I think my hard drive is....DEAD

I have an ibook G4 and the hard drive makes a very loud clicking noise, when i turn it on, the chime comes on and sometimes there is a ? mark, but sometimes it boots, but when it does almost every move of the mouse results in the beach ball. are there any other symptoms that my hard drive is dead, or is this all i need to diagnose it?

It doesn't sound good, but there are a couple of things you could try. You could go to Disk Utility and verify and repair if necessary both permissions and the disk. You will need to boot from an install disc and use that Disk Utility to repair the start up disk. But if it's in bad shape, you may get some red letters saying that it is failing. But it may be worth trying to repair--at least it wouldn't hurt to try.
You can also run the Apple Hardware Test and see if you get an error code indicating hard drive failure.
But the noise is very ominous--get your data backed up ASAP before it dies altogether.
Good luck!

Similar Messages

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.
null

Hello 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

I think my hard drive is about to die, can I get some help?

Hello! Well, I have an iMac (I believe it's a mid 2007 model?) 20 inch, Core 2 Duo, and I believe my hard drive is failing. It's a long story, but its more or less exactly how it played out, so bear with me.
I noticed a few things going wonky a little while back, and started to back up data piece by piece. Well, eventually, I decided the best thing to do was to find a way to back-up my important files (I would have simply made a bootable back-up image of my HD on my external drive, but I have too many video and audio files on there to risk losing should I make it a dedicated back-up drive). Well, in transferring my files into my external drive I received Finder Error -36 (or something, may have been 036). After researching the error, it seems it commonly pops up with one of two possible cases:
in transferring files between windows and mac formatted drives and causing an error, or
a potentially failing hard drive.
Fearing the worst, I ran a verify disk on Disk Utility, and it said the disk needed to be repaired. Booted from my DVD, and ran the Repair Disk. It said the disk could not be repaired, to make immediate back-ups, and reformat the drive. Well, I hurried back over to mac to continue to attempt backing up my data to prepare for the reformat, the computer simply would no longer boot up the disk. It would go to the white screen and begin to boot, then immediately shut down. My BootCamp partition worked fine, however, except for a very similar transferring error. So I went ahead and reformatted (a quick one the first time) and Mac OS X refused to install (I am not sure if this was a DVD error as my optical drive is shot and very stubborn about reading a disc once I get one into the drive). I reformatted again, this time doing a 0 write out option.
After an excruciating week to reformat on a 0 write out, I installed Mac OS X (Leopard this time as to opposed Snow Leopard, in case it was a scratched disc). Well, thinking I had cured the problem, I tried to update to latest version, and upon doing so, encountered an error telling me the OS could not be updated. After rebooting the system, the computer seemed to go into a permanent status of a looped reboot. It would literally restart just as soon as the disk was loaded. So I reformatted again, installed Leopard, and ran disk utility. It told me that the disk could not be verified and needs to be repaired (after passing the verification test when booted from the DVD). Now when I am on the mac, it is incredibly slow and sluggish, and takes anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to load iTunes, or even check e-mail on Safari. This was cause for my original concern before the Finder Error I encountered and believed it was just ram dying, but decided to get a head start on backing up files in case it was something far more serious. Is my hard drive simply dead and needs to be replaced, or is there something else I could do? It is currently running basic Leopard from the install disc without further updates, as it seems updating the system tends to kill it.
Thanks for any help at all greatly appreciated.

To be honest your post is rambling and difficult to read due to the lack of proper punctuation I only read it part way however...
The first thing to do is a proper backup. Your system has Time Machine built into it, here is the Time Machine Tutorial. Look that over, get yourself an external HD to use as a TM drive and backup properly! This will backup all of OS X however it will NOT backup MS Windows!
If you think your HD is failing then run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode and if it reports errors you can post them here.
Roger

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!

I recently had a kernel panic in which I think my hard drive only had so much space left after I ran a bunch of drivers I thought I needed. I uninstalled all and moved files. For some odd reason I'm not getting sound of of my hdtv/monitor.HELP?

I recently had a kernel panic in which I think my hard drive only had so much space left after I ran a bunch of drivers I thought I needed. I uninstalled all and moved files. For some odd reason I'm not getting sound of of my hdtv/monitor.HELP? I uninstalled all the drives and apps I download. I moived files either to trash if not needed, and others to other external drives. I went into disk utility and did a repair disk permission and verify disk. Clean out junk files. Now my hdtv/monitor does not give me any sound, nor does my mac mini. Can someone please tell me what to do?

