Resurrecting dead disk drive?

I have apparently experienced my first disk drive failure in 22+ years of Mac ownership! Of course I thought I had a complete backup of it, but now that it has failed I can't locate the backup so I may have inadvertantly overwritten it or it is in an archive that I haven't located yet. (This was OS 10.2.8, installed on an 80 GB internal, that I wasn't using much anymore) Computer is a G4 DA model with 2 internal drives, 896 MB RAM, DVD burner, now running 10.4.8.
I got the computer up and running reliably by installing a new drive in place of the troubled drive and cloning my working 10.4 installation from an external firewire drive to the new internal drive. I still would like to use 10.2.8 every once in a while until I get all of my apps updated to 10.4 and I would like to take one last look at the contents of that drive to see what was on it and be sure that there was nothing important. I don't know if I want to go to all the trouble of reinstalling 10.2.8 on another drive, so I was hoping there was some way I could clone the failing drive. I don't want to go to the expense of sending it to a data recovery company.
What are my options to see if there is any way I can read the drive? In the days before I gave up on the drive and installed another it did appear a couple of times on the desktop, but I was unable to access the contents. All other boots, it did not show up, and I couldn't get it to appear in any disk utility programs. (Disk Utility run from Tiger Install disk, TechTools, Disk Warrior, Drive Genius.) I was thinking I might get a new external firewire/USB drive enclosure and put the drive in there and see if I could possibly read it that way if it hasn't failed 100%. The ORIGINAL Apple/Maxstor 40 GB drive is still installed and working (OS 9.2). The drive that failed was a Feb 2002 IBM Deskstar 80 GB ATA/IDE drive. I did not upgrade the internal drive controller, so it is still the original with 137 GB limit. Since one drive works but the other failed, does that mean it is likely that the drive is non-recoverable, or is there some chance it could possibly work in an external enclosure?

Hi, TripleChime -
It's hard to know what might have gone wrong with the drive without being there.
Have you confirmed that none of the jumpers on the drive have become dislodged? Usually, though, if that were the case no drive on that bus would be available.
If the drive spins up, you may be able to recover the data from it with minimal expense. These two utilities are designed to recover data from drives which are mechanically sound, but which just won't mount for unknown reasons -
Data Rescue
Virtual Lab
Both of those are avialable in either OS 9 or OSX versions. They work best in a multi-drive Mac, since a working, writeable drive is needed as a place to put the recovered files.
If the drive fails to spin up, things are gloomier. That indicates serious, usually fatal, mechanical problems.
One such that can happen and from whic recovery may be possible is called 'stiction' - the platters stick (bad bearings, or such) at power up, and won't start turning. This can sometimes be temporarily overcome by giving the drive a hard rap while it is powered. If the drive then spins up, data may be able to be recovered from it using normal means (drive mounts and is accessibnle by Finder), or by using one of the utilities I posted above. Don't trust a drive which has experienced stiction; be ready - if it does spin up, you may have only that one session in which to recover data.
Usually, though, if a drive does not spin up the only way to recover the data is to use the services of a commercial data recovery firm. One such is DriveSavers. The services of such firms is not cheap.

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Dead disk drive

A few days ago the hard drive on my 2002 G3 700Mhz iBook started to buzz and whir, and in panic, I backed up 90% of the drive before it went belly up. Now, all I get is the ">" prompt when I turn it on!
So, this obviously means that I need to replace the drive, but the question is, which one? i.e what size (physical dimensions), how big (60, 80, or 120Gb), and how fast (5400 or 7200 rpm) can the drive be? Can someone provide me with a list of permissable drives?
I appreciate any help!
Ron
iBook G3/700Mhz Mac OS X (10.3.5)

I just replaced my HD too. See the last post on my thread here http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=371284&tstart=25 for a few good recommendations by Rhonda.
-Internet Wiz

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Call customer service directly to get a quick solution for this.
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Can any one give any pointers as to how to replace a dead hard drive in a (approximately) two year old Black MacBook? Service guy trying to charge me £250+ to do it.
Any help would be most appreciated.

It's super easy.
Go here and buy this HHD (I have bought 3 of them for my Mac laptops)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314
Go here for simple instruction on installing it.
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbook13_memhd/
One thing to remember is to re-format the HHD once installed using your install Disk #1. Reformat using GUID. Very simple to do. Can be installed in less than 10 minutes with the right tools (highly recommend buying the from OWC), and another few hours to reinstall everything.
Right tools from here.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/TOOLKIT11/
Message was edited by: D/FW

