Recurring iMac G5 Hard Disk problem and worthless AppleCare

Hello all! I have a recurring iMac G5 2Ghz (20-inch) Hard Disk problem.
I bought my parents, aged 52 and 55, an iMac last summer. Hoping this would be their solution to a hassle free and easy computer environment, since I would leave for China for about 1 year. But last month the hard drisk crashed and could not be fixed.
At first the start up speed slowed down, then the start up process would continue infinitely, then the computer just booted into a screen with a question mark.
I have a AppleCare Protection Plan (APP) and so I called the Help Desk and they put me in touch with a Service Center (Sittard, the Netherlands). Now I thought, since I live within the proper range of at least 3 service centers (Heerlen, the Netherlands), I could get on-site support (as stated in APP), unfortunately for unknown reasons, my parents had to drag the 20 inch monster to the service center.
Normally the repair should take 2 days, but instead it took 10 working days. My dad naturally asked, if they could restore the data on the disk. This was only possible if we paid about 2000 euro. So, no deal!
After picking the iMac up again, the computer booted into the Mac OS installation. This again surprised me, since according to the APP they should at least put some effort into restoring the applications. Not even iLife was pre-installed, which was of course on the computer when we bought it. Next to that the Service Center's Mac OS installation disc was still in the drive; how careless!
They were quite sad about the lost data, but accepted it, as we all know that these things can happen to electronics. BUT today, the same problem recurred! First the start up process slowed down and now (again) it tries to start up infinitely.
The hard disk is brand new (1 month), no strange programs and no abnormal use. According to the diagnostic tools the file structure is damaged, but it seems to keep getting worse. The Apple Help Desk guy was even surprised this happened to a brand new disk and installation. He recommended reinstalling the system.
But, I'm not happy with this solution! A hard disk breaking down, is one thing. But the same problem recurring 1 month later made a couple of alarm bells go off. I'm hoping Apple will consider replacing this machine from **** with a brand new iMac. Since my parents are scared ********, that whatever document they type today might disappear again tomorrow. This is not a comfortable computing experience.
By the way: the computer has only basic software: Microsoft Office, Skype and iLife and my parents only use those programs, surf the net and send email.
Any of you had a similar bad experience with the iMac's hard disk, AppleCare or any of Apple's Service Centers? Or does anyone know how to reach Apple by email?
iMac 20 G5 2Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I had a similar problem with my 20" 2Ghz iMac.
After replacing the HD and the next 'going bad' the tech realized there was a different problem.
After discussing it, and the distance to an authorized repairer he offered on-site repair.
After a lengthy parts delay I was offered an upgrade to a iSight iMac.
The tech narrowed my problem down to a faulty logic board before offering a replacement. He could have been wrong but it seemed logical with all of the same symptoms.
Press your AppleCare to replace this computer. They are going to try and repair but insist if this fix doesn't work you want a new iMac.
I hope everything works out for you.
Edit: There is a great program that Apple techs recommend called DiskWarrior. It did not fix my problem but it allowed me to get my most important info off of the computer before it went to computer heaven. Might not work for all but it works well for me as I still use it today.

Similar Messages

ZEN EXTRA EAX FREEZES"HARD DISK PROBLEM" AND WON'T RESCUE:HOW I FIX

Well nobody tried to help me so I got on the web.first if you try to paperclip reset and nothing,try this:hold the paperclip(you need both hands) and hold play/pause at the same time and disengage paperclip and you get rescue mode this is how I fixed it once,their are four options:clean disk,reboot and two more.CLEAN DISK AND RE-BOOT ONLY!Because the second option will clean out your library!If that does'nt work and if it says:"hard dri've problem" after trying several times you have to smack it on the palm of your hand and after three smacks it went back to normal!(By the way it fell off the countertop with the protecti've case and that's when this night time nitemare began,milk and cookie insomnia cure!). It just skipped,the hard dri've looks like a little record player and I guess it(like a needle on a record it jumped?)But now it works perfect again. I have "THREE WARRENTY",(TWO YEARS LEFT) but I would lose my 2,800 library if replaced repaired! A chance I did'nt want to take.PLMK if this works,SANSOO..........

A few weeks ago I dropped my Extra and had the same problem, it was now out of warranty so I figured I had a paperweight, so when I ran into this thread I figured I had nothing to lose., and gave it firm whacks on my palm, (the first one didn't work) To my surprise it powered back on, and now seems to work. I transferred new songs to it and it is now charging up again. I admit this has all occurred in the past hour so I don't know how permanent this is, but it does give me hope. I would like to emphasize though that this was a last ditch effort. I had tried going into the recovery mode and got a hard disk problem error so none of the regular options would work.

MBA hard disk problems

I appear to be having hard disk problems and would appreciate any suggestions as to how to determine what the cause might be.
It began when the MBA late 2008 with 10.6.6 would not startup, just an endless cog wheel. Using the installation disk I found that the disk repair utility identified that the MBA hard disk was corrupted and the repair utility couldn't repair it.
I deleted the contents of the MBA disk verified the disk and reinstalled the system software and all my other programmes and files.
(This took about a day as I did not have a backup of the MBA but I did have the files and programmes on other disks etc. (Never again - I bought an external hard disk so that I could have a copy of the installation disc on it and also a backup of the MBA and all the system software updates.)
All has been well for a couple of weeks until today when the MBA would not start. For the first time in my life I saw a message covering most of the screen saying "Will not start up - turn the computer off by holding down the power button until it turns off and then restart the computer" or something similar.
Needless to say the computer refused to restart and again after looking at the MBA disk with the disk utility it required repair and again the repair utility said it could not complete the repair.
Wiped the MBA disk again and reinstalled and restored the programmes and files. (so much easier with the install image and backup on an external hard disk and Time Machine is tremendous).
So the MBA appears to be back to normal.
But will it stop again? It the hard disk flawed or fundamentally corrupted?
I have verified the hard disk with the apple disk utility and also with onyx. Both say it appears to be ok.
Any suggestions as to how to work out what if anything is going wrong would be much appreciated.

When I said verified I meant that I ran the verify and repair command in the apple disk utility and also ran both the smart status in onyx and additionally the verification command in onyx.
Just to clarify the second occasion that the MBA would not startup falls under the category of “You need to restart your computer” which indicates a indicates a “kernel panic”.

Help needed Hard disk Problem

I am not very computer Savoy!. But every time I turn my laptop on it keeps freezing up on me and I get a massage that says I am having a Hard Disk Problem and that I should back up all my files before the computer crashes. And I would like to what I should do to fix this? I thought that I could reload my operating system but my computer did not come with that disk and I can't seem to find it here on this web site. Any idea's?

Without knowing specifically which model you have it's difficult to tell for sure, but most Toshiba's made in the past few years come with a Recovery Partition. You can invoke the Recovery Process by holding down the 0 (zero) key while turning the computer on and holding it down until the Recovery Process starts. You can also create a set of Recover Disks from the Recovery partiton by going to "Start - All Programs - Toshiba - Recovery - Recovery Disk Creator".
As for the error message about Hard Disk Problem, that could mean that the hard drive is starting to malfuncion and will soon stop functioning at all. You need to determince what brand of hard drive your's is, go to that companies support site, download their Diagnostic Program, install it, and run the most exhaustive test to determine if it is failing or not.
And please backup you important data as soon as humanly possible as there is a good chance you will lose it forever.
If you don't post your COMPLETE model number it's very difficult to assist you. Please try to post in complete sentences with punctuation, capitals, and correct spelling. Toshiba does NOT provide any direct support in these forums. All support is User to User in their spare time.

Snow Leopard and hard disk problems?

This may just be a coincidence but I and several colleagues have had problems with Macs over the past week.
a) My Macbook Pro lost the date/time and wi-fi settings. Next reboot wi-fi was still lost. Now seems OK again.
b) At times my 24" iMac is running slowly when nothing seems to be hogging resources (eg just copying a 3Gb file to an external hard disk). Time Machine also seems to be taking much longer to backup.
c) Hard disk failed on a Macbook Pro of a colleague
d) iMac 27" seems to be having severe hard disk problems for another colleague - Applecare will be visiting after trying numerous fixes over the phone.
On my machines I have run the Cocktail suite (permissions, scripts and caches) Disk Utility Repair and Techtools Deluxe (no reported problems) but the iMac problems seem to creep back.
It is like a disk caching process (or Spotlight?) is not cleaning up properly and is clagging up the system. Or maybe a hard disk is close to failure but the problem is not severe enough to show up in diagnostics? In any case I am diligent about backing up at the moment!

