I think my hard drive may be faulty

iI recently purchased a second hand iMac - 27" mid 2010. Things have been going well, I 'defaulted' the machine, re-installed OS X from the original DVD and purchased/upgraded to the latest version (OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5).
After 'tinkering' with iTunes yesterday evening and shutting down - on reboot this morning I have had all sorts of problems. I have used disk utilities, verify disk and subsequently disk repair from the original OS DVD. I got a message saying "Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk ... re-format the disk and restore backup files. Since there was no reformat option I chose the local hard drive, and erase option.
5 - 6 hours later and numerous attempts to reboot (with and without the OS DVD) I believe my hard drive has failed. The final 'symptoms' are - unable to see a local hard drive (only the DVD drive) in disk utilities - clicking sound from the disk and a 'flashing' folder sign with a ? on screen (without the OS DVD). I am 'fearing' the worst and assuming I need to take my iMac to the nearest authorised Apple dealer?
Any advice gratefully received !!!

By means of an update and reply to my own question it appears that my hard drive was in deed faulty. I was 'lucky' in that the drive was covered under the Apple extension program (thank you Apple!) and has since been replaced very satifactorily by an authorised service provider (Western Computers in Cheltenham who provided an excellent service!).
I now have my treasured iMac back and am busily upgrading to Mavericks. My faith in Apple has been fully restored!
By the way, the 'Out of Warranty Repair Cost' would have been £230.84.

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Help - I think my hard drive may explode

I just installed Itunes and it immediately started converting a bunch of music files that were already on my computer. How do I stop this? I have over 160 gigs of MP3s, and Im afraid I will run out of room on my hard drive if they are all converted. I want to install them on teh ipod as MP3s, and not convert them to the apple format.
Thanks.

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.

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?

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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.

G5 Quad hard drive may be dead - what should I do?

Yesterday my Quad froze up. I rebooted and got a screen full of code. I stepped back and a ran Hardware Test. It didn't find a problem. The local Genius Bar notices a 'clicking' sound and suggested that the hard drive may have failed.
My question: What are my options to retrieve the data [lots and lots of deadline-driven client work] before handing off my drive for a replacement? Suggestions please.
G5 Quad/G3 tower/iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

A damaged directory can sound like the click of a dying drive.
If you can't get it off now and your usual backup software (CCC, SuperDuper, SynchronizePro) won't then try Data Rescue II (free demo, otherwise $99).
The best is to run Disk Warrior WEEKLY. Not when a drive is failing/failed. Intech Speedtools is also useful. But first is to always have TWO backup sets as MINIMUM.
Once you backup files you don't have backed up already or would be easy enough to replace, a full ERASE w/ ZERO-ALL OPTION can restore most 99% of drives unless it "nose-dived" into a platter and is physically shot. Which is rare.
If there is a bad block zero all usually works. Sometimes it takes 7-way write erase.
Of course drives are really inexpensive and $70 for 300GB or $120+ for 500GB. So really are almost disposable if there is a problem.
Some data recovery services costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. Start by buying three drives, some Firewire cases, and start doing daily and weekly backups.
DiscJockey is the only tool I know that can do a sector copy and doesn't require that the drive work inside a computer, and costs about $250.

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

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

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 broken and I need a backup - urgent!