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hi there,
first of all i am an absolute beginner when it comes to sun systems so i do apologise if this is the wrong type of forum for me, my problem is i have several sun ULTRASPARC 60 CREATOR 3D tower systems and i need to erased the hard drives securely before getting rid of them normally i take the drives out and do it using a dos disk i have but i was wondering if there was an easier way i could do it without having to open them up and remove the drives from them(i get quite a few of these systems) so i want to try and speed up the process a bit, any help along the lines of getting them to boot from a CD or FLOPPY disc (if its possible)would be very much appreciated and once again i do apologise if this is the wrong place,
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As an ex Sun engineer, let me emphasise there is no possible way of completely securing/erase a disk. If that was the case, customers would not be forced to pay a premium to not give back dead disks to Sun. All you need to do is figure out block sizes on the disks and with some magic, you can recover almost anything that was on there.. I know.. I have done it. Just ask Seagate or Hitachi what they can do with dead disks, let alone good ones?
If the data is not too sensitive, do a dd to it a couple of times.
Stephen

How do I recover data from my dead hard drive?

How do I recover data from my dead hard drive?

Is it dead or corrupt? There are recovery programs out there, however if your HD is head, paying pros to do data recovery is VERY costly. Some have removed the platters and installed them in likewise drives that dont have head crashes, but torque tolerances are tight, and doing it right is a bit advanced and tricky for most. Ive done HD disk swaps 4 times and had success 3 of the 4 times. It requires cannibalizing another working HD. In the future remember the golden rule, 2 copies is 1, and one is NONE.
Its likely you could find a local computer repair station that can do it for you cheaply. HD dont really "die", they have fried SATA bus, or crashed HEADS........the platters DO demagnatize over long time due to heat and degauss of the data (poor storage, etc).........but in specific, a HARD DRIVE DOESNT DIE ,.........only the flying head mechanisms that read and write the data, and SATA / bus that feeds the data DIES,.......but the data (unless corrupt or magnetically corrupted) is THERE

Can't install OS X after replacing dead hard drive

Hello-
Today I replaced the dead hard drive (Genius bar-confirmed) on my MacBook.
The replacement itself was uneventful.
When I tried to load OS X, I reached the page that asks me which language I want, but that was as far as I could go. I received a warning: "ALERT--this software can't be installed on this computer". I backed out and went into Disk Utility, and YES--it recognized the new hard drive (although there was a line somewhere about "unformatted"). The new drive is a SATA 2.5" Fujitsu 7200 rpm drive. The Genius Bar guy said to definitely get a SATA 2.5".
Any suggestions, please?
Much appreciated.
THANK YOU.

Well. I've checked out all the Fujitsu drive reports here and see no problems...
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/action.lasso?-search
On the off chance, have you tried a PRAM Reset or whatever passes for a PMU Reset these days?

HT2801 my disk drive will start up when i plug it in, and runs for about 30 seconds, but wont get recognized in my computer. It used to show up in the finder but that doesnt happen anymore

my disk drive will start up when i plug it in, and runs for about 30 seconds, but wont get recognized in my computer. It used to show up in the finder but that doesnt happen anymore

If you go to Disk Utility, can you see the drive on the left hand side? If not, then the drive is dead. You'll have to buy a new drive.
Also, this forum is "Older Hardware". We specialise in hardware from the 1980s.

Is the disk drive broken?

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And if it is dead, would it be cheaper to buy an external CD drive or a replacement to install myself? She's not willing to pay to have Apple fix it, considering the reason I have it is to replace a LCD screen that she cracked and left for a year and a half. I'm a beginner considering I'm only sixteen myself, so if it's an easy repair I would be willing to do it if need be.
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See my post here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2290441

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My hard disk drive failed. The genius at The Apple Store checked it out and said it was dead. Apple sold me another drive with just the operating system on it. Now when I installed Photoshop CS6, I am told that this is my second copy. How do I deactivate the copy on the failed disk drive. I was able to copy most of my data files from the drive. I do not know if the copy of Photoshop on that drive still works or not. What should I do?

Call Adobe support to reset activations. Have your papers handy...
Mylenium

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I have a Hard Disk 1 (301) error message, when turning on my laptop. It says something along the lines of "the hard disk has detected an imminent failure".
My laptop is a HP Pavilion G7-1033cl (windows 7), purchased in 2011, so it's out of warranty.
As far as a noticed in some other answers, I shoul replace the hard-disk for sure.
Ok, my question is: What kind of hard disk shoul I buy for replacing it? What's the best recommended?
Thank you for your help!
GStoicu

