Problems with Harddisk WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0 under Snow Leopard 10.6.2

Question

Hello all together,
I'am a User of an IMac Early 2009 as you can see in my Profile,
i bought it with Leopard, everything worked fine. But since i bought my Apple because i became to know about Snow Leopard, i bought that upate also, so now I'am Using 10.6.2 and all the latest firmware, Performance Updates and all that stuff, the Software Updater gave me as well.
My Problem is the following:
From time to time i end up at booting in the grey screen and see the spinning wheel, for no known reason. Desktop doesn't appear. Always the same things: I boot from the install dvd and go into diskutility and it says: Macintosh HD can't be repaired, please do a new install. Since I'am new to Apple and i switched because i didn't want to waste time about windows configurations nor Linux i choosed Apple because it's well known as Stable, and i readed much articles about Apple working on even more stable system called Snow Leopard, so to my suprise this is not what i wanted: I can't imagine i have to do all 2 or 3 Months a complete reinstall and restore of my (thanks i got a external drive) timemachine backup. And no, it is not connected at bootup, i tried many things, googled around no results that helped me. Disconnected everything from usb at bootup, still. It's also not that i do some hacks or dirty work on the shell (since for now i'am not familar witht this) nor did i install some maybe incompatible software, all i use is mail, safari and iWorks. Yes i did use bootcamp but even on harddisk partitioning without any kind of bootcamp partition it still appears from time to time. This is really bad, especially because i wanted a system that my wife can use 100% safe as well, and she does only know where the Power On Button is, so no way for trying to explain her, how to restore nor to repair things...
Because of my google results i think this is a harddisk hardware issue of my:
WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0 i already have been at my apple store and got another one (same kind of harddisk) but now again the same issue... I found on the internet articles if this spinning wheel and progress bar appears, it means the os detected some bad harddisk structure or kind of, so what can i do? I did also install the Performance Update which should solve "some harddisk" issues but still the same, now i'am hoping for 10.6.3 to help me maybe. I did the Hardware Diagnostic and also since i own Apple Care Protection Plan i used the Deluxe tool which tested also the complete Hardware but says me also: all is fine, i did even the longer taking Harddisk Structure test, also fine.
At the moment my iMac is at another Apple certified hardware shop and get's tested again, i was thinking if this continues, if i'am able to get a harddisk replacement (same size and technical quality but maybe another manufacturer) and my harddisk doesn't make even any sound that would tell me like slowing down or clicking (meaning its dead) also after fresh install everything works again.
Is this a well known issue?
Some background information on my Hardware:
iMac9,1 Early 2009
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz
Geschwindigkeit: 2 x 2GB DDR3 RAM, 1067 MHz
Harddisk: WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0
NVidia MCP79 AHCI
Boot-ROM-Version: IM91.008D.B08
Chipsatz-Modell: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130
I'am really thankfull for every help on this.

Answer 1

HI,
i bought it with Leopard, everything worked fine. But since i bought my Apple because i became to know about Snow Leopard, i bought that upate also, so now I'am Using 10.6.2
If you did not repair disk permissions after upgrading to Snow Leopard v10.6, then do that now.
Quit any open applications/programs. Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select the FirstAid tab. Click: Repair Disk Permissions. When it's finished from the Menu Bar, Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac. If you see a long list of "messages" in the permissions window, it's ok. That can be ignored. As long as you see, "Permissions Repair Complete" when it's finished... you're done. Quit Disk Utility and *restart your Mac.*
Now try booting from your SL disc and run Disk Utility to see if you can repar the startup disk if necessary. (Applications/Utilities) See if it can repair the disk if in fact it reports errors. If you see this again, " Macintosh HD can't be repaired, please do a new install"... try Safe Mode.
Try Starting up in Safe Mode and run Disk Utility there. S try Safe Mode.
What is Safe Mode
Also, try Resetting the PRAM
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit