Is it hard to fix bad segments on a failed Hard Drive?? DV6

I have a DV6-2066dx and my hard drive died on me (Error 303). I took it to get looked at and they say that I have bad segments and I should buy a new HD.
My question is, can I fix the segments myself to recover any data and what type of HD should I buy??
I really like my notebook, just ticked off that I have to replace this out of nowhere...

I also stand by my response.
It is not a "best practice" to use a device to store what could be critical data on a hard disk if it has been flagged by POST or S.M.A.R.T. tests. Replacement of the hard disk is the best option.
best regards,
erico
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

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How partition hard drive dv6

I have a dv6 AMD quad, Win 7 Home Prem, soon to WAU to Win7 Pro, with 750 GB hard drive. How do I partition the drive to make separate "system" and "data" drives? The partitioner was buried deep on my old laptopper and I _really_ cannot find it on this beastie.

shrink the existing largest partition using the disk management tool then create a new partition inside the now blank space and then format and assign it a drive letter. Here it is in pictures.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg309170.aspx

I havea 2007Mac Book Pro and a Genius told me that it is "vintage" and that the "logic board" is bad. He removed the hard drive and told me to buy a "sled" to retreive the data. Is it worth trying to fix it so that I don't have to buy a new one?

I have a 2007 Mac Book Pro and a Genius told me that it is "vintage" and that the "logic board" is bad and no longer supported. He removed the hard drive and told me to buy a "sled" to retreive the data. Is it worth trying to fix it so that I don't have to buy a new one? Where should I take it? Thanks.

djgornik,
if the Genius is correct and the logic board is bad, then replacing the logic board would be fairly expensive. What problems are you seeing with your MacBook Pro that caused you to visit the Genius in the first place? Whether it’s worth trying to fix it or not depends on your particular circumstances, such as your willingness to trade time for money in pursuing repair vs. replacement.

How do you fix bad blocks on an external hard drive without using disk utility

so basically does anyone know how to fix bad blocks on a external hard drive without using disk utlility please

Oh...if you have data you are trying to save then its best to try cloning the drive to another one, which should save its data as-is to another drive. Hopefully you can do so without there being hangups around the bad blocks and keep at least most of your data intact. I'd recommend you try using Carbon Copy Cloner to do this, but you will need a secondary drive that is at least the size of the data on the problematic drive.

