inches 3.4GHZ with a Fusion 3.1TB HDD. My machine has booting issue the past few weeks and when contacted through Apple Care UK, after a few over the phone diagnostics they wanted me to take the machine over to get the Hard Drive checked. I had transferred some of my vital data from another HDD a few days before that and did not have an up to date backup. When booked in they said the HDD will have to be replaced and they will migrate the data over. But when I collected the machine, they said they couldn't transfer data as 'it didn't mount' and therefore unable to transfer. I was gutted as I have 2 wedding on their which were WIP and had to be delivered to the client in a few days. I have got my old HDD from the apple store...but unable to read data..can you help? Guess as a final resort I'd have to obtain the expensive data recovery services.

Ouch...
But before going for an expensive data recovery service, you have some other options.
At first you have to get that harddrive connected to your iMac. There are several solutions to that. One is to buy a SATA USB Docking Bay (see picture). You can put the harddisk in it and connect it via USB to your iMac.
Next you'll need recovery software. Disk Utility will probably not help you, but it is worth the try (because it is free and comes with OSX).
A great piece of software to look at is DiskWarrior. It once helped me accessing a dying External Harddisk and got most of the data off it before it really died. There are more applications, just google 'Data Recovery OSX', and you will find a lot more.
Oh, and make sure to start a good back-up plan for the future. Time Machine is great, or Carbon Copy Cloner, and maybe invest in a decent NAS to copy your data on.
Good luck!

Mid-2011 21.5-in iMac repeated hard drive failures

I have had a string of bad luck with this iMac and its hard drive. A so-called lemon I believe. Using macs since late '80s and owned iMacs, MB Pro and Mac Mini since 2004 or so, but have had any hard drive issues until this one.
This iMac is well-cared for, used in business, but the hard drives only seem to last about a year before they start making noise and the machine crawls to a stop and eventually just won't boot anymore. It is covered under Applecare and the previous two instances were taken care of . My paranoia level is high, so we are constantly backing up, and regularly monitoring this latest drive. The several of the recent Parallels sessions have thrown errors about Parallels not being being able to access the hard drive, or resource temporally unavailable. This led me to go through the system log, which unfortunately has been logging disk errors, e.g., "11/29/14 1:13:31.000 PM kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error." etc. And I have been noticing periodic (5 to 10 sec) OS X application freezing (Mac/Excel, Safari, Firefox PDF editor, etc. etc.), just like I would experience when the previous two drives were about to go bad.
I have a lot invested in Apple hardware and would prefer not to just throw this thing in the crapper. But I cannot risk losing valuable work products, and backing up every GD minute is a hassle, not to mention the couple weeks in downtime to bring it down to the nearest Apple store (four hours to Denver or Colo Springs), let them play with it for a week, then driving down again to pickup the box with a hew hard drive, and then restoring all our apps and data.
My questions for those with an answer:
1. I have 14 days left on Applecare. My fear is that if I do not deal with this within the next 14 days, I'll be out of luck when the drive fails. However, if I do bring it in now, I may have difficult demonstrating that there is something wrong if it has not totally failed yet. The Apple store people seem enslaved by the process and to get them to consider anything outside their script is often hard. So if I can't get them to be proactive, what happens when you have failures outside the Apple Care warranty but the failure is the same as previous failures that took place within the Applecare period? Will Apple consider that and do the right thing, or just say, "you got your three years worth, so too bad."
2. What are the chances of convincing Apple to look a little deeper this time? At this point, it seems illogical to me to keep throwing hard drives at this box and expecting a different outcome. Anybody been successful in getting Apple to root cause, or is a new hard drive all I can expect?
3. With respect to #2, are there indeed other hardware issues that can cause damage to a drive? I have a hard time believing that I have just been unlucky with drives three times in a row. So, could there be something about this design or specific hardware within this machine that can keep trashing any hard drive I put in it?
4. Any other options to keep this box alive but avoid the failure issue? Maybe an external firewire HD and boot to that, forget about the internal drive?
Thanks everyone for time in reading this...

The WD drives have been problematic for quite some time as well. They were used in Time Capsules and had some failures too. The link I posted has references to a 1TB disk, so it is not directly related. Repeated failures of disks is still a problem to be resolved. You can always try an SSD which is not mechanical. The GPUs in these iMacs can produce a lot of heat too. Bad thermal paste/contact can also be problematic. The first drive lasted roughly 2 years, but the second lasted roughly 5 months and is likely a refurbished WD.
If you can find a temperature measurement application which can monitor the iMac, the outside and internal temperatures are significantly different. Is there dust/fiber in the environment?