What drivers?

Help! I think my hard drive just bit the dust

Hello all. Hopefully someone will be able to help me answer this so i can stop bashing my face against the keyboard.
My parents own a Macbook Pro 13" from about 6 years ago. They told me that one day they turned it on and all it would do is come to the grey loading screen with the apple logo and load and never reach the desktop. I put my snow leopard disk in, booted it from the disk to get to the disk utility options. I did a repair disk to see if it was corrupted and sure enough it was. I erased the partition they had on there to make a new one to start fresh. only problem is now i cant format the hard drive and create a new partition to install OS.
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz346/am_main/IMG_6806_zpse9915621.jpg
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz346/am_main/IMG_6807_zps9bc0abd7.jpg
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz346/am_main/IMG_6808_zps378a9e2d.jpg
http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz346/am_main/IMG_6809_zpsb47ba830.jpg
Any help would be appreciated...
To me, I think the hard drive is hooped but I don't really know. Like I said, the computer is 6 years old, nothing has been modified all original hardware.

Do you recall answering a question about letting iTunes manage your music library the first time you started iTunes? It's probably now copying (not converting) or moving all the files to the iTunes Music directory based on their ID3 tags.

Nothing works on iPod, I think my hard drive is shot on my 120g classic. Help?

Okay, so I purchased the iPod at Target in April of 2010. I didn't save the receipt or buy any sort of warranty plan or anything because I didn't anticipate any problems and frankly didn't have the cash. I also never registered the iPod with Apple or anything like that. I know this was a bad plan. But anyway, about 4 months after using the iPod it started getting...screwy. Some songs lost their album artwork or some of the album artworks got switched, for example Radiohead songs all had Killers album covers and Pink album covers instead of their originals. It was weird but nothing else seemed to be wrong. Later I noticed that some songs would only play for a minute or so and then skip to the next song in the playlist or album. And some songs wouldn't play at all. I could still listen to some of my music just fine so I ignored it in hopes it would go away. It didn't so I tried the 5 R's on the troubleshooting page and it didn't really help anything. It only made it worse. It made it so I couldn't listen to ANY song. I could go to any song in my library and once I clicked play, the little play triangle icon would show up at the top bar of the screen but the slider was stuck at 0.00 and no music would play. No music worked, but I was able to watch my podcasts, view photos, and watch most of my one movie. About 15 minutes from the end of the movie, though, it froze and went to the apple logo. After a month or so I noticed that when I plugged the iPod into my computer it made iTunes completely unresponsive no matter what I did. As soon as I disconnected the iPod it became responsive again. I searched through internet forums for help and found little to no help. I reinstalled iTunes about 3 times before giving up and putting the broken iPod on a shelf. Today I found it and thought I could possibly make it work again, and so I plugged it into my laptop (I hadn't used it before with the laptop) and nothing had changed versus the desktop; it still rendered iTunes unresponsive. So I did some research and found a couple new things. I first tried putting it into disk mode (hadn't tried that before) and it seemed to work just fine! I plugged it in and my iTunes remained the same. I renamed it just to differentiate it from my iPod Nano, and hit the sync button. While it was syncing I listened to some music and sometimes it would make the music skip just a bit or delay playing the next song, but it never completely stopped anything. I waited for it to sync my 23 gb of music, and after an hour or so I looked at it and it said something about being unable to sync because of an error (-50) or something to that effect. Later tonight I found out the diagnostic test and performed it. I couldn't get all the way through the auto test because I don't and never have had a firewire adapter, but I poked around the hard drive test and this is what I came up with:
Retracts: 21
Reallocs: 16376
Pending Sectors: 0
PowerOn Hours: 230
Start/Stops: 7686
Temp: Current 33c
Temp: Min 19c
Temp: Max 49c.
I read somewhere that the higher numbers of the reallocs and the pending sectors are bad.... And my reallocs number is astronomically high. So I'm thinking my hard drive is fried. Is it worth it to jump through all the hoops to fix it, and possibly not even be able to since I have no warranty or proof of purchase, or should I just invest in a new iPod?

