Is the hard drive dead?

Hey there, all.
I have an iMac grape (333) running 10.3.9.
I was running the system update today, and the machine froze. So, I went to get something to eat, and when I returned, it was off. So I pressed the power button, and it did not boot like normal.
Instead of the grey apple on the white screen, it went straight to a gray screen with a purple smiling mac icon on it... I haven't seen that since the OS 9 days.
I suspect my hard drive has KO'd on me... it's the one original to the machine. Any way I can confirm this?
Thanks for your help... and I hope I put this in the correct board.
iMac grape Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Have you tried any disk utilities, repairs, safe mode, etc? http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Rick
iMac G5 iSight 20" - 30G iPOD & Hot Pink Nano 4G - WD 500G FW - Mac OS X (10.4.8) - HP Pav 15" WS and Toshiba Sat 17" WS LP's - Canon 20D & A620 Kodak P880

Similar Messages

The circuit of my macbook is dead yet the hard drive is fine. I need to access a file from the hard drive, how can i do this? is there a cable i can connect to another mac that will let me transfer the file?

The circuit of my macbook is dead yet the hard drive is fine. I need to access a file from the hard drive, how can i do this? The mac turns on the screen freezes as bright blue. Is there a cable i can connect to another mac that will let me transfer the file?

There is another option if the Macbook will start up in Target Disk Mode.
Restart the computer while holding down the T key. If you see the firewire symbol moving around on the screen you can connect this one to another one in TDM. You will need a suitable cable to connect the two Macs.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661
Firewire symbol:

How can I erase (or remove) the hard drive from a dead Time Capsule?

How can I erase (or remove) the hard drive from a dead Time Capsule?

I found this having had the same problem...
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=553818
Having removed the hard drive I'm finding I can't reformat it. I manage to mount the HD but Disk Utility crashes when trying to format (HD attached to Mac via Newer Tech. SATA cables to USB) and causes what I think is a kernal panic on my Mac which hard crashes. I see 3 partitions when attempting to mount one of which is AFP. Anyone got any ideas about how to do this? I've dug around but the only progress I've made is to note others have had to work around ACL's when replacing the logic board of the TC. Not sure if this even relates to the problem. However the tool for doing this seems to have been removed from SL. (Forum references to this procedure all relate to 10.5).

How to wipe the hard drive on a screen-dead Powerbook G3?

The display on my 1998 G3 Wallstreet Powerbook recently went black and the computer made a noise that I understand is called The Chimes of Death, although the hard drive still makes whirring noises. My local and trustworthy Apple repair service assures me the Powerbook wouldn't be worth repairing even if they could get the parts for such an old machine.
Is there a way to wipe the hard drive and make my data irretrievable before disposing of the computer?
If there's no way to wipe the hard drive, I'd like to find out: (1) How to remove the hard drive. (2) The best way to destroy the hard drive or at least make it forever unreadable (can my shredder eat it?). (3) The correct way to dispose of a Powerbook that has heard the Chimes of Death. (From what the repair service says, I assume nobody would want it as a donation.)

Turtlewiz,
I would not be so quick to pronounce it dead:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14438
I would try the suggestions in the above article. Will it boot to a CD?
As far as wiping the drive, it is easy as long as you can see a display so you can follow the steps necessary. You just open Drive Setup in the Utilities Folder on the CD > select 'zero all data' in the Initialization Options; do it a few times if concerned.
Removing the HD is relatively easy: Just lift off the keyboard and the heat sink, then remove the HD.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/3.0.0.html
Hit the HD a few times with a hammer and nobody will bother with it...it has a glass platter.
Nothing to offer on the recycling except Good Will may still take it as "non-working" since there are Mac users looking for such bargains.

Power supply dead? Can I get at the Hard drive?

