Internal Hard Drive Disk Utility Repair Problem

Hello all! I'm really hoping someone can help me out because I'm in a bit of a panic right now about all of this.
For starters, I have a Mid-2007 20" Intel based iMac.
The other day, I turned on my computer and got a flashing question mark and the computer would not boot. Luckily, I have an external hard drive, so I went through the process of using the Install Discs to use the Hard Drive to start up my computer. Everything worked out and once the computer turned on, I was able to access my Hard Drive and had full access to my files. I powered down my computer as I had to run out the door for school and was planning on backing all of my files up on my external hard drive tonight.
Unfortunately, when I turned on my computer, my internal hard drive had disappeared. I can only start the computer with my external drive plugged in.
I accessed the Disk Utility, and it was the first place I was able to locate my Hard Drive. On the left hand side, underneath the external drive, it simply says "Media". I cannot click on ANY of the options under First Aid and the only thing it seems I can do is Erase the drive.
I would REALLY like to avoid this option, as there are nearly 5 years worth of documents on this computer.
My S.M.A.R.T. Status says Not Supported, and it's saying that the Total Capacity is 0 Bytes.
I suppose I should also mention that with the disc I used I am now running OS X 10.4.11, but previously, I was running 10.5. I can't remember the last decimal place. I don't know why there was a difference, as I used the same disk...
I have NO IDEA where to go from this point besides taking it somewhere to see if my files can be recovered.
Can anyone help me out here?
If you need any more details about my computer/the actions I took, just let me know.
Thanks so much!!

If you cannot access the internal HD then it may have crashed, I am getting you may not have been backing up either so if it has crashed and you don't have a backup then your data is probably gone. If you can get the internal HD to show up again before you do ANYTHING else back it up using Time Machine (assuming you use 10.5.x or above) or create a clone on an external HD using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
My recommendation at this point is to take the machine into and an Apple Store or AASP to have it looked at.

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    (I'm trying to boot off an external because I cannot find my OS X disc referenced here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6642196#6642196)

    If the "repair" button does is not selectable, maybe you indeed restarted using the same INTERNAL drive by mistake? Also, it could be that your INTERNAL hard drive is beyond repair, as which happened to my PowerMac's a few weeks ago and I--which I just mentioned on another forum--had to buy Data Rescue II to salvage my data because the only solution was to reformat the drive. It was beyond repair.
    I don't know if this helps, but which did you select? The disk itself? (first in the hierarchy) or the volume (second in the hierarchy... list). Sometimes that matters. But I couldn't tell you since I can't see your screen and don't know your exact issue unless I saw it or was able to test it out.
    The other thing could be, are you selecting the EXTERNAL by mistake on the list of drives on the left? You can't repair the disk/volume that you are booted up from, why you would need your software discs / restore discs to do that. But since you are doing it the "workaround" way, which should work, that is my guess.
    Message was edited by: Pismo 900
    Just a suggestion, why not just erase and reformat the damaged drive, and then once that's over, do a "Restore" from Disk Utility, choosing your external as the SOURCE and the internal that's been reformatted, as the DESTINATION.

