IMac disk drive problem, iMac disk drive problem

Hi. Don't have original software disks. Anything I need to do before I bring in my iMac to the Genius Bar? I haven't been able to backup via time machine since I've purchased this iMac a few years ago. Any helpful insights or suggestions?

You will need an external disk drive that's freshly erased.
Clone Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
     5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Shutdown and reboot hangs usually are caused by applications or other processes that have crashed and are interfering with the shutdown process. Open Console in the Utilities folder to see if there are messages indicating what specifically is causing the problem.
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. See if any running process is listed in red or is otherwise shown as not responding.
Before you do a shutdown you could instead try quitting every open program you have run. If one or more refuse to quit then you know which is causing the problem.

Similar Messages

I have an iMac mid 2010. After Disk utilities said the drive was corrupt, I ran the hardware test (extended) 3 times. No problems. I than ran Disk utility again and got 2 messages in red-keys out of order, and --Volume corrupt, can't be repaired. I tried

I have an iMac mid 2010. After Disk utilities said the drive was corrupt, I ran the hardware test (extended) 3 times. No problems. I than ran Disk utility again and got 2 messages in red…keys out of order, and ……Volume corrupt, can't be repaired.
I tried to do a system install, but message said…disk can't be changed. Will a complete erase and install fix this ?
Everything is backed-up.

There's hardware and software.
Your drive could physically be in good condition but something has caused the file structure to be messed up (it just happens sometimes). The directory that keep track of files is corrupt. Disk Utility can help determine if that is the issue. In some cases it can repair the problem but it cannot do it to a drive that is being used to boot the system while you are doing that. You have to boot from another drive. Some things DU cannot repair and you need to try a stronger utility such as Diskwarrior.
A failing hard drive (one with mechanical issues) can be a cause of file structure issues but this is by no means always the case. Apart from looking at the SMART diagnosis feature of Disk Utility (and smart isn't totally reliable) there often isn't a way to tell if a drive is failing until it suddenly happens, which is why you need to maintain backups.
In your situation it does sound serious and not just minor directory corruption. You can try erasing (formatting) the drive, You may need to do this if it is really corrupt, in which case there could be underlying physical issues. I use old technology but if you have the patience you can try erasing the drive with the security option of writing zeros once (don't do more unless you are going on a 3 week vacation). This makes the drive not simply assume everything is okay by forcing it try every part of the drive by writing data. If something is gong wrong you may find it marks a lot of bad sectors, or flat out refuses to format. Then you know you need a new drive.

Problem High running Temperature Specification iMac 27 inch Mac OS X Includes Software Snow Leopard upgraded to Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.03 (1278) 251 GB Flash Drive 2 TB Sata disk Processor 3.4 Ghz Intel Core I7 Memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 Graphics

Problem
High running Temperature
Specification
iMac 27 inch
Mac OS X Includes Software Snow Leopard upgraded to Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.03 (1278)
251 GB Flash Drive
2 TB Sata disk
Processor 3.4 Ghz Intel Core I7
Memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6970 2048 MB
Video: Software Final Cut Pro X 10.0.8
I use the imac mainly for editing Video which when doing so it has reached temperatures of near to 60° C which causes the program to become unstable and needs to be cooled down to operate correctly.
An Apple technician (by phone) advised me to download an smcfancontrol. This allows each individual fan to increase speed and also advises the current temperature at °C. The smcfancontrol has been downloaded but this has not resolved the problem. By increasing the speed of the fan more heat is generated and creates additional noise.
I have since taken the iMac to an Apple Store for examination as suggested by APPLECARE when the fans were found to be working correctly. An Apple Store technician carried out a test, but not whilst working under the pressure of FINAL CUT PRO when the iMac generates a high temperature.
The Temperature Specification for this model is
Operating Temperature 20 °c to 35°C
Storage Temp.47°c
Clearly the temperature my iMac is operating at is excessive and could cause the computer to break down prematurely. Has anyone experienced this problem.
Frank Howell

When was the last time you cleaned/vacuumed out all of your iMac's vents, slots and ports.
You need to do this with the iMac powered down, disconnected from power and everything disconnected.
Lay your iMac, screen down, on a soft surface, like a heavy towel. Use a small electronics vac, or portable or full size vac with hose and a crevice tool attachment and carefully and slowly vacuum every vent, slot and port on your iMac.
Then reconnect everything up, power up and download and install iStat Pro. Start working, then report the temps of your iMac after this has been done.
When using SMCFan Control, it is important not to run the fans at too high an RPM. This doesn't generate heat on its own, but will suck in more dust, lint and dirt into your iMac, and that will be the cause of additonal increases in heat.
I run my fans in the range of 1400-1600 RPMs. You can go as high as 1800 RPMs but it is important to keep the RPM range below either 1800 or below 2000 RPMs.
I, also, run a very small desktop fan pointed toward the upper back of my iMac to keep temps down even further.

Problems installing OS I have an iMac 21.5 (Mid-2010) and in trying to load a new hard drive, after choosing the installation disk the apple logo comes up and then stops and the keyboard and mouse goes dead. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Problems installing OS
I have an iMac 21.5 (mid-2010) and I'm trying to install a new hard drive. When I choose the installation disk the Apple logo comes up and it stops there. Then the mouse and keyboard goes dead. I'm trying to install 10.6. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Since you have a new hard drive, there is nothing on it, so you need to boot from an external source (and probably format the hard drive before installing an OS). Are you booting from the 10.6 install disk? Better yet - do you have a bootable backup clone or at least a Time Machine backup?

My Intel iMac with 4 ext, daisy chained drives freezes up sometimes. If I unplug all drives there is no problem. Also Disk Warrior gives me the error msg,that in Time Machine, (which is on a lg. (1TB ext. HD) error msg me that there is not enough memory

My Intel iMac with 4 ext daisy chained drives freezes up sometimes. If I unplug all drives there is no problem. Also Disk Warrior gives me the error msg (2154) that in Time Machine, (which is on a lg.(1TB ext. HD only 1/4 used space) error msg me that there is not enough memory. I am using Lion 10.7.2.

My Intel iMac with 4 ext daisy chained drives freezes up sometimes. If I unplug all drives there is no problem. Also Disk Warrior gives me the error msg (2154) that in Time Machine, (which is on a lg.(1TB ext. HD only 1/4 used space) error msg me that there is not enough memory. I am using Lion 10.7.2.

HT1661 Problems mounting Imac in target disk mode on retina laptop with a solid state drive as host

I'm trying to use an Imac in target disk mode to copy files from it to a new retina display laptop with a solid state drive, but the target drive will not mount even tho it does start in target disk mode. I have all the proper firewire connection. The Imac will not respond for more than a few minutes before crashing when started from its own system. I would like to salvage a few files from it before I perform a clean install of the system.
Anyone has any idea why it wont mount in Target mode onto the retina laptop? Help!
Thanks in advance. :-)

Mac OS X doesn't offer a "clean install" option.
I'm assuming your target Mac is running 10.6?
And you setup the target Mac without adding a Firewire cable until after the Firewire logo appears on the screen?

I have an imac running OSX leopard 10.5.4, and a flashing question mark comes up on the screen. I opened disk utility, and in the sidebar my hard drive is not there. I also did the Hardware test supplied with the install CD, and "no problems were found".

note: I have not done the extended hardware test yet.

Can we assumed that the Disk Utility you used was not on your hard disk? If it was on the hard disk you can ignore most of the advice here and we should start again.
I am am a retired Electrical Engineer with many years electronics and IT experience and advise that whilst it is likely that the hard disk has failed and may never work again this may not necessarily be the case.
Do you normally hear or feel the disk running and has this changed?
Have you moved, dropped or hit your Mac while the disk was rotating? - never good for disks.
Even if the disk is not rotating it may not have failed - there could be an imperfect connection, damaged pcb track, a Mac electronics failure such as disk power etc.
The disk could be working mechanically and there could be a break in the data route to or from it etc.
Getting at disks inside some Apple assemblies can be tedious but probably not as bad as you may think - Google for instructions and pictures.
Much may depend upon how important information on a troublesome disk is. Even with a totally dead disk 90% of data can normally be extracted - ocasionally I have been lucky enough to do this at home - a few years back several experts were offering to to this for about 1,000 USD.
Trying the disk in another enclosure was good advice.
You could try gently moving your powered up Mac to see if anything changes.
It is technically possible for a software (unlikely as issue still exists booting from DVD I assume) or firmware issue to cause your symptoms so it might be wise to try every type of reset you can find before going any further. Firmware normally resides within the electronics - it often affects booting and power supplies etc.
Good luck.

Trying to install SL on a new hard-drive for my iMac, when asked which disk to install on it gave me no options, i followed advice from another forum and created a partition, now can't boot from the new drive at all. Help?

I've had **** with my iMac, the hard-drive failed so i replaced it with a new 1TB Samsung drive. Then when i tried to install SL from the install disk, all went to plan until it asked me which drive i wanted to install it on, where it came up with a box where my options should have been, but instead it didn't give me any options to install it on any drive i.e. it asked which drive i wanted to install it on but no drives came up to select.
So i followed the advice from another forum, look at the 'Extended Hard-drive preparation' response
( https://discussions.apple.com/message/10576009#10576009 )
After following these instructions i have now got a new partition, but when i restarted my computer to install SL on the drive, the option to boot from the drive is now not available, now i must boot from the install disk, whereas before i was able to boot from either the install disk or the hard drive. The hard drive is still visible in disk utility as it always has been, but i am now unable to boot from it, let alone install SL.
Please help my iMac has been broken for months and i've been trying to fix it for so long and am getting problem after problem. Thank you!
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Hi db2
That off the shelf MS-DOS / FAT-32 drive needs to re-partitioned GUID Partition Table / Mac OS Extended (Journaled) before you can install OS X and Startup your Intel iMac from it.
1. Boot from your original install or retail SL DVD and open Disk Utility.
2. Highlight the new HD in the list of drives and select the Partition tab.
3. Under Volume Scheme select 1 Partition and click on the Options... button.
4. Select GUID Partition Table in the drop down window and click OK.
5. Set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click the Apply button.
6. Once thats done, then you can do a clean SL Install, Restore from TM , your old HD or Bootable Clone.
Dennis

Ello, I changed my Imac hard drive which no longer worked. I installed a hard drive Western Digital 500 GB 7200 rpm SATA3 WD5002AALX 32M Black. Sometimes I see the hard disk in the utility on the Starter CD, but access seems very slow. By cons when I want

Hello, I changed my Imac hard drive which no longer worked. I installed a hard drive
Western Digital 500 GB 7200 rpm SATA3 WD5002AALX 32M Black. Sometimes I see the hard disk in the utility on the Starter CD, but access seems very slow. By cons when I want
install OS X 10.4.2 on the hard drive, I do not see the disk. What is the problem?

Thanks for the help
I started on the installation CD OS X 10.4.2, I used Disk Utility
to partition the disk according to the document that you have proposed. unfortunately
I have not succeeded. When I partition the disk, even if I called it Macintosh HD, it
does not keep the name and it shows disk0s3 instead. I did an erase on disk.
When I mount the disk it tells me that I must repair. When I tried to repair, I got
the following message:
Volume check failed
The underflying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error.
I also had a message:
Invalid b-tree node size.
Note: The disc is new, but it has already been formatted on a computer Imac 27 inch 2011 OS X Lion.
I used a USB 2.0 to SATA cable to adjust the formatting.
What to do to fix it?