Brand new i7 - Memory and Hard Drive Very Slow

I just purchased a new brand New Mac Book Pro 15" i7 2.67 Ghz system with 8 GB of memory (1067 Mhz) and 500 GB 7200 RPM (I wanted to do the 512 GB solid state but way too pricey at $1300). I installed Windows 7 64 bit with boot camp.
I am not impressed with the speed, it is about the same speed as my 2.5 year old Lenovo Core 2 Duo T7800 2.60 Ghz laptop - although I upgraded this the lenovo laptop had a 128 GB solid state drive as the boot drive, and a 500 GB as the 2nd drive, and 8 GB of 667 Mhz.
Also the battery only lasts for 2 hours with Windows... and there is no way to swap in a different battery, is there? I have long flights 5 hrs and now I won't be able to work for much of it...
anyway, is there anything we can do to make this machine quicker? I am thinking of returning this and going back to Lenovo. I would like to start using OSX but I am a windows developer so I need a fast windows machine.
thanks
dan

...anyway, is there anything we can do to make this machine quicker?
Yes — Put a solid state drive in it. Then your comparison with the Lenovo will have some meaning. It doesn't have any now, because you're comparing a conventional hard drive to a SSD.
Regarding battery life: Apple's battery life testing is all done running OS X. Windows is an energy hog, and you can't hope for anything approaching Apple's maximum run-time estimate if you're using Windows. To get the longest running time possible, turn off wifi and BlueTooth, disconnect all bus-powered peripherals, dim the display as far as you can stand, turn off keyboard backlighting, don't use the optical drive, and if you're browsing the web, avoid sites with Flash content. Avoid very demanding applications, too, because in addition to forcing the CPU/GPU to use a lot of power, they also generate extra heat and thus require the fans to run faster, using still more battery power.
An airline power adapter might be a worthwhile investment if you tend to be on flights and in seats where power outlets are available. Failing that, you may want to look into an external auxiliary battery pack, because you can't swap internal batteries:
http://www.batterygeek.net/Batterygeeknet_MacBook_MacBook_Pro_Battery_Packss/78.htm
http://www.hypershop.com/HyperMac-External-MacBook-Battery-and-Car-Charger-s/91. htm
http://www.quickertek.com/products/macbookprocharger.php
In OS X, you can improve battery life further by using gfxcardstatus to prevent apps from automatically invoking the more powerful, energy-hungry NVidia GPU.

Brand new laptop, noisy (?)hard drive

Hi everybody!
I was recently bought a new HP laptop for Christmas (a Notebook 15-r160sa).
Anyway, I've noticed that it has a very constant 'bitty' noise. It's not immediately obvious, but when trying to do work on it in a quiet room it's very annoying. I don't think it's a fan or the optical drive - it seems like it might be the hard drive, because it's a noise I'm familiar with on other computers when it's loading something. However, this is very audible and very consistent. I have recorded a clip of the noise, but I don't
I took it to PC World to have it looked at and was advised that it's "probably" not a fault but, rather simply the way the laptop is designed.
I'm hoping to get some clarification from someone on here as to whether the noise is the sign of a fault or if it is the design of the laptop.
Thanks!

Hi, Huffer. Thanks for responding again. I've uploaded a recording here: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0wGCzEbMuzG
Sorry it's not the greatest quality audio, but it should give you the idea. That's the level it's at when the computer's at rest with no applications and minimal processes running.
It probably doesn't sound like a whole lot is actually wrong, but it's a lot nosier than I'm used to from a computer and unfortunately it's terribly distracting when I'm trying to work.
Anywho, would be very appreciative if someone could let me know what the noise is and whether it's indicative of a fault, or just the way the laptop is designed?
Thank you

New intel iMac with reduction on Microsoft Office 2004

Hi.
I am seriously considering buying a new iMac Intel Core Duo. If i order before the end of january along with Microsoft office, i can get upto 50% off office.
I know that the current version of office will run fine on the new iMac Intel Core Duo using 'Rosetta' and that they are developing a new version to be released in march that will run native on the intel imac.
Therefore, if i buy office with my iMac now, I will not have the native version and I will have to buy the new version again?
I am quite confused and really unsure what to do?
Would it be worth me buying office now?
Will i be able to upgrade to the new version for free?
.... I dont understand why apple are selling a version of office with the new iMacs if it is not even the proper software.
Please help me as I am unsure of what to do.
Thanks a lot in advance...

I'm not positive on this but I think I remember, during the keynote speech, the woman that was from the MSBU saying the updates would be available for download at no charge. Might be worth looking at that part of the keynote to be sure. I don't remember the date she said they would be available though.
Eric
Mini 1.25, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.4) G4 DA 533MHz DP w/Giga dual 1.8GHz upgrade, 1.25GB RAM, Radeon 9600 Pro
I was wrong. I just watched that part of the keynote again and there will be updates available for download for free but not the universal binaries. My bad.
Message was edited by: Eric S.

