Cannot locate hard disk during reinstallation

Hi. There was a question mark icon when I started my MacBook. So I tried to reinstall with a cd. Now during the installation, at the point where I am asked to 'select a destination', there is no hard disk appearing.
1. What does this mean?
2. Will I be able to retrieve my files?

Hi tengkygan, and a warm welcome to the forums!
1. Almost always means the Hard Disk has died.
2. Maybe, tough to tell at this point, but you need another Drive to install to & boot from, then try using Data Rescue...
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
(Has a Free Demo to see if it could or not, but you'll need another drive to recover to).
Or professional Data Recovery Services.
You won't even get to keep your old drive, but see this...
http://www.apple.com/support/macbook/hd/repairextension/

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Computer cannot see hard disk -- Brain teaser

Okay, long story short, I use bootcamp 1.3 (I believe 2.1 is for Leopard only, as it is listed in the requirements of the Apple downloads website), to partition the drive and install Windows.
My first disk was the stock SeaGate 120 GB that came with my MacBook running OS X 10.4.9 (updated to 10.4.11 through Software Update) and Windows SP3. I ran into a problem where the disk could not be recognized, even after a Hardware Test proved "no troubles", though a System Profiler scan of the SATA drive showed "errors on scan" so it could not profile it. Took the MacBook to an Apple repair service, they found the Hard Disk corrupted and could not access it either through their own computers after it was taken out. So I bought another disk as a replacement...
500 GB Western Digital, installed it, and erased and installed OSX. Updated it to the later 10.4.11 with all security updates. Then again, BootCamp 1.3, installed Windows Home SP2. Installed Mac/Window drivers, and then started to update Windows to SP3, and things seemed okay but only for another 10 minutes while it was "downloading" the update during the installation process, then Windows bailed out. I booted into OSX, was running slower than usual, then jammed and rebooted, folder with a question mark. Couldn't find hard disk. Couldn't even erase and install as it did not give any options for a hard disk to install in. Same when booting into Windows disk, could not find a hard disk to format or install into. Hardware test same as last time: no troubles, can't scan SATA. I actually managed to take the disk and the receipt to the store, who couldn't get the disk accessed, and they gave me another as replacement on the basis that it was at fault.
Now, I erased and installed OS X 10.4.9, it's working great. Haven't downloaded any updates yet, nor have I downloaded BootCamp, for fear of running into the same situation a third time. Using it right now to type this out for any thoughts from interested parties...
Think it's the OS X updates, or the Windows SP3 download, or what? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, I unfortunately need to access Windows this month for a portfolio submission, and all of my expensive programs had been bought for Windows until I got this MacBook in '07.

When was the BootCamp beta set to expire?
Depending on the version and time-line, some early
BootCamp users had some issue with it and there
was some discussion. Maybe you should look into
this item separate of the OS X 10.4.x install & up-
date issue. BootCamp's created installer disc and
the need for it to partition the hard drive in order to
install Windows on its own drive space, add up to
a source of trouble; especially if BootCamp is the
cause behind the OS X problems.
If these are somehow connected, the BootCamp
issue may be better addressed in that specific
forum Discussion; or it already was discussed there.
Have you over-written the entire drive using Disk
Utility (zero it out) then reformat, and start afresh?
What format regime did you use? Sometimes, it is
the little things; & I wonder about Beta BootCamp.
And if there is some corruption or failed cable in
the computer that could be aiding & abetting.
Good luck & happy computing!

Cannot format hard disk

I took out the hard disk from ps3 which is 40gb sata and bought a case for the hard disk and connect to my mac. tried formating it with disk utility and it gives an error half way. it doesnt even show the hard disk on desktop.

THERE ARE 2 DISKS THERE SO HERE THE INFO FOR BOTH..
Name :     ST940211 5AS Media
    Type :     Disk
    Partition Map Scheme :     GUID Partition Table
    Disk Identifier :     disk1
    Media Name :     ST940211 5AS Media
    Media Type :     Generic
    Connection Bus :     USB
    USB Serial Number :     D166237543D4
    Device Tree :     IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/EHC1@4,1
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    Ejectable :     Yes
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    Total Capacity :     40.01 GB (40,007,760,384 Bytes)
    S.M.A.R.T. Status :     Not Supported
    Disk Number :     1
    Partition Number :     0
    Name :     disk1s2
    Type :     Volume
    Disk Identifier :     disk1s2
    Mount Point :     Not mounted
    File System :     Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    Connection Bus :     USB
    Device Tree :     IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/EHC1@4,1
    Writable :     Yes
    Capacity :     39.66 GB (39,663,788,032 Bytes)
    Owners Enabled :     No
    Can Turn Owners Off :     Yes
    Can Be Formatted :     Yes
    Bootable :     Yes
    Supports Journaling :     Yes
    Journaled :     No
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M6-1105dx cannot detect hard disk

