Snow Leopard crashed : unable to find the hard drive in Disk utility

Hello,
A few days ago, my computer (running on Snow Leopard 10.6.3) suddently crashed (no recent update, no new software or hardware installation).
Since then, i'm unable to start the computer. It freezes on the start screen with the apple and the loading bar. Sometimes i've got an empty folder with a question mark.
I tried to start with the install CD, and when i select Disk utility, it only recognizes the DVD, not the hard drive (then i cannot even try to repair it).
When i want to re-install Snow Leopard, i arrive on an empty screen on which i'm asked to choose a drive to install on. Of course as i cannot choose a drive, i cannot install.
Finally, when i try to start with no errors (pressing Maj button when starting), i've got a kernel panic error saying "unable to find driver for this platform ACPI"
Can anyone help me ?
thanks in advance.

Your hard drive has had a serious malfunction. It might be that it is software: your partition table may be corrupt. If so, this may be fixable if you take it to a local Apple certified tech. However, it is more likely that it is hardware and the drive itself has failed. I hope you have a backup. If you do, you will need to replace the drive and restore the backup to the new drive. If you don't and you have important data on that drive (and if you have important data, why don't you have a backup?) you will need to contact one of the data recovery services, such as Drive Savers or Rescuecom. Be advised that the price for data recovery starts at $200 and heads upwards really quickly, depending on what the exact problem with the drive is. I have seen data recovery charges of $3000 and more for seriously screwed up drives.
Having a backup is a lot easier and a lot cheaper.

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Our imac runs osx snow leopard but it cant find the hard drive or it is corrupt, is it possible to reboot it with osx lion?

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Yes you can. If the iMac meets the system requirements for Lion then you can boot it off the Lion disc (which is actually a USB drive, unless you download and burn it yourself).

Cannot find the Hard Drive on Disk Utility

I am using an iMac (mid 2010) the factory Operating System was Mac OS X 10.6.4 and updated to Mac OS X 10.9.1.
Following a "Flashinhg Question Mark" iMac was unable to boot.
Then installed OS X on an external HD and boot the iMac. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5911
iMac is working with the external Mac OS but in the "System Preferenses>Startup Disk do not show the internal Hard Drive.
Following this issue the iMac fan is working fast and noisy.
I tried
1. SMC reset
2. PRAM reset
3. Safe Boot
4. Boot with the external USB Mac OS X
nothing helped me.
Thanks in advance for any guide.

Cornelius,
I was in the process of running Disk Utility last night to repair permissions when it gave me a message that it could not connect to Disk Management Unit (I think that was the name) and suddenly quit. I tried again, and the same thing happened. Then, the computer froze with the spinning rainbow again, and I had to do a hard shutdown. When I tried to restart, I got a gray screen. I tried squeezing the left corner again, and after a couple of attempts was able to boot the computer. However, it froze again and had to be shutdown. This cycle happened a few more times before I decided to give it a break.
This morning, my husband turned it on to see what it would do, and it started up normally. However, we restarted it so that we could repair the disk, and it took several tries before it could see the HDD. I tried "repair," and it seemed to work for about a minute before giving me the same error message: "The underlying task reported failure."
My husband and I believe we have some sort of logic board problem, specifically the ATA controller. What is your opinion, and what would you suggest next?
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-Brooke
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Thanks

You may notice a difference in available space statistics between Disk Utility, Finder, and Get Info inspectors. This is expected and can be safely ignored. The Finder displays the available space on the disk without accounting for the local snapshots, because local snapshots will surrender their disk space if needed.
About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs

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Click the Spitlight icon and another set of menus appear.
Find the menu item dealing the Spotlight indexing and uncheck its checkbox to disable Spotlight indexing.

Unable to erase external hard drive with Disk Utility

Macbook Pro (mid 2010) running 10.9
Hello
Recently, my Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB external hard drive has not been showing up on my desktop or in finder. The light is on when connected, and in the Disk Utility it appears.
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(pictures for reference)
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If this is your only backup device, you need to start a new backup on another drive immediately. Don't erase (or try to erase) your only backup.
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Is it possible to reinstall Snow Leopard, removing Lion, without reformatting the hard drive or losing data?

Since I've installed Lion on my early 2009 model iMac, it runs really slow and sometimes is unresponsive. I'm thinking of reinstalling Snow Leopard, removing Lion, