Hard Drive is dead - deciding what to do next
Hi all,
My computer is a 12 inch Powerbook G4. My hard drive is dead.
Here's what happened. Night before last my powerbook was freezing randomly. In retrospect the HDD was making some clicking noises but not consistently. Following morning it freezes one last time. On reboot, it won't finish starting up.
I run Tech Tool and all the HDD scans fail. I use Disk Utility on the Tiger OS CD and it also comes back saying that the HDD has failed. All the repair attempts by these tools fail. I read some articles here in the forum that led me to pay the $5 and download Data Rescue II boot cd file to try and see if I can recover anything. I'm burn the disk image to a cd, but am unable to boot off the disc.
I make an appointment at the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store to basically confirm what I think has happened. They hookup their firewire drive and see that basically there is nothing viewable on the HDD and that it is dead. Since I'm out of warranty, Apple's repair option is to pay around $300 to send it to their repair facility. I'm thinking I may do the replacement myself.
So, my understanding is that the drive that's in there is a 60GB 4200-rpm Ultra ATA/100 hard drive. My question is can I upgrade to faster, larger capacity drive? How do I know what drive will work?
Thanks for taking the time to read my post.
If you want size, definitely get the 250GB drive. It is the largest-to-date drive. I remember just "weeks" ago when I recommended this option to some folks, people thought I was fibbing since the previous option for largest drive was 160GB.
They also thought I might have been confusing it with the SATA drive for MacBook and MacBook Pro computers.
If you're looking at speed, then it's the 100GB drive at 7200RPMs. I'm sure eventually, they will come out with a higher capacity for the 7200RPMs, much like the 250GB story.
I debated over that myself, when I decided to tackle upgrading the drive on my other PowerBook, the 15-inch one. Those are easier. I don't think I will ever pop open the 12-inch PowerBook to do any work on it.
250GB gets space. I wanted it, but at the time, didn't have the money. I got a great deal on a Seagate 160GB 5400.3 RPM drive (the ".3" stand for the version drive you get). It was less than retail because of a price match, plus a store credit coupon I had.
So I went for it. Plus, this drive had Seagate's "perpendicular recording" technology that makes it just as fast--so reviews said--as the 100GB 7200RPM drives.
And 5400RPM vs. 7200RPM drives are really nominal in speed difference. It's not noticeable, according to my research. Where it is noticeable is video editing, and intense tasks. Then there's the factor of higher capacity drives with slower speeds, beating out lower capacity drives with higher speeds.
But I don't want to go in to that. I'll be talking all day!
Similar Messages
-
Can't load Tiger - Problem with hard drive or other? What to do next?
I would like some advice on installing Tiger on an IMac PowerPC G4 (700 MHZ machine). This machine has 512 MB SDRAM. The machine is currently running Mac OS 10.3.9. Thus far I have been unable to install Tiger.
The machine is 5 years old and was run in Classic OS 9 for several years. There have been no material problems since upgrading to 10.3.9 several years ago.
I have been Installing with Archive. The install does 100% of the Checking Installation DVD but very soon after entering the Preparing for Installation/Verifying Destination Volume (the task bar has only filled about 5%) it kicks out of the install saying that there were errors in installing the software. No further information is provided.
I have disconnected all external devices and run the Tiger disk utilities. I receive the message that an “Invalid catalog record type” has been encountered and that “Volume Check has failed.”
“Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit”
“1 HFS volume checked”
“1 volume could not be repaired due to error”
At this time, I do not know what steps to take next.
Should I get a stronger utility program to try to mend the hard drive?
Should I conclude that the Tiger update is not feasible given the age of my machine?
I don’t have an external drive to load everything off of the iMac to do an Erase and Install. I am reluctant to do this anyway in case this will not fix the above issue?
Any advice would be most welcome.
700 Mhz PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)Thank you for your reply.
I found the article you sent me to so fascinating with the pictures.