Disk Error Problem on Imac

Please can anyone help.
I decided to partition my disk so that I could use both windows XP and mac as Apple says you can, however I have incurred a problem part way through the process.
I created a partition for windows and then inserted my Windows XP disk with SP2(Student Version). I selected the right partition for Windows XP ("C:Partition3<Bootcamp>etc) and it completed two processing screens but now my computer is showing the following message...
Press any key to boot from CD.....
Disk Error
Press any key to restart
Sounds simple enough but I have pressed a key...several keys...all keys and nothing happens (I have a wireless keyboard and mouse - is this the problem?). I cannot eject the disk and when I switch the whole computer off and then back on I just get to the same screen and nothing happens. I have tried pressing the mouse key to eject the disk and pressing the C key as someone suggested in a previous reply but nothing changes.
This is a new switch over to mac for me - the computer is only 2 weeks old and so far I have been really happy with my mac. This is my first problem (which says something I suppose). I rang the mac suport number however there is no support available today! (not very supportative!) Is there anyone on this board who may be able to shed some light on this problem. I am happy not to partition my disk any more if it is just going to cause me problems and just stick with mac.

I just spent the weekend dealing with this.
First, the previous poster is correct as to why this is happening. The reason you are having the problem is because Boot Camp Assistant formatted the XP partition as FAT32. It needs to be NTFS. Windows Setup is supposed to ask you how to format the new partition (see page 13 of the Boot Camp manual). If your experience is like mine, Windows Setup never asks that question. It simply goes from you selecting the C: drive (Boot Camp manual page 11) to the installation process (a blue screen yellow bar marking progress as things are copied to the partition).
Here is a link to the manual that I'm referring to if you don't have it already: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/BootCampInstall-Setup.pdf
I do not know why the format step is being skipped in some installs but not in all. Call it an "undocumented feature" (e.g., bug).
Here is how to fix it:
If you are still at the black screen, simply use the power switch to turn off your computer (on the back, round button, bottom left when facing screen, bottom right when facing the back). Hold that switch in for about 5 seconds and the iMac will shut down. Release the switch, wait 10 seconds or so then press it again to start back up.
You should still have the XP CD in the drive. This is what you want. You will get a blue screen with white text in the upper left hand corner that says "Windows Setup." On the bottom of the screen there will be some words telling you this and that is loading. Keep an eye on this. It will slowly list a bunch of things that it is loading. Toward the end, it will say something like "Starting Windows Setup." At this point, press and hold the F10 button. Keep holding it until you get a black screen with white text.
You are now in the Recovery Manager. You will be asked what volume you want. The only choice you should have is 1. This is your new Windows partition, it is not your Mac OS partition. YYou may safely type "1" (without quotes) and press return. Then, the prompt will look like this:
C:\Windows\
At the prompt, you type "cd.." (without quotes) and press return, the prompt will now look like this:
C:\
Now, we are going to reformat your windows partition as NTFS. To do so, at the prompt type the following without quotation marks "format c: /fs:ntfs" When typed into the prompt, it will look like this (pay close attention to spacing)
C:\format c: /fs:ntfs
It will give you a warning and ask if you are sure. Type "y" and press return. It will take some time to format and you will see a percentage counter counting up from 1% to 100%. When it is done, you will be back at the C:\ prompt where you will just type "exit" and press return.
Now, Windows Setup should proceed normally.
I think this is correct from memory. Credit to this Austrian guy over at this link about half way down (named diagonalinho http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6061718) that summarizes the steps as well. Looks like English is not his first language so I didn't understand initially but it worked for me.

My Late 2013 iMac with Yosemite 10.10.2 randomly shuts down and displays a grey screen with a flashing question mark folder. According to Disk Utility, my drive is OK. What should I do?