  • Internal hard drive/repair: SMART status; Disk Utility, Tech Tool & More

    machine: 12" PowerBook 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4 (Aluminium) with 80GB internal HD
    internal hard drive (original): Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series HTS541080G9AT00
    hard drive firmware: MB4AA5AJ
    ATA version: 6
    ATA standard: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
    I have monitored the SMART status etc. of my internal drive with smartmontools for some time. Occasionally, I would see an error or a failed self-test but later testing always succeeded and things did not seem to be problematic.
    At the beginning of this week, I started to see a lot of failed self-tests (though some still passed), a rising number of bad ("pending") sectors and reallocation attempts (though no reallocated sectors) and various other errors. The computer seemed to have trouble reading from the disk at times and Carbon Copy Cloner reported two I/O errors when cloning (a later clone succeeded). fsck showed errors although running fsck -fy repeatedly seemed to resolve them.
    The Apple hardware tests initially reported an error (2STF/8/3:ATA-100 ata-6-Master) but I hadn't realised I should disconnect peripherals before running it so I did that and repeated the test which found no issues. I ran the extended test a total of three times with no errors.
    As I continued to have problems, I booted from my clone and had Disk Utility wipe the drive by writing zeros to it. (I thought trying to get it to write everywhere would either finish the drive off or force it to reallocate the bad blocks. As I understand it, in normal use, the drive won't reallocate the blocks unless it can recover the data in the hopes of reading it at a later time.)
    I then continued monitoring the disk using smartmontools. At this point, short self-tests succeed but extended self-tests "disappear". They don't fail, they simply vanish. They begin and smartctl shows the test in progress but then no error or result is logged - it is as if the test was never run. The first time I did this, I got an error saying the SMART attributes could not be read but subsequent tests do not trigger even an error. Short self-tests continue to pass.
    There are now (according to SMART) zero bad ("pending") sectors but zero reallocated sectors, which seems odd. The raw read error rate fluctuates (zero one minute, many thousands a while later) although I am not sure it did not do this before.
    Disk Utility claims the disk does not support SMART status even though smartctl clearly shows it does. Disk Utility claims the volume is "OK".
    I ran Tech Tool Deluxe 3.04 from CD and 3.1.1 from my clone. In both cases, I ran all available tests on the drive. No problems were found.
    I am seeing some problems even while booted from my clone - yesterday, the system froze completely and I had to force a shut-down by switching off the power (fsck then found a minor error but repaired it). Just before this happened, I was unable to mount a disk image and was trying to rectify the situation when the system froze. It is possible that the errors fsck corrected were implicated in the freeze, rather than caused by it, since Disk Utility found and repaired similar errors for the other two clones I have (on different partitions of my external drive - yes, I know this is sub-optimal).
    Here is some current output from smartmontools:
    ---output: smartctl -q noserial -a disk0---
    smartctl version 5.38 [powerpc-apple-darwin8.11.0] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
    Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
    === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
    Model Family: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series
    Device Model: Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00
    Firmware Version: MB4AA5AJ
    User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes
    Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
    ATA Version is: 6
    ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
    Local Time is: Sat Jul 3 20:28:52 2010 BST
    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: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
    was never started.
    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
    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: ( 645) seconds.
    Offline data collection
    capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
    Suspend Offline collection upon new
    command.
    Offline surface scan supported.
    Self-test supported.
    No 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.
    General Purpose Logging supported.
    Short self-test routine
    recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
    Extended self-test routine
    recommended polling time: ( 55) 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 RawRead_ErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 062 Pre-fail Always - 0
    2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
    3 SpinUpTime 0x0007 142 142 033 Pre-fail Always - 2
    4 StartStopCount 0x0012 097 097 000 Old_age Always - 5793
    5 ReallocatedSectorCt 0x0033 100 100 005 Pre-fail Always - 0
    7 SeekErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 067 Pre-fail Always - 0
    8 SeekTimePerformance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
    9 PowerOnHours 0x0012 039 039 000 Old_age Always - 26720
    10 SpinRetryCount 0x0013 100 100 060 Pre-fail Always - 0
    12 PowerCycleCount 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 4168
    191 G-SenseErrorRate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
    192 Power-OffRetractCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 201877487644
    193 LoadCycleCount 0x0012 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 2209599
    194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 141 141 000 Old_age Always - 39 (Lifetime Min/Max 16/46)
    196 ReallocatedEventCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 194
    197 CurrentPendingSector 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
    198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0008 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
    199 UDMACRC_ErrorCount 0x000a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
    SMART Error Log Version: 1
    ATA Error Count: 2138 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
    CR = Command Register [HEX]
    FR = Features Register [HEX]
    SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
    SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
    CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
    CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
    DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
    DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
    ER = Error register [HEX]
    ST = Status register [HEX]
    PoweredUpTime is measured from power on, and printed as
    DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
    SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
    Error 2138 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26716 hours (1113 days + 4 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    10 51 00 09 4f c2 a0 Error: IDNF
    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
    b0 d6 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.500 SMART WRITE LOG
    b0 d5 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.300 SMART READ LOG
    b0 d1 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ ATTRIBUTE THRESHOLDS [OBS-4]
    b0 d0 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ DATA
    b0 da 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART RETURN STATUS
    Error 2137 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:37.600 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
    Error 2136 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    40 51 21 1f 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 33 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951f = 77108511
    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
    Error 2135 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    40 51 22 1e 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 34 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951e = 77108510
    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
    Error 2134 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
    25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
    25 00 80 c0 92 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:12.100 READ DMA EXT
    SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
    Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBAof_firsterror
    # 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
    # 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
    # 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
    # 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
    # 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26716 -
    # 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26715 -
    # 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26714 -
    # 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26697 -
    # 9 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26692 75071682
    #10 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26687 -
    #11 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26676 77108511
    #12 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26663 296917
    #13 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26657 -
    #14 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26646 296918
    #15 Short offline Completed: read failure 70% 26645 296905
    #16 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
    #17 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
    #18 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26643 296916
    #19 Short offline Completed: read failure 20% 26643 296909
    #20 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 26620 -
    #21 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26618 -
    Warning! SMART Selective Self-Test Log Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
    SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
    SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENTTESTSTATUS
    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.
    ---end output---
    Self-tests 1-8 were all run after I erased the disk. The others were run before I did so. Not listed are the extended self-tests I've started since erasing which, as I say, have simply disappeared.
    The checksum error regarding the log is normal for this disk. At least, I've got that error ever since I started using smartmontools for monitoring so I assume it is normal. (I installed this version of the software in about April 2008 and have used it since.) Also, starting offline testing has never succeeded on this disk (I think I checked into this at the time but can't quite remember - this is not new, anyway).
    Questions
    how should I interpret all this? (Why does Disk Utility say SMART is not supported while smartctl clearly shows it is at the same time? Why do the extended tests simply vanish? Is the drive definitely dying?) I do not want to replace the disk unless I absolutely have to because I understand that replacing disks in 12" PBs is no small matter and cost is an issue. I do not want to replace the machine unless I have to because cost is an issue and, also, I really like this computer and have no idea what I would want in its place, even if expense were no obstacle.
    if it isn't clear whether the drive is dying or not, is there some further strategy I can use to establish this?
    if the drive is dying, is a machine of this age worth repairing and, if it is, under what circumstances is it worth doing so? For example, it might be worth doing if you can do the job yourself, but that might be quite impractical for non-expert (not to mention, inexpert) users.
    if there is a hardware problem (which I obviously think is very, very probable at this point), is it definitely a dying hard drive? (I've seen people write ominous things about disk controllers etc. which I gather are more serious - or less repairable - than a "mere" dying disk.)
    what questions should I be asking you and what are the answers to those questions?!
    Many thanks for your patience in reading this far.
    - cfr

