I think my hard drive has failed, what do I do now?

My imac G5 failed to start properly today, just getting grey screen.  I tried all the things suggested in the postings and managed to get it to the stage where I could reinstall via Time Machine etc but there was no disc to find on the imac to install the data too. Has my hard drive died?  what do I do now?

Normally if there is no bootable volume you'll get a flashing '?'. It doesn't sound like you are getting that far. I suggest following the steps in this article to rule out some other common causes of gray screen.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
If you still have your Install discs that came with your iMac you can boot from them, then run the Disk Utility application by pulling down the Utilities menu once you select the language. The Disk Utility application will tell you whether your hard drive is visible to the system, and then you can verify whether it is functional.

Similar Messages

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    Hello everyone,
    My white 20" iMac (late 2006) has just died and I think the hard drive might be irreparable.
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    Or will I have to visit an Apple store for a genius to have a go?
    Does anyone know what might cause this sort of failure? Is it just substandard parts reaching their retirement age?
    Also, does anyone know how much a replacement HD is likely to cost me?
    Thanks for any help and suggestions.

    simon.goodwin wrote:
    I'm afraid that in the end the hard drive was 'too old' as the genius put it.
    Is it really too much to ask for a hard drive to last more than four years?
    That's on the low end, but not entirely unusual. "Normal" lives seem to vary fairly widely.
    Also, I was not at all impressed by the competence of the genius I dealt with. He didn't even know how to boot in safe mode or from an external drive.
    Yeah, in my limited experience, they vary, too, but that's rather basic. Must be a newbie.
    I am now up and running with two backups in place.
    Yay!
    Also, I have given the failed hard drive to a friend who will try and recover the last weeks data for me as the Apple genius said he didn't know how to do that either.
    That's a specialty Apple doesn't do, at least not in most stores. See [Data Recovery|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Recover.html]. The services that do it have (expensive) specialized hardware and software.
    Needless to say I am not happy with Apple's hardware or customer care.
    I'd agree about the "Genius," but not necessarily the life of the drive.

  • 27 inch imac's hard drive has failed.

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    No worries,
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    Temperature sensor:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac-21-5-A1311-Mid-2010-Optical-Drive-Temp-Sensor -Cable-922-9624-/151521177860?
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  • External Hard Drive has failed!! How do I get a copy of my Photos off Apple

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    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc4S2l9neKM

  • My time machine backup external hard drive has failed.  I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it?

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    http://pondini.org/TM/21.html

  • HT2173 How to know when a hard drive has failed ?

    How to know when a hard drive has failed ?

    Machine doesn't boot.  You experience strange crashes.  Gets wrong results.  Your harddrive is five or more years old.  Time to consider repacing it.   You do have backup?
    You may want to run these "standard" fixes if the problem persists.
    1) Check the amount of free space on your harddrive.  You should have a several gigs free.
    2) You should run disk utility
         a) verify the disk
         b) update your permissions.
    3) Try a safe boot.
        Shutdown your machine.  Hold down the shift key.  Poweron.  Wait awhile Wait awhile while you harddrive
          is being checked.
        http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455
    4) You may want to run applejack to clean up your machine.
         http://applejack.sourceforge.net/
    a lot more ways to fix your Mac.
    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/faqs.html
    verify & repair your startup drive
    To verify & repair you file system on the startup drive, you will need to run disk utility from you installation DVD.
    This article  will tell you how to get to disk utility.  Once in a disk utility, you can go and attempt to recover the disk.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417
    To repair your startup drive, you will need to run disk utility from your startup DVD.
    Mac OS X 10.4: About the utilities available on the Mac OS X 10.4 Install DVD
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2055
    How to run disk utility from your startup DVD.
    Insert your  startup DVD  into your reader.  Power down your machine.  Hold down to the c key.  Power on your machine.  This will bootup your startup DVD.
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    As an alternative, you can verify that the filesystem on the disk is correct. You will not be able to repair the file system.
    I suggest that you use disk utility to verify that your startup disk is OK. 
    Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility 
    Start up disk utility.  On the left pane view, you will see a list of all your disks.  
    Click on your startup disk.
    Click on the First Aid  Tab.
    Click on verify.  
    Hopefully your disk will verify.  If not, you have to boot from your installation DVD and run Disk Utility from there to attempt to repair your file-system.

  • Help.I uninstalled ios8 using the directions on the web site and now all my apps,mail are gone.I backed up to iTunes first but when I try to sync to get everything back,it starts and then says it has failed.What do I do now.Thanks.Jane

    Help.I uninstalled ios8 using the directions on the web site and now all my apps,mail are gone.I backed up to iTunes first but when I try to sync to get everything back,it starts and then says it has failed.What do I do now.Thanks.Jane

    The first time an iPhone is connected to iTunes that is used to sync with another iPhone or iOS device, you are prompted to transfer the backup for the other iPhone or iOS device or to set up the iPhone as a new iPhone.
    The former does as provided - it transfers the backup for the other iPhone or iOS device to the iPhone replacing all data on the iPhone that is included with the backup being transferred. The latter does nothing allowing you to make your various selections for the iPhone sync preferences with iTunes.
    This is designed to be done right away with a new iPhone.
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  • I think my hard drive is failing but would appreciate other's opinions