New 15" Macbook Pro hard drive failure

It is common for a 15" Macbook Pro hard drive to crash after 3 months? How does Apple Support generally fix? Genuis bar seemed overwhelmed by holiday crowds and recommended an $8k 3rd party vendor.

"Any disk can fail at any time."
Over a large sample, the drives used are extremely reliable. You did not have a large sample, you had ONE drive.
Now you are much smarter than you were before this disaster. Apple will not pay for your data recovery. You (and everyone) need a backup solution.
Apple provides an excelent backup solution called Time Machine, that can do hourly backups to an external drive without disturbing your current work. Buy yourself an external drive at least twice as large as the built-in. Turn on Time machine, make sure it is working, plug it in at least daily, and then don't worry about it any more.

Two imacs--one older, one brand new--plus an external hard-drive

Hello, i was just thinking and was wondering if anybody could put their two cents in for me. I have an older imac (just over a year and a half--if one can call it 'old') and i have intentions of buying the new imac but i am waiting until Novemberish so that Leopard OS comes pre installed on it. I also want to buy Leopard OS for my existing imac.
BTW, I don't do any gaming on it (my xbox360 is for gaming) or anything like that....only a huge library of itunes and photos(&the occasional video), surfing the net, and mail are the things i require my computer for...I need another imac because my family members are hogging time on 'my' imac.
I was thinking of buying an external HD and putting everything on it (transferring data)that is now on my imac and just leaving it always hooked up to my imac and placing it at the base of the computer(you know, ...the base stand of the imac that is just great for placing one's ipod and so on...). Then when ever i want i can just unhook the HD and hook it up to my new imac. I just have this thing about having too much data on the HD of my imac and i worry about bogging down/diminished efficency of the computer.
I have never being truly networked with another computer ..... you know, tapping into another computer at another location of the house .... BTW, I currently have a wireless Dell router that my imac easily recgonizes. Is buying an external HD for each iMAc a waste of money?

A few suggestions
When you first get a new Mac, the initial boot will ask you if you have an old Mac you wish to transfer data from. This migration assistant works wonderfully well. All that is needed is a FireWire cable and follow the on screen instructions. Transfer time may take a few hours depending on how much data you have. You can choose how much data to transfer, i.e. documents, music, photos, applications, personal settings, etc.
I would recommend getting a large capacity external HD. One of Leopard's new features includes Time Machine and will work best if you have an external HD. An option to consider would be to get the new Airport Extreme Base Station. It has a USB port and you can hook up a USB HD to it and have all your computers on your network access the HD. I currently have all my music and videos saved on my network HD and it works flawlessly.

Brand new MacBook - ? about hard drive space

I just received a new MacBook (with 60GB HD) as a gift and noticed that it has 38GB remaining right out of the box. Does this seem right? That seems like a lot of space to be taken up by the OS and default programs. Thanks!

No problem.I reccommend you continue to get a feel for OS X and figure out exactly what you want to do (And there's A LOT you can do) with your MacBook before you go trying to delete things just to save a few GB's of HD space.
Jim
PowerBook G3 500 Mhz "Pismo"/ 2.0Ghz BlackBook 2GB OWC RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Brand new out of box hard drive. how to mac format it ?

install disc does nothing but freeze up.

went to mac genius, he installed 10.5 but couldn't get it to boot up, said it wasn't optical drive issue but probably logic board. he couldn't get it to even start up.
I get home and have gotten it to start up with install dvd ( holding c key)but when I go to utilities click repair it says in red letters that there is no packages. just attempted start up on its own and I get the grey apple with the gears, gear spins for about 10 sec then freeze.
what is pakages, in red ?
huh?

Brand new 27' iMac with monitor flaws????

Just curious as to how others view this and what you would do. I have a couple of places on my monitor (barely noticeable, but there none the less) where it looks like the glass portion of it was scratched and/or pitted on the backside (one looks like a scratch and 1 other place looks like it could be a pixilation of some sort. Would any of you bother with getting another one considering that if/when you do, you have the chance of getting another one that is possibly worse? I'm a little undecided here. Thank you for any input you may have.

Do not wait to return this. When I bought my 27" iMac and got it home, I noticed 4 dead pixels immediately. I phoned the store up and they agreed to take it back for an exchange. When I did go back to exchange it, I had them unbox and test before I left. The replacement had dead pixels, the next one had a chip in the glass underneath the pane, and finally the last one was 100% without problems. It's not been a full year with mine yet and already now the screen exhibits blurry/grey pixels on the top which I had a tech come out and replace the LG screen inside, only to have the replacement have more dead pixels. For me personally 2k for a rig with display issues is not worth it. I wouldn't hesitate to exchange/return ASAP!

Brand new Intel iMac with hard drive failure?

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