A135-S2326 replacing hard drive (bad sectors) Need advice and opinions Please

Hi, (note pic below of my computers actual specs from this morning)
I have a Satellite A135-S2326. It has the max memory at 2GB, it came with 512 and I upgraded to 2GB. It runs Windows Vista Home Edition...
Anyhow, it accidentally fell off my bed a few days ago (darn dogs) and damaged my hard drive. Boot problems, errors, bad sectors, etc. I have tried everything to fix and to no avail. While I am currently using it I know I need to replace the hard drive ASAP before I can't turn it on at all one day... I am now saving all my files and stuff I need off of it to an external drive. The laptop did not come with a windows Vista restore CD so I am using Acronis software to make an image of the hard disc, hopefully it will work and I won't have to purchase my own copy of windows Vista.
Some questions I have are:
1.) Is it possible to upgrade the hard drive to a faster one / better one when I replace?
     The hard drive that came preinstalled is a Hitachi HTS541680J9SA00 80GB, which I believe from spec's documentation is a 5400RPM Serial- ATA ???
     What is the max size I can get for replacement and what is the max RPM, or do I HAVE to use a 5400RPM???
     What do you suggest?
2.) I have a copy of windows XP Professional w/SP2. Is it possible to put this windows XP Pro.w/SP2 on a fresh hard drive in the Satellite A135-S2326? If so, is there a different hard drive that I must have to do that? Also if an XP install is possible on a new hard drive, which drivers must I have for this laptop when I do it??
3.) And finally, could this laptop handle windows 7 business? Only asking because I can get a VERY cheap copy of windows 7 business from my school...I'm in college at DeVry and can get a copy of Windows 7 delivered to my door in 2 weeks for less then $30.00. So thought that MAY be an option....??? Not sure if my other spec's can handle it though???
4.) What would you suggest I do with the options I have, what is best thing to do in your opinion??
      Please see pic below of my actual computers specs from this morning, using Belarc Advisor...
Thank you in advance
Any help is GREATLY appreciated
Urgently waiting replies,
Tina from Florida
(tinafromflorida)
Computer Profile Summary
Computer Name:
Beanersputer (in MSHOME)
Profile Date:
Monday, September 21, 2009 9:29:54 AM
Advisor Version:
7.2x
Windows Logon:
nello
Operating System
System Model
Windows Vista Home Basic Service Pack 2 (build 6002)
TOSHIBA Satellite A135 PSAD6U-01800D
System Serial Number: 37334232K
Enclosure Type: Notebook
Processor a
Main Circuit Board b
1.60 gigahertz Intel Celeron M 520
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Board: TOSHIBA IAYAA 1.00
BIOS: TOSHIBA V1.20 03/06/2007
Drives
Memory Modules c,d
78.45 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
13.51 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
MAT**bleep**A DVD-RAM UJ-850S ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]
Hitachi HTS541680J9SA00 [Hard drive] (80.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2204SGCULZ6E, rev SB2OC7DP, SMART Status: Healthy
1918 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'J401' is Empty
Slot 'J400' has 2048 MB
Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 0)
78.45 GB
13.51 GB free
Network Drives
None detected
Users (mouse over user name for details)
Printers
local user accounts
last logon
nello
9/21/2009 9:17:22 AM
(admin)
local system accounts
    Administrator
9/1/2007 9:32:47 PM
(admin)
Guest
9/12/2009 1:14:34 AM
Marks a disabled account;   Marks a locked account
Adobe PDF Converter
on Documents\*.pdf
Microsoft XPS Document Writer
on XPSPort:
Send To Microsoft OneNote Driver
on Send To Microsoft OneNote Port:
Controllers
Display
IDE Channel [Controller] (4x)
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller (2x)
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M Series [Display adapter]
Generic PnP Monitor (19.7"vis)
Bus Adapters
Multimedia
ENE CB1410 Cardbus Controller
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
ATI I/O Communications Processor USB 1.1 OHCI controller (2x)
ATI I/O Communications Processor USB 2.0 EHCI controller
Realtek High Definition Audio
Communications
Other Devices
TOSHIBA Software Modem
6TO4 Adapter
6TO4 Adapter
6TO4 Adapter
6TO4 Adapter
6TO4 Adapter
Atheros AR5006EG Wireless Network Adapter
isatap.domain_not_set.invalid
isatap.gateway.2wire.net
isatap.launchmodem.com
isatap.
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #2
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #3
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #4
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #5
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #6
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #4
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #5
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #6
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #7
Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Networking Dns Server:
Acronis Backup Archive Explorer
Microsoft AC Adapter
Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery
Logitech Driver Interface (2x)
HID-compliant consumer control device
HID-compliant device (2x)
USB Human Interface Device (2x)
Standard PS/2 Keyboard
Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse
Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad [Mouse]
USB Composite Device
USB Root Hub (3x)
Generic volume shadow copy

You can use ANY 2.5" SATA hard drive of any size in that system. I would recommend one of the Western Digital Scorpio BLue's as they are reliable and offer good performance.
If it runs Vista it will run Windows 7. I would wait a bit before trying Win7 though as Toshiba hasn't released all of the Windows 7 drivers yet.
As for Windows XP, while it is possible to install XP on that system (and quite easily for that matter) Toshiba doesn't provide any of the XP drivers needed to get it to run properly. You could determine all of the various chipsets the system uses and go to each chipsat manufacturer's support site to see if they provide an XP driver to get it working, but I don't guarantee that they have all of the needed drivers. If you do decide to go ahead with this let me know and I'll post the directions for installing XP onto a SATA hard drive that doesn't ahve a floppy drive.
Right now your best choice is to replace the old hard drive and restore the system from your Acronis image. When ALL of the Windows 7 drivers become available you could install it in a dual boot configuration to determine if you prefer it or not. It is both a step up and a step back from Windows Vista. Some people will like it while others won't. Only you will be able to determine which you prefer.
If you don't post your COMPLETE model number it's very difficult to assist you. Please try to post in complete sentences with punctuation, capitals, and correct spelling. Toshiba does NOT provide any direct support in these forums. All support is User to User in their spare time.