my machine is m6-1105dx with window 7. It cannot boot up with an error "boot device not found, please install an operating system on your hard disk." The error number is 3F0, and it reminds pressing F2 for system diagnostics.
In the diagnostic, memory test works fine, but hard disk check gives error "SMART Check: NOT INSTALLED; short DST: NOT INSTALLED".
I tried with two different hard disks and it gave same errors. Anyone knows what is going on?
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Assuming the hard disks are actually showing good on another PC, then the SATA cable may be bad, the power connections may have failed, or the contoller is bad. I would start with verifing that those first several items - hard drive, SATA cable, power connections, ETC are good. If it is the controller, it is not easy to repair on a laptop. Probably need a new motherboard. I used something similar to THIS to verify the drive is good or not.
{---------- Please click the "Thumbs Up" to say thanks for helping.
Please click "Accept As Solution" if my help has solved your problem. ----------}
This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I do not work for HP.

Cannot rewrite hard disk

HI, I cannot seem to rewrite my external hard disk. Under General info, there isn't a "locked" box which I could tick. The sharing & permissions states that I could only read.
What can I do to unlock it?
Thanks.

How is it formatted? OS X can read, but not write to an NTSF formatted drive.
Sharing drives | Utilities - Page 1 | Macworld

HELP Mac OS X Deleted cannot locate hard drive to install on

Okay I have a 12' in Apple PowerBook G4 I got in winter 2003 and recently somehow the operating system got deleted. It originally came with Mac OS X Jaguar 10.2.7 and I upgraded it to Mac OS X Panther 10.3 -- at the time the problem occurred it was running 10.3.9 Ran Apple Hardware Test using PowerBook CD. I used the Quick Test and it found an error. It suggested I shut down, turn it back on and during restart run Apple Hardware Test again having disconnected all peripherals which I have done -- it now wants me to run the Extended test. I will do so and report the results below. When trying to access Disk Utility to repair the disk the only discs it found were the installation discs I put in the drive. The internal hard drive did not appear. So not only did Mac OS X get erased but the drive to install it on does not show up during the installation process. When I try to run from the main disk I get the Finder error that Mac OS cannot be found.
Okay it is running the Apple Hardware Test Extemded Test for PowerBook version 2.0.5
Elapsed time was 54 seconds. The error code is **ERROR*CODE***ERROR*CODE**2STF/1/4; **ERROR*CODE***ERRORCODE
AirPort: No device found
Logic Board: Passed
Mass Storage: Error Detected
Memory: Has not been run yet
Modem: Device found
Video RAM: Has not been run yet

Thanks -- I was afraid of that. I called AppleCare and they said the same thing. Unfortunately, this PowerBook as I think I mentioned earlier -- in case I didn't though I got it in November of 2003 and as such by now the warranty would have expired. Second, I lost my Apple serial number for the PowerBook which is bad when needing to get support from Apple on the product.
I'll likely as soon as possible buy a new Apple laptop. Most likely a MacBook or a MacBook Pro as I need an optical disc drive (MacBook Air for me is a non starter) as such a new Apple laptop would be cheaper than repairing the existing PowerBook. With the current recession and the bad housing market I'm going to wait a while and then replace it. Just curious if anyone knows what is Apple's policy on buying back old products that don't work anymore. Do they have a recycling program for their Macs also? I know there is one for recycling old iPods.

Cannot Format Hard Disks for Re-installation

Hello, first post,
I have a computer that stopped working and showed the folder icon with a question mark when attempting to boot the machine. Since I was able to boot to internet recovery and things appeared normal aside from not being able to find the OS. I attempted to verify/repair the disk using Disk Utility. My disk was unable to format after multiple attempts. I took the HDD out of the machine and put it in a known working machine and was able to format it. After putting it back in the original machine, I found that it only detected 67GB of the 500GB HDD when the working machine detected all 500GB.
I bought a replacement HDD and I am not able to finish erasing/formatting the disk. On both disks, it never gets stuck in the middle of formatting in the same place. Sometimes it gets stuck unmounting the disk, sometimes while creating the new partition. I am using the GUID partition map. Any ideas about what could cause these issues? Could I have a different hardware problem that might be causing this issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you live near an Apple Store, make a Genius Bar appointment to have the computer tested. Supposedly there is no charge for testing.
Genius Bar Reservation US