I've had this problem for a while and I thought it went away. I've looked at all of the other discussions and tried what they suggest, nothing. I preferably don't want to erase everything on here. Is there a way to fix it without having to do that? I also noticed that other people have the screen when they first boot their computer. Mine are in the middle of a college essay or browsing online. I would really like to fix this issue. I haven't even had my iMac for a year yet. Any suggestions?

Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by one or more of these:
a. Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
b. Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
c. Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
d. The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Note that the information I have provided is what Apple recommends, If other users suggest different solutions than found here, then be sure what they recommend does not impact on your warranty, if any, or ability to get continuing Apple service.
Please don't start removing drives or changing cables unless you know what you are doing and have exhausted other non-invasive alternatives outlined here. If you perform any work yourself that is unapproved by Apple, then you will void any warranty you may have and lose all further Apple Support.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD. Simply boot from the Recovery HD to perform the above.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

I have installed new hard drive to iMac intel 2007 model and all I get on the screen is a grey question mark, tried system disk and now that's stuck in drive and just spinning around, any help please

Sorry put all question on subject line. As I said fitted new hard drive, but all I get is a folder with a flashing grey question mark. Tried system disk but that is now just spinning around in DVD drive and I can't get it out. Any help with these problems would help

Sounds like the new drive is not being recognized. Could be it's a SATA3 drive with a 6Gb/s transfer rate and needs to be jumpered down to 3. But if the 2007 is 1.5, it may not work at all, even if jumpered down. Other possibility is a not properly secured cable or a cable that's come loose from the logic board.
What is the model of the 2007 Mac? What's the new drive? Did you do the installation or was it done by a shop?
You can find your model here. Look next to Standard Hard Drive:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html
Message was edited by: WZZZ

How to install Windows 8.1 on an iMac without using a disk drive?

I have very recently bought a brand new iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) and am wondering if there is a way of installing Windows 8.1 full version using Boot Camp without a disk drive?
I need windows on my iMac in order to run a windows only compatible program.
Please help, I need assistance ASAP. Thankyou.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
If you only need Windows to run one program (and if this problem does not require the best GPU performance), I recommend you to install Windows in a virtual machine instead of using Boot Camp. With this, you will be able to run Windows without restarting your Mac and there will be no risks during the installation.
To make a virtual machine, you can use an application like Parallels, VMware Fusion or VirtualBox. Then, you only need to get a ISO file of Windows 8.1 with a product key, so you can install it in a virtual machine.
If you still want to install Windows with Boot Camp, you can install Windows from a USB drive (it is the only way in your iMac apart from using an external disc drive). To create the USB drive with Windows, you also need a ISO file of Windows 8.1. You have all the steps in this site > http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1636/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_ 10.8.pdf