    The 12" PB internals are a bit more complex, for PB's. If you don't want to replace the hard drive yourself or pay someone to install it, you could always get an external firewire hard drive, and use it to boot from and for general usage. Would have to be firewire, since the PB won't book from a USB device. One example of what you could get is a 160GB external hard drive: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MS4U5160GB8/ . All the choices with that case are listed here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
    Have you called any Apple Authorized Service Providers to see what they would charge to install a drive for you? Whether you bought it or they supplied it? You can find a local one in the US at http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/

  • Internal hard drives won't appear in Disk Util

    I have a bizarre problem with my hard drives now. I'm on a 2.4GHz Core2Duo Macbook Pro 15" with 10.5.4. I've switched the hard drive a couple of times before with no issues whatsoever. Now, with the exception of the brand new one that won't hold an install, my internal hard drives don't show up in the install disk's Disk Utility.
    I got a new hard drive to try the other day, installed it, booted to my OSX install disk to use Disk Utility. I switched the new disk to GUID and formatted it as journaled like usual. It took 4 hours to do the install, then after the restart it tanked. It booted back to the install disk where I checked it out. It could not repair the file system, and the drive was not "mounted". I mounted it, repartitioned and formatted it, and installed again. This time it stopped halfway through the installation and said the drive might be corrupt.
    I unplugged the cable and battery, held the power button for over 5 secs, then just let it sit for about 10minutes with no power source while I thought about this. I put the original drive back in, booted into OSX, and put the new hard drive in an external USB enclosure. I formatted it while in OSX, then rebooted into the install disk and installed OSX on it while it was in the USB case. It took the installation more quickly (about an hour and a half...still not 20min like my old 7200rpm Hitachi 200g), then I booted into its OSX while in the USB drive. It booted ok, so I downloaded the updates and clicked to install them. It then went into a revolving restart. Eventually I decided it was not doing this because it was happy so I shut it off.
    I swapped the hard drive out with another new one, and this one would not complete an installation while inside the computer either. It acted similarly while in the USB case. HOWEVER it would always show up as unmounted after a restart and would not recognize the drive inside the computer as a bootable disk.
    I put my original drive in there to give up, and it gave me the ? folder. I booted to the install disk and it did not show up in the disk utility. I put my old hard drive in the USB case, booted to the install disk, and it showed that it was there, but unmounted and it could not repair the file system.
    I repartitioned my hard drive (i have time machine working..not a huge setback) in the USB case and put it back in the computer. It still would not show up in disk utility. I put it back in the USB case, installed OSX onto it (in about 20min), restarted a couple times, saw that it was working, put it into my computer, and got the ? folder again.
    I went out and bought a stardard 160GB SATA 5400rpm Seagate drive to try in there, and this fresh drive is not recognized inside the computer either when I boot into disk utility.
    The brand new hard drive WILL show up in Disk Utility when I boot to it from the install disk, but it will not survive a complete installation.
    So now I'm running OSX from my original hard drive in a USB case until I can figure out why the old disk recognized inside my laptop is the new hard drive upgrade, but it cannot complete an installation on it.
    I'm originally a Windows slave, so I can only think in terms of AHCI or SATA-card drivers, or screwed up bios. But this is all pre-os-boot, and the apple firmware seems to be pretty automatic in picking the right settings to see stuff.