Or maybe a hard disk is close to failure but the problem is not severe enough to show up in diagnostics?
Common symptoms of a dying hard drive
Hard drive is making a clicking, whirring, grinding, ping pong ball noise or any other type of unusal noises.
Hard drive is not spinning.
Computer is not recognizing the hard drive.
Sluggish loading of applications.
System freezes and hangs.
An interesting site - Hard Drive Sounds by drive manufacturer.
How much hard drive space do you have left?
Disk Inventory X
OmniDiskSweeper
WhatSize
SpaceControl
Disconnect all peripherals from your computer. Boot from your install disc & run _*Repair Disk*_ from the utility menu. To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc, and restart your computer while holding down the C key as it starts up.
Select your language.
Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.
Select *Disk Utility.*
Select the disk or volume in the list of disks and volumes, and then click *First Aid.*
Click _*Repair Disk.*_
Restart your computer when done.
Repair permissions after you reach the desktop-http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751

RE: Apple iMac 27 Hard Disk Replacement Complaint

Dear Customer ServiceManager,
RE: Apple iMac 27” Hard Disk Replacement Complaint
On May 12, 2011, Ibought an iMac 27” for my daughter from your official Hong Kong website (www.apple.com/hk).
I am writing tocomplain about my dissatisfaction of your poorproduct quality, irresponsibleattitude of your customer service, and most importantly my painful experience with your Apple Careservice. I am also very disappointed with how your Apple Care staff made a discriminating comment about your low income Hong Kong customers.
On July 28, 2011, mydaughter received an email from your company ([email protected]) informing her that the hard disk of her newly purchased iMac wasdefective due to factory error. You promised to replace the defective hard disk with a brand new onefree of charge, but when she asked your HK Apple technical support if therewould be on-site replacement service, your staff told her that she can onlyeither carry the 30-pound iMac herself to their service center or pay HKD1200for the Apple Care which offers the on-site replacement service.
First of all, I foundyour request very unreasonable. Mydaughter was not the one who broke the hard disk, your company informed herthat you gave her a defective one. So why is the responsibility and the cost of taking the iMac for repairshould be borne by her, as an innocent customer, who paid HKD18, 000 for aniMac directly ordered from your official website? She did nothing wrong but your company required her to barethe cost of transporting a 30-pound iMac and the risk of causing damage on theway.
Secondly, I believeyour company has deceitfully forced my daughter to buy your Apple Care, whichis completely against her original will. Since she is just a 22-year-old girl, it is impossible for her to carrythe 30-pound iMac by herself. Andclearly, she was not given a choice but had to pay HKD1200 for the AppleCare. This made me doubt if thisis a scam of your company. Is thisa way of how Apple make extra money by giving your customer faulty products anda mission impossible, then forcing us to pay for a service that we did notneed?
Anyway, thepainfulness of enjoying your Apple Care service has just started…
On Aug 10, 20111:30pm, your service man came to change her hard disk with just a look as ifthe process was very ‘efficient’ and left after half an hour, even her Mac OShas not yet been completely installed. After he left, my daughter found that the OS could not be installed, soshe called your service center immediately and under her strong request, he hadto come back on the same day and check the new hard disk. He found it proved to be a defectiveone again. I was shockinglysurprised that your company, which always claims to produce products of highquality, selling at an expensive price, replaced my claim-to-be defective harddisk with a defective one again. Iwonder how Apple’s quality control is done? Your company didn’t even bother to check if the new harddisk is working before replacing it for customers.