Sad to say, that this is completely beyond me from a mechanical and personal dexterity perspective. I actually only knew what two items were in the tools required list. I think I could only get through two steps: set imac on soft surface (but not wool blanket) and take the bottom off.
Therefore, I think the next step is to go to the Mac store with my problem description and the imac and see what they can do.
Based on reading the article, I think I should also have more memory installed if in fact, they are going to take the bottom off at the Apple store. Would you agree?
Alternatively, it occurs to me to simply keep using the imac in 10.3.9 and save for a new laptop since I'm now running wireless network and it would be fun to have another laptop accessible around the house. Or maybe save for a new desktop...
Any thoughts?
2nd floor mac -
Can I add a second hard drive and if so what cable etc would I need to do so?
Can I add a second hard drive and if so what cable etc would I need to do so?
This question was solved.
View Solution.Hi,
For many 17" (or 17.3") machines such as Envy 17, dv, Pavilion 17 .... you can add a second HDD (my old loan dv7 has two HDD's and my current loan Envy 17 also has 2 HDD's). You would need the following kit:
http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=379
Regards.
BH
**Click the KUDOS thumb up on the left to say 'Thanks'**
Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem. -
my hard drive crashed on my MacBook Pro crashed and I need to get my CS5 up and running on the new hard drive. I copied what I could onto an external hard drive but when I drag and drop I get directions to uninstall but the uninstall folder I have does says it is an alias that is no longer present. I get error 6. I would like to get my software up and running on the laptop again please
If you subscribed to iTunes match the songs are kept in icloud. If you didn't but you did save the actual iTunes library folder which should include the music, video, etc. you should be able to just drag this file back to your machine in the same place and when you open iTunes it will give you a chance to identify the iTunes library folder.
You can test this to find out if you saved the media files or not and don't need to attach your nano to do it.
You are correct that once you connect the nano it will clear the existing files from it and sync it with the new iTunes library.
If you don't have the media files i'm not sure if/how to get them back on a windows ipod. I have everything backed up regularly because of the horror stories I have seen & heard. -
I have 4 devices (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4s, iPad2, Mini iPad) on an iTunes whose computer hard drive is dead. How do I get my devices on a new iTunes on a different computer and not wipe out my contents?
This should be of great help to you.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991
Or this one.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141 -
I have had to format my pc hard drive 4 times.
What happens if you have to sign a computer on itunes after the fifth time?Nothing "happens"
You failed to deauthorize before reformatting all 4 times?
If you have reached the limit and need to authorize, then you will need to deauthorize all, then authorize the active computers. -
My hard drive is DEAD.I have to reinstall all my Adobe programms and I need to know exactly the correct process to do ( Indesign CS6-Photoshop CS6 - Photoshop CS5 -Illustrator CS6 - Ligntroom 4 )....
is any friendly tutorial available ?
Thank you
AlbertIf you didn't have the opportunity to deactivate the installations then you should contact Adobe Support thru chat and ask them to reset your activations for all the serial numbers involved.
Chat support - For the link below click the Still Need Help? option in the blue area at the bottom and choose the chat option...
Make sure you are logged in to the Adobe site, have cookies enabled, clear your cookie cache. If it continues to fail try using a different browser.
Serial number and activation chat support (non-CC)
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/service1.html ( http://adobe.ly/1aYjbSC )
Then you just reinstall the programs and activate using the same serial numbers. If you need to download you can find download available thru the following links...
CS5 - http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/cs5-product-downloads.html
CS6 - http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/cs6-product-downloads.html
Lightroom - all versions
Windows
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=113&platform=Windows
Mac
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=113&platform=Macintosh
You might also find the following helpful...
Download and Installation Help -
https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install.html -
I have forgotten my administrator password, and there are no hints. I have a Mac OS X Mavericks. When I get to the reset password screen, it has no hard drive to select. What now?
