My iMac ( Summer 2010 ) internal Hard Drive failing.. It's a Seagate 500GB HDD.

My new iMac ( summer 2010 - July 2010 ) internal Hard Drive is failing..
1) sometimes the imac can't see the hard drive to boot from..
      it would stay in the grey screen ..
2) sometimes the imac boots up after a cold start.
     but some applications such as Safari would die or crash on me.
      I think the file system on the mac is corrupted.
I believe that the internal hard drive is failing..
I can boot up from the external firewire 800 hard drives fine..
The internal hard drive:
Model:   ST3500418AS
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 3Gb/s 500GB Hard Drive

Why not starting from the external HDD, and then do a "Repair Disk" of the Seagate.
If that does not help buy a new HDD, put it in and clone the latest external disk to it :
When you have two external disks, make a clone of the Seagate on the one that does not have the latest backup, because the Seagate may fail while doing the cloning. Use Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper.

Similar Messages

I'm an avid Mac enthusiast who works in a creative field. However, I simply cannot afford a new Mac after my old one's internal hard drive failed. Can anyone recommend an affordable Mac option? I don't want to consider a non-Apple product.

I'm an avid Mac enthusiast who works in a creative field. However, I simply cannot afford a new Mac after my old one's internal hard drive failed. Can anyone recommend an affordable Mac option? I don't want to consider a non-Apple product.

Macs with a FireWire port will also boot happily from an External drive. You don't even need to open the MacBook.
Some users buy a drive they would like to have as a future Internal drive, and also buy an external enclosure. They get the External set up the way they want it, then swap with the Internal drive.

Internal hard drive fails to mount in Disk Utility.

My internal hard drive fails to mount in Disk Utility for the past year, so I cannot verify it. However, it does mount in Disk Warrior. (1) I am concerned that it will not mount within the Apple software, and what that bodes for my computer. (2) I also have MANY spinning beach balls daily and have to use the power button to reboot. I just bought extra Crucial RAM and have yet to install it. Somehow, I don't think it wil help my issue # 1 though. Please advise, anyone out there! Thank you.

No, there are never any errors like that. Also, I have upgraded the Mac OS from 10.5 to 10.6.8. That did nothing. I backed up my Users = Christina folders to a good, 15 year old Firewire 800 La Cie 1 TB external hard drive. I also tested using the Apple Hardware test, which showed no problems, and Alsoft's Disk Warrior and defragged, and fixed a very minor issure re directory count, probably resulting from many improper shutdowns lately due to frozen spinning beach balls. None of these procedures alleviated the issues, and I still have the same issues: mainly that super-frequent spinning beach ball. Do you think I ought to install that new RAM sitting here finally? Perhaps it is a lack of RAM??I only have 2 lousy GB's of RAM after all! Thank you so very much for a reply.
Message was edited by: Flamingcreatures

24" iMac not recognizing internal hard drive..

end of '07 iMac 24" 2.4GHz
I have been having problems with this iMac since day 1... I'm kind of fed up with it at this point BUT I would like to get it working at least.
PROBLEM: Yesterday I was working on the ol' iMac and I walked away, the computer fell asleep and when I got back to wake it up it seemed a little off. I restarted and thats when the magic happened. I got the question mark of death. Didn't think it was an issue since I've gotten it in the past. Usually I restart again, maybe reset PRAM, and its fine. Orrrr if that doesnt work I use the Snow Leopard disc or Disk Warrior and it'll work fine. Yesterdays problem was more unique.
Disc Utility, Disk Warrior, etc are not even recognizing the internal hard drive at all. Nothing. Like it doesn't even exist. When you try and set the start up disk, it's missing from the list. It doesn't make any noise, nothing. It worked fine 5 minutes before that.
Any ideas? or is it time for the ol' Apple repair shop? Could it be just the drive or something more serious? Luckily I have a time machine and everything should be backed up incase of the worst scenario.
Any help would be great. thanks.

