Is my internal iMac HD fried?

IT had been running poorly for awhile... Very slow, etc. I was assuming it was my internet connection, as most of my problems were occurring then, not when I was using photoshop or I design or anything. Anyhow, Eventually it wouldn't boot up. I started it up with the snow leopard disc and did disc utility. For the longest time it didn't even recognize the internal HD. after several start ups with the disc, it finally found it, so I went thru the steps of verify and repair. When I verified, it said I needed to repair it. it couldn't repair the disc. So then I tried to erase the disc. First it wouldn't unmount. Finally I got it to unmount thru force unmount in Terminal. But it still won't erase. I kept getting the "disc erase failed posix reports: the operation couldn t be completed. cannot allocate memory" message. I also tried all the steps with my original Tiger install disc. When I booted it up in Tiger, it appeared it was finally erased, but I can't reinstall OS cause it doesn't see the drive when I get to the point of reinstallation. Can't see it when I try to do a restore from my time machine backups, either. Is it irreversibly fried??

That hard drive certainly sounds like it is pretty bad...you can try replacing the hard drive, you don't say what year/model iMac you have, or take it to an Apple store genius bar and have the techs test it and see what they recommend.
Good source of drives that I like is OWC, http://www.macsales.com

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How can I boot/run from external HD when internal HD is fried?

Background: I have an original vintage 2002 emac G4 1.25 that I've been messing with for the past couple of months due to slow running and hanging/crashing apps. I upgraded the RAM with an additional 256 MB several years ago and I was running OSX 10.2 without many problems until recently. I was getting messages about the hard drive being full, so I cleaned up and backed up my files to an external HD (USB, of course, since I hadn't found this forum at that time). Freeing up memory didn't help and neither did creating an administrator account, so I ran Apple Hardware Test, which turned up an error code: mem_/2/4 DIMM1/J1601
When I tried to do an erase and reinstall, the erase part went fine but the reinstall wouldn't work because (on the last of 4 discs) the machine returned a "can't write" error and suggested that the hard drive is unusable.
My questions: How can I use an external HD (Firewire, of course) to boot and run my emac when the internal HD is fried and there's no operating system on board? How do I install OSX on the external HD to boot the emac in the first place? Also, will the 384 MB of RAM be enough, or must I upgrade that, too? For that matter, what version of OSX would be best?
Thanks for any help you can offer. I am a long-time mac user (still have my Classic, which still works), and I'd really rather not replace the emac.

HFS stands for Hierarchical File System. The plus sign stands for extended or extended format.
This is the data system format that Apple uses for their operating systems.
When you buy an external hard drive device, typically they do not come pre-formatted.
You'll need to use the Disk Utility app in OS X in your username/Applications/Utilities folder on your eMac if it's still operational or when you start up your eMac from the OS X 10.5 DVD located in the Applications/Utilities folder.
You use this app to initialize and format the drive once it is connected to your eMac. If you wish, you can also, at that stage, partition the drive into separate variable size sections to make a large capacity HD more manageable.
You need to have a functioning stick of RAM in your eMac in order for it to boot up correctly.
The OS X startup routine looks for all components in your eMac that are necessary for a successful start up.
Your eMac will not boot up, even from CD/DVD, without any RAM installed.
If you have only one stick of RAM in your eMac and it's bad or corrupted, you'll need to purchase and Install a new stick of RAM to start.
You might as well purchase 2 brand new 1 GB RAM sticks for your eMac. 2 GBs
OS X 10.5 Leopard's minimum RAM requirements are 512 MBs of RAM.
Your eMac can max out at 2 GBs of RAM.
The specs for the RAM are PC2700 SDRAM, DDR333, 184 pins.
Here are links to websites I use to buy Mac accessories and Hard drives compatible with Macs.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10033

How do I install Bootcamp on 2nd internal iMac drive?