My daughter requestedfor a new one, but then your service center said they had no new stock andasked her to wait until further notice. But without any definite date, it means my daughter’s brand new computercannot be used for… I don’t know how long. Please notice that I paid HKD18,000 to buy a first-classproduct of high quality, as claimed by your company all over the world.
So my daughter had tocall your service center again and forced them to return her original harddisk. Till 5:00 pm on the sameday, another technician came to reinstall her original hard disk into hercomputer. Surprisingly, all thedata in her original hard disk was still there, which means there is a riskthat all her personal data and information had been accessed by your servicecenter staff.
As a father, I had totake over the matter from my daughter and called your hotline 2112 0099 at5:00pm on Aug 10, 2011. After 30minutes, I could finally talk to one of your technical support staff for 10minutes about my complaint. Heasked me to hold the line and wait for him to transfer my call to his seniortechnical support colleague, so I kept on waiting for 15 minutes, but finallythe line was being cut and no body contacted me and my daughter again.
I had to call yourhotline again at 6:00 pm and waited for another 15 minutes to reach one of youradvisors. He passed my line toyour senior technical support advisor located in Singapore. He said he is just a technical supportadvisor, so he could not take my complaint directly. He needed to talk to meagain on the next day with a customer service advisor. He promised if he could not reach me onmy mobile phone, he would leave his direct line for me so that I would not haveto waste another half an hour to reach him through the hotline.
On Aug 11, 2011 5:28pm, I received a voice mail from your senior technical support advisor asking me to call him back but he didn’t leave any direct telephonenumber as he promised. So I triedto call back the caller ID, which was shown on my phone. However, the auto reply of this numberwas, “This is an invalid number”. I asked the Hong Kong Telephone Company to help me to call but even theycould not reach this number. Theytold me this number was from Shanghai, China. So I had no choice but to call your hotline again. After 25 minutes, one of your advisorstook my call and I had to repeat my story to him again in order to have him putme through to talk to your senior staff 42058 again. I asked him why he didn’t leave his direct number for me tocall him back as he promised. Hesaid he forgot! What a surprisinganswer to leave your customer nothing but a number that he knew clearlycouldn’t be reached.
By that time, I havewasted nearly 45 minutes to reach him, and it was already 6:20pm and thecustomer service advisor was off work. Therefore, I made an appointment with him again and we agreed that hewould call me between 9:31-10:00am on Aug 12, 2011 morning. I took half day-off from my work towait for your senior staff to call me.
Unfortunately, Iwaited until 10:10 am and nobody contacted me again (I left both my mobilenumber and email to them).
Finally, I called the hotline again and waited for 15 minutes, an advisor put me to your on-dutyCustomer Service Manager, Ken. After I told him my name, he realized that he should be theone responsible for calling me this morning, but since he had a meeting thatmorning, he forgot to call me again! The Apple staff didn’t keep their promises after all which disappointedme a lot. It seems to me thatApple is unwilling to accept negative feedbacks from customers.
Ken told me thatthere was nothing he could do.
At the end, I wasreferred to a Customer Relations staff, Ms. Wing Liu. Her response was also there is nothing she can do exceptgiving me a case number of my complaint. Since then, I never get any response from Apple regarding my case.
I believe Apple has afull record of all my conversations with your staff and thus, should be able tolook into my case thoroughly. Isincerely hope that Apple can take my feedback seriously and respond to my complaintin a responsible manner, but not just trying to suppress your customers, whohave already been treated unfairly, from claiming their rights. Otherwise, it is really a shamefor Apple to claim itself delivering high quality products and services allover the world.
Yours truly,
Tommy Fong
Apple Customer
<Personal Information Edited by Host>