It sounds like the drive has failed, you can try starting it with the install disc it came with and trying to repair the disk. The instructions for doing that are:
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install or Restore disc.
2. Restart the computer, then hold the C key during startup.
3. From the Apple menu, choose Disk Utility. Do this in the first screen of the Installer. Don't click 4. Continue. If you click Continue in a Mac OS X Installer version earlier than 10.2, you must restart from CD again.
5. Click the First Aid tab.
6. Click Repair Disk.
7. After repairing the disk, try to start from the Mac OS X hard disk.
If the drive still cannot be seen then make an appointment with an AASP.
Regards,
Roger

Both Internal hard drives fail on Macbook Pro late-2011

Both internal hard drives (SSD and HDD) failed on Macbook Pro late-2011.
Setup: MBP closed with Thunderbolt display attached.
Problem on HDD-A
I called Apple Support to log an issue with my MBP2011. The system is made up of 2 drives - SSD (128GB) and HDD with 2 partitions HDD-A and HDD-B(original 750GB).
HDD-A has LionOSX 10.7 and HDD-B is storage. SSD has LionOSX on it as well. I normally boot HDD-A.
I was working on HDD-A and the Kernel Panic screen appeared prompting me to shutdown the machine and start it up again.
I tried to reboot HDD-A and the grey progress bar appeared for a long time. I then forced shutdown and rebooted into SSD.
I was able to boot from SSD and then I opened Disk Utility to check the drives. I verified the disk for HDD-A and there was an error. I then tried to repair disk and it couldn't repair it. A dialogue said the disk could not be repaired and that data should be backed up.
HDD-A was not visible in Finder but HDD-B was accessible.
I verified HDD-B and it was "ok".
I shutdown, booted from SSD, disk utility HDD-A and the same message occurred.
I called Apple Support and they advised that I boot from my external HDD which was a clone of HDD-A.
Solution
I was successfully able to boot from the Clone HDD-A.
HDD-A was able to be accessed and I could retrieve the files from HDD-A.
I copied over the latest files from HDD-A to an external drive.
Same Problem on SSD
Boot from SSD, i started working for about 3 hours, with the lid closed, and attached to the ACD.
Kernel Panic screen happened again on the SSD.
Couldn't boot boot from either SSD or HDD-A.
I booted from Cloned HDD-A, Disk Utility verify and repair returned errors on SSD. The same issue had occurred on the second drive.
Disk Recovery from a boot recovery USB thumb, Disk Utility, erased SSD, verify was ok.
Tried to install then there was an install error saying that SSD was damaged (large triangle warning icon). Tried 3 times, failed.
Boot from Recovery Drive HDD-A, downloaded LionOSX.
Next steps
Format HDD-A and HDD-B into 2 partitions
Install LionOSX on HDD A.
Note:
I did not do any software updates for about a week before 14.04.2012 and suspect it might be due to the virus.
I normally work with the lid closed and attached to the ACD, I also suspect that overheating caused both drives to fail. However, I have been using this system with the lid closed for atleast a week. One Kernel Panic screen occured.

Depending on what you are doing on the computer, how hard you are working the computer, it should not overheat. And if it does it should shut down or get very slow because when it starts to overheat the CPU will be throttled back to a lower Ghz speed and or just shut down so it doesn't cause damage to the CPU. The Kernel Panics are a sign that something else is going on. This could be software or hardware.
If after wiping the drives and reinstall Lion on the SSD if the system is running OK then the drives are fine, IE they are not bad. There is something else corrupting them. Again this could be hardware or software, but I doubt it is heat. And using the MBP ion clamshell mode should not cause overheating or excessive heating of either of the drives.
Have you installed iStat Pro or Menu and kept and eye on the temps? If not install iStat Pro and keep and eye on the temps. I bet they do not get above the 150°- 180°F mark which although hot is not overheating.
Be very careful when calling Apple. Removing the DVD drive and installing a hard drive in that bay could void your warranty. The DVD is not a User Removable part and Apple frowns on doing that. So if you call them do not mention that you have replaced the DVD drive with another HDD.
Honestly I suspect you have a hardware problem. But the only way to know that is to install just Lion and your basic programs and run the system. Leave out any AV type software, if you are running some. If you don't get any kernel panics thenn install some of your other software, one programm at a time. If with just the OS and basic software you get a kernel panic then it is hardware related and needs to be checked out by Apple. If you do that re-install the DVD and the original HDD with just the OS on it before you take it in.

Internal hard drive failed - install Mac OS X on external firewire?

Hi, hope someone can help me.
The other day my internal hard drive in my MacBook started to click. I did a hardware test, and the drive now doesn't show up at all, either in the test or when I go to install Mac OS X.
Is it possible to buy an external Firewire hard drive, and install Mac OS X on it, even though the internal hard drive isn't recognised?
Here is the external hard drive I was going to buy http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Premium-External-Firewire/dp/B000F6SGB4/ ref=sr11/203-7120413-7742330?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1174334464&sr=1-1
Also, is there any thing else I need to know before I do this...
I need to boot from an external hard drive as I cannot go to an Apple store to get it fixed and I am not really in a position to send it off for repair, as I am at Uni.
Thanks for your help!

You need to call AppleCare Support and get the hard drive replaced. None of the MacBooks are a year old yet, so they're all still covered by the original one year warranty. This sounds like a problem that should be covered, why bother with an external drive? If you're not willing to be without it, yes, you can install Mac OS X to a FireWire or USB 2.0 hard drive and run your MacBook from that.
-Doug
P.S. If I were you, I'd spend the extra £15 and get the 320GB version of that drive. I'd get as big of a drive as you can!

IMac G5: Is my hard drive failing?

I have an iMac G5 that I've had for less than a year (shipped April 16 2005). It's a 1.8 Ghz PowerPC G5, with 1GB DDR SDRAM, and 250 GB hard drive. The machine model is PowerMac8.1. I'm running OS 10.4.6.
I've been having reliability issues starting 5 months after I got the machine. I'm quite dismayed with this; I've been using Macs for years and have been happy to pay the high Apple prices for the ease of use and reliability of the machines. Every other Mac I've had, I've used for at least 3 years (that includes two that were used when I got them), then gave to someone else who got several more years use after I upgraded. I've heard that the iMac G5s have overheating problems and a high failure rate, and am concerned that I've gotten one of the lemon machines. I've got to say that I'm really missing my iMac G4.
Here's a history of my ongoing iMac G5 woes:
Fan runs loudly (pretty much since I first got the machine).
October 2005: Kernal panic -> Apple replaced logic board. The repair techs also overtightened and stripped the screws holding the back of the chassis on.
February 2006: Machine begins to sporadically make a rhythmic noise (this sounds like "tongky tongky tongky". The noise sounds like something internal and mechanical (i.e., not a weird speaker noise output), and comes from the left side of the machine (where the hard drive is). When the noise happens, it becomes impossible to click on any OS X functionality, including the desktop, shutdown or restart. However, the screen is not frozen; I can move the cursor, but get the spinning icon. Restarting the computer using the power button rescues this behavior.
3/20/06: Boot from Tiger update disk, run Disk Utility Program. Did "repair disk"-> "Volume Header" needed minor repair. Did "repair disk permissions".
3/21/06: do chat with techs (2 sessions). Tech suggests pressing the SMU button inside (which I'm not altogether comfortable with, as the machine is heavy for me), and also suggests booting from the Apple Hardware Test disk and running the hardware test. This proves to be impossible; after booting while holding down either the "C" or "option" key (I tried both), the cursor would be unresponsive (stuck in the upper left corner of the screen). I'm using a non-Apple trackball instead of a mouse (but could run the HTD last fall when I had the logic board failure using the exact same trackball).
3/22/06: spoke with AppleCare tech. He also suggests pressing the SMU key. This time I try it, only to find that the screws had been stripped when the logic board was replaced in October, and that I can't remove the back the chassis. He then suggests that I run the Tech Tools disc that came with AppleCare. I do so; it takes about 6 hours. The report resulting says that everything passed. However, when I restart the machine, I get a grey screen with a black square with text saying that I must restart the machine (this is the same screen I got when I had the repeated kernal panics in October). I was able to boot from the Tech Tools disc, and ran it again. THis time it ran much faster, however, I still couldn't restart the machine. I also couldn't eject the Tech Tools disc. I made another call to AppleCare the next day. The tech who answered said it definitely sounded like a hardware problem, and suggested that I take it in for repair.
3/25/06: I take the machine in to the Apple Store at the Cambridgeside Galleria. The Genius is able to start the machine from an external drive, but can't access my hard drive. I leave the machine for repair, and retrieve it on April 3.