Last night I updated my Mac's (Macbook Pro from January 2012) software for the first time in a few months. I had three updates, one of which was a security update from this month. Everything installed, though it took a bit longer than usual, then the computer rebooted. While rebooting, my screen froze with a spinning colour wheel and the pop-up from the update; the progress bar was about a quarter done and it said "writing files..." underneath. I quickly Googled on my phone if it was safe to force a shut down and read that it was. Then I went to bed thinking, "I'll start my computer in safe mode tomorrow morning and be sure to buy an external hard drive this week." (I know, I KNOW I am an idiot for not doing this sooner; my excuse is that I didn't have the money and I always forgot about it when I went out to run errands. I thought about just paying for extra Dropbox but I recently moved countries and don't have a credit card anymore. I've already been beating myself up over this for hours.) I have been looking up a LOT of things and have read so much that could be relevant to my situation, but there is always something that is slightly different so I thought I would explain my own situation in detail. (And sorry about the spelling mistakes, with my Mac shot I had to switch to a laptop I can't stand using.)
Well, I woke up the next day and started the Mac in safe mode. It took a long time, but a quick Google search showed that was normal too. I clicked around a bit, thought about opening Disk Utility, but didn't because the Apple article I was reading about safe mode didn't mention it. I opened Finder, clicked the Apple and hit and restart, and that is when the trouble began.
When trying to start normally, there was a progress bar under the grey apple. I had never seen it before for a normal start-up. Eventually the Mac just shut down. I tried starting it in safe mode again, it also shut down a fraction of the way into the progress bar.
Next I ran Disk Utility. When verifying my Macintosh HD, I got errors such as "incorrect number of threads when running" and something about an incorrect catalog. At the end of the verification, I got the prompt that Disk Utility needed to repair the files. I clicked Repair, it started to fix things, but eventually red errors still came up and got the message "Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
At this point I raced to the nearest electronics store, money be damned, and came home and attached my new hard drive to the Mac. It was recognized on the left side when I opened Disk Utility again. When I selected my hard drive and clicked "New Image" and selected the destination as my new hard drive, I very quickly got the error "Unable to create disk image using disk utility (error -61)".
After a brief mental breakdown I shut down the computer again and rebooted in single-user mode. I typed "fsck -fy", a few lines of text entered immediately, then I hit enter. It started searching until it ended with the error "The volume Macintosh HD could not be fully verified." Now I've turned the Mac off and don't plan on turning it back on until I have a solution.
One suggestion that I have read on all of these walk-throughs is to insert the installation disk that comes with your Mac. Well, I definitely never had one and now I can't get on my Mac to put OS X Recovery on a USB.
I am ordering DiskWarrior later today when I can borrow a credit card, it should get here in less than 48 hours according to the German company that sells it here. Will that be too late for my files? Is there anything else I can try for getting my data off my Mac? I tried to use Time Machine when I first got the Mac but for some reason didn't, either it was too complicated for me as a new user or there were monthly payments involved or something. In any case, when I tried to restore a backup using Time Machine, no options came up.
Is it possible this was caused by the software update or is it just a horrible coincidence? I have never had any problems with my Mac before so I just cannot believe these two things are unrelated.

In case anyone comes across this thread while having similar problems, here is how the rest of the situation played out:
Alsoft did not get in touch by the time I had my Apple store appointment. At the Genius Bar, the Genius who was helping me tried Target Disk Mode as well as a few other tests to determine if it was the cable attaching the hard drive or the hard drive itself that was broken. It turns out the hard drive was the problem and there was nothing that could be done to recover the files. I asked if I could keep the hard drive and, being under Apple Care, I could buy it for 157 euros (about $225), which I agreed to do before I left.
By the end of the day I had heard from Alsoft, who said it's usually possible to "rent" the hard drive from Apple with a deposit and then return it to them after a few days. It is then possible to attach the old hard drive to your fixed Mac, run DiskWarrior, and make a report that can determine the state of your files (I think - didn't get a lot of details). In any case, the guy that emailed me from Alsoft said it was probable that the files could be retrieved despite everyone at the Apple store trying not to let me get my hopes up.
In any case, it all turned out wonderfully in the end - I went to pick up my Macbook a week later and Apple had been able to transfer everything (except a few pieces of music) from the old hard drive onto the new one! I didn't have to pay to keep the old drive either. And of course, the first thing I did when I started using my Mac again was make a backup using Time Machine. (And since then I've realised that I'm actually running Lion instead of Mountain Lion, oops.)
So if you find yourself in a similar situation, be sure to contact Alsoft as it seems like there are still other ways to retrieve your files.

I think my hard drive might be getting ready to crash again.

I'm starting to see some awfully weird stuff right now... after hard reboots due to X lockups (Sauerbraten fucking up), I seem to be losing data from config files that weren't being written to or used at the time of the reboot - .viminfo, for example, and the XML config stuff for Galeon. I also lost everything in my .xinitrc file after a normal, clean reboot. No SMART errors but I am getting rather suspicious. And no rootkits or trojans, AFAICT.
(Had this drive for only 2 years though, it shouldn't be failing now. Then again, it might have crashed before.)
Here's what smartctl --all has to say:
smartctl version 5.36 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Caviar family
Device Model: WDC WD400BB-00JHA0
Serial Number: WD-WMAMC1539009
Firmware Version: 05.01C05
User Capacity: 40,020,664,320 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Wed Jul 12 14:26:23 2006 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (1260) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
No General Purpose Logging support.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 23) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 168 166 021 Pre-fail Always - 2591
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1443
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 093 093 000 Old_age Always - 5145
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012 100 100 051 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1443
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 103 088 000 Old_age Always - 40
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0009 200 200 051 Pre-fail Offline - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

