Help With Hard Drive Problem

So I'm setting up my new computer and am having a problem. When I start it up it goes through the bios and whatnot. But, if I have the hard drive hooked up, the system will go to a black screen and stay there. I've tried it as the master to the CD-Rom and vice versa. Both ways stall as described. I can boot up the CD-Rom when it's by itself, but not with the HD hooked up. The weirdest thing is that the bios menu sees the hard drive and everythings. So I'm stumped. Please help.
EDIT: Computer stats below. Also not that the CD-rom and hard drive are on the same IDE cable.

Quote from: Maesus on 10-August-07, 16:00:27
the HDD is blank right?
Have you changed the boot sequence?
The hard drive is not blank, no. I've thought about that, but don't have a way of erasing it until tomorrow or the next day. I wasn't sure if that would really make a difference though. The main reason I'm not sure about that is the fact that it won't boot the CD-Rom when the hard drive is plugged in. Even if I tell it to only boot from the CD, it still goes to the same blank screen if I try it with the HD plugged in. As I said before, it will boot from CD if the hard drive is not present. I find it really weird that I can tell it to only boot from the CD-Rom and it still freezes with the HD present.

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Working photographer needs help with hard drives and raid O decisions

Hi new here and also new to Mac well almost new been 20 years since i had a mac. i have a Mac Pro Book and this led to ordering the MacPro since I am a working photographer i made a complete switch in platforms so i have some questions and such but I did place a order on Friday for a 2.66 4gbs of Ram , 2 500 gb hard drive and a 30 in monitor and of course the ATI 1900 XT card so yes i am waiting like many for that card.
I put initial 4gb of ram since running CS2 will at least take a max of 3gb's in the memory cache . i plan on getting 2gbs more from OWC since that seems to be the only 3rd party ram at the moment that is working correctly from reading some of the threads here. Having 6gbs is a no brainer really given the amount of Raw processing that i do along with PS work plus having e-mail and other apps open at the same time. The ram to me is the easy part although expensive . My biggest issue is what to do with the 2 hard drive slots and Raid O or not but I will start a thread on that. But i will have 6gbs total for now and the bottom line is you can never have enough ram still holds true.
Now on to my diliemma with hard drives. I did have a raid O scsi 10k rapture and and 10 k scratch on my Dell box and I am just not sure what to do here. i ordered the 2 500 gb hard drive and I may just put them on the storage side of things than get 2 WD 150gb 10 k Sata drives. Now i could Raid O them for 300 gb and get a performace boast that way or i could keep them seperate and put everything on 1 150 drive and ue the second for scratch only. What i don't know is what Mac perfers and what works better. Not worried so much about failure of drives, thats just life in the big city stuff and you just have backups. What i more worried about is performance versus a waste . seems to me that Raid O may not even be needed with these new Intel boxes with all the horsepower going on. Now the other think I notice is the WD 150gb 10 k drives are 1.5 and not 3.0 so is it really faster than the 7200 3.0 single hard drives. I read barefeats shoot out and it seems just getting the right drives in 7200 and Raid O them maybe the answer.
Okay i am not the biggest geek on the planet but I do know my stuff but this is a area that i look for more knowledge on this. So if i can get some sound advice in this area. i know there are many photographers out there like me pushing hundreds of images that could use the same advice. Now let's leave the money end out , folks sometimes think more with there wallet than what works best not that I am opposed to saving money but after spending over 7 k already on this system it becomes a moot point. LOL
www.guymancusophoto.com