I recently had a storm which blew one of my external firewire drives (it goes on but won't mount) and when I tried using my older G4 (Quicksilver, with OS10.3.9, and Classic) to boot up in OS9 and try my Norton Utilities, the G4 froze. It did it several times. I eventually pulled the power cord. When I plugged it back it, there was a spark (at the plug in point on the G4, not the wall outlet. Since then, it won't power up.
I tried booting it up in firewire disk mode and using my Intel MacPro, but no dice.
I did a search and have seen discussion on what sounds like my same problem. I hold the power button and the light goes on, but goes right off as soon as I let go.
I tried pressing the PMU; I saw a lot of discussion about the CUDA button but it seems these are one and the same thing. I removed the small battery and tried to get a replacement but have not succeeded as yet. Though I don't think that's the problem. It might be the power supply.
Anyway, here's my question: can I use the power supply and/or battery from an even older Mac, a PPC 8600?
And, whether or not that works, can I yank the hard drive from my G4, along with a second internal drive I put in (slave) in order to get data of it? (I'll give up trying to fix the G$ itself if I can just get my files off it.
*While I'm at it, can I take apart the external firewire drive that won't mount, and get at the files on that in some way. I tried Data Rescue ll but the drive still would not mount so that was useless.
Any help on any of these will be greatly appreciated. (Yes, I do have a nice big powerful UPS but the G4 and the external were no plugged in to it).
Thanks
noodle--head grrum...PY

Hi-
To recover your hard drives and data (including the external) get yourself a housing, and insert a drive, and move data to a different computer.
You'll want a firewire external housing with the Oxford chipset. I can recommend any of the FW or FW combo housings by OWC on the following page:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/add-ons-and-hubs/enclosure-kits
You will need a QS power supply-others won't work.
If you end up wanting a power supply for the QS, check eBay, or the following:
http://www.mac-resource.com/store.php?item=6612513.PART
http://hardcoremac.stores.yahoo.net/pog4quposu34.html
As for the battery, as long as it is the same 3.6v and form factor, any will do:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BAA36VPRAM/
The Radio Shack P/N is 23-026.
G4AGP(450)Sawtooth, 2ghz PowerLogix, 2gbRAM, 300gbSATA+160gbATA, ATI Radeon 9800 Mac OS X (10.4.8) Pioneer DVR-109, ExtHD 160gb x2, 23"Cinema Display, Ratoc USB2.0, Nikon Coolscan

How can I transfer my old iTunes (playlists and all) from the hard drive of my old dead computer to the iTunes of my new one?

So my old PC died before I managed to back up my iTunes library onto DVDs. I do however have the hard drive from the old PC with all the program files, files and folders on. I also have the iPhone 4, which has my top rated playlist on but that only holds about 20% of my entire music collection on.
Is it possible to somehow find all my old iTunes music, videos, playlists, podcasts etc and transfer it into the iTunes on the new PC without losing anything?
Thanks for reading :-)

im trying to do the same. how do you
Copy the entire iTunes folder from <User's Music> on the old machine into <User's Music> on the new one?
im sorry i am totally inept when it comes to this stuff. can you walk me thru the steps to copy? please

Hard Drive DEAD for the THIRD TIME.... New Computer??

I've had this Toshiba 1 1/2 years. During that time, the hard drive has been replaced twice and is now having to be replaced a third time.
That's not all the problems it is having! It has always overheated and had to be shut down. It runs very very slow and when I try to get on the internet, I get error messages. I've gotten hundreds of error messages daily!! Tech support keeps you on the phone for hours on end, with NO answers.
Tech support also tells you one thing but does nothing!
I'm NOW being FORCED to rent a computer since my piece of junk has been down ONCE AGAIN for almost a week. The latest is that Toshiba told me they are sending me a box so that I can send the computer in BUT guess what?? No box. No answers when I call them back, they just put me on hold for another 2 hours, 3 hours, don't know!! I'm STILL on hold!!!
WARNING!! Don't buy a Toshiba! I know that I won't EVER make that mistake AGAIN!!!