4/03/06: The repair techs wipe the hard drive, reinstall the operating system, and replace the chassis. They say they can't reproduce the problem. I bring the machine home, and restore some of my files from my external backup drive. Within 4 hours, the rhythmic "tongky tongky" noise and accompanying crash recur. I restart and get another crash with 20 minutes.
4/04/06: I call AppleCare; the tech refers me to someone higher up. She has me boot from the Hardware Test Disk. I again have the frozen cursor problem. She talks me through running it using keyboard commands. Two hours later, my computer passes all the tests. She say there must be a problem with how I have my preferences set, and suggests creating a new user (which I haven't yet figured out how to do), and to keep track of when the machine crashes again, and what programs I'm running.
4/10/06, 10:15 PM: Machine starts making a different noise (again from the left side). This time it's a slower ticking, more a clicking noise. I have open: Safari, Firefox, Mail and Preview (I will note that I had not downloaded and installed Firefox before the earlier crashes); I'm also connected to the external drive via FireWire. I restart the machine successfully.
At this point I'm noticing some other odd behaviors:
I have to force-quit Mail (i.e., quitting from the pull-down menu doesn't work, nor does quitting from the dock)
• The machine goes to sleep after a few minutes of being idle (I have the "start screen saver" time set for one hour)
• The screen saver does not come one when the machine puts itself to sleep; it goes straight to the black screen
• The machine wakes up slowly, and programs open slowly, and sometimes respond slowly (I have a gig of RAM).
• Image icons show only the application icon, not a thumbnail of the image (I saw thumbnails before the most recent repair).
4/13/0, 3:46 PM: Sudden start of "tongky tongky" noise. I have open Safari, Firefox, Mail, Preview and Quicktime (the latter two have no documents open). Again, I can't shut down from the menu, and have to use the power button.
3:54 PM: "tongky tongky" noise recurs, this time interspersed with a "whirr-click" noise. I discover that I actually can shut down the machine from the menu bar; it turns out that the response is very slow...it takes minutes to respond to a command.
5:00PM: "tongky tongky" noise recurs. I'm running Safari, FireFox and Mail. I don't do anything, and it resolves for a while.
5:30 PM: No weird noises, but nothing but the cursor works. I can't click between different open windows. I power down using the power button at 5:33.
11:30 PM: Machine makes ticking and whirring sounds (again from the left side). The machine's response is very slow when this is happening. I'm running FireFox and Safari.
I'm now noticing a few more weirdnesses: RealPlayer flies now have a blank white rectangle icon, rather than a RealPlayer icon. Also, I can no longer play music samples on Amazon (neither RealPlayer nor Windows Media Player). I know these are both minor issues, but it's still yet another functionality that my machine has lost since early March.
I strongly suspect that my hard drive is failing. Do my problems sound like they might be due to something else? However, I can't seem to get the AppleCare or Apple Geniuses to acknowledge that I have a hardware problem. Am I likely to have a better service experience if I take my machine to an Apple-authorized dealer other than the Apple store?
Thanks for any advice you can offer!
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Thanks for the answer. I've been backing up my data all along. The Apple Care phone support people have been insisting that it must be a software problem because of the extended hardware test showing no errors. When I took my machine to the Apple Care store, they only wiped the hard drive, reinstalled the OS, and replaced the chassis that had been damaged in an earlier Apple Store service visit.
I forgot to mention that I've also replaced one of the RAM cards (which failed the EHT in October, when the logic board also failed), so I'm now on my third problem. I've done a bit more examination of the machine, and I'm fairly sure I've got a Rev A iMac. The serial number falls within the range of the ones that had problems, though mine aren't the ones described on the info page.
I've been trying the Apple Care suggested solution of creating a new user (the last Apple Care person I spoke to insisted that the problem was created by some bad preferences). I haven't yet had another experience of the "tongky" noise followed by the response slowing to a crawl, but I do hear an ominous single click several times a day. Response times continue to be sluggish (again, I have a GB of memory), and the machine continues to go to sleep after about 5-10 minutes of being idle (I'm currently set for one hour), with the screen saver never coming on.
I guess my bottom line question is what exactly do I say to Apple Care to convince them that I've got a hardware problem and get them to replace the hard drive?