    I kind of feel like drawing a flowchart to show all that I've tried. Its difficult to keep everything intelligible while listing the entire last week's efforts at 2:45am. :-/
    http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41951
    I also explained it here, perhaps a bit differently. Maybe some reply there might spark someone's memory of a possible problem. I understand the nature of computers (been 100% geek for 20 years), but I'm hoping there's someone out there with the specific Apple expertise to help me out. Eventually the processes I've taken and my specific situation will become clearer as the questions widdle away at this.
    My original 7200rpm SATA drive that works fine won't show up when connected to the SATA cable. I've repartitioned it with HFS, and repartitioned it as free space in the USB enclosure. It simply won't show up in Disk Util. Same with the brand new test SATA drive.
    The new SSD SATAII does show up, but after a 4hr install the partition is unmounted and won't show up as a boot option. I can boot to the install disk and repartition it, reinstall, or remount it. But it will never be mounted to be booted from while connected to the computer. I've had 2 of the SSD's to try, one survived one restart, then went into a never-ending restart cycle after I installed the updates. The 2nd has never successfully been mounted after the install to boot from. Now nothing can be mounted to boot from within the computer. I have to boot off of any of these drives from the USB enclosure.
    If I install OSX on them while in the USB enclosure, that works, but they will not mount when connected to the SATA cable inside the lappy. The platter style SATA drives won't even be recognized...
    Thanks for the instant reply, this is driving me nuts 'cuz it makes almost no sense. Thanks so much to everyone that contributes. I appreciate everything.

  • Internal hard drive does not mount in disk utility

    My internal hard drive no longer mounts in Disk Utility. It is grayed out. I have extraordinarily frequent spinning beach ball/freezes, in Safari or Apple Mail. The most recent symptom: upon rebooting or just starting up, I see flashing black on the display. This has been occuring for more than six months. Of course, I have made total and frequent backup's. I bought new RAM, but have not yet installed it, and I susect this might help. I have done repeted troubleshooting many times each:  Apple's Disk Doctor, Repaired Permissions, Reinstalled the Mac OS, safe boot, Alsoft's Disk Warrior, Apple's longer Harware Test, etc. I have worked as a new user, too. All tests done report that all is well. What od you thnk the problem is? Must I drive 1.5 hrs. each way to the Genius Bar at my nearest Apple Store? Might I try to erase the hard drive as a fix? I hate to do this, only as a last resort, as it is so time-consuming. Should I just update my Mac OS? Please advise, out there, if anyone can offer any advice, I would be greatly appreciative.

    The list of issues you posted probably would not get shorter if you attempt to 'upgrade them' away, as usually that kind of effort is not effective yet may expose more of the same problems while not necessarily revealing the original weakness. Another OS X installed over a set of problems seldom helps.
    How full is the hard disk drive? If it is too full, or has been very busy in use several years, it may be time to replace the HDD and perhaps put a larger capacity one in the computer. And if the main computer hardware checks out OK (tested under a variety of duration and stress tests) then also consider a RAM upgrade if the device is not already at the maximum capacity.
    When was the last time the hard disk drive was devoid of content, maybe wiped -- erased and reformatted by a third party disk utility or have a utility overwrite the entire HDD with zeros? This used to be a common tech service in the course of a major effort to restore a Mac. Or Defragment?
    If you can do the latter, this could help resolve bad sectors and remove old data or corruption on the hard drive. Or get a new HDD and before committing a new OS X install & apps to it (or a re-clone of a complete backup) test the drive and be sure it is ready for use. Not all new drives are perfectly ready; some need to get exercise first.
    I'd bet on a new hard disk drive of larger capacity (also note spin RPM rate and data speeds) and a full RAM upgrade.
    If you have a backup clone on an external hard disk drive (in a boot-capable enclosure) you could really go to town and before you erase the main/only hard drive, make a backup clone and test its ability to boot the Mac. Or put the old drive and content in a suitable boot capable enclosure of the kind with its own power supply, and deal with it later.
    Then consider a later version OS X -- whatever most recent version that model can support... {edited}
    Good luck & happy computing!

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