I have had the same issue and after today they will not fix my comp and it is the hard drive tried to tell me it was something else and it is not so they wont honor warranty so I just went and bought a new comp i have no choice I am a full online student and already missed days and all my work. I would never buy one again and my comp only 2 weeks old brand new had first hard drive burn up it not even a year old and mother board shot and hard drive gone again and they will not fix it. Good luck.

Can the Time Capsule work if the hard drive is dead?

My Apple Time Capsule stop working yesterday. I've tried resetting it using the various tips and I even called Apple support. The light stays in the solid amber mode regardless of what I do. When I try resetting it by holding in the reset button then powering on the capsule the light will blink (not quickly though) and when I release at after any amount of seconds it returns to amber. I do hear a clicking sound (so the HD might be bad). My question is should I be able to reset it and it show up in my Airport Utility even with a bad HD?

My question is should I be able to reset it and it show up in my Airport Utility even with a bad HD?
The device needs repairs. If the hard drive is defective it can be replaced. If you don't want to replace the hard drive, it is possible to wire the Time Capsule up as a wireless router only....but a repair shop will have to do this for you.
If you have tried the Factory Default Reset a few times, unfortunately that's really all you can do at this time.

Can I swap the hard drive from MacBook Pro 17 (2009) to MacBook Pro 15 (2006)?

My MacBook Pro 17 (2009) died. Pushing the power button gets no response. I had had problems with it for some time turning it on, it usually taking many many tries. Plus when I'd try to do a restart after updating software, instead of doing so it'd shut off super quick with a *pop* sound. There was never any of the typical hard drive going bad sounds I've read about and seen in videos. Since it has refused to turn on I've gone through every suggestion I can find to get it to turn back on. Unhook the battery and try starting from just the power cord; the shorting the power pads move; some thing undoing the battery, counting to 10, and then the next steps now escape my memory, but doing more counting to 10 inbetween; unplugging the battery and leaving it sit for 2 days with no power cord plugged in either, then hook it to a power cord and turn it back on; and so many more.
Also the symptoms just before this fiasco were as follows: I had a CD in the internal drive and was browsing through the images on it via the handy previewer using the space bar. Then I decided to quite, tried ejecting the CD by dragging the icon to the trash, and nothing. I tried again. The same. Then I pushed on the eject key, with the ejct icon popping up on the screen momentarily, but still nothing. Then it appreared as though some things worked and other things were not working. In my frustration I went to the Apple menu and clicked restart with a wince knowing it was going to take forever to turn back on. It did the usual quickly off with a *pop* and made super short lame attempts to turn back on when using the power button. Of course the CD kept trying to spin for a split second and then the little indicator light on the front would go out, then no noise at all.
Since I do not believe it is the hard drive (of course I could be wrong not being a Mac nerd at all), I was wondering if I can switch the hard drive to my Macbook Pro 15 (2006)?
I tried this, but it would not read the hard drive. Just a blank grey screen. If it is possible to do this swap, what are the exact steps to do? Please answer like I'm completely illiterate on this, because I really am. I'm super scared of losing everything on the dead MacBook's hard drive. Yeah yeah, I know: then why have I not been backing things up? I had the week prior. Believe me I WILL be doing it daily from now on if I get this mess straightened out!
Here are the specs for each MacBook Pro:
Name: MacBook Pro 17 (info gained from the serial on the bottom and then looked up online)
Model: A1297
Model Code: mbp_17_early_09
CPU Type: Intel Core 2 Duo
CPU Speed: 2.8GHz
RAM Type: DDR3 PC8500 SODIMM 1066MHz
RAM Slots: 2
Max RAM by Slot: 2 x 4GB
Maximum RAM: 8GB
RAM Pairing: Modules may be installed individually
Hard Drive Connection: SATA 300
Hard Drive Platter Size: 2.5"
Device Connectivity: USB 2.0, FireWire 800
Video Output (base graphics option): Mini DisplayPort
Expansion Slots: ExpressCard/34
Max Operating System Version: 10.6.8 (I believe that is what was last on the computer)
Name:    MacBook Pro 15" (retrieved from the System Profiler on this Mac)
Model Identifier:    MacBookPro2,2
Processor Name:    Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:    2.33 GHz
Number Of Processors:    1
Total Number Of Cores:    2
L2 Cache:    4 MB
Memory:    3 GB
Bus Speed:    667 MHz
Boot ROM Version:    MBP22.00A5.B07
SMC Version (system):    1.12f5