If you're using FileVault, you first have to unlock the startup volume in Disk Utility. Select it and click the Unlock button in the toolbar. Of course, this is only possible if you know another password to unlock the volume. If you don't, follow instead these instructions.
-
If i wanted to connect an external hard drive to my iPad, what can I use? Or would I have to purchase a Mac mini?
Sorry, I DO NOT RECOMMEND the camera connection kit for what you are asking!
I was trying to say that as I have the connection kit (bought for camera use so no loss for me)
I often WISH it could do more.
So sorry for the confusion.
The camera connection kit only allows you to send photos and video (that are correctly formatted I might add) to the photos app.
Other people have had success with it connecting to keyboards, but that us not so useful. -
Got my big new hard drives in hand - Now, what don't I know?
Got my big new hard drives in hand - Now what?
Have 2 old iMacs that I need to upgrade with bigger HDD’s and then upgrade the OS. I am experienced with hard and software upgrades since MacSE days (got all the tutorials marked) but not so much with recent OS10 permutations. Certain that all this has been posted here numerous times, but quite tired of searching for it after a couple hours and have probably unnecessarilly confused and frightened myself in sorting through the scary posts. Perhaps its all in an FAQ at another site?
1. M9290LL/A G4 iMac 20” 1.25 Ghz 2GB RAM OS10.3.9
2. M9845LL/A G5 iMac 20” ALS 2.0 Ghz 2GB RAM OS10.4.11
Presuming that I would clean up the existing internal HDDs, install the new drives (1TB & 500GB) in their appropriate external enclosures, initialize them with the apropriate HFS (know I saw that here somewhere), drag and drop the existing internal HDD onto the new external drive, boot from the external HDD for an appropriate test period (all 5 family users) and only then install the new drives in the iMacs.
With the files and user settings safely backed up on the old HDDs in the external enclosures, I can safely attempt OS upgrading. Already have family packs of newer OS versions, just never desired the weeklong headache of reconfigging 5 users and the typical screaming lost settings sessions.
I am not looking at a clean system and software install because of all the user settings. We have a fortune in legacy PowerPC software, some of which never worked right on the G5 with 10.4, but Safari for 10.3 is now very unstable and I have printers with no 10.3 drivers available.
Questions:
1.What should I do to clean up the existing HDDs prior to copying over besides running Disk Utility. Didn’t Disk Utility. used to include a de-frag function? Hopefully there is shareware and this doesn’t require a $100 software suite.
2. Do I need special cloning software due to windows-like traps in OS10 or can I just copy the entire old drive, sludge and all?
3.What are the ultimate OS10 versions for these machines;
at what point am I installing lots of Intel code that simply slows these machines down or kludges up the legacy software?
4. What else did I forget to ask? What would the pros at my local mac shop charge me fortune to do?
ThanksThe prevailing answer to my posts is that I should either attempt a clean install and migration over using SD to clone copy the existing internal drive.
How good is the current migration experience? I've been doing OS upgrades since Mac SE days and never had a clean one in my life. Always lost the whole email folder or all the bookmarks or the address book files or the entire iTunes library or something that resulted in long hours of cursing and frustration. And that was with a single user.
And I know that these units will boot and be functional with upgrades to 10.4 and/or10.5. Unanswered is whether these computers will work faster or slower and more or less reliably?
Am not concerned with OS9 apps; have a couple old CRT iMac doorstops if the kids are overcome with a wave of nostalgia for Marathon or Pod Racer.
Does this or any other site maintain a master list of 10.4 / 10.5 software version compatibilty, or do I have to track down 50 different vendors' current websites? -
My computer is part of the iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive replacement program. What is the best external modem to use in order to back up my files prior to me dropping off my computer.
As Babowa says, get an external disk. You should have one for normal backups anyway.
Actually, I'm a strong fan of having multiple backups. 3 copies including the original, 2 different backup formats, and 1 backup off-site.
And when you have your iMac in for service, if you have just 1 backup at that point in time you have just 1 copy of your data. I get paranoid about my data.