Macbook Problems: Hard Drive Failure or Bad Ram?

I bought a used Black Macbook several months ago. Everything was fine until recently I ran into some problems. It wouldn't boot one day at all, so I wiped the drive clean and reinstalled Snow Leopard. Once again everything was fine for a while until the same thing happened and I once again wiped and reinstalled. The first time it happened I used diskwarrior and disk utility to try and repair the drive with no luck. The weird thing is that after reinstalling I can check the disk and it verifies as ok until one day it fails.
I know that the guy I bought the laptop from upgraded the RAM and the HDD. He didn't do such a good installing the HDD since the IR port and Sleep Indicator Light don't function properly anymore. I've read that happens a lot when installing a new HDD.
So, Here are the symptoms:
Disk Failures
Erratic boot times: Sometimes only 90 seconds, sometimes as long as 13 minutes
Hang ups, beach balls in normal every day tasks
Complete system freezes during normal use
I've never had a kernel panic.
Recently when the system wouldn't boot I ran in verbose mode and it said something about error reading kernel cache Error 0x80000020
Is this definitely my HDD, or could my RAM be causing this?

Thanks for the replies!
Yeah, I think it's the HDD. I was just worried that the RAM was bad and corrupted the HDD or something, but given the symptoms I think you guys are right. Ordered a 7200RPM 320GB HDD off Amazon Prime...will be here tomorrow
I'll post how it goes after I finish installing it. I'm backing up as I type.
I wonder if I can fix the ir port and the sleep indicator light when I install the hard-drive. The sleep indicator light never turns off. It stays on as long as my computer is on, only turns off when I shut it down.

How do you know a hard drive is bad?

how do you know a hard drive is bad?

From the OS X "Help" system:
Check whether a disk is about to fail
You can check the health of many disks in Disk Utility. Many disks include Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T) hardware, which lets a disk test itself for potential problems.
Open Disk Utility.
Select the disk in the list at the left.
If you see a message saying the disk has a fatal hardware error, the disk has an irreparable hardware problem that can’t be fixed by Disk Utility or any other utility that repairs software problems. Back up as much of the data on the disk as possible, and then replace the disk.
If you don’t see a message saying the disk has a hardware error but you still have problems with the disk, you can try to repair it with Disk Utility.

Invalid key length on hard drive. Can this be fixed?