Have a new iMac with a 1TB internal HD in addition to the SSD startup drive.
Can I, and if so how do I, install Bootcamp on the 1TB internal HD? Will the Bootcamp Assistant point out the 2nd internal drive and proper location during the install process?
I purchased this iMac w/wireless keyboard, mouse, and trackpad...is that going to be a problem during the Windows install?
Thanks,
David

Bootcamp actually gave me an option to install on the 2nd internal iMac drive and it's working like a champ!
Thinking I was relegated to a Bootcamp partition on my SSD startup drive, I went ahead and delved into the Bootcamp install, only to find an option to install on either my SSD startup drive or my 2nd internal iMac drive. I simply chose the 2nd drive and lo, and behold, as I hold the Option button down on startup, both of my operating systems (OS X and Windows) available for selection.
Thanks for all the help, but it looks as though the latest edition of Bootcamp has addressed this issue, I am quite pleased.
David

TimeMachine or RAID with internal iMac HDD?

I am thinking of getting an external SSD for use as my boot disk and then connecting it via Thunderbolt. Presently I have a 72rpm HDD and it's showing it's age, but it's 1TB and so will the external SSD, the move is purely for speed, on top of this I have an external 1TB HDD which I interface via tryst ol' USB2 and use that for TimeMachine back-up.
My question is whether to cut the chord with the external USB 2 HDD and use the internal HDD as a TimeMachine instead when running from SSD?
Either than or keep the external HDD as a TimeMachine back-up and use a RAID configuration so that if anything were to happen I could pickup from where I left off, but not sure about the performance hit, or if I could even do that (i.e. RAID from external Thunderbolt SSD to internal iMac HDD)?
There is another option and that would be that the Thunderbolt connected enclosure will have two bays and so I could fit in an affordable HDD for one of these suggestions. The benefit being that I would be able to forfeit one of the mains plugs (1TB is never going to be Bus driven!) and use it for the Thunderbolt enclosure.
I suppose my main concerns would be how to et up RAID with the different storage systems and if it would work, as well as the performance hit, I'm not sure what suffers when connecting SSD to HDD and having a real time backup system, if it's even worth it? I am making the SSD move for speed after all.

I forgot to mention that I may also consider encrypting my backup or RAID drive, any thoughts on that too?

Internal iMac hard drive keeps trying to power down without my consent

How do you stop an internal hard drive from shutting down when you didn't ask it to?
Background:
I use Missing Sync for Palm to sync my Palm handheld with my iMac. My Palm has a SD card slot it in and the sync software came with a program that allows me to mount the
SD card as an external drive on my iMac. From there, I can add podcasts, music or whatever I want directly to the card. I have used this software since March with no problems.
Also, when you put my computer to sleep or shut it down, there is a click and then the internal hard drive shuts down.
Last night, I activated the program to mount the SD card to my iMac and instead of it mounting, the iMac's internal hard drive started trying to shut down.
I have used this program many, many times to mount the SD card to my iMac with absolutely no problem. It was weird this time because I kept hearing that clicking noise. The computer became extremely sluggish. To me, it appeared that the internal hard drive was trying to shut down. After about 4-5 clicks, it succeeded and the computer froze.
Since that time, shortly after you turn the iMac on, you hear that clicking noise trying to power down the hard drive. Sometimes, it just takes a few clicks and the hard drive shuts off. Sometimes the computer will boot all the way up, I can log in and launch a program before it shuts off and the computer freezes. While I can't check the drive with First Aid or Diskwarrior because it shuts off before I can scan it, I assume the data and the drive are ok because I have been able to successfully boot from it and log into my account but shortly after I log in, the hard drive shuts down and the computer is stuck.
Any ideas? Any help would be wonderful!

You are right. It is failing. I took my Mac into the Apple Store and talked with a genius. Although the hard drive would not do what it had at home (typical when you're trying to get something diagnosed) I shut it down so he could hear the noise I do.
Sure enough, he said the noise I heard was the drive read head hitting its start position. When a hard drive shuts down, the drive head moves out of the way since the "hard disk" is actually a thin floppy magnetic disc. The noise I kept hearing was indeed the drive trying to shut down.
Fortunately, I did make a clone of my internal drive to that external drive 6 months ago so I was (eventually) able to copy over all the important files, update the external clone and boot off of it.
Sure enough, tonight, I opened Disk Utility and it said in plain red letters that the drive had reported a hardware failure and should be replaced.
Since my iMac is Summer 2001, the Mac Genius said they no longer carry parts for it so he gave me the name of a local place that would be glad to fix it up. I called them and luck would have it that they were completely out of the internal drives used by my model iMac. So I have to check next week to see if they have received more in yet.
The good news is I can get a slightly larger interal hard drive since I was down to 10GB of a 60GB factory drive. So far, I hear I can go as high as 160GB but the RPM must be lower since my iMac has no fans.
Thanks for your help! As much as I didn't want to believe it, you hit the problem right on.