Whenever the Hard Disk fails with an error Hard Disk 1 [301] that indicates that the Hard Disk Drive has failed and that requires a replacement to resolve the issue
This issue could be due to Application or driver conflicts, virus issues, file corruptions due to incompatible applications, improper shutdowns, update failures due to conflicts, sudden power surges, if notebook is dropped etc..
HP will provide a replacement Hard Disk Drive if the Notebook warranty is Active, If not you need buy a SATA Hard Disk Drive from a retail shop nearby
Please make sure you are getting at least equal capacity as the original one in order to use Recovery Disks. If you need you can buy a larger, but not smaller capacity Hard Disk Drive. For example if you have a 500GB Hard Disk Drive you can upgrade it to 750GB Hard Disk Drive but not 320GB Hard Disk Drive
Please try the below shown troubleshooting steps once:
Step 01. Remove the battery and unplug the AC/Power Adapter
Step 02. Press and hold the Power button for more than 30 Seconds
Step 03. Plug in the AC/Power Adapter (leave the Battery out for now)
Step 04. Press the Power button and check if the Unit works normal
If the above mentioned steps does not help, then you can try reseating the Hard Drive on your Notebook
If the issue persists again please Contact HP if your HP Notebook is under warranty, HP would replace the Hard Disk Drive and provide you a Recovery media to restore factory operating system after replacement (if you've not yet created Recovery Discs/USB Media)
Note: Back up all the personal data to an external drive if it's possible. Otherwise you could connect the failed HDD via SATA to USB adapter with another PC or same PC after replacement of HDD & re-installation of OS and try copying /recovering the files. You can also refer to the below shown link for further support
http://www.wikihow.com/Recover-Data-from-the-Hard-Drive-of-a-Dead-Laptop
Please click on the link In order to Identify, Prevent, Diagnose & Recover from Drive Failures on HP Notebook Hard Drives & Solid State Drives :
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02876562.pdf
You can Check your warranty Here to verify the status and Click Here to order a new Hard Drive
Hope this helps, for any further queries reply to the post and feel free to join us again
**Click the KUDOS star on left to say Thanks**
Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.
Thank You,
K N R K
Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP

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My CD disk drive is not working.Does anyone had experienced the same problem.Does anyone know whether there is any service agents for Lenova, in New Jersey to get it repaired. Any comments on this regard will be appreciated
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This happened to me. After several days of trying to fix it myself, I called Lenovo support. They ran through some diagnostics with me and concluded that the drive was dead. This is considered a repair the customer can do so they sent me a replacement. I am also in New Jersey and the replacement drive arrived the day after i called. I swapped it out and returned the old one using return labels they provided. No problems with the new one at all. Very quick and easy. I wished i called them sooner.
Just an FYI, they take a credit card number so that they can charge you if you never send the broken drive back to them. as long as you send the drive back, the credit card is never charged.
Message Edited by spoonful on 04-24-2008 12:57 PM

A CD is stuck inside my disk drive!

I CD got pushed into my disk drive and now it won't eject. It also won't read the drive. It keeps making noises when I open the laptop and log on as if it is trying to eject, but it never works. I'm pretty sure my disk drive is dead, but any way to get the disk out?

Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive
Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the
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2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.
3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.
4. Press COMMAND-E.
5. If none of the above work try this: Open the Terminal application in
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If this fails then try this:
Boot the computer into Single-user Mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.

My disk drive is grinding!

A couple days ago I opened my computer like normal and it spit out the disk I had in it and then made the noise the disk drive makes when it takes in a CD, but I was not sticking one in. It did this three times in a row then stopped, the computer was running fine so I tried to stick the disk back in and the disk drive wouldn't accept it, as if the drive was just dead.
I thought I would visit the genius bar after the holidays and didn't think it was too bad or dire since the computer is running fine. It does this everytime I open the computer (the disk noise three times in a row) But then tonight I opened the computer (not for the first time today) and it did this noise as well as a very loud GRINDING noise. It is the scariest noise I have ever heard in my life. So now I am very worried and I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I have a 2 1/2 year old macbook with leopard. The computer runs fine, but now I am scared it is just going to explode when I open it.
Thanks!
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Yeah, I've been looking all over and I haven't found a solution to this problem anywhere.
Just today, I inserted a disc into my macbook and while it was loading, i shut the drawer door on the desk that my macbook sits on. All of a sudden the drive went crazy and started making this grinding noise. Eventually the disc got stuck, but I played with it a little and it came out.
Now whenever I insert a disc, it seems like the disc doesn't settle into the player and the disc starts to run. I can hear it spinning, but it's not fully in the slot so it doesn't show up on the screen. I immediately eject the disc, which has no problem.
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My wife was using the 12-inch Powerbook (which had always run fine), when she told me a box came up telling her she needed to restart the computer (in several languages). She did, thinking it seemed "official." When she went to restart, the apple logo came on, and then the screen went light grey with lines across the screen. I was afraid maybe it was some sort of virus she got, but Macs don't get those, right?
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Welcome to the Apple discussions.
You're getting a kernel panic, which is usually, but not always, caused by a hardware problem. This FAQ may help: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
When the disk drive makes all sorts of crazy sounds, that's usually an indicator that it's dead. If it's 3-5 years old, that's where they start to fail.
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Resurrecting dead disk drive?

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