I just realize Apple might have blocked my daughter's Apple ID from posting in your discussion forum.
My daughter was trying to go to this Community Page by logging into her account. But your Communities webpage displays a "We'll be back soon" webpage. Then I try to login with my Apple account and it works fine.
<Email Edited by Host>

Toshiba Satellite L650-07U, Hard disk failure and replacement

Hi all,
I have Toshiba Satellite L650-07U Laptop, Model: PSK1EC-0700Q with 4GB RAM, 650GB HD, Windows 7 Home Premium installed. At the time of first use, i made Recovery DVDs which took 4 blank DVDs using Recovery media creator.
From 2 weeks it is giving problem, at start its slowdown with every application, then suddenly it started Hard disk failure error and ask to backup important files. From that instant i did all my backup save in another portable Hard drive.
I had hiren boot CD, and ran RAM test and found it OK, and then run Hard Disk test and found few bad sectors at few certain point, As 650GB Hard disk was taking alot time of time for checking bad sectors, so i stopped that application.
First I tried Recovery DVDs to restore Windows, but it failed as Laptop DVD-Writer was unable to boot from those created DVDs (DVDs are OK as had checked it on Desktop computer DVD-ROM), Laptop DVD-Writer is also working as I test few more bootable CDs and it booted perfectly, but it is not booting from Recovery DVDs.
Than i tried to restore from Recovery partition using Factory restore settings, it erases all data and reinstall new and fresh copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. It works fine for few hours than again pops up Hard Disk Failure message again and again. I searched here in Toshiba Forum and have found similar problem with other members and finally decided that it need to replace Hard Disk with new one. As It is now two and a half month old, thats why i need to buy new Hard Disk for my Laptop.
I checked all partitions of drive using Hiren Boot CD, and had found that there are four default partitions in Toshiba original laptop drive,
One hidden partition of 1.5 GB
One hidden partition of almost 21 GB
One hidden partition of almost 12 GB
One partition of 561 GB, which was the original partition where windows 7 was installed along with all of my Data.
Now I want to replace faulty drive with a new one and have a lot of question in my mind which I need to share with you guys.
At the time of first use I installed Windows 7 64 bit edition, and made Recovery DVDs, and at second time of restore to factory setting I had installed Windows 7 32 bit. I have confusion about recovery DVDs (which is not booting from default DVD-Writer of Laptop), either it has 64 Bit recovery data or 32 bit? Or have both 64 and 32 bit Data.
Toshiba restore to factory setting without using any recovery DVD/USB is the best possible way to restore Windows 7, How can I make same recover hidden partitions from original/faulty hard drives to new hard drive partitions? Is this possible and how?
On Default hard drive there was one partition of 561GB instead of two or more partitions. Is this possible to split partitions in new hard drives instead of one big partition?
As Recovery DVDs are not able to boot from laptop default DVD-Writer, is it possible to open those DVDs on another System and copy tem in USB drive and use it for booting? If it is possible than please show me the steps for making bootable USB from these Recovery DVDs.
Thanks,
masterleous
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Satellite L650-07U (PSK1EC-07U00Q)
This site is for US computers. I doubt you'll get your questions for that Canadian model answered here.
There appear to be two recovery partitions. Maybe one for 32- and one for 64-bit Windows. Or maybe one is for English and the other for French.
Your User's Manual isn't much help either. You probably need to ask Toshiba tech support in Canada.
About all I have to offer is this: Be wary of drives with advanced-format technology. See my message about that.
-Jerry

Windows has detected a hard disk problem

I just got a warning from windows that I have a hard disk problem then Toshiba Utility notifies me with the following:
Disk0
Your HDD has the SMART Predict Failure function which monitors the HDD operating status. Your HDD is experiencing a problem and SMART monitoring software predicts that the HDD will fail. Toshiba strongly recommends you create a back-up for your HDD data. Then contact an authorized service provider in order to check your drive and purchase a new replacement drive if necessary.
I have never had problems with a hard disk, all I know is that I should get a backup drive as soon as possible. After I back up my files and everything....what is the next step? Take it to a repair man to fix, get a new harddrive, contact about warranty, what exactly do you do with this kind of situation? Is it fixable?
System Details:
Toshiba Satellite L675D-S7052
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

If you're computer is under warranty, you should contact customer support at (800) 457-7777. The hard drive will need to be replaced.
- Peter

Window detected a hard disk Problem on my Satellite L505-S5988

Hi,
I have a Toshiba Satellite L505-S5988 with window 7 Home Premium 09 Service pack 1. It is 2+ years old and my hard drive is Toshiba MK3263GSX 287GB. Lately, I got a window warning message as “ Windows detected a hard disk Problem. Back up your files immediately to prevent information loss, and then contact the computer manufacturer to determine if you need to repair or place the disk….. The following hard disks are reporting failure: Disk Name: TOSHIBA MK3263GSX Volume: C:\ “.
Since then, I have imaged my laptop and run malware/spyware softwares, and it looks like my computer is clean. The laptop device manager said my hard drive is working properly. However the warning keeps pops up. I opened Administrative Event Viewer and found the below warning:
“Log Name: System, Source: Disk, Event ID: 52.
The driver has detected that device \Device\Harddisk0\DR0 has predicted that it will fail. Immediately back up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent.”
EventData
\Device\Harddisk0\DR0
0E00030001000000000000003400048002000000000000000000000000112
D000000000000000000000000
Besides this warning, there are also other errors and warnings back to years ago, such as AFS failed to load, print service… Despite all these errors and warnings, my laptop seems to be running OK. I was not prevented from doing anything that I usually do.
Questions:
Is there a tool I can run to verify that my hard drive is truly bad?
Can any tool further identify where?
Can it be repaired? Reformat? Or I have to replace with a new one?
What options I have if I have to replace with a new one?
What is average cost of it?
Any help will be highly appreciated.