    I had a problem where my system was more frequently getting beach balls of death, freezing, etc. after an upgrade to Snow Leopard. It finally got to the point that it would no longer boot up.
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    Any other opinions out there? Has anyone had really bad problems with their system where an initial fresh install didn't solve things but it turns out HD was fine?
    Don't really want to buy a new HD, but on the other hand don't want to install to a damaged HD and have to go through all this again in a few weeks.
    Opinions??
    Thanks in advance,
    Dan

    Checking the RAM is a great idea. I'll give that a try and see what happens.
    I've downloaded a SMART utility but the problem with SMART is that most of the time is doesn't detect an actual pending drive failure until the drive is completely dead. Right now, SMART says all is well, but clearly something is wrong.
    Update: I completely scrubbed the HD last night, installed Leopard, and installed updates. After the updates were installed, I went to close the finder window that automatically appears on the desktop after installation. Well, as you might guess, instead of closing the window, beachball of death! Only thing I could do was shutdown via power switch.
    I'll test the RAM and see what that says. If RAM checks out, it's time to get a new HD. Really miss Newegg over here in these parts!

  • My hard drive has failed

    Hi My Computer crashed yesterday and the Genius bar was unable to retrieve any files from my hard drive.  They said they didnt want to attempt because it was making a clicking noise and that I need to take it to a specialist.  Any well- reputable recommendations? Can a Mac specialist store be able to help me out i/o having to send it across the country?
    What options do I have! thats not going to cost me $1000 dollars

    Once the hard drive starts making mechanical noise some of the parts are physically failing and the drive would have to be taken apart and rebuilt to get data off of it....that is why the Genius did not want to mess with it....when the Genius said it would need a specialist I do not think he was referring to a Mac specialist, but more a place that rebuilds drives....
    .....there are a couple apps like this one....
    http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/10259/data-rescue
    ....but again they are more for badly corrupted files and not for a drive that is mechanically failing.....I believe it will be expensive....

  • 5 months...and hard drive has failed

    Hello, two days ago my Lenovo Twist S230u laptop started to freeze a lot, especially when I tried to multitask (like switching to a separate window). It probably took ten minutes each time for the computer to unfreeze and continue.
    Prior to this incident, the in-built 'Lenovo Solutin Center' software ran an automatic diagnostic test, and said that the laptop failed the SMART short-self test (unfortunately I forgot to copy the error code). I didn't think much of it at the time since my laptop is only 5-months old. Just in case, I performed a disk cleanup, disk defrag and made sure everything is up to date. This was when the laptop began to freeze quite a lot. In desperation (and stupidity), I typed the chkdsk /r command in command prompt and asked it to run at reboot. Apparently the SMART short self test is a physical problem rather than a software problem, so obviously chkdsk won't help.
    chkdsk ran for about two days now which is clearly too long for a 500gb HDD laptop. I've only used about half of this space too. I forced a shut down and now I cannot access Windows 8.1 through the boot menu (it just hangs on a black screen). Loading a rebootable USB recovery drive is not doing anything too.
    I previously sought support on the Microsoft Answers website. They said that my 'hard disk is failing' and I will need to have my HDD replaced.
    I just want a second opinion here. Is warranty valid under this circumstance? From what I remember, 'Lenovo Solution Center' said I still had a few hundred days of warranty left on the machine. 
    Thank you for your time.
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    Never mind. I've contacted Lenovo and they said they are able to replace the HDD under the current warranty agreement. 

  • HT1329 Hard drive has failed on PC, is it possible to retrieve my itunes library for my new pc?

    Hard drive failed on PC. Now have new PC but don't know if/how I can retrieve all my music? Or do I simply connect my ipod to the new PC and sync it?

    Hi kazbam,
    Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
    If you've purchased music from iTunes, there are a few ways to get it back on your computer. This includes transferring purchases from your iPod and downloading past purchases from the iTunes Store.
    This article has some good information about the available methods for transfering your media:
    iTunes: Transferring media from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or iPod
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1209
    Regards,
    Jeremy

  • I have an iMac 21.5 late 2009, the hard drive has failed.

    Instead of spending £200 replacing the internal hard drive, is it possible to run Lion off an external firewire 800 hard drive. If so, what are the negatives. The employee at western computers told me that it will run slower than it would with an internal hard drive, and I don't want that. So I would like to know what the implications of using a firewire 800 external hard drive to run my OSX from.

    PappaSmalls wrote:
    Instead of spending £200 replacing the internal hard drive, is it possible to run Lion off an external firewire 800 hard drive. If so, what are the negatives. The employee at western computers told me that it will run slower than it would with an internal hard drive, and I don't want that. So I would like to know what the implications of using a firewire 800 external hard drive to run my OSX from.
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  • MacBook Hard Drive has failed, how can I backup my information?

    Ok, my macbook's HDD has decided to fail 2 days before my 10 hour Photography Examination, in which I'm supposed to be spending 10 hours creating a final piece on Photoshop using it! :/
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    AdamNoakes wrote:
    Ok, my macbook's HDD has decided to fail 2 days before my 10 hour Photography Examination, in which I'm supposed to be spending 10 hours creating a final piece on Photoshop using it! :/
    See [Data Recovery|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Recover.html].
    Once this is sorted out (or not), it should now be clear that you need to do regular backups before your HD fails, or something else awful happens to your Mac.
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    Message was edited by: Pondini

  • My Zen Vision M 60 gig hard drive has failed....can i replace it with a toshiba 1.8 60gb

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  • My external hard drive has failed

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    See
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    Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
    There are also a number of third-party applications for doing the job of copying from the iDevice to your iTunes library on the computer. Check out:
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    Phone Disk
    You will find them at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.

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