OGELTHORPE really sorry to keep bugging you, but it's obvious you know what you are talking about and I'm stuck on thin ice here getting this fixed, because there are no authorized Apple reps here. I would rather shoot myself for messing up, then to trust someone who "says" they can fix my Mac down here.
I checked out a company owned by ebay that is the same down here, called MercadoLibre. There are quite a few adapters listed there. I'd like to give you links for some and was wondering if you minded taking a look to tell me if any seem to fit the bill. Some have specs in English, others don't. (Google translater is my friend!)
#1. http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-415826915-adaptador-usb-a-ide-y-sata-con -cables-y-fuente-envio-gratis-_JM
#2. http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-416270876-usb-20-to-ide-sata-25-35-hard- drive-_JM#D[S:HOME,L:HISTORY,V:1]
#3. http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-416384859-adaptador-usb-20-a-sataide-_JM
#4. http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-415596152-adaptador-usb-20-para-sata-e-i de-manhattan-_JM
#5. http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-416061182-adaptador-de-usb-a-sata-o-ide- 3525-con-fuente-externa-_JM
#6. http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-416061069-convertidor-usb-20-a-sata-hdd- 25-soporta-hasta-1tb-_JM
These are all cost effective enough that I don't care the price - cheap, expensive - whichever will work the BEST!
I've also looked for the 7200 rpm HDD, and although I found some, I'll be danged if they are not 3.0, instead of the 2.5 that I have. Grrrr! I was willing to spend the $90 for 1tb... or being the non-techie that I am, can this 3.0 go into my 2006 MBP??
Just so you can see what all is listed right now:
http://listado.mercadolibre.com.uy/7200-rpm-hdd-2.5-macbook-pro
Another newbie question: How do I check what the amount if RAM is presently installed in it? (I might be a greenhorn, but I take pride in not being a dumbie and I learn when taught)
Right now, I'm willing to spend almost anything. I want a few files that are on the HDD at the moment that I was stupid and did not backup on my external. One file I worked on all day due to the dimensions I had to design it at and each effect took a long time to render. I really don't want to do that one again!.. I'm also willing to spend anything that won't cost me the price of a new iMac. Figure that should be the next one I buy that is affordable, but won't be overworked like the MBP was.
Once again, thanks much for all of your help!

My macbook 13 inch late 2007 model got soaked in wine I bought a pro to replace it , I want to use my hard drive on it as an external , I already purchased the case , now the motherboard I understand gets bad but not the hard drive , right?

my macbook 13 inch late 2007 model got soaked in wine I bought a pro to replace it , I want to use my hard drive froom the old one on the macbook pro and use it as an external , I already purchased the case , now the motherboard I understand gets bad but not the hard drive , right? but everything else still is in there right. ?
I got my case from owc computing
thye used a cloner last time I got the hard drive from them , but the apple had to be working. and now it's just not going to turn on wine is sticky forget about
no worries I enjoyed it for 6 years could have gone longer I have all this extra gig ram memory, and a new digital drive for ith had broke
all I want it my hard drive available at owc and make it a usb drive and acc3sss my stutt ? thansk any ideas and also on how I could sell or use the parts I can salvage, and yay my new pro ix 17 inches silver sleek full ms office i life and i work. included 389 awesome price , no need for new this does awesome . rather than buying an optical drive for 200.00 I got a new computer to me and better for a lot less.
I am gratefful , just please help on the hard drive question as external ,
thanks
just didnt want to make this sound like a sob sitiuation and also inspire others what can be done.
and I then will be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard and i life 2011.