Ok your question is if you should RAID O the two 150GB Raptors or not.
I think it was wise for you to get a couple of them for a boot drive with "Time Machine" coming in the next version of Mac OS X. The second drive would make a excellent bootable backup and eliminating downtime if a boot drive dies on you one morning.
In fact any boot drive cloning software that is Mac Intel ready now would do you good.
Now Barefeats has run some tests, and I can pretty much back up what they say from my own experience.
Mac OS X and apps can be helped only so much by a faster boot drive, and a single 10,000 RPM Raptor is enough, RAID O a pair is overkill.
If you install everything on the boot Raptor and keep your space hogging files (except iTunes) in new folders on another drive, even a 7,200 RPM 500GB, the two drives combined is faster as there is nearly no wait. Both drives can be accessed at the same time. Keeping the boot drive slim keeps the stylus (arm) moving as little as possible to get all the small reads/writes Mac OS X needs.
I RAID O-ed my boot drives because 74GB was the largest they had at the time, so combining them gave me speed and larger storage. I hardly use the speed, it only comes in handy if by rare chance I duplicate a 20GB folder, then I can do it in half the time of a 7,200 RPM drive.
Some of the drawbacks of a RAID O set, especially as a boot drive is that I have to auto-clone the whole set to a external drive regularly (I actually do a couple). Since the data path is separated with a RAID O, any drive failure results in total data loss.
So if you RAID O those 150GB Raptors, your going to have to clone 300GB to a external drive (or another internal) regularly, like once a week. This will take considerable time and you can't use the machine while the cloning process is going on. Sure auto-cloning software like DeJaVu can be used at night/weekends, but why bother cloning more than you have to for no big speed increase?
However if your messing with huge Photoshop files that spill over your CS2 3GB RAM limit (you need to have a "scratch" thats as fast as RAM), duplicating large files and other heavy duty drive work, then a boot RAID O will come in handy. Just remember your initial performance of 185 MB p/s will drop about 20-25% when those drives are 3/4 filled. Still 140 MB p/s is extremely good and a no worry situation.
What is worrysome is anything below 80MB p/s (I'm talking uncached 4K write speeds under X-Bench) with a new boot drive and then as time elaspes that boot drive gets filled up and loses half or more of it's inital speed. 30 MB p/s is really slow. Beachball H&LL.
http://www.barefeats.com/hard33b.html
Do Erase W/Zero in Disk Utility all new drives before laying data on them. Drives get subjected to shock which causes bad sectors on the drive. Driver software uses your data as a guinea pig to test the sectors (which you might not be able to recover the file). Zeroing does this without your data, rewriting the bad sector map so your writes are much improved, OS is more stable. etc.

Please Help! Hard Drive Problem

Hi, I know there are various other posts with a similar problem but I have tried a lot of suggestions and keep hitting a brick wall. Apologies if this rambles on a bit or doesn't make a lot of sense.
Two nights ago my 18 month old imac refused to start up properly and hangs on the grey screen with the fans blowing at full capacity. I have tried various suggestions such as resetting the PRAM and SMU and then opened disk utility from the install cd.
Verifying/repairing disk permissions got stuck about 3/4 of the way through so I then tried to repair disk which failed. various messages told me that there were "invalid node structure" and that it was rebuilding "Catalog B-tree".
I was then told that
volume MAC HD could not be repaired
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
repair attempted on 1 volume
1 volume could not be repaired
when I attempt to repair the disk again Macintosh HD is now greyed out (although i can still select it) - clicking repair disc again this time brings up various missing thread records, then -
invalid sibling link
volume check failed.
opening in firewire target disc mode brings up the usual firewire icon on the imac but my ibook doesn't seem to recognise that any external drives are plugged in.
Any other suggestions? - Is the Hard Drive completely gone or is there any hope? Will erasing the disk and starting from scratch going to do anything? Most of the stuff on the computer is backed up so I am not bothered if I lose everything.
thanks in advance.

