Dead Hard Drive?!? Please help!

I have posted earlier on here when I was having problems. I did an archive & install & thought I had the issue fixed. Now it won't boot up at all. When I boot from the OSX Install CD or DiskWarrior, sometimes the hard drive won't show up. Sometimes it does, but when I go to fix errors or permissions or replace directory it says can't unmount disk. Ugh!
I have zapped the PRAM & NVRAM, tried everything I can think of. (more info can be found at: http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Board=tiger&Number=800764)
Here is what shows up when I hold down command v at startup:
Using 655 buffer headers and 655 cluster IO bufferheads
Rom ndrv for ATY, Rage 128 Pd is too old (0x659217fe)
obtaining ID
from Registry
ATIRage 128:using AGP
ApplescriptRs232serieal: 0 0 AppleRS23232Serial:start-returning false early, connector or machine incorrect
Local firewire GUID=0xa27ff:0xfeaea2b8
Security auditing service present
BSM auditing present
From path:"/pc8if2......etc...
...Got Boot Device=IO Service..........
BSD root: disk1s1s3, major 14, minor 14
Mar 5 00:18:50 mach_init [2]: Started with uid=0 audit-uid=-1
Root device is mounted read-only
Filesystem checks skipped
Mon Mar 5 00:18:51 PST 2007
Any info would be greatly appreciated. Is this a PRAM battery issue or a HD issue? Is there any way to fix it or get my files off the HD?
Please help!

What's the easiest way to get info off here... I have DiskWarrior but don't see a way to recover files. I have photos that I haven't gotten off & now it is really gone, I think. I have another computer coming & want to see what I can do to get my files.
Any good recovery companies out there?

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Welcome to Apple Discussions, ScottyP39.
Your guess is probably correct - it does sound ominously like the hard drive is dead.
However, it may still be worth trying to use FireWire Target Disk Mode to see if the drive can be seen from another FW-equipped Mac. Alternatively, if there is a bootable cloned-backup on an external FW drive, then try using that to restart the PowerBook.
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"computer always freezes at 56%"
Time to replace your Hard Drive. BACK UP NOW!!!
This will be the 3rd HD in a new HP HDX 18 for me (6 months old).
Open up the HD bay and take a look at the model of the HD.
If it is a SEAGATE MOMENTUS 7200.4 they are known to fail in as little as 1 month from install, and do not last more than 6 months.
Google the brand and you will see that most people are reccomending that you remove the SEAGATE product ASAP (data recovery is next to impossible) and replace it with something else.
I had just finished setting up the PC as I wanted it, OS, programs / Bios, software upgrades, then without warning the 2nd HD went.
I lost EVERYTHING in my C drive, was just preparing to do a full BU and Mirror Image after deleting both from my D and External Drive.
HP is replacing one piece of crap with another, I will be shopping for a different brand for the C drive after the laptop comes back from repair.
There seems to be no end to this BS with SEAGATE drives.
DO A FULL BU NOW!!!
> Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution!
> See a great post? Click on the white star and give it a Kudos!

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japamac wrote:
Actually, it will run without the fan assembly in place, which is a bad thing, IMHO.
Semantics, eh?
I should have said "NO, it shouldn't be run without the fans."
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I guess it's like not running a machine without a heat sink installed on the processor, some things which we consider not needing to be said must be said.....
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Hi timinbovey
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So your Tech Tool pro disk was no help. Hmm.
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regards roam

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Evening,
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I copied the pictures folder on Imac to the External Hard drive. Plugged EHD into mac book air. Opened Iphoto and held down option key and then selected the libary on the EHD. Lots of activity on ext hard drive, but my pictures are not showing up in Iphoto.
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The drive appears in the sidebar with a tiny lock icon, and when I try to copy a file from my internal HD to the external (top level directory, or drag the items right onto the icon), the following things happen:
Open the Terminal in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and enter the following:
chflags nouchg
followed by a space; next, drag the disk into the Terminal window and press Enter. The lock should now be gone.
The fact that my account was named both as owner and group seemed odd, since in Group the access was "read only".
Recent versions of Mac OS X create a group with the same name whenever you create an account from the Setup Assistant or System Preferences. The Group permissions don't apply in this case.
I changed the Group access to "read & Write", but it's not "sticking" -- when I close teh details field and reopen it, or close the get info window and reopen, the Group access settings go back to "read only".
Did you get an error message after doing this?
Verify/Repair permissions were dimmed for this drive (I assume becuase it doesn't have MacOS X installed on it?)
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(12377)

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Georgewsu,
Thanks for the pointer on the documentation - I'll see what we can do to make it more clear that changing partitions can inhibit OKR from functioning properly.
Systems with no optical drive like the S10 or S12 can be more challenging when trying to recover from this sort of thing - there is a balance, perhaps in expecting a user to get a USB external optical drive and burn recovery media if they are going to change the partitioning of the drive and making netbook class systems available at this price point.
Without intending to sound too harsh, I'm not sure why Lenovo should fairly absorb the cost of the results of the changes you made to the product. If you return a product, we are going to have to refurbish it, re-image and resell at a substantial discount. When you consider the time, the shipping costs, and what we will subsequently get for the product, we are well in the negative territory on the deal.
I think what might be more fair is to contact support and see if the depot can reimage your system under warranty. If so, your system functionality will have been restored - you keep a quality system, and everyone is happy. If you then want to customize your configuration, I would suggest getting a USB optical drive and burn recovery media before making more changes.
Best regards,
Mark
ThinkPads: S30, T43, X60t, X1, W700ds, IdeaPad Y710, IdeaCentre: A300, IdeaPad K1
Mark Hopkins
Program Manager, Lenovo Social Media (Services)
twitter @lenovoforums
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Dead Hard Drive?!? Please help!

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