Well as I suspected I love OWC company I pulled out the mac hard drive , they offered me a Macdrive free trial program to check your drive on PC Windows and yesSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS it all there nothing lost
woohooooo , thank you but nothing is dead, when you have faith , this was a prayer answered big time I wanted a pro so much and I get to use my 500 plust 250 plus 120 GB drives all of them
ladies and gentlemen and I get to keep the 2 GB in from my macbook 13 inch and sell all the parts
yipeee
thanks for the support, now the case is Solved. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a brand new Mac book pro one month old and the hard drive died. Right before it died I was down loading pictures off a memory card and now they aren't on my memory card! They are wedding pictures I took for a friend and irreplaceable! Please help!!

I had a one month old Mac book pro and the hard drive fried! I was down loading a friends wedding pictures when it stopped working and started heating up. I plugged it in and turned it off as it was making a clicking noise. When I turned it back on the was a grey box with a question mark and nothing else. When I took my memory card out the pictures were gone. I took it back to best buy where I bought it and they said it was dead, needed a new hard drive and all my info is lost! Is there any way to get back those irreplaceable wedding pictures?

There are some data recovery programs (software). I would look into that for the images on the card. When files are deleted, the files are still there, just the headers are removed. That being said, a format of the card or new files written to the card can overwrite deleted files.
The physical hard drive could be thousands of dollars to forensically save, with no guarantee.

My Time Capsule "went Kaput" but I "think" the Hard Drive is ok.

I took the hard drive out and plugged into an enclosure and it shows up as two items;
An AWS swap and AWS swapconfiguration. I click on it and it doesnt show anything.
Perhaps its format is different than a normal one.
Can anyone give me advice on how to read the files so I can save some of them?
Thanks,
Skip

So I've spent the day wondering what tack to take with this thing. I'm not clear on why it would disable the WiFi connectivity but that's what happened with the first one too. I can't imagine paying to recover 1TB of data so I was trying to figure someting else out.
1. I thought about ripping her open to take out the drive but what then of the router part? Will that be useable any longer?
2. I thought about trying to connect the TC to my iMac and attempt downloading files from the disc direct, if that were even possible, but I was assuming I'd need a crossover ethernet cable, which I had--once--but couldn't locate.
3. I tried daisychaining a USB through some other externals to the iMac but that didn't work.
4. However I had it in the back of my mind that TM created some sort of proprietary file system when backing up to TC and that they wouldn't be available anyway. Reading above I can't tell if I was right or wrong in that supposition.
Anyway, you all sound like a clever bunch. What would be the best approach to take here? I ordered myself a Netgear router from Amazon as a back up just in case. (I can return it within 30 days if I don't use it)
5. Is it possiblle to remove the drive and just use the TC as a router?
6. I can't tell you what itereation of TC this is. The drive isn't being recognized so I can't get any info on it. It's at least from 2010, I should think. I think it may be a 3rd gen and my first one a 2nd gen but that would only be a guess.
Sorry to go on...
I have added some numbering to help answer.
Let me start with number 6 because it matters.
6. Get the model number off the rubber base mat.. it is A1xxx .. you may need strong glasses to read it.
It can make a huge difference if it is gen2 or gen3.
1. You can remove the drive.. the TC then becomes an airport extreme. But the power supply might be dead.. particularly if it is gen2.
2. You do not use cross-over cables anymore.. and haven't for several years. All networking is now auto sensing. And yes, if the disk still works then plug in TC to the computer by standard ethernet patch cable direct to the computer. You might need to factory reset to get it going.
3. USB is only for disk and printer connection to the TC. You cannot link to TC via USB.
4. The file system of the TC is standard Mac HFS+.. but the sparsebundle is not directly readable.. you need to use TM to get the files out of it.. that is possible even with hard disk out of the TC.. if the disk still works. See Pondini http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html Q14-17 on how to get info out of the TM sparsebundle and Q18 on how to move the files.
5. Yes, we covered that one.
Basically you have to pull off the rubber peice on the bottom- its a pain- you wind up ripping it off.
Heat the rubber mat with a heat gun or even just a hair dryer on highest heat lowest fan setting.. heat for a good 5min and then slowly peel.. the glue will all come up with the mat.. keep heating if it catches. I have never ripped one.. (repaired around 100 of them if I heated the mat).
Best instructions for disassembly here.
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Apple_Time_Capsule
It includes the use of heatgun.