Hello Again, Happy New Year!
Managed to get a copy of Disk Warrior Yesterday but now have different problems.
When I try to start up from the Disk Warrior CD the mac does what it should, I click agree to the terms and conditions, the Disk Warrior title screen comes up and then the mac restarts again.
Now rather than hang on the grey screen it goes to a black screen with white text (single user mode???) with the message -
/etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory
-sh-2.05b
If I try to start up from the Mac OS install disc this works "fine" - i.e the computer doesn't automatically restart itself but disk repair still fails.
If I enter Target disc mode my imac fails to show up on my ibook so that I can get to any of my files but it shows up in Disk Utlity, etc.
The Disk Warrior CD works fine on my ibook. I have tried to repair the iMac hard drive on my iBook using disk warrior (iMac in target disk mode).
It gets as far as Step 5 - locating directory data then appears to hang and the spinning wheel comes up. I left it over night and there is now a message saying that
Speed Inhibited by Disc Malfunction.
The spinning wheel is still going and Disk Warrior is still trying to locate directory data.
Any recommendations? The Disc Malfunction message worries me somewhat - will reformatting the disc and starting from scratch do any good or will I just be wasting my time.
cheers

Please Help! Hard drive problem "Mystery Gb Space"

I recently ripped a lot of CD’s into itunes, so much that I filled up my hard drive. I cleaned up my music by deleting music I didn’t need. I also burned a majority of music to CD so that I could delete it off my hard drive. I have a 80gb hard dive; I freed up 20gb of space. I did not secure the trash when I deleted the music files. So for a while I had 20gb of free space, but a few days ago I looked at my istat pro and noticed that I now have a full hard drive again. I have not ripped any CD’s, downloaded any thing, or done any thing that would take up this much space. I contacted apple but all they would help me with was buying a plan. The only advice I was given was to secure trash. I would like to know where this “extra gb space” came from.
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Get "Disk Inventory X" (it is freeware.)
http://www.derlien.com/
It searches your hard drive and gives you a visual representation of all of your hard drive space usage. It seperates each file type into groups of colors etc so you can see where you have 15gb of mp3's and such. You can use it to open finder windows to those files. Just be careful not to delete any system files with it!
Also, you can save yourself about 7gigs right off the bat by deleting all of the sound files your computer comes with for garageband (unless you use garageband.) I know I don't, and I couldnt believe they ship these machines packed with almost 7 gigs of sound files that you may or may not use...

Need hlep with hard driver problem.

hi all,
I just run into some problem, and hope to get some help.
Model: Satellite A105-s4348
OS: Windows Media
now, here is what i did.
I used the recover Disk to install OS, and divide the hard driver to 50G and 100G.
As when i finished the installtion, i couldn't find the D driver.
Then i used the XP pro sp2 disk i have tried to format D driver.
when i restart the computer, i went in to Windows Medai to format D driver.
after that, I still got two OS to choose everytime turn on my computer.
now, how can i complete get rid off the XP pro and make my D driver clean?
any help will be great appreciate.
Have a nice day!

Satellite A105-s4348
Maybe this one?
Satellite A105-S4384
how can i complete get rid off the XP pro and make my D driver clean?
Not sure I understand what you did and what you want to do.
You can avoid the dual-boot menu by editing the c:\boot.ini file.
The purpose of the Boot.ini file in Windows XP
How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP
-Jerry

NEED HELP ..HARD DRIVE PROBLEMS

My safari window doesnt pop up and ive been told it had to get my hard drive cleaned ..soo can yu instruct me in how to clean my hard drive so my safari & etc. would work the way there suppose too! plz & thnk yu!

Miki:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
ive been told it had to get my hard drive cleaned
What?
Try starting up in Safe Mode.
Then Repair Disk
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report if it says anything but Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need to use a utility like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior
Post back with update.
cornelius

Hard drive problem...... Please Help

Hard drive problems
I am sure it is due to my error or mistake but I received a new Maxtor III touch as a replacement for my failed drive yesterday after connecting it I went to Maxtor one touch manager software that came with it and the drive did not appear in the window so then I opened disk utilities and copied my notebook hard drive over to the Maxtor ran permissions on each drive and then closed down my system ! today when I opened my Powerbook with the Maxtor on it gave me the grey screen 2x so I disconnected the Maxtor ran permissions again and everything was fine until i power up the Maxtor and Grey screen again! Help How do I fix this?????