Cannot recover hard disk space when deleting and huge sparseimage

hi there,
System Version: Mac OS X 10.4.3 (8F46)
Kernel Version: Darwin 8.3.0
my problem is that I found the mac was running slow and I noticed the harddisks were getting full:
[veronique:/Users/e] e# df -H
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/disk0s3 60G 59G 729M 99% /
devfs 102K 102K 0B 100% /dev
fdesc 1.0K 1.0K 0B 100% /dev
<volfs> 524K 524K 0B 100% /.vol
/dev/disk1s2 60G 59G 725M 99% /Users/e
automount -nsl [246] 0B 0B 0B 100% /Network
automount -fstab [250] 0B 0B 0B 100% /automount/Servers
automount -static [250] 0B 0B 0B 100% /automount/static
Im not sure why they became this full but.. I then looked for big files and found a sparseimage of 40GB. I can mount it and all so it s in good shape.
I needed to free up space and I delete a lot of music files, pictures, a virtual pc file of several gigs and so forth, but when I ran a new df -H things had nt changed.. So im guessing all the data, inclusive deleted data is in the sparseimage? is this so? I ve emptied the trash several times.
I ve now tried to turn filevault OFF but it asked me to free up 1.9Gb.. catch 22.. if I rid myself of files it wont see more freed up space...
is there something I can do? I could mount the sparseimage and browse it and delete files there or back up whatever I need and then get rid of it? should I re install?
any help needs to go to [email protected] i went into my settings but didnt find out how to change my email. thats not impressive i know
eric

Here's what I had to resort to to forcibly reclaim missing free space on my FileVault-encrypted PowerBook G4.
After several days and more restart/shutdown trials than I can count, I could not for the life of me get my PowerBook to give me the "Reclaim free space" option that usually pops up. Not sure why. But, I was missing nearly 12GB of free space and kind of needed it.
I was able to force a space reclaim... but the process isn't exactly point-and-click.
•I mounted the PowerBook via Firewire target disk mode on my desktop and copied over my PB account's .sparseimage file to my desktop (didn't want to work on the original file in case I screwed it up).
•Used the terminal command "hdiutil compact" on the .sparseimage file (type "hdiutil compact " (with a trailing space) then before hitting return, drag the icon of the .sparseimage file on to the terminal. That'll insert the path of the file. Hit return.)
•Let it run. Took about 15 minutes or so. On a 27GB .sparseimage, the procedure recovered 12.5GB!
•Deleted the original .sparseimage from my PowerBook, emptied the trash, and copied over the newly compacted one. Rebooted the PB, and voila!
Do keep in mind though that you'll need at least as much free space as your Home folder occupies itself if you want to turn FileVault off.
PowerMac Dual 2.5GHz G5 Mac OS X (10.4)

G4 cannot read hard disk

Running OS9.2 I get a startup chime, then a question mark icon that toggles with a folder icon. When I boot from an install CD it says there is no volume to install on?

it was unplugged from the mainboard inside! sorry.

HARD DISK DRIVER ISSUES WHILE INSTALLING WINDOWS 8

I am trying to install windows 8 on my PC, but it is asking for hard drive drivers. I have installed windows 8 before with no issues on the same PC with same configuration, but now I am facing these driver issues. Currently I am running Win7 as i cannot
reinstall Win8.
Config:
Gigabyte Motherboard 945G with Intel Core2duo8400 3ghz,
Intel(R) 82801G(ICH7) FAMILY CHIP SET,
4gb Ram, Nvidia graphic card, Seagate hard disk 160Gb.

Hi,
I doubt that the hard drive is either a SATA drive or in a RAID setup, you might need to install RAID controller drivers or SATA driver during the installation.
I also suggest you refer to the following link and check if it can give some hints.
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/6e278d52-1e69-4bca-8beb-f0424eed5891/installation-problem-windows-installer-cannot-find-hard-disk-drivers?forum=w7itproinstall
Please also check this KB
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937251
Yolanda Zhu
TechNet Community Support

10.2.8 installation and external hard disk does not show on desktop

I just reinstalled OS X 10.2 (by erasing the hard disk during installation) and upgraded with the Combo pack to 10.2.8 . This is an iMac G4 1GHz with a 17-inch display. I tried connecting a Western Digital MyBook with 500Gb through both the USB port and through FireWire. In both cases the hard drive does not appear on the desktop BUT does appear in the Disk Utility program and in the System Information window. Finder, therefore, doesn't display the drive. The MyBook drive is formatted to Windows FAT 32. Before I reinstalled OS X 10.2.8, this machine was running 10.3.9 and the drive did appear (I'm still searching for the 10.3 disk).
Is this an issue with OS X 10.2.8? Given the drive is detected by the System Information section and by the Disk Utility, is there a way of forcing Finder to display it (and allow access)?