I have removed the hard drive from my laptop and connected it to my netbook as an external drive. Now, I can't find or acces my saved Firefox bookmarks on the external drive. How do I get it to display like it did on the original laptop?

Now that I am using it as an external drive, how do I get the harddrive I removed from my laptop to display like it did when it was still in the laptop , when I connect it to a new computer?. I can't locate my Firefxox bookmarks that I originally saved to the HD when it was in the laptop. The laptop is dead but fortunately I was able to salvage the hard drive. I Need help urgently since I have tons of bookmarked pages and saved passwords that are critical to my work and life. The original laptop that the HD came from has a Windows Vista OS. The netbook I connect the HD to uses Windows XP.
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== when I converted laptop HD to an external drive.

See this:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile

Is the hard drive bad on my (mid) 2009 macbook pro?

First, the problem started when my macbook was stuck on the spinning wheel. I restarted the computer, but the grey apple logo page would appear with a loading bar at the bottom. Once the loading bar got to a certain point, the macbook would automatically turn off. I did some reading on here and tried some things that I thought would help. I erased and partitioned the hard drive, reset PRAM, and then tried to reinstall mountain lion. It successfully downloaded mountain lion, but it wouldn't begin to install it. Then, I tried to install snow leopard from the disc. It seemed to be working until about halfway through when I received an error message that read something about the disk being damaged and not repairable. I then verified the disk and it said HD appeared to be ok. Now, when I restart my computer without the snow leopard disc all that shows up is a grey screen with a folder and question mark. I can't bring up the disk utility page because the command+r isn't working nor holding down the option key. Also, safe mode would never come up before and after I did the erasing and partitioning. Any ideas on what's wrong?

Your HDD or the internal connection cable may have failed. If you have a HDD enclosure, take the internal HHD out and install it into the enclosure. Use the original install disk and see if you can install the OS. If not, the HDD is probably dead and will have to be replaced. If it will accept the OS, then the internal cable is faulty and will have to be replaced.
Ciao.

Is my ipod hard drive dead?

since yesterday i have been having problem restoring my ipod.
when i restore my ipod through itune the restore goes somewhat fine ipod reboots, apple with progress bar then the plain apple logo and it stays there for 5-10 min and goes to do not disconnect and does not appear in itunes.
at this point i use windows to safely remove the ipod after which it takes about another min for the ipod to pull up the language selection screen.
then when i plug it back in it takes around another 5 min to show up in itunes (does'nt matter is itunes is open or closed) or itune may not open at all but the ipod still appears in My Computer.
when he ipod does finally appear in itunes i get the name screen like normal and i go though setting what music to sync like always but during the sync i get a -69 error.
to note my mp3s are all good and it doesn't fail at any consistent point. fails to sync at random intervals.
overall the ipod operates very slowly and i can't sync to it at all.
my guess is the hard drive is dead/dying.
i have done every re-install, file removal, and reset trick i could find including putting the ipod into disk mode. nothing works
NOTES:
iPod is 5th gen with video 30GB 2006 ver. (also when i got it)
no warranty anymore.
what i want to know is if my ipod needs repair and how much it will cost

well i am pretty sure the hard drive is dead.
my disk checks indicate alot of bad sectors.
so does anyone know how much a repair will cost?
i really like this 30GB the new classic models start at 80GB and cost $250 which is too expensive and i have no need for such space. my entire collection only spans between 7-8GB and i don't even keep a third of that on my ipod right now its only 271 songs. however 30GB offered plenty of future expansion room so thats why i got it.
so does anyone have any info?
NOTE: i am also curious about the SDRAM test output in my last post. could there be another problem with me ipod too?

Is the hard drive dead?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for