Maxtor one touch III firewire 800 its connected to my Titanium G$ Powerbook I am beginning to think its just another drive failure

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Boots up sometimes and very slow.
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Have you booted into the BIOS or Diagnostics Tool to run the Hard Drive Test?

Help! folder icon w/ exclamation point - hard drive problem?

I live in the philippines and the store which i called up said the only solution is to show the receipt and they will send it to singapore but i still have to buy a new one. it's like they're not giving me choices at all. i know my iPod is not yet "dead", why do i have to buy a new one? how can i have this repaired?! it hasn't been a year yet, but around 10 months already and i don't have the receipt anymore.
here's what happened...
for the past week my iPod has been skipping songs, going to the next ones but doesn't play at all. sometimes it even freezes. and i hear this whirring sound at the back.
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I tried restoring it with updater but it says it could not mount the ipod. so this might be a hard drive problem already. how can i solve this?
please help!

Try calling their toll free number <probably charges apply when you're calling outside the US>, 1-800-827-0685.
Usually, they will send your machine to the nearest repair station. I think in SEAsia, repair stations are in Malaysia.
Your iPod comes with a universal warranty, so you could definitely have that repaired even without the receipt. <Im from the Philippines too. I what you mean...>
good luck!=D

Help...KT3-Ultra2 and Hard drive problems

Hello, I'm new to this board. I've been having an issue with hard drives lately. I have an MSI KT3-ultra2 with the latest BIOS version installed. I recently had a hard drive get completely erased and the actually size of it (10gig) had changed to 1 gig. Just prior to that I got a corrupted file error in a game I was playing. (The 10gig HD was a storage drive). My main drive (Maxtor 40gig) started to clunk and whine and then eventually the computer would lock up hard. I assumed the HD was going bad and was the cause of all the corruption. So I went and bought a new WD Hard drive 80 gig. Had it for about 2 weeks now and now all of a sudden I'm getting a similar clicking noise and a whine and then it locks up on me. I can only run my computer for about 10 to 20 minutes before it locks up. I have changed IDE cables to see if they were the cause and that didn't solve the problem. I've also disconnected all my CD drives and still nothing. I am going to take a guess and assume there is something wrong with my MB. IDE controler perhaps? Can anyone help me with this or confirm my thoughts on the situation? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

May be your powersupply is faulty. Or the memory? try to get it checked

I was trying to sync my 120GB iPod Classic earlier and it said it couldn't sync as the iPod disk could not be "read" or "written to". I now can't get anything onto my iPod, and I was wondering if it is a hard drive problem? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

I was trying to sync my 120GB iPod Classic earlier, and it said it couldn't sync as the iPod disk could not be "read" or "written to." I now can't get anything onto my iPod, and I was wondering if it is a hard drive problem? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Did you go into iTunes to change the location of your media files? if not you will need to go into iTunes and click on preference and select the advance tab then click the iTunes Media folder location. Select the location of your on external hard drive.

Hello! i've a problem with my Imac. it shows me white screen with a folder with quastion. it could be a problem with hard drive. i should insert mac os cd, but i couldnt find it. in Russia, in Finland and in Sweden the same problem)

hello! i've a problem with my Imac. it shows me white screen with a folder with quastion. it could be a problem with hard drive. i should insert mac os cd, but i couldnt find it. in Russia, in Finland and in Sweden the same problem)

Have a look at some of the suggestions in this link:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US (Russian is available from the link within the article (top right of the page).

MacBook will not start. I have restarted with original CD. I have used Utilities and "no problem" with hard drive. I have reset PRAM. I have tried safe boot. Nothing is work. Gray screen with Apple logo and rotating wheel. Thanks for any suggestions!