Sometimes I have found that I have to turn of the ext. hd and then reconnect the firewire cables. there is a cylinder that is an inch away from one of the firewire plugs, which should be connected toward the tower and the other firewire plug toward the ext. hd. have patience, sometimes it will show up. also a restart maybe...

HP Pavilion dv7 6031eo hard disk voodoo, making 2 physical disk appear as 1 physical disk

My HP Pavilion dv7 6031eo hard disk is failing. 88 Bad sectors.
I was planning to bring new hard disk. I decided to look under hood to see what kind of disk I would need.
Suprise suprise, I already had 2 hard disk in my HP Pavilion dv7 6031eo. Windows detects only 1 hard disk. It is detected as TOSHIBA MK1059GSM.
So 2 things are possible :-
HP performs the feature of a "spanned disk" at the mother board level and hides dual/double disks from the OS. It then presents to OS a single disk of 1TB as TOSHIBA MK1059GSM (not sure why TOSHIBA)
HP forgot the plug in the second hard disk during manufacturing
Which one is it ?
Now the thing(s) is/are failing as per SMART values.
How am I suppose to replace the disk ?
Do I need to replace both of disks, even though only a single disk is failing as per OS ?
Will replacing the disks with any other disk work or the HP firmware will go nuts ?
Why don't you document these things ?

I would replace the hard drive. That is a 640 gig 5400 rpm drive and you can get a bigger faster drive for a reasonable price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W014M8026
If the computer is still working well enough to boot into Windows you can do a complete system backup and recover all your data, settings, programs, etc onto the new drive or we can help you do a disk clone of the old drive to the new.
Since your laptop will actually hold two hard drives simultaneously you could even put the old drive in the secondary bay so you have a copy of all your old stuff right at hand.
This video will be helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZgiX-pzdL8
Post back if you need any more help.
If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it.

Online export to the hard disk

Probably a very simple question but I�m still learning,i`m trying to export data dircetly to the hard disk during the measurment .(now ,the data are only saved when i stop the measurment it means that if trouble with windows occur during the measurment i`ll lose the data)

You can place the "write to file" part of the code within the loop where you obtain the data. If you add the newly acquired data, simply select "append to file".
So here's an idea of the steps:
1. create the file where you want to store the data.
2. inside the loop where the acquisition takes place, write to the file. Use "append to file " option.
3. Outside the acquisition loop, close the file. Make sure you can clse the file even if an error was detected.
Run it and see if your data was kept.
JLV

RE: Hard disk cannot locate

My Laptop CQ40-625TU cannot start. I tried to reformat my win 7 with my recovery disk, but it stated that the space is insufficent. There is no Drive C at all. The only thing in the pc is (x with limited space . How can i relocate my Hard disk and mount to my system. I tried diskpart but there isn't aany disk at all. Pls advise me what should i do and what is the problems?Thanks

The hdd may need to be replaced. Enter BIOS by tapping F10 key at power on and use Diagnostics to test the hdd. If hdd test is good move to next step.
Try booting with a utilty cd to delete any partitions, create 1 partition & format hdd. I have had good results with the free Partition Wizard .Download the Bootable CD iso here .Get ImgBurn here to burn the image to cd.
If all operations are successful with PW, boot from the Recovery Disks and try again.
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Is it possible to retrieve a registration key for a hard copy of iWork 06? Moved and cannot locate disc, and replaced the computer it was originally installed on. When I transferred the program to new Macbook, the reg key apparently didn't transfer.

Is it possible to retrieve a registration key for a hard copy of iWork 06? Moved and cannot locate disc, and replaced the computer it was originally installed on. When I transferred the iWork from original Macbook Pro to new Macbook Pro, the reg key apparently didn't transfer. Any ideas?

Do you still have access to the old MacBook Pro? If so, you can transfer the license by copying the com.apple.iwork.plist from Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences to the same location on the new Mac. Note that this IS the main HD Library, not your user library. I have found that these files are not moved during setup or migration.
Are you really running Tiger 10.4.7? If so, you should update to 10.4.11. You can find the updater here. You also might consider buying the retail disk of iWork '09 from a third-party such as Amazon.com or eBay. It will add a lot of features for you. iWork '09 does require Tiger 10.4.11 at a minimum.

Cannot locate hard disk during reinstallation

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