Hello,
I have a question about an error I am receiving with a hard drive I have been using for a few months on an imac G3 (the slot loading version). I bought this used 80 GIG hard drive on ebay for a friend of mine and I helped him transfer all his data from his older 9 GIG drive to this newer 80 GIG drive that I bought for him on ebay. I simply cloned the 9 GIG drive onto the new drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. There is not a lot of data on the drive - only about 3 GIGs of data.
The drive is the only drive in the computer (an imac G3) and therefore it is the startup drive. The operating system on the drive is OS9. All was working fine for a few months until just last week. Now I am receiving this following error:
error message:
The disk "Macintosh HD" appears to be damaged. Use a disk repair utility to repair the disk.
And so I used the disk utility built into OS9 to see if I could repair the problem. (I think OS9's disk utility is called "Disk First Aid")
When using OS9s disk utility (I think it is called "Disk First Aid") the following report is issued:
Problem: Invalid key length, 4,943
Test done. Problems were found but Disk First Aid cannot repair them.
My questions are:
What is an "Invalid key length"?
How serious is this?
What would cause this?
Could this have been caused by the physical condition of the disk or possibly by the software on the disk?
Would re-formatting the drive fix it? (Of course I would try to save any data first onto another disk)
Or is it risky to continue to use this disk even after reformatting it?
I guess I have a lot of questions here and if anyone could make any suggestions or comment on why "Invalid key length" errors happen I would really appreciate it. Thanks:)
Here are some details:
When I bought the 80 GIG hard drive from ebay the first steps I took were to format the drive using OS9's "drive setup", load the OS9 drivers and then I verifed the disk. The disk seemed to be fine. Then I cloned his old drive onto this 80 GIG drive using Corbon Copy Cloner. I was sure the 80 GIG drive was in a healthy state at that time and I trusted it enough to give it to my friend for his startup drive. Now that the drive has failed with his data and programs, I feel pretty bad. How could this "Invalid key length" error occur?
Should I go back to the person who sold me the drive on ebay and ask for a refund? Or are "Invalid key length" errors a common occurance with hard drives that should just be accepted? Or might it possibly be the contents (data) on my friend's disk that caused this error.
It has been suggested to me to use "Tech Tools Pro" or "Disk Warrior" to repair the disk. Hopefully that might repair the disk. Unfortunately these programs are too expensive for this purpose because they would cost more than the computer actually costs (its an old imac G3 computer). I found a service that would run Disk Warrior on the disk to repair it for a $50 fee. Still, that is also not worth it as the computer may not even be worth $50.
Here are some specifications:
80 GIG drive specs: SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200.7 80GB hard drive
computer: imac G3 (slot loading version)
OS: Mac OS9
Thank you for any suggestions especially as to whether I should attempt to return the hard drive or look for a refund for this hard drive or attempt to reformat the drive and try again (backing up the data first).
I also question the source of all the data on my friends computer. If he had the original operating system disks (which he said didn't come with his computer when he purchased it second-hand), I could have easily re-installed the OS and the applications. But he doesn't have any disks. That serves me right for having to deal with trying to help out someone who has software from a questionable source. I'm never doing that again. I guess that makes me guilty too as an accomplice. I don't feel very good about this
I didn't know for sure - but I guess I should have assumed his software was illegal if he didn't have the disks - I was afraid to ask. I'm never putting myself in this possibly illegal situation again. Never again will I try to help someone out who doesn't clearly have the legal disks. Please forgive me and everyone else who reads this post. I feel shameful about this but somehow I must get myself out of this problem. I've learned a good lesson. Should I attempt to fix his computer? Or should I tell him to first buy a legal OS and software before I can help him out? You see I feel further guilt because I was the one who gave him the 80 GIG problematic hard drive that failed and I feel I should have to fix it. Can anyone offer me a bit of advice? What do I do?
What's the right thing to do?

Thank you Jim and Apple2Freak,
I appreciate your comments. I am now suggesting to my friend to buy a legal OS and if that is the case I am suggesting to him to move to OSX instead of OS9. Luckily he let me know there wasn't much data on that drive that he needed to save. I am still trying to determine if I could still use this hard drive with the keylength errors if I erase it or if the hard drive has permanent damage. I am hoping that I could install OSX on it and erase the hard drive to start again.
This imac (slot loading version) can support up to OS 10.3.9 however I might consider Xpostfacto to try to run 10.4. But then I would need to buy 10.3.9 as well as 10.4 and that would double my OS cost. I think I might just look for OS 10.3.9 only. Its not worth it for me to buy two OSes for it.
Jim, your post was very interesting because it also pointed out that it could be an issue of bad RAM. A few months ago we installed some new second-hand RAM and I wonder if that is the cause of all these problems. I will have to check that first.
Thanks again!

Fix my hard drive - Disk Utility won't repair

I have a powerbook g4 1.5 17" 1.5 gig ram
it has annnn 80gig hard drive
it's only about a year or 2 old
now recently i've been having hard drive trouble
when i play movies off the hard drive they kinda freeze up and stuff, not cos of the file but the hard drive it's like they're copied onto a bad sector or something.
i have files such as pictures and movies that i try to move or copy but they wont let me, or they get half way and cant copy the rest....
oh i was using bit-torrent to download some big files and it kept stuffing up with a hard drive read/write error
now the 1.7 gig i just downloaded wont open or copy to somewhere else to open it
and thats not good
so i've tried Disk Utility and got it to Verify the hard drive and it recognises some errors and stops scanning and says you need to fix it
i think one of them is a checksum/table error or something or.... i will have to get the exact error message off it later. but it tells me to fix it but i can't press the 'repair' button cos it's not available to be clicked! so that's a bugger
is there another program i can get off version tracker to help fix this or something else i can do? any way to try and recover that huge file too?
let me know what you think and i'll give u any more info that you need cos i definately dont wanna replace the hard drive!