Thank you for a delightful and very detailed descripton of your problem. Delight because you have tried everything that this forum can offer you, and you are quite right in stating your hardisk is dying (fried). You can try Apple, but if they wont replace the Hardisk at your acceptable price, then try 3rd Party vendors near your area.
If you need max 32GB of space for music, perhaps, try a 3rd Party vendor, who can replace your hardisk with a 32GB SSD, these definitely wont give you hardisk problems.
If you are a video junkie, then junk this idea, even a 64GB SSD can set you back a few hundreds.
Have a nice day.
PS: SSD are Solid State Drive, some use Compact Flash Memory, there are not new, been in used for some years by Apple.

I have 4 devices 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?

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

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 )....

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
Albert

If 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

Hi guys i have an macbook 13 late 2007 and does not work when i start it up all u can see is blank white screen and after that its keep bepping high peech tone 3 times i was thinking the hard drive but im not too sure please guys help.

Hi guys i have an macbook 13 late 2007 and does not work when i start it up all u can see is blank white screen and after that its keep bepping high peech tone 3 times i was thinking the hard drive but im not too sure please guys help.

Try to reset the PRAM first then go from there.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

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

My Time Capsule "went Kaput" but I "think" the Hard Drive is ok.

I took the hard drive out and plugged into an enclosure and it shows up as two items;
An AWS swap and AWS swapconfiguration. I click on it and it doesnt show anything.
Perhaps its format is different than a normal one.
Can anyone give me advice on how to read the files so I can save some of them?
Thanks,
Skip

So I've spent the day wondering what tack to take with this thing. I'm not clear on why it would disable the WiFi connectivity but that's what happened with the first one too. I can't imagine paying to recover 1TB of data so I was trying to figure someting else out.
1. I thought about ripping her open to take out the drive but what then of the router part? Will that be useable any longer?
2. I thought about trying to connect the TC to my iMac and attempt downloading files from the disc direct, if that were even possible, but I was assuming I'd need a crossover ethernet cable, which I had--once--but couldn't locate.
3. I tried daisychaining a USB through some other externals to the iMac but that didn't work.
4. However I had it in the back of my mind that TM created some sort of proprietary file system when backing up to TC and that they wouldn't be available anyway. Reading above I can't tell if I was right or wrong in that supposition.
Anyway, you all sound like a clever bunch. What would be the best approach to take here? I ordered myself a Netgear router from Amazon as a back up just in case. (I can return it within 30 days if I don't use it)
5. Is it possiblle to remove the drive and just use the TC as a router?
6. I can't tell you what itereation of TC this is. The drive isn't being recognized so I can't get any info on it. It's at least from 2010, I should think. I think it may be a 3rd gen and my first one a 2nd gen but that would only be a guess.
Sorry to go on...
I have added some numbering to help answer.
Let me start with number 6 because it matters.
6. Get the model number off the rubber base mat.. it is A1xxx .. you may need strong glasses to read it.
It can make a huge difference if it is gen2 or gen3.
1. You can remove the drive.. the TC then becomes an airport extreme. But the power supply might be dead.. particularly if it is gen2.
2. You do not use cross-over cables anymore.. and haven't for several years. All networking is now auto sensing. And yes, if the disk still works then plug in TC to the computer by standard ethernet patch cable direct to the computer. You might need to factory reset to get it going.
3. USB is only for disk and printer connection to the TC. You cannot link to TC via USB.
4. The file system of the TC is standard Mac HFS+.. but the sparsebundle is not directly readable.. you need to use TM to get the files out of it.. that is possible even with hard disk out of the TC.. if the disk still works. See Pondini http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html Q14-17 on how to get info out of the TM sparsebundle and Q18 on how to move the files.
5. Yes, we covered that one.
Basically you have to pull off the rubber peice on the bottom- its a pain- you wind up ripping it off.
Heat the rubber mat with a heat gun or even just a hair dryer on highest heat lowest fan setting.. heat for a good 5min and then slowly peel.. the glue will all come up with the mat.. keep heating if it catches. I have never ripped one.. (repaired around 100 of them if I heated the mat).
Best instructions for disassembly here.
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Apple_Time_Capsule
It includes the use of heatgun.