MacBook will not start. I have restarted with original CD. I have used Utilities and "no problem" with hard drive. I have reset PRAM. I have tried safe boot. Nothing is work. Gray screen with Apple logo and rotating wheel. Thanks for any suggestions!

Snow Leopard is a Mac OS X version. You say that it's the version you have in your Mac (10.6.8). Do a back up of your files, format the hard drive (using Disk Utility) and reinstall again

I have a 2007 Macbookpro and it started up with gray checkered boxes ann across the screen I tried to re load OSX and it work 1 day and started again is this a hard drive problem or Video? Now as it starts to load a screen comes up saying to restart

I have a 2007 Macbookpro and it started up with gray checkered boxes and across the screen I tried to re load OSX and it work 1 day and started again is this a hard drive problem or Video? Now as it starts to load a screen comes up saying to restart over and over again

I'd suspect this known issue:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377
if you have a late 2007 MBP.
The only testing you can do at home is to attach an external monitor and see if the defects repeat on the external. If so, get to an Apple store. If the computer's video chipset fails a test the Apple Store will perform, you get a free logic board replacement. Turnaround is usually one day to one week--not bad at all.
If the defects do NOT repeat on an external monitor, then the problem is not covered by the above Repair Extension Program
The issue is heat-triggered. Be certain that you control heat once you get it fixed. Don't use the computer in your lap without a lapboard; don't block the vents under the display hinge; don't us in clamshell mode, etc.

FYI: MS-7125 BIOS has problem with Hard Drives withNative Command Queuing (NCQ)

For those the have messed my two treads on which both ended up being cause by K8N Neo4 BIOS problem with HD's with NCQ.
Will wonders never cease? MSI Support finally conceded the BIOS has a problem with Hard Drives with NCQ and they have forwarded the problem to their programming department.
However, do not look for any results for above two weeks.
Roger

The problem that this thread has been trying to follow is the incapability of the nVidia RAID Controller with Serial ATA Type 2.5 drives. I know the threads has been hard to follow and part of that is because when I started the thread I had what appeared to be three totally un related problems, but all three were traced down the common problem of the incapability of RAID Controller with Serial ATA Type 2.5 drives.
The title of this thread is MS-7125 BIOS has problem with Hard Drives with Native Command Queuing(NCQ). The statement was true at the time it was written and has nothing to do with memory problems.
Sense the thread was started MSI has fixed the BIOS part of the problem, but we have sense learned the nVidia RAID Controller Command software and its driver has problems too. I have been working MSI Support, they have been using me to test pre-beta BIOS and Drivers soon. Of the testing I have done the pre-beta BIOS worked and the Pre-beta 32-bit driver works. I am assuming that the latest BIOS V1.B had as part of it included fixes was the needed fixes for working with the nVidia RAID Controller as I have test the pre-beta RAID Driver with BIOS Version V1.B as the Raid array function fine windows XP Pro 32-bit Edition. As I have had no communications with MSI support of over a week now I am hoping for a release of 32-bit and 64-bit RAID Drivers. But, nobody should get the hopes up, because through other backdoor sources nVidia is having a hell of a time. One reason for this I heard is that the nVidia RAID Controller is fully software, no hardware other than the electrical drive interfaces. Their problem started when they tried using the old 32-bit code Controller with new 64-bit hardware drivers and now they are having to totally rewrite the controller core in 64-bit code. But, knowing my source, it may all be fiction.
The RAID Array you say is up and running, are the drives full specification SATA 2.5 in other words do the both have 3Gb/s speed and NCQ. If you send me the full part numbers I will check the specifications a get back to you. Because if you have nVidia RAID 0 Array you working you will be the first to have done it and there about 230 people around the world that would like to know how you did it, even MSI, who's pre-beta nVidia RAID Drivers that will work with BIOS V1.B for 32-bit Windows only and nothing for Windows XP 64, would like to know.
Roger

Help With Hard Drive Problem

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