I have a 13in MacBook Pro from mid 2010, the hard drive failed or s i thought, I put a new one in and it didn't work, so I put those 2 hard drives in a friends Mac and they worked just fine. The Mac still turns on but won't discover the drive

The Mac turns on, says it can't see the drive. Any ideas as to what is causing this, I'm thinking its the cable, are these easy to come buy? And would this even be the answer?

Yes it is the Cable. Replace it and you will be Good To Go.
jacobfrommarshall wrote:
The Mac turns on, says it can't see the drive. Any ideas as to what is causing this, I'm thinking its the cable, are these easy to come buy? And would this even be the answer?

What brands and type can I use for my iMac 20" internal Hard Drive?

what brands and type can I use for my iMac 20" aluminium internal Hard Drive?
can I use WD caviar black?
is it too hot?

If you are replacing the drive because the existing one is faulty, that's one thing. If you just want more space, you should take advantage of having a decently fast and relatively small capacity drive in there now (instead of a huge drive). Get an external FireWire drive and off-load most of your user data there. Make your internal drive dedicated to mostly your OS and app files, with plenty of free space. That setup will make your iMac run more efficiently. I won't go into more detail, because I'm not answered your specific question... You can post back with any questions, if interested...
To answer your questions...
You should be able to use any SATA 3.5-inch drive internally, but you should probably keep it at or under 1TB. The main concerns are power usage and heat dissipation. A drive like the WD Caviar Green would be ideal in terms of power and heat, but they do have slower (or variable) spin rate. I have one as an external drive (750GB) and it is amazingly quiet and cool. If I had to replace the internal drive because the current drive failed, I'd put it inside. I'll trade a bit of pure performance for the efficiency (including low noise), and these drives are more advanced with higher data density and larger cache, so the trade-off from slower spin rate may not be so bad.
You can check your current drive's model number (which is shown in System Profiler) to get the specs online. The stock drive in my old +Late 2006+ iMac is a 7200 RPM drive. The Caviar Black is a 7200 RPM drive, with a newer design. So if you want to use a Caviar Black in there, I think it would be OK.

Time Machine not backing up both internal hard drives on 2011 iMac?

I have a 2011 iMac with two internal hard drives---a 2TB HDD and 256GB solid state.
I plugged in a 3TB FW800 external to use with Time Machine.
Based on adding up the used space from both drives as seen in disk utility (totalling 1537.36 GB), it doesn't appear that Time Machine is backing everything up (total backup of 1.49 TB).
Any ideas?
Thank you,
Taylor

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
sudo tmutil compare
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
Files that you’ve excluded from backup, or that are excluded automatically, are ignored.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

Time Machine Problem - New Internal Hard Drive, Now Backup Takes Hours

Need some help!
Background.
Almost 4 year old 24" aluminum iMac; 4 gb ram; 500 gb hard drive; OS 10.6.8.
About 2 months after Alpple Care expired, the internal hard drive failed (New Year's Eve of all times!). Everything else working great.
Had a Mac technician I know install a new 750 gb drive for me. I cloned back from SuperDuper, and was ready to go. The SuperDuper external is 1.5 TB, partitioned - one half TM, the other half SuperDuper.
All apps, internet, mail - fine.
I hooked up my existing Time Macinne (probably not a good idea), and the next backup failed.
Did some research, and since I have plenty of archived backup anyway, decided that the best thing to do would be to erase the TM external, and start fresh.
Did that, and as expected, first backup took a couple hours.
The Problem.
Now, every incremental backup takes 4 to 5 hours, even if no data has changed.
"Indexing" lasts for 45 minues; "Backing Up" reads 600,000 plus files, which also goes on for 30 or 40 minutes (approx.), and wants to Calculate changes etc forever; then the actual backup starts out at 10 kb, and in 20 minutes is at 30 kb and then after about an hour I start getting into gbs and the blue bar progresses pretty fast after that. Then "Finishing Up" takes approximately 2 - 3 hours.
Not right. :~(
What I've Done to Toubleshoot.
First, I re-erased the TM external.
Then reset PRAM and did an SMC reset on the iMac.
Then backed up to TM again. The same problem persisted.
So next, I repeated that process (other than backing up), and I also deleted from the Root Library/Preferences com.apple.timemachine.plist, and from Home/Library/Preferences deleted com.apple.finder.plist. Then rebboted the iMac. Then I did a Disk Utility verify of the empty external - all was/is fine. Then I ran DiskWarrior on the iMac and all was fine; repaired permissions on the iMac from DiscWarrior as well. Then, I did another TM backup to the external, which took a couple hours since it was backing up to an empty drive.
Next 3 incremental backups still take 4 to 5 hours, even if nothing has changed on theiMac.
The Request.
Please if anyone can give me some easy to understand step by step options I might try to get TM working correctly again, it will be most appreciated.
If I've left out any details that might assist, please also let me know.
The problem computer is at home and I'm at work, so if any logs are needed, I can post those later today (but in that event, please tell me exactly which log to post and how to isolate it from System Profiler or Console (as there are many logs to choose from and I want to provide the proper info if someone needs to see a log to assist)).
Thanks in advance!