But if you are just making 1 backup, I would use SuperDuper (free for a full clone, and extremely good software, as is Carbon Copy Cloner, but it is not free anymore).
And then I would "Boot" from the clone, to make sure it was a good clone.
Booted from the clone, I would then use Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility to zero the original disk, as suggested by Babowa, so that when they replace the disk, the original disk containing your data is not in the hands of strangers. A single pass of zeros is more than good enough as an erase, as the chances are no one is going to spend the money needed to try and read the erased data. It is not like you have any super secret data, just stuff you do not want the casual data theif to get. You will find the zeroing options under Disk Utility -> Erase -> Security Options
Just make sure you actually boot from your clone before erasing your original. And if you are paranoid like me, make 2 backups, then erase the original :-) -
I have a macbook pro and apple tv2. My problem is that my hard drive is full. What is my best option to empty movies off of my macbook but still access them through atv2?
ok. I do have a time capsule but if I move itunes on to it how do I sync my ipods and iphone? Or can I have my Itunes account on both and just move my movies to the time capsule?
-
I'm switching from Windows to iOS. But my new iMac won't allow me to transfer my Windows files on my Clickfree HD425 over to the iMac. It initialy didn't even recognize my hard drive during set up, so I manually went through Finder where it recognized the Clickfree drive. But my files wouldn't appear. I can't go back to my original Windows computer because the hard drive crashed, and that's why I bought this new iMac in the first place. What should I do? As a Mac newbie who was reluctant to exit the Windows world, I don't want my original babystep into the iOS world soured by my first experience.
Hi Rick, & a warm welcome!
In Disk Utility on the Mac, what Format does it say the drive is? -
How to get data from hard drive in dead iMac?
I have an old slot-loading iMac (350Mhz G3 blueberry) that just died, probably a dead power supply or something. Won't turn on at all. I don't care about restoring it, I just want to take the hard drive out and grab data from it. I've found instructions for removing the HD ... but any tips on the best/cheapest way to hook it up to get data from it? It's EIDE I believe from what I've read so far. Thanks for any help.
Hey Richard.....Thanks for the reply to my question about my wife's dead iMac.....
Her iMac had been acting up lately, mostly to do with her Outlook Express freezing up in OS9. I dunno if OS9 was freezing or if the application was failing. Regardless, I would have to quit OS9, restart Outlook which at the same time restarted OS9. All would be fine for a while, a day or two and then the scene would repeat itself. But I think that issue is separate from the iMac being "dead". Often we have power outages in the area, more than we should. I had the iMac plugged into a battery backup, some APS product I think it is. I believe it is only good for less than an hour as we have other devices drawing on it too. Most of our power outages are of short duration, just enough to be aggravating, sometimes having to reset clocks, etc...And a couple times, I would have to reset the time and date on the iMac so this told me that the PRAM battery was below minimum voltage. But the iMac would ALWAYS restart, even with the low battery. But the most recent outage, about one hour duration, did in the iMac, somehow or other. I do believe the battery backup basically fully discharged. So I removed the battery, could not find a new battery locally so I drove to the big city and paid the local Apple service dealer a visit. I got ripped big time price wise, embarrassed to say. So I get home, put the battery in the holder, depressed the CMU reset, the powerbutton illuminated as did a green LED by the memory modules for less than three seconds and then quit. I also heard the HD trying to spin up and a high voltage THUMP which I assume is the CRT trying to ignite. If I unplugged the iMac, removed the battery, plug in the power again and hit the power button, the iMac would repeat the same short on period and then quit. So it did not seem to make any difference if there was a battery in place. I read somewhere to pull the battery, pull the AC cord, hold down the power button to dump any current (?) and let the unit sit for 24hrs. After that length of time, I was supposed to replace the battery, depress the CMU reset, wait ten seconds and then feed it AC. Well, when I pressed the power button, I heard life for maybe five seconds, maybe a second longer, then a beep and then it shut down. I pulled the AC cord, pulled the battery, re-inserted the battery, depressed the CMU reset, waited a few seconds, plugged in the AC cord, depressed the power button and I am back at the under three seconds of "power-up" and then nothing, dead, no beep, nothing. I think maybe it is a waste of time trying to mess with this unit, looking for a newer iMac on eBay, the snowball series with the 17" LCD, might be time better spent. Hate throwing stuff away, that's why I am up to my ears in junk, maybe u know that scenario. The wife likes my 19" ACER LCD screen, hooked up to this old dual 800mhz, though she dislikes the noise and the tower. But we both agree the large LCD screen is much easier on our aging eyes than the old iMac CRT. Anyway, I appreciate your help, always GREAT to correspond with an Apple fan.....John Bauer -
I think my hard drive's dead; would like to know more about support
This is a couple questions, but namely, what's the most effective way to get your iMac turned in for repair? Should I just schedule a time to go to a Genius bar and bring it in, or do I need to go through the whole process of making a support phone call?