Now you can upgrade your internal iMac hard drive to 1.5 TB!

It is now possible to upgrade iMac white, iMac aluminum models 2007 and 2008 with internal 1.5 TB hard drive!

Most Macs and PC's built before 2003 were limited on their stock internal HD capacity to a maximum 128GB HD per IDE/ATA HD. This used to be an issue that affected your internal HD options. However, due to recent advents in Mac OSX and hardware, SATA HD's can be used up to 1.5 TB for desktop towers. Remember one other thing, Make sure you have an equal capacity HD to backup your HD if you do so. Mega HD upgrades also mean MEGA data loss in the event of failure.

V.92 on internal iMac modem?

Is there a way to update the internal modem on an G3 iMac? The model I'm talking about is the gray slot-loading version with a 600mhz that comes with a v90 modem installed internally. I cam across an update file called "z_applemodemupdater.smi" (or something like that) but the file doesn't open. Is it worth going to v.92 and does Apple or anyone else offer the necessary update files to do so?

Hello,
The only way to update the modem is using the updater you found.
To make sure you are downloading the update for your specific computer, refer to the list of updates available for each computer here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58174
If you download the wrong update you'll have trouble. So, make sure that the update you are getting is specifically listed for your model / revision.
The above list should help with that.
If you are having trouble getting the file to open, read over these documents, and see if that will help you to get it open:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30367
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60822
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60888
Double-check that you are getting the update for your system (as mentioned above). Not all systems have an updater available.
Then, see if the documents about the disk images help.
As for v.92, I don't really know of any immediate need for it. Most companies still work fine with v.90.
The modem updaters from Apple just bring you up to the latest v.90 standard. Their documents don't say anything about enabling v.92 features. So, basically, you are just upgrading your modem from the early v.90 standard to the finalized standard (after all the standards disputes were settled).
I hope this helps.

Increasing internal iMac HD memory- add a second internal HD for iMac9,1?

I have an iMac9,1, with Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz processor and only 150GB HD memory. I have a 1TB external HD but want to increase internal memory- is this possible to do myself? In system profiler, it looks like there is a second "Serial-ATA"... Thanks!

Thanks to both of you. I just saw there were two SATA devices and one is my maxed out hard drive:
WDC WD1600AAJS-40H3A0:
Capacity:          149.05 GB
Volumes:
Macintosh HD
Capacity:          148.73 GB
Available:          2.32 GB
I see now that the 2nd SATA space is occupied by the CD/DVD reader:
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA11N
I don't think I want to replace that with a harddrive at this time.
I am concerned because my hard drive has gotten completely full (0 KB remaining) a few times, interrupting whatever I am working on, and I can hear faint clicking/grinding noise while it is running (sometimes it is louder than others). I have deleted files to clear 1-2 GB at a time, but I keep filling it back up, and I am guessing it is not good to continue operating at 99% capacity. It also recently made a horrifically loud noise when burning a CD or DVD that was very concerning to me... I was hoping to add a second internal drive so I wouldn't have to backup and reinstall my current one, as I have a number of costly software applications (eg Office 2008, Adobe CD4, Prism, etc) that were just copied from an older harddrive and I have no software installation discs, or codes or licenses to reinstall those...
As a quick fix, I do have the 1 TB Lacie backup drive, so I'm wondering if I maybe I could just change my iTunes music folder location to the backup drive or something to clear an additional 40GB of HD space for now?

After updating to 12.1.2.27, songs play, but without any sound output to internal iMac speakers

So i updated to 12.1.2.27 and songs 'play', but without any sound output. Checked my audio settings and had it at Internal speakers. Checked the speakers (they work, at least for YouTube vids), restarted machine, etc and no audio output from iTunes. Any suggestions? Am I missing something?
Thanks in advance

Try unchecking Sound Enhancer and Sound Check in your Preferences under Playback
Sound check may have reduced everything to a low output level inadvertently.