Pondini,
Did every step in D2 (green box) - except did not reinstall Combo Updater which I did late last night.
After that, did a TM backup - started at 6:15.
All apps were off.
Sequence of events and facts:
At start, 434.03 0f 500.1 GB available on the external TM
Last backup shown - 7:58 AM; Oldest Back Up - Yesterday at 9:56 (that's the 1st backup after I reinitialized the external for the 2nd or 3rd time trying to get this thing figured out)
Upon starting and doing the backup -
Preparing 250,000 (approx.) items (too quick to get the final number) - Parenthetically, this AM it was over 600,000; probably has to do with turning off Spotlight per your D2 instructions
Next message -
Backing Up 6.96 GB
Hung at 2 kb to 90 kb for 20 minutes before progressing
Ultimately, at 1.78 GB the progress bar started moving rapidly (as it should) - so this isn't a cable connection issue - the Backup phase took 22 minutes, but from 1.78 GB to 6.96 GB took only a few seconds; I have seen this precise same sequence repeatedly the past 2 days
Next - Backing Up (the candy cane blue and white progress bar) - Preparing 140,000 items - took 12 minutes
Now shows 426.95 GB available on the external
Next - Backing Up (no count of items shown) - started at 7:05 and went until 7:45 (40 minutes)
Next - Finishing Backup (blue/white candy cane progress bar; no count of items shown) - started at 7:45 - went until sometime after 8:15 (can't give a precise time because I need to sit down and eat :~) )
Backup completed (between bites of chicken) at 8:23.
Over 2 hours - something isn't right.
Also, TM Prefs tells me that the Latest Backup was at 7:44 - odd.
Anyway - to take a step further, here's the TM Buddy widget info you might need:
Successful Backup: 02:06:32.
There is no log entry or data showing.
Just as I sent this, a new backup started, and it appears to be going through the same routine, from Preparing ....
Gotta eat.
Please post any further instructions and I'll do what I can tonight.
Thanks!
What is the problem? How do I speed this mother up?
Thanks!

Itunes Library New Internal Hard Drive

2009 iMac 27' OSX 10.6.8
I bought an external hard and moved the iTunes media folder location and all media via Preference/Advanced/Change... blah blah blah. Worked great.no problems and all new iTunes media downloads and media additions were going to my external hard drive... all was well. . However, shortly thereafter my internal hard drive failed (I had no other back up other than just iTunes media). After Apple gets done installing a new hard drive, what is the process to get the computer to recognize that iTunes library and all the media is on the external hard drive and all downloads to continue going to the external hard drive?