- Electrostatic discharges: drive was pulled from a lightning-fried machine, apparently undamaged (I figured that it would be either okay or dead, given the surge's magnitude), but I'm starting to wonder if something got a little scrambled. If so, though. it took a while to show uo.
ESD damage is cumulative. in silicon terms you can weaken the transistors (silicon junctions) over a period of time just with low voltage discharges. It isnt necessarily so that these will fail totally and immediately. this is like a weld being ok but the metal around it rotting away over time.
re the CPU etc. a year or so back miqorz had similar probs with random crashes, especially with any medium to high CPU process. turned out he changed something on the CPU, cooler , fan or whatever, and the silicon heat transfer paste wasnt applied uniformly. this led to hotspots obviously and a breakdown of process wrt temperature.
back to basics, if you run a HD test (manufacturers testdisk ) itl remove that from the equation. then u can focus on other probables.
recently had trouble accessing a Maxtor 200G. worked ok when i made an image of it, (i work in data recovery/forensics) , but when trying to wipe it as the owner requested, it failed with I/O problems.
Maxtor hard drive test showed drive was failing.
so ... it worked ok to get an image, but screwed up when trying to write to it. Warranty job.
if you want to scrap the drive should it prove faulty, i can point you to some oss utils and procedures should you need to recover data. these have worked on drives that the M/F test confirmed drive failure. if you need to take it out of forum, dont be afraid to priv msg. im happy to make time to help.
good luck
Kern

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

Help! I think my hard drive is about to kick it.

Hello everyone,
My G4 (MDD) started to make a loud clicking noise after I completed the May 11 Security and Quicktime Updates. I'm not sure if these two things are connected or just coincedence. Whenever the hard drive (120 GB Ultra ATA/100; 7200 RPM) starts working, say when an applicaton is opened, there is a loud "clicking" or "grinding" noise. That said, it leads me to believe its the HD making the unnerving noise. I used Disk Utility to check the S.M.A.R.T. status and it is verified, however I started backing up files anyway. Not sure how else to check the hard drive. Any recomendations as to replacing the HD (ie; best brand, size options, and necessary steps or important things to look out for, things I should know when doing this task) would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

UPDATE:
I was able to repair the disk by using Disk Utility. First, checked disk verification again, came back "this disk needs to be repaired" in red. Then used the repair button and it worked. No more "clicking / grinding" noise!
Just to be safe, I bought two (2) new Seagate Ultra ATA/100; 120 GB; 7200 RPM; 8MB cache Barracudas (Model: ST3120026A-RK). They were on sale at Best Buy.
Moved the OEM 120 (IBM) to the ATA/66 in front along with one of the new drives. One for backup drive and one for itunes, movies, documents etc. The other new drive is the boot drive on the ATA/100. This was an easy process, just followed directions in Setup & Expansion Manual that came with my Mac.
Purchased SuperDuper! (macupdate.com) or (www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html) to do all the copying, backup of files and such. There is a FREE version however you don't get all the options. I highly recommend this product. Works like a charm and is EXTREMELY easy. If I can do it anyone can.
Thanks to all the other discussions, after looking around for a while, I was able to find the answers to my questions. Especially MAJORDADUSMA. His replies / advise in other posts were well detailed (specifically for a rookie) and very helpful. So thanks again everybody!

I think my hard drive crashed....

Hi,
When I turn on my computer (a Power Mac G4 Tower)it sounds as if the disc has crashed. I have two hard drives running in it, and when I start up the computer holding the 'option' key, neither of them show up. When I turn it on without holding anything, it shows a folder with a question mark and the finder icon. Starting it up in single-user mode doesn't work, and I can't reboot from the startup disk. Also, when I attached my external hard drive and held down option, it wouldn't appear either.
Any idea on what is wrong?

Hello! It's highly unlikely that both of your drives would crash at the same time. As for your external is it firewire and did it have a "bootable" system on it? Try starting from the install cd holding down the "c" key and use the repair disk in disk utility. It may take a few minutes to boot from the install cd so hold down the "c" key until it's nearly booted. Tom

I think my hard drive crashed. How can I get data off via firewire before the HD completely goes? I was stuck on the BSoD and now I can't even use the install disk. Utility Disk said HD was okay. Please HELP ME

Safe mode did nothing.
Safe mode with verbose seemed to make it worse.
Before continuously trying new things, I could use the install disk to check the disk utility and clear
the hard drive from there but now the screen won't even load to that.
I really need the data on the hard drive especially if it can't be salvaged.
How can i transfer files?
Am I better off physically taking my HD out or will it damage itself without
leaving the system.
I tried command r
resetting the pram
safe mode
jumping out a window
nothing has helped.
I am stuck on the blue screen of death and it flickers.

No. In order to use FireWire Target Disk Mode you need to use a FireWire equipped Mac. Other than that the only other way I can think of to even attempt to access you files would be to remove your hard drive and install it in a case and connect it to another computer.
Have you run the Apple Hardware Test? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

I think my hard drive may be faulty

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