Internal iMac superdrive keeps ejecting discs

The Superdrive on my iMac will not accept any discs. It just immediately ejects discs that I insert. This happened before about a year ago, but I forgot how I got it to work, and I can't find the thread here.
Thus this request: What do I need to do to get the Superdrive on my iMac to work again? I already cleaned it out completely with the air duster. I know that there is some keyboard startup trick or something that needs to be done to reset something, but my brain is aging, and I forgot what it is. Obviously any helpful suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

Try a SMC reset:
Resetting the SMC (System Management Controller) on Intel-based Macs:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 and
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237?viewlocale=en_US
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
If you are using a Wireless Keyboard:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3273

Will Final Cut Express Work with Internal iMAC speakers?

Am new to Final Cut Express, having worked in iMovie for years
I am trying to import iMovie8 content into FCX. Import went fine, however when playing back clips in view or canvas I hear no audio. Audio tracks show waveforms. When I scrub play line over tracks, I see reaction in audio meters, however when just simple play-no action. Have seen notes to set View/Video Out/Canvas Playback-have done so but no change in audio status.
Does FCX require external speakers (which I don't have now), or is there a way to get it to play through internal speakers.
Thanks for any help

Peter-thanks for the reply
I did validate that FCE uses the internal speakers when I directly imported some video clips from my camera-so I seem to be past that problem.
I also found the iMovie import reference "does not import sound effects, audio levels or transitions". Since I didn't have any of these, I'm not sure this applied. However, since my base question (use of internal speakers) was definitely answered, I'll mark this answered and start another stream.
Again-Thanks

IMac 7,1 turning internal screen off while watching a movie via output (second display), possible?

iMac 7,1 turning internal screen off while watching a movie via output (second display), is it possible with Lion?

Actually, Plex does the best job by placing a black background to the internal iMac screen it's called Blanking.
However that does not turn off the backlit which is very bright on the iMac 24" also the internal screen will draw more power that way. As you probably know running bootcamp you can turn off the internal screen while watching a movie on the external. This isn't a hardware limitation, I hope Lion has this feature.

IMac: Fried or not?

I've had this problem happen to me a coupla times, but never thought much of it as it went away after a coupla reboots. It happens both in OSX and WinXP. The screen will lock up, and I have to reboot. After that, if I let it boot to OS X, the round dial will go round a bit, then I get the multi-language "You need to restart" box in the middle of the screen.
If i start up holding the alt key (to change the boot up volume), I get as far as it allowing me to move the mouse, and selecting the volume, and if I select WinXP, it will attempt to boot into that. And this is where it gets interesting: I can tell whether the WinXP boot sequence will be a success by the background-image of the WinXP loading screen: If it has a very faint, dark-burgundy-red (almost black) moiré effect, I'll know it won't be succesful, and it will just restart after some HD churning. When XP's "select safe mode" text comes up, the screen text is slightly garbled, with faint, light-grey horizontal lines through each character on the screen.
Also, when I try booting from the OSX Install discs (by holding C just after the boot-up chime), it will churn away on the DVD, before giving me the multi-lingual "Please reboot" window again, just as above.
Another thing: I mainly have WinXP to play Valve's Counterstrike game, with all the details turned up. Friend of mine mentioned maybe that's what's causing the problems.
So, can anyone tell me whether my iMac is fried?