is that just the 2 dvd set that came with the computer?
it's like a system restore disc or something
i dont have an actual OSX disc cos it came with OSX 10.4 loaded
i'm worried that my dvd restore discs will have 10.3 on them and it wont be compatible.. although i'm not sure, does anyone know what it originally shipped with?
apple-history doesn't seem to know
and the other thing
IF i do need a new hard drive what size can i upgrade to? it's 80gig now, i know they went up to 100gig at the time but can i put anything bigger in it or will it crack it?
and what kind of hard drive do i need, i'll probly buy one off ebay - so some kind of bits that help me identify it would help heaps
THEN should i pay for someone to repair it and put it in or open her up and do it myself? i'm not worried about the changing it over part it's more how do i then format it and get it ready to go into the computer
any help will be deemed HELPFUL
thanks heaps

How to recover data from bad hard drive

Once a hard drive goes bad (cannot get into the computer), is there any hope of recovering any data from it? If so, how?

Do you mean the hard drive is mechanically broken for sure? It's not a data corruption issue that is causing a problem with starting up the Mac, but maybe not be a bad mechanism?
If the drive is definitely broken, there are businesses that specialize in recovering data from bad hard drives. For example
http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/ (I always saw their booth at MacWorld Expos...)
The cost of such services is usually high.
cannot get into the computer
So that probably means the hard drive in question is the internal drive? If you don't know for sure that the hard drive is physically broken, you can try starting up using your Mac OS X installation disc. Insert disc in optical drive and start up with the C key held down. When you get to Installer's screen, go up to the menu bar and run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Does the internal drive appear in the Disk Utility sidebar?
Alternately, if you have another Mac (that has FireWire), you can try starting the Mac with the problem in FireWire Target Disk Mode,
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Connect the "target" Mac to the other Mac (running normally) using a FireWire cable. Run Disk Utility on that Mac. Does the hard drive of the Mac in FireWire Target Disk Mode appear in the sidebar?
If you can get the internal drive to appear in Disk Utility, you may be able to run Repair Disk on the First Aid tab. There are also third-party utilities, such as TechTool Pro (Micromat), Drive Genius (Prosoft), and Disk Warrior (Alsoft), that may be able to fix (or at least recover data from) the hard drive.

Cloning a bad hard drive

If this were a PC, I'd have no problem. But I'm not a Mac Tech.
I usually back up my laptop's hard drive to an external hard drive using the Disk Utility. Has worked great, never had to restore from it.
Now, the hard drive is begining to fail. So I tried to make one more backup of it, to save me reinstalling when I get the new HD. But the backup fails because of a file system error (file/dir does not exist), which is due to the bad state of the hardware.
Now if this was a PC, I'd just use a utility to copy the drive, errors and all, which would be fine because then I could fix the problem once the data is on a good hard drive.
But I have no such utility for my Mac. My PC utilities don't recognize the Mac file system, so I can't trust them.
*So, how does one copy a slightly buggy hard drive using a Mac? Any tricks in Disk Utility? Tried it from the CD, same result. And other utilities?*
I could just reinstall, but I just got this thing built just right a month ago!

One Mac cloning utility that I like is Super Duper:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
You can download it and do a clone of your hard drive for free. If you decide to register it, you can unlock other features.
Another utility is called Carbon Copy Cloner. I have never used it, so I don't know much about it. I believe you can download and run it for free, and then make a donation if you like it.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
I have never attempted to clone a bad hard drive, so I don't know how this would work.
Good luck!

Th e FIX? A new Hard Drive?

First - what is the largest HD I can use? Any specs to avoid or get?
Second - I think this may make my computer more useable. It has been a crashy iMac - but so was my DVSE 400 - plenty of RAM, have tried PRAM zapping Desktop rebuild, defragging, etc. A few years back I suffered a complete HD failure, but ran First Aid three times and brought it back to life. I think it may still be a corrupted drive. BTW, I have clean installed a few times and I get a decent system for a few days, then it reverts back to its old tricks.
Third - what is REALLY frustrating is that my friend at work has an old PIII that had similar issues. He installed XP, and it is a rock now, and he is happy with a cheap fix. NOT MY APPLE! Tried to install Tiger, with right firmware, etc., and it wouldn't take. So much for the "easy to work with Macs" bit.