Recurring iMac G5 Hard Disk problem and worthless AppleCare

Hello all! I have a recurring iMac G5 2Ghz (20-inch) Hard Disk problem.
I bought my parents, aged 52 and 55, an iMac last summer. Hoping this would be their solution to a hassle free and easy computer environment, since I would leave for China for about 1 year. But last month the hard drisk crashed and could not be fixed.
At first the start up speed slowed down, then the start up process would continue infinitely, then the computer just booted into a screen with a question mark.
I have a AppleCare Protection Plan (APP) and so I called the Help Desk and they put me in touch with a Service Center (Sittard, the Netherlands). Now I thought, since I live within the proper range of at least 3 service centers (Heerlen, the Netherlands), I could get on-site support (as stated in APP), unfortunately for unknown reasons, my parents had to drag the 20 inch monster to the service center.
Normally the repair should take 2 days, but instead it took 10 working days. My dad naturally asked, if they could restore the data on the disk. This was only possible if we paid about 2000 euro. So, no deal!
After picking the iMac up again, the computer booted into the Mac OS installation. This again surprised me, since according to the APP they should at least put some effort into restoring the applications. Not even iLife was pre-installed, which was of course on the computer when we bought it. Next to that the Service Center's Mac OS installation disc was still in the drive; how careless!
They were quite sad about the lost data, but accepted it, as we all know that these things can happen to electronics. BUT today, the same problem recurred! First the start up process slowed down and now (again) it tries to start up infinitely.
The hard disk is brand new (1 month), no strange programs and no abnormal use. According to the diagnostic tools the file structure is damaged, but it seems to keep getting worse. The Apple Help Desk guy was even surprised this happened to a brand new disk and installation. He recommended reinstalling the system.
But, I'm not happy with this solution! A hard disk breaking down, is one thing. But the same problem recurring 1 month later made a couple of alarm bells go off. I'm hoping Apple will consider replacing this machine from **** with a brand new iMac. Since my parents are scared ********, that whatever document they type today might disappear again tomorrow. This is not a comfortable computing experience.
By the way: the computer has only basic software: Microsoft Office, Skype and iLife and my parents only use those programs, surf the net and send email.
Any of you had a similar bad experience with the iMac's hard disk, AppleCare or any of Apple's Service Centers? Or does anyone know how to reach Apple by email?
iMac 20 G5 2Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I had a similar problem with my 20" 2Ghz iMac.
After replacing the HD and the next 'going bad' the tech realized there was a different problem.
After discussing it, and the distance to an authorized repairer he offered on-site repair.
After a lengthy parts delay I was offered an upgrade to a iSight iMac.
The tech narrowed my problem down to a faulty logic board before offering a replacement. He could have been wrong but it seemed logical with all of the same symptoms.
Press your AppleCare to replace this computer. They are going to try and repair but insist if this fix doesn't work you want a new iMac.
I hope everything works out for you.
Edit: There is a great program that Apple techs recommend called DiskWarrior. It did not fix my problem but it allowed me to get my most important info off of the computer before it went to computer heaven. Might not work for all but it works well for me as I still use it today.

IMac won't boot from internal drive (Disk Ult can't see drive)

Yesterday morning my iMac (early 2006) froze while watching a movie. I figured it was because I was running so many things in the background (Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, Mail, iCal and Preview). So I restarted the unit by holding down the power button cause it wouldn't responded to any keyboard prompts, tho it did allow me to use the mouse. So I restarted and got a grey screen showing a folder and a question mark. i unplugged the system for a few minutes and started her up again. This time it showed the gray apple but it had a progress bar on the bottom like it was loading something. The system started and took me to the login screen. Just to be safe i restarted it from the login screen. the system booted up fine and i finished watching my movie. I came back from the gym like 2 hrs later and tried to wake my mac from sleep mode and got the usual prompt to enter my password to unlock the screen. As i started to enter my password the screen froze again. This time tho i was unable to restart the unit. i kept getting that grey screen with the folder and question mark. So iI popped in my 10.6 install disk to see if I could repair the HDD. But no matter how many times i try the system does not pick up my internal drive. I'm not really sure what the problem is. I thought it might be hardware failure, but I didn't have this problem until after the latest software update. And the drive never gave me any indication of problems before yesterday. All i can think is that the system update or safari update corrupted something or is not playing nice with something already on the system. But i guess that wouldn't explain the drive not being seen. Can anybody offer and ideas of a solution? I really just wanna get it up so I can salvage my iTunes folder and transfer it to my Macbook.
HELP

Hi MacBoy84
Sure sounds like the HD is worn out, damaged, failing or failed and needs to be replaced.
Take it to your local Authorized Apple Service Provider and have them put a new WD Caviar Blue or Seagate Barracuda 3.5 SATA HD in it. > http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/
Given the choice I would choose a WD Caviar Blue, they seem to run a little cooler and quieter than the WD Blacks and most Seagate's. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=3
As for your iTunes Library that depends, some times just before an HD totally fails it is possible to copy the data off of it. Unfortunately most of the time when it's gone it's gone for good and needs to be sent out to a professional data recovery service, you do have a Time Machine backup on an External HD right?
Dennis

IMac disk drive problem, iMac disk drive problem

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