My iMac had a problem yesterday with a blinking question mark folder. I tried doing a disk repair, but it failed a couple times on me. I then formatted the drive (I have Time Machine, so I'm hoping I have that backed up at least), reinstalled OS X, but then it wouldn't boot afterwards.
After looking at the forums, I've seen a couple tips on getting some more verbose output from the monitor when booting (like holding Command + V for verbose output, Command + Option + P + R for resetting the PRAM (or VRAM?)), and after getting a more verbose output, I'm pretty sure this error clinched it for me:
/etc/rc: line 258: 27 Segmentation fault launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons /System/Library/LaunchDaemons /etc/mach_init.d
SystemStarter[29]: ipconfig waitall: Segmentation fault
So now I'm packing up my computer to take to support. I believe a seg. fault is about as bad as a hard drive can get when it dies, but I was wondering if anyone knows how good support is with these kinds of repairs, what kind of response I could expect from the Genius Bar, turnaround for a new hard drive (or will they just switch my whole computer out with another that works?), etc., etc.
I purchased the AppleCare, so I have coverage until 2010, so I should be covered.
Thanks in advance,
Nick
P.S. Is there any way to change my alias on these forums? I'm kind of past putting a handle down for my name, when I'm pretty sure a first name would be more useful for everybody.
nullHello Nick:
You could schedule an appointment and then take the Mac in for repair. Alternatively, you could call Applecare and schedule a home repair. I know of a couple of people who have done this and were satisfied. If the drive does need to be repaired/replaced) be sure you get good instructions on retrieving your data (there are knowledge base articles that address that process (looks straightforward, but I have not done it myself).
As far as the name change, I think it would make sense just to set up an entirely new profile (as you only have six posts on this one). One of the things I did when I first signed on many moons ago is to decide that my name (not an alias) would be most useful. That has proved to be the case.
Barry
Maybe you are looking for
-
Basically my iTunes playlists have gone missing. They were there yesterday and today I got a replacement iphone. I connected it to itunes and they were gone I was left with just 3 songs I had downloaded from the itunes store. I've read previous posts
-
can anybody tell me to create a new client at present i have 111,222,333 but i need 000 also. send me the comfiguration steps
-
Unable to start sbo-backup service
Hello I am unable to start the service of sbo backup. When i press the play button i just doesnt start. I have already check the services in windows, and i am also unable to start it. Any ideas. Thanks Jacobo
-
Hi everyone, I'm trying to take one voiceover audio track and seperate into two tracks so I can have a timed pause in between the two tracks. In HD I could clip the audio tracks and move them. What can I do in iMovie 09? Thank you
-
Flash player crashing in all browsers for live video
The Flash video player is crashing all browsers when I try to watch live video (specifically, live feeds out of Egypt, notably Al Jazeera's live feed). I'm on a MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6.6, using Safari, Firefox and Chrome browsers. In Chrome, I can hea