Satellite L505-S5988
Event ID: 52 - Source: Disk
..the warning keeps pops up.
That's good enough for me. I would replace the disk.
You can verify it with the free trial of HD Tune.
-Jerry

Windows 7 on MacBook Pro Retina late 2013. Showing popup window as "Windows detected a hard disk problem"

I have installed Windows 7 64 bit version in my MacBook Pro Retina(13") late 2013 model . It was working fine from last 8 months but recently popup window showing as "Windows detected a hard disk problem" once login. Please check the following image.
I have contacted Apple Support team. They have tested the hard disk while booting from Mac OS and all the reports showing as hard disk is fine. Then I thought might be it was some virus and removed the Bootcamp partition and re-installed Windows 7 Operating System. But once updated Windows 7 with latest updates. This message showing again.
Would you please help me out to fix this issue. Anybody faced similar issue?

No I think that all drive are really on failure
I've boot with an ubuntu livecd and smartmontools see also the failure.
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x001a   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   000    Pre-fail Always       -       0
9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1872
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       762
169 Unknown_Attribute       0x0013   253   253   010    Pre-fail Always       -       4003597393408
173 Unknown_Attribute       0x0036   100   100   100    Old_age   Always   FAILING_NOW 12124890467160
174 Unknown_Attribute       0x0022   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       7469954
175 Program_Fail_Count_Chip 0x0022   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       4989854
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0012   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       31
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   064   064   000    Old_age   Always       -       36 (Min/Max 11/75)
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x001a   200   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
240 Unknown_SSD_Attribute   0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
When I use the Mac disk tools from the startup menu, it see also the problem.
Now the big question is : Why I've this type of issue with 2 MBA and 1 Macbook pro 15".
Their configurations are the same : windows 7 with truecrypt.
Maybe Windows drastically reduces the lifetime of the Apple SSD drive.
The 3 Mac are used for less than 6 month !!!!

Windows Detected a hard disk problem Toshiba Satellite L505-S5988

It has been about 2 months since I had my new laptop and first I coudnt get the flash cards to work so I finally fixed that and now everytime I start windows an error message comes up and keeps coming up every 10 minutes saying:
Windows detected a hard disk problem
Back up your files immediately to prevent information loss, then contact computer manufacturer to determine if you need to repair or replace the disk.
-> Start the back u process
-> Ask me again later
Show details
Which disk is failing?
The following hard disk are reporting failure:
Disk Name: Toshiba MK3263GSX
Volume: C:\
Please tell me how I can fix this because I called Toshiba support and the guy couldnt even figure out the drivers name for flash card.
Toshiba Satellite L505-S5988
Thanks

your hard drive is failing. you need to do what it says. back up everything and then either call toshiba to have it replaced under warranty or buy a new one and change it yourself. this is where all of your info and files are saved so if it fails without you backing it up you lose everything.
-civicman4-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Post all info about your laptop and version of windows. We are working on it but still do not have the powers to read your mind.

External Hard Disks Windows And Mac Compatible

I have recently bought an external hard disk, which I plan to have one 80gb partition onto which I can do regular backups of my mac hard disk onto, and then the other 220 or so just for data storage. however I want to have the 220gb readable by both macs and PC's, and the 80gb as bootable by OS X (I am doing a complete Hard disk clone onto the external disk)
anyone have any ideas

