Is my hard drive dead? OS install fails but no hardware probs detected

The white imac I purchased in 2001 has been making squelching beeps during startup on occasion, sounding as if it's having trouble getting the disc spinning. Usually it comes around, starts whirring & booting up fine, though occasionally it'll fail and flash the question mark and I'll then have to turn it off and try again. Finally, though, it seems to have died for real. It hasn't booted up since last night. The flashing ? alternating with the OS picasso logo is all I get now, without exception. I've tried booting up from the software install disk, but when I try and reinstall it tells me that it cannot find a valid volume on which to install the OS. However, I've run the Hardware Test CD and the computer passes all of its tests. That confuses me a little bit-- maybe shouldn't. Should I assume the harddrive is dead and try take it in to have it replaced and try and have the data recovered (there were a number of audio sessions that were too big for me to back up), or could this still possibly be a software issue? Also, I'm wondering if it's possible to purchase an external harddrive as a replacement and just run the OS for my imac off of that? That might be a wiser investment than buying a new internal HD for an aging computer.
imac CRT Mac OS 9.2.x

You might want to go find the iMac (CRT) Discussions a little farther down the iMac page and seek help from follks using your same computer and OS. Everybody here has a brand new iMac Intel Core Duo, and some of the folks here may have never seen Mac OS 9! I personally haven't used it since about MAY 2001.
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=133

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Oh ok, well that was what the test said prior to reformatting the hard drive. Now, it doesn't find any trouble no matter how many times I run it. That's what has me so confused, everything seems to check out and yet...I can't do anything, not even install the software!

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I want to install a new hard drive on my 2008 MacBook but do not have the instillation discs that came with my computer. Can I use instillation discs from a 2009 or 2010 MacBook?

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Sometimes they do work - i've done it before. I have a late 2008 Macbook Uni and used the install dvd of my 2009 Macbook White and it worked.
Why not just clone your hard drive? It'll save you a lot of time doing a clone rather than doing a clean install.
Unless you're having issues with your old set up or your old hard drive is dead.
You can download Carbon Copy Cloner - install your new hard drive in a external usb enclosure (around $10) and clone fromt here then test it before you install it in your Macbook.
Once you've done the swap, you can install your old hard drive in the USB enclosure and use it as a backup drive.
Good luck

New Internal Hard Drive and Clean Install: Errors, Frustration and Hopelessness

First Off:
Macbook 13" (late 2009) ... It was running Mountain Lion 10.8.5 with 2 gigs of memory and 160gig stock hard drive.
I started this process almost a week ago and despite numerous attempts every night I have had no luck. I appologize if the details here are fuzzy, my head is spinning after reading dozens of threads and attempting multiple solutions to each error I've received and i cant remember everything I've tried so far...
I got my new memory in the mail first, upgraded to 4 gigs and everything works fine with that..
Next came my new Seagate Momentus 750 gb 7200 rpm SATA 3gb/s 16Mb Internal Hard Drive.
Using this guide: http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/17/make-bootable-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-usb-install -drive/ (and cross checking other guides) I ended up creating a bootable external drive using my 160gb External Firewire drive for my clean install to my new hard drive. So far so good.
I then shut down the computer, removed the old internal hard drive, installed the new, restarted the computer holding option key and booted up using the External Hard Drive, and the install software started fine. Note: I have attempted to re-erase the drive so many times without luck that I cant remember if I actually successfully erased the drive originally to begin with the installation, but either way I started the OSX reinstall and it got almost all the way finished before it gave me the error message:
"Install failed. Mac OS X Lion couldn’t be installed, because the disk (volume name) is damaged and can’t be repaired. Click restart to restart your computer and try installing again."
restarting of course did nothing, it repeatedly gave me error messages and made me quit installation...
Disk Utility isnt getting me anywhere, im either getting errors like:
"POSIX reports: the operation couldnt be completed. device no configured"
it wont allow me to erase the drive or partition the drive
"Disk Erase failed with the error: File System Formatter Failed"
and everytime the drive fails to erase or partition, it disappears from the list of drives on the left of the disk utility screen and i have to restart the computer for it to reappear for a second try. Typically the volume under the drive is greyed out and says that it is unmounted.
Ive zapped the PRAM.... and Ive done other things that I cant quite remember right now because my brain is boiling from reading too many **** threads on multiple devices....
halp.
halp me plase.