Hi Brian,
First: The iMac cannot use more than 127GB of any given hard drive - this is due to a limitation in the iMac's drive controller. No software/partitioning will get around this. Warnings about 7200 RPM drives being too hot tend to be false, as many new drives actually run cooler than the iMac's stock drive.
Second: What problems have you been having, specifically? Just random freezing/crashing? Anything else? Have you tried running Disk First Aid recently? I would suggest booting from your iMac Install/Mac OS 9 install or whatever CD and running Disk First Aid from there.
Have you tried backing up your data and then completely reformatting the drive? If there is significant corruption, this may be the best way to eradicate it.
Are there any third party drivers installed or hardware devices connected that could be causing problems?
Last thing, it could be dodgy RAM that's causing the freezes/instability, especially if the issues are not related to a specific application or whatever.
Third: I'm not sure why XP would help - perhaps your friend had a bad install of the previous operating system. You have said you've tried clean installs, so that isn't the issue for you.
What problems did Tiger give you, specifically? Mac OS X not wanting to install could be a symptom of dodgy RAM. Is the RAM the original that came from Apple or a third party? If it's from a third party, do you know the vendor?
Hopefully there's something in there you'll find useful...
Kyle-

Fix hard drive

well i need to know how to fix my hard drive that has went bad. i have a hp mini 210-1010nr.

This forum is only to answer questions related to FAST ESP product and not how to fix computer problems.
You may need to contact HP support.

Replaced hard drive/ with new install, bad modification dates

Does anyone know how to get rid of bad modification dates that appeared when system (10.3.9) was re-installed after replacement of hard drive on powerbook?
Tech Tools Pro didn't fix it.
The dates for Sherlock, Text Edit, DVD player, ical,isync (even explorer) all say April 1, 1976. That's April Fool's Day and I was 30 years younger, but .... Any ideas?
Sharon

Sharon Chard-Yaron...
Something is odd here as a few weeks ago I was forced into a reformat and a reinstall of my Mac OS.
I reformatted / partitioned / installed Mac OS 10.3.5(+) first, as it is where my Panther CD set starts from. However it prompted me to confirm that my dates was corrected before continuing with the install. It seemed rather serious that unpredictable results could happen if those dates was wrong.
(+)(Later of course, I did update to 10.3.9 from my backup of download goodies and Software Update panel.)
Anyway, my time and dates was messed up and I reset them from within that install.
Now- did you get any time/date prompt during the install like I did?
Mac OS 10 installs so many files that I feel it could be a disaster waiting for a time/date to happen on. Unless there is some gifted fix utility that I am not aware of, nothing short to re-doing everything would clear my conscience to a bug free install.
...Ron

Is hard drive dying? How to get it fixed

My 7 month old imac 9,1 has been having a lot of problems, and they are getting worse.
In September or so, it began to freeze at sleep occasionally, then at startup. the spinning cursor would come up for a minute or so, but it would eventually start. eventually, however, it refused to start and entered a permanent loop of restarting itself. I therefore reformatted it, reinstalled OS, and restored from time capsule.
Same thing happened in October. freezing, then slow restarts with spinning, then failure to restart period.
Now, its happened twice in December. I am now reinstalling OS and files onto an external Hard drive to help determine whether the internal drive is the problem. I briefly ran tech tool and it found a few hundred bad blocks, but checked less than 1% of the drive.
does it sound like a dead/dying drive? How does apple handle these things?

I have a a problem a bit like the one described previously.
In Set. 2007 I bought my first mac...an iMac 24".
3-4 months later I had trouble with my HD. The tech support told me that my HD was damaged and could not be fixed. They couldn`t explain why, but they changed my old HD with a new one and problem solved.
Last month as I was installing the snow leopard operating sistem my iMac froze in the midle of the instalation procedure. I turned it off holding down the power button, and when I turned the power back on I got that flashing folder with a question mark in the middle. In short...after trying everything (formating, partitioning etc) I took it to the shop to hava a look.
The tech guy just got off the phone with me saying that my HD was damaged and could not be repaired. The only solution is to replace it with a new one.
In 2 years I had to change 2 HD`s!!!!
My only guess is that bootcamp might have something to do with it cause it frooze the computer lots of times requiring me to turn it off by pressing and holding down the power button one to many times.
Does anybody know any other reason for this to have happended?
Could the installation of snow leopard have had anything to do with this?

Is it hard to fix bad segments on a failed Hard Drive?? DV6

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