If you looked at Disk Utility [...]
I didn't mention Disk Utility at all. You do know that Disk Utility is just a simplified GUI front-end for the full functionality provided by diskutil, don't you? This does not make diskutil any less "officially supported".
Furthermore, the Mac OS X hints article is probably
not supported by Apple and therefore I didn't mention
it. I'm not in the habit of going against Apple
policies. Especially while I'm still under their
warranty.
I have no idea what are you talking about here. Is this just FUD or what? Of course it is not "officially supported". Neither are many other useful hints provided at that website or elsewhere. So what? In no way does that mean that it cannot be done, not even that it shouldn't be done. Just do it at your own risk, there is nothing legally or ethically wrong about doing it.
Had you just advised the OP not to do that, I would have had no problem with it, and wouldn't have "corrected" you. But that's not what you said. What you said is wrong and had to be corrected, it's as simple as that.
I did Google what you asked and didn't find any
relevant articles.
I wonder what did you Google for and whether you did actually read anything you found. These are just from the first 20 results I get:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/diskutil .8.html
http://forums.macosxhints.com/printthread.php?t=41187
http://www.groovelicious.org/david/2004/12/
http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=236147
http://www.macusersg.org/forums/?topic=14579.new
If you have a solution why not you just explain it
Because it's not a simple solution and it's much better explained by providing a link to the web page where it's fully discussed by people who have actually tried it and compared it to other approaches. You're not trying to make me believe this is a bad idea, are you?
instead of trying to correct another poster.
Oh, man! You were wrong and had to be corrected. You're not saying that correcting someone who posts wrong information is a bad idea, are you?
Why have you chosen to take this personally I don't know, but I urge you to keep this discussion in strictly technical terms and support your assertions with facts, which as of now you've not done yet -- not that it has stopped you from requiring me to do it, despite I clearly had already done it, though.
It should be your intent to help the OP, not to try and
correct another poster, even if it didn't work.
Abe, I really urge you to calm down and re-read what you're saying. Correcting wrong assertions is part of helping the OP, isn't it?
Now, if you really think you were right when you said "There is not a way to have two partitions on a disk with one being Mac OS X format and one being Windows format", please support your assertion with facts and keep the discussion in technical terms instead of just telling me I shouldn't correct you. And yes, I will accept links to publicly accessible web pages that support your assertion as facts and won't require you to explain them.
Regards.

Im my lap has hard disk problem,how to resolve the problem,pls help me...

Hello,
           I have hp pavilion dv4 lap,in this lap has some hard disk problem,when i am turn on the lap that screen shows this message "The smart hard disk check has detected an imminent failure.To ensure not data loss,please backup the content immediately and run the hard disk test in system diagnostics".
           After that i was diagnostics the system but no changes in the lap,,again again lap shows hard disk error(301).
           Then i am chosen the enter option to start up the lap it take long time for openning the windows,after enter the windows that also shows about the hard disk error in within few minitues,
           What can i do?
           This lap bought at 12-oct-2012 from malasiya,now im in tamil nadu,how to solve the problem please help me.

Hello srhk. Thank you for posting on the HP Forums.
I understand the hard disk is experiencing issues. Error 301 indicates the hard disk possesses a hardware defect. I would contact HP Phone Support for assistance, or purchase an equivalent hard disk.
If you choose to contact HP, their options will be based on the warranty status of the computer. If you do not have this information, you can locate it at this website: http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/wc/home?ac.admitted=1384280905804.876444892.199480...
You can utilize this website to learn how to contact HP appropriately, based on your region: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html
Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Mario
I worked on behalf of HP.

Showing hard disk problem

i have a laptop with model compaq 6720s.From last 2 days it is showing a pop up message that windows has detected a hard disk problem.I have run it in safe mode.But there is no message coming.So how can i check whether my hard disk is ok or not or i ve to go to any service centre? Can any body help me regarding this?

i had purchased it last year through loan and this year i faced hard disk problem not even it is 1.6 yrs.Also before that i had faced many plm like cannot install XP ,cannot install real player, VLC player.If this system has so much compatible ploblem why ur company is making such type of things.i made a great mistake on purchasing ur product.I will never suggest any body to purchase HP product.Purchasing hp products means weastage of money and time also taking unnecessary headach.

M91P hard disk problem

Windows 7 detected a hard disk problem!!! where i can ask for replacement??

you might be able to do it yourself or want to have OWC Macsales do it, and you mght want to be asking in the macbook pro forums.
http://www.macsales.com/macbookpro
And they have how to guides or you can find others on the net
Direct you to the proper forum for MacBook :
MacBook Series Forumshttps://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks?view=discussions
Mac OS X Forums
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os?view=discussionshttp://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro

Recurring iMac G5 Hard Disk problem and worthless AppleCare

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for