If you did it the way you said you did it then your "library" (namely the library.itl file) was still on the internal drive and only the media was on the external drive. This is not the way to move a library to the external drive but it's too late to say that now. So, your library file (with playlists, ratings, playcount) as such is lost unless you had a separate backup. All you have left are the media files and you'll need to start with a brand new library file. If you hold the option key down while starting Tunes you can tell it to make this in a folder called "iTunes" on the external drive, so in future it will all be together.
Realize it could just have well have been your external that failed completely and you would have lost all your media. I know in my case many of these can never be replaced. You should consider getting a second external drive large enough to back up your computer and your media drive. You have been warned!
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html

Can i use seagate goflex 3tb external hard drive for 2010 27" imac internal hard drive replacment if i take it out of the goflex case.do i need to format it before installation due to it allready having goflex software on it from manufacturer.

i have 3tb seagate goflex external hard drive.its brand new in package.i took it out of case and deleted partitions that were created by manufacturer.so now i have 2800 gigs.its formatted ntfs.will it work for late 2010 27" imac internal hard drive replacement.i found a apple repair place that will charge me 50$ to swap drives for me assuming i have the drive.i will have to install leopard myself at this price.i dont want to have to pay for anything other than the swap.will this hard drive work with this format or do i need to format it differently.

Hello
formatted ntfs
NTFS format not work on mac system , need to be formatted as Extended Mac os Journaled format and partition table need to be GUID
how to do that in video
HTH
Pierre

I downloaded all into a new external hard drive because my internal hard drive was failing. then got internal hard drive replaced by Apple Store. Now when I try to sync IPAD or IPhone to IMAC, photos will not transfer. Why? What shall I do?

Trying to download photos from IPHONE, IPAD to IPHOTO in IMAC after installing new hard drive. Before getting new Hard drive, I downloaded all into external hard drive. photos did not download!

Trying to download photos from IPHONE, IPAD to IPHOTO in IMAC after installing new hard drive.
How did you import the photos to iPad and iPhone?
If the photos have been synced to the iPhone and iPad using iTunes, you cannot sync them back.
See this document: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4236
You can't reimport pictures synced from your computer to your device back to your computer. You can only import pictures in the Camera Roll or Saved Photos from your device to your computer. If you need to retrieve synced photos from your device:
If your photos are not in the Camera Roll on your devices, save them to the Camera Roll, share them to the Photo Stream, mail the photos, or, if you have iPhoto on the devices, use iTunes Photo Sharing.
http://help.apple.com/iphoto/iphone/2.0/?handbuch#blnkee26bc1
Save photos to your computer using iTunes
Connect your iOS device to your computer.
Tap a photo, album, event, web journal, or slideshow and tap Share> iTunes.
Tap Selected, or change the photos you want to save (if you are saving a slideshow skip to step 4):
Select different photos: Tap Choose Photos, tap one or more photos, and tap Next.
Select a range of photos: Tap Choose Photos, tap Range, tap the first and last photos in the range, and tap Next.
Select all the photos in an album or event: Tap All.
In iTunes, click the button for your device and click Apps at the top of the window.
Below File Sharing, select iPhoto (in Apps).
Select the Shared Photos folder under iPhoto Documents.
Click Save To and select the location on your computer where you want to save the items.
To view your photos, go to the Finder and look in the location you selected above.

My 5 year old iMac's hard drive is at the point of failing. I'm trying to save al files on it, but it wont allow backup via Time Machine to an external hard drive. How can I keep from losing all the files and programs if the hard drive fails?

I'm concerned that my iMac, purchased 5 years ago, is about the crash and I can't back up my files and programs to an external hard drive via Time Machine because the computer freezes after only a couple hundred MB and gets nowhere near the required amount.
How can I save these files and programs if the computer hard drive fails or has to be replaced without the backup being able to be done? I need to do something quickly, but I'm not sure what I can or should be doing.

Get an external hard drive, some good ones that I like are the OWC, http://www.macsales.com Mercury Elite Pro drives...they are very good and reasonably priced.
Get the drive, connect via USB or FireWire, then use Disk Utility to format the new drive as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), and then use Disk Utility to Restore the current drive to the new drive. Restore actually clones the drive so you will have a bootable backup on the external drive.
After you have formatted and named the external drive, click Restore in the main Disk Utility window, drag the name of the old hard drive to the Source box, and drag the name of the new external drive to the Destination box. DU will make an exact clone of the internal drive on the external drive.
That clone will be a complete backup of the operating system and all of your data.
You can test it by restarting the iMac and hold the Option key. That will give you a grey screen showing all bootable drives. Just click the external drive, then click the upward pointing arrow under it and the iMac will boot from that drive.

My iMac ( Summer 2010 ) internal Hard Drive failing.. It's a Seagate 500GB HDD.

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