So funny story...
While writing this discussion I had to come to the computer and try to erase the drive so I could see the error code for reference. The erase didnt work as usual but I wrote the error code down here.
I also could not remember the error code for partitioning the drive so I attempted that as well so I could write down the code, and this time it magically partitioned successfully! The only thing I did differently was that I didn't rename the partition because i figured it wouldn't matter anyway. Since the partition was successful, I attempted the Reinstall of ML and it magically worked!!
I dont know what the **** happened but ive been attempting this install every night for like 3 hours since Monday and this is the first time it went through... for no apparent reason?
Ghosts? Magic? Full Moon?
we may never know...
Thanks anyways guys!

Is Hard Drive Dead???

Hello,
Thanks for anyone that posts and helps me out here. These forums help alot.
I have iMac G5 Isight (model before intel) 200GB HD 2.5GB Ram.
Stopped working and saw blue screen with question mark the other day. uh oh.
Attempted restart -> not solved
attempted safe mode -> didnt work just shut down
attempted single user mode (fsck) -> did not work (catalog file I/O error invalid node structure)
attempted Disk Utilities off startup disk -> not work (failure on exit error keys out of order)
sighed.
bought Disk Warrior (as this helped others w similar issues)
Attempted DW (fingers crossed) -> message said error "speed reduced by disk malfunction" also could not replace original directory b/c of disk malfunction. Comparison could not be performed and recommended backup and to look at preview.
everything critical is backed up. no problem.
everything non critical I dont care about.
So now, the question is...
Is my hard drive dead?
If so, should I reformat it or is it "permanently wounded" and will have PTSD and cause further problems down the road.
Or, should I bite the bullet and get a brand new Hard Drive??
thanks so much !!!!
mike

Ok.
now that I have some time going to do erase and install.
I suppose info is on the apple support website for the exact steps.
I remember reading somewhere to do settings all to zero?
I was running Tiger latest version.
I have a brand new Leopard disks here that I was going to upgrade to before all this happened.
Should I just boot off the new Leopard disks?
Or
Should I boot off Tiger and then upgrade everything afterwards?
thanks again

Gray folder with question mark-- is my hard drive dead?

I have a white 13 inch MacBook that is about 3 years old and runs on Mac OS X 10.4 (I believe). In the past year, it has been running more and more slowly and programs keep freezing. I was going to ask for more RAM for Christmas, but decided to try a few maintenance steps first. I ran a VirusScan this morning (using McAfee), and when I came back into the room, my computer had frozen past all help. I powered it off with the power button, and now, when I try to start it, a gray screen appears with a question mark. I have tried some of the support steps listed to get it working again such as trying a safe boot (didn't work) and resetting my PRAM (didn't work). Is my hard drive dead? Is there any way I can get my files off the computer? I haven't backed up in about 3 months, and I am very upset because I have a lot of important papers and photos on my HD.
Thank you..

Hi corimazz and welcome to Apple Discussions!
It is possible that your hard drive has kicked the bucket, but the folder with the question mark just shows that the computer cannot find a valid system when it starts up. There are a number of possible reasons for this.
Do you have the 10.4 install disk? If so, insert it into the optical disk drive, restart the computer and hold down the C key during startup. Once the computer is booted to the install DVD, select your primary language, then look for the utilities menu and from it select "Disk Utility".
In the Disk Utility, you should see a list of available disks, which we hope will include your hard drive. If the hard drive does not appear in the list, it is dead. If it does show up, select it and click the "Repair Disk" button to see if the problem is being caused by directory damage that can be repaired.
If the drive is truly dead, you are going to have to decide how much the data from the last three months is worth to you. There are companies that have quite good records of recovering data from even very badly damaged hard drives (sunk in rivers, burned in fires, etc) but they are not cheap.
In the USA some data recovery options include:
DriveSavers.com - 800-440-1904
www.ontrack.com - 800-872-2599
www.lazarus.com - 800-341-3282
Once you have the drive out (it's a simple process to remove) it can be replaced with a new one.
I hate to say it, but keeping backups of important files is vital to safe computing. Both the Leopard and Snow Leopard operating systems make this a much easier process using the "Time Machine" application.
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Processor Speed:          2.8 GHz
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Memory:          16 GB
Bus Speed:          1.6 GHz
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SMC Version (system):          1.25f4
Serial Number (system):          G************
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