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.
I tried everything I could think of from disk utility to running single user and manually running fsck. Finally, I broke down and got a copy of Diskwarrior. DW was able to rebuilt the directory and I was able to get my data onto my external HD. By the way, DW was not able to replace the damaged directory with the rebuilt one because it indicated there was a disk malfunction (hardware problem not software).
After I took off my data, I used my Leopard install disk to erase the hard drive and then install. However, I did not use the zero out data function, just simple erase. I then reinstalled Leopard.
After the install was complete, it said it would restart, which it did. Unfortunately, once it restarted and went through the welcome screen, it asked to set up. At the point I was setting up my account picture, it just froze again with the beachball of death. I couldn't get it to unlock to did a reset/restart.
Once it came back, after a very long boot time, I ran disk utility and asked it to verify the disk. It then gave an error of invalid index key along with the volume macintosh hd needs to be repaired and Error:Filesystem verify or repair failed.
Oh one last thing, I did let the installation dvd does through its own verification before installation and it reported no problems.
So, my feeling is that it's not a good sign when a fresh clean installation has problems from the start. As a result, I think that my HD is starting to bite the dust and needs to be replaced.
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!

Dead hard drive or Dead ata bus?

I think I just had my internal ata boot drive die, but I'm not sure if it's the drive or the bus. When I boot from the install disc and do System Profiler it doesn't even show the hard drive ATA Bus, it only shows the dvd drive ATA Bus. If I remove the hard drive and reboot to the install disc, it does show both ATA Buses. Could that be a short in the hard drive?
Now I'm looking at my backups, and to add insult to injury it looks like my main backup drive is dead, too! My most recent backup on a different drive is two months old. Aaagh! I just lost thanksgiving and christmas photos. I've had nothing but problems with my two western digital drives - not using them again.

Hi, Paul -
If I remove the hard drive and reboot to the install disc, it does show both ATA Buses. Could that be a short in the hard drive?
A failed hard drive can sometimes take down the ATA bus it is connected to, or even take down all ATA buses (the latter happened to me one time).
...it looks like my main backup drive is dead, too!
If it hasn't taken the bus down, the data on it may be salvageable at reasonable expense. There's a couple of utilities available designed to recover data from drives that are mechanically sound, but which refuse to mount for some reason; both have try-before-you-buy demo modes -
Data Rescue
Virtual Lab
If the backup drive was on the same bus as the boot drive discussed previously, you may need to change its jumpers in order for it to be recognized again. Western Digital drives often have a third jumper position, Single, which is to be used when the drive is the only device on the bus (on those drives, Master is used when there is also a Slave present).

Does this mean whether the IPOD's battery or hard drive is dead?

Hi there,
My IPOD Photo when plugged into the AC adapter charger, will show the same three screens again and again
(1) Black Screen with Apple Logo
(2) Sad IPOD icon
(3) Battery icon (looks like a low-battery icon) with exclamation point
I have tried the 5Rs procedure on this site to put the IPOD in disk mode but to no avail.
This IPOD is only 2 years old and has been in great condition. Does the above mean that its hard drive or battery is dead? Or both?
Thanks