"Also, when I try booting from the OSX Install discs (by holding C just after the boot-up chime), it will churn away on the DVD, before giving me the multi-lingual "Please reboot" window"
No, it's not fried:) Kernel panics can be caused by either hardware or software. Your kernel panics are apparently not caused by software, as your installed OS doesn't control a bootup from the install disc. Your install disc boot result seems to indicate that your kernel panics are hardware related. It would be best if you could confirm that result by repeating your attempted boot from the install disc. The further into the boot process that you can get prior to the kernel panic occurring, the more sound that conclusion would be.
If it is a hardware issue, this most likely means a RAM or hard drive issue. If your RAM is all original from Apple, your problem immediately becomes Apple's problem.
If the RAM is not Apple, or not all Apple, remove the non-Apple RAM and see if the kernel panics continue or stop. At this time there is no need to run any other tests on non-Apple RAM other than removing it from the system. That is the best test of RAM.
If the kernel panics stop and your iMac runs well, remove the Apple RAM and see if your iMac will run as well and without kernel panics when using only the non-Apple RAM.
Between running the Apple Hardware Test (while Apple RAM only is installed), and the "S.M.A.R.T. Status" reported in Disk Utility, that should be all you need to detect a faulty hard drive.
If you wish to further test the RAM, download and run the RAM test utility Memtest to give your RAM a good testing in addition to running the extended version of the Apple Hardware Test. Best to set both to run multiple cycles.
You can safely walk away from your iMac and leave it running either one. If the RAM is bad, Memtest might not even be able to complete its test - it'll just stop in the middle. It can move slowly, though, so don't mistake its slowness for a dead stop.
You can also check the "Diagnostics" subsection of System Profiler to see the most recent results of your iMac's startup self-test, as well as the last run of the Hardware Test. Best of luck with it:)
Message was edited by: myhighway

HT6065 internal speakers on my 2011 iMac don't function after 10.9.1 update

i woke my iMac up this evening, dismissed all the notifications about the software updates that happened last night (the 10.9.1 OS X update) and proceeded to open iTunes. the internal speakers work during startup (i get the boot sound) but don't work once the operating system kicks in. the headphone jack doesn't work, and i get this strange icon when i try to change the volume with the keyboard keys...
i opened up sounds in system preferences, and under "output" there are no output devices found.
i have tried the solutions i found online for no sound out of your internal iMac/macbook speakers - i have reset the SMC, the PRAM/NVRAM, have plugged/unplugged headphones from the rear headphone jack, blown into the headphone jack, jiggled a headphone plug...and nothing. i have never plugged headphones into this computer, only always used external speakers.
i am confident this is related to the software update, i literally was on itunes listening to music at my desk on Tuesday...didn't touch the computer on Wednesday, and then got on tonight to the update notifications and no sound.
below is the info about my computer...any suggestions?

i called apple support today. went through the same things with them, they recommended reinstalling OS X. so i did. and it's now fixed.
so i guess if you are experiencing this same issue, as a last resort before taking the computer into an apple store, just reinstall the operating system.
when you reboot, after the startup-sound hold (SHIFT + R) and choose reinstall OS X from the option menu that is presented.

IMAC Internal CD/DVD is a Piece of Crap

This is just an FYI that may save someone a lot of frustration in case anyone else has experienced this.
Right after I got my new 24" 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo iMAC I decided to archive over 200 family DVD's and CD's to an external hard drive. Unfortunately the drive would make strange noises, it would crank down (sounding like an old engine slowing down) and stop with an "input/output error" message with both CD's and DVD's. I went to the Genius Bar and they couldn't figure it out. They replaced the internal drive and the same thing happened. Thinking it was something more fundamental with the computer, they very kindly replaced the entire unit with a brand new computer. Exactly the same thing happened.
I bought an external drive from OWC (for a grand total of about $80) and the issue became quite clear: the problem was the clearly cheap internal drive Apple puts in new iMACS. Almost without exception, the external drive read every single disk that the internal iMAC drive could not. I tried the drive on my old G4 and it could read most of the discs. When I compared the read times with a disk the iMAC COULD read with the OWC drive, the OWC drive read the disk about three times faster than the internal iMAC drive.
One would think that with a machine costing over $2000 Apple would go out of their way to search for the absolute best internal drive available, but obviously this is not the case. Just spend $80 more for an outstanding external drive and you will save yourself a lot of frustration.

This is how an Apple tech once explained it to me "we don't have much choice with these drives because they have to fit into a very narrow and confined space and the vertical installation doesn't help either". The drives used in iMacs are the same/similar to the drives used in laptops because of the size restrictions. And they've always been very "finicky" about the media they "like" or "don't like". I've had an external burner for years and only use the internal when I absolutely have to.

Is my internal iMac HD fried?

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