Does the above mean that its hard drive or battery is dead? Or both?
It could either be
a. The battery is dead (normally it should work around 18 months), the low battery level caused the Head of the HD of your iPod get frozen.
b. The iPod does not get charged at all due to hardware/software problem.
Have a read of the following
If a sad iPod icon or an exclamation point and folder icon appears on your iPod’s screen, or with sounds of clicking or HD whirring, it is usually the sign of a hard drive problem and you have the power to do something about it now. Your silver bullet of resolving your iPod issue – is to restore your iPod to factory settings.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60983
If you're having trouble, try these steps at different levels one at a time until the issue is resolved. These steps will often whip your iPod back into shape.
Make sure you do all the following “TRYs”
A. Try to wait 30 minutes while iPod is charging.
B. Try another FireWire or USB through Dock Connector cable.
C. Try another FireWire or USB port on your computer .
D. Try to disconnect all devices from your computer's FireWire and USB ports.
E. Try to download and install the latest version of iPod software and iTunes
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
For old and other versions of iPod updater for window you can get here
http://www.ipodwizard.net/showthread.php?t=7369
F. Try these five steps (known as the five Rs) and it would conquer most iPod issues.
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/
G. Try to put the iPod into Disk Mode if it fails to appear on the desktop
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93651
If none of these steps address the issue, you may need to go to Intermediate level listed below in logical order. Check from the top of the lists to see if that is what keeping iPod from appearing on your computer in order for doing the Restore.
Intermediate Level
A. Try to connect your iPod with another computer with the iPod updater pre-installed.
B. Still can’t see your iPod, put it in Disk Mode and connect with a computer, instead of doing a Restore on iPod Updater. Go and format the iPod instead.
For Mac computer
1. Open the disk utility, hope your iPod appears there (left hand side), highlight it
2. Go to Tab “Partition”, click either “Delete” or “Partition”, if fails, skip this step and go to 3
3. Go to Tab “Erase” , choose Volume Format as “MAC OS Extended (Journaled), and click Erase, again if fails, skip it and go to 4
4. Same as step 3, but open the “Security Options....” and choose “Zero Out Data” before click Erase. It will take 1 to 2 hours to complete.
5. Eject your iPod and do a Reset
6. Open the iTunes 7 and click “Restore”
For Window computer
Go to folder “My Computer”
Hope you can see your iPod there and right click on the iPod
Choose “Format”. Ensure the settings are at “Default” and that “Quick Format” is not checked
Now select “Format”
Eject your iPod and do a Reset
Open the iTunes 7 and click “Restore”
In case you do not manage to do a “Format” on a window computer, try to use some 3rd party disk utility software, e.g.“HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool”.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=501330&tstart=0
C. Windows users having trouble with their iPods should locate a Mac user. In many cases when an iPod won't show up on a PC that it will show up on the Mac. Then it can be restored. When the PC user returns to his computer the iPod will be recognized by the PC, reformatted for the PC, and usable again. By the way, it works in reverse too. A Mac user often can get his iPod back by connecting it to a PC and restoring it.
Tips
a. It does not matter whether the format is completed or not, the key is to erase (or partly) the corrupted firmware files on the Hard Drive of the iPod. After that, when the iPod re-connected with a computer, it will be recognized as an fresh external hard drive, it will show up on the iTunes 7.
b. It is not a difficult issue for a Mac user to find a window base computer, for a PC user, if they can’t find any Mac user, they can go to a nearest Apple Shop for a favor.
c. You may need to switch around the PC and Mac, try to do several attempts between “Format” and “Restore”
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2364921&#2364921
Advance Level
A. Diagnostic mode solution
If you have tried trouble shooting your iPod to no avail after all the steps above, chances are your iPod has a hardware problem. The iPod's built-in Diagnostic Mode is a quick and easy way to determine if you have a "bad" iPod.
You need to restart your iPod before putting it into Diagnostic Mode. Check that your hold switch is off by sliding the switch away from the headphone jack. Toggle it on and off to be safe.
Press and hold the following combination of buttons simultaneously for approximately 10 seconds to reset the iPod.
iPod 1G to 3G: "Menu" and "Play/Pause"
iPod 4G+ (includes Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini): "Menu" and "Select"
The Apple logo will appear and you should feel the hard drive spinning up. Press and hold the following sequence of buttons:
iPod 1G to 3G: "REW", "FFW" and "Select"
iPod 4G+ (includes Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini): "Back" and "Select"
You will hear an audible chirp sound (3G models and higher) and the Apple logo should appear backwards. You are now in Diagnostic Mode. Navigate the list of tests using "REW" and "FFW". The scroll wheel will not function while in diagnostic mode. For further details on Diagnostic mode can be found at http://www.methodshop.com/mp3/ipodsupport/diagnosticmode/
Try to do the 5in1, HDD R/W and HDD scan tests. Some successful cases have been reported after the running the few tests under the Diagnostic mode. In case it does not work in your case, and the scan tests reports show some errors then it proves your iPod has a hardware problem and it needs a repairing service.
B. Format your iPod with a start disk
I have not tried this solution myself, I heard that there were few successful cases that the users managed to get their iPod (you must put your iPod in disk mode before connecting with a computer) mounted by the computer, which was booted by a system startup disk. For Mac, you can use the Disk Utility (on the Tiger OS system disk), for PC user, you can use the window OS system disk. Try to find a way to reformat your iPod, again it does not matter which format (FAT32, NTFS or HFS+) you choose, the key is to erase the corrupted system files on the iPod. Then eject your iPod and do a Reset to switch out from Disk Mode. Reboot your computer at the normal way, connect your iPod back with it, open the iPod updater, and hopefully your iPod will appear there for the Restore.
If none of these steps address the issue, your iPod may need to be repaired.
Consider setting up a mail-in repair for your iPod http://depot.info.apple.com/ipod/
Or visit your local Apple Retail Store http://www.apple.com/retail/
In case your iPod is no longer covered by the warranty and you want to find a second repairing company, you can try iPodResQ at your own risk
http://www.ipodresq.com/index.php
Just in case that you are at the following situation
Your iPod warranty is expired
You don’t want to pay any service charges
You are prepared to buy a new one
You can’t accept the re-sell value of your broken iPod
Rather than leave your iPod as paper-weight or throw it away.
You can try the following, but again, only do it as your last resort and at your own risk.
Warning !!!! – It may or may not manage to solve your problem, and with a risk that you may further damage your iPod, which end up as an expensive paper weight or you need to pay more higher repairing cost. Therefore, please re-consider again whether you want to try the next level
Last Resort Level
1. . Disconnecting the Hard Drive and battery inside the iPod – Warning !! Your iPod warranty will be waived once you open the iPod.
In Hong Kong there are some electronic shops offering an iPod service for Sad iPod, the first thing they do is to open up the iPod’s case and disconnecting the battery and the Hard Drive from the main board of the iPod. Wait for 5-10 minutes and reconnecting them back. The reason behind which I can think of is to do a fully reset of a processor of the iPod. In case you want do it itself and you believe that you are good on fixing the electronics devices and have experience to deal with small bits of electronic parts, then you can read the following of how to open the iPod case for battery and HDD replacement (with Quicktimes)
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/directory.html
2.Press the reset button on the Hard Drive inside the iPod – Suggestion from Kill8joy
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2438774#2438774
Have I tried these myself? No, I am afraid to do it myself as I am squeamish about tinkering inside electronic devices, I have few experiences that either I broke the parts (which are normally tiny or fragile) or failed to put the parts back to the main case. Therefore, I agree with suggestion to have it fixed by a Pro.
2. Do a search on Google and some topics on this discussion forum about “Sad iPod”
Exclamation point and folder and nothing else
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3597173#3597173
Exclamation point and folder and nothing else
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2831962#2831962
What should I do with my iPod? Send it or keep it?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=469080&tstart=0
Strange error on iPod (probably death)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435160&start=0&tstart=0
Sad Face on iPod for no apparent reason
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=336342&start=0&tstart=0
Meeting the Sad iPod icon
http://askpang.typepad.com/relevanthistory/2004/11/meeting_thesad.html#comment-10519524
Sad faced iPod, but my computer won’t recognize it?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2236095#2236095
iPod Photo: unhappy icon + warranty question
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2233746#2233746
4th Gen iPod Users - are we all having the same problem?
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2235623#2235623
Low Battery, and clicking sounds
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2237714#2237714
Sad faced iPod, but my computer won’t recognize it
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2242018#2242018
Sad iPod solution
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=412033&tstart=0
Re: try to restore ipod and it says "can't mount ipod"
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=443659&tstart=30
iPod making clicking noise and is frozen
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2420150#2420150
Cant put it into disk mode
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3786084#3786084
I think my iPod just died its final death
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3813051
Apple logo & monochrome battery stay
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3827167#3827167
I am not suggesting that you should follow as well, but just read them as your reference. You are the person to make the call.
Finally, I read a fair comments from dwb, regarding of slapping the back of the iPod multiple times
Quote “This has been discussed numerous times as a 'fix'. It does work, at least for a while. In fact I remember using the same basic trick to revive Seagate and Quantam drives back in the mid to late 1980's. Why these tiny hard drives go bad I don't know - could be the actuator gets stuck in place or misaligned. Could be the platter gets stuck or the motor gets stuck. 'Stiction' was a problem for drives back in the 80's. Unfortunately the fix can cause damage to the platter so we temporarily fix one problem by creating another. But I know of two instances where a little slap onto the table revived the iPods and they are still worked a year or more later.”UnQuote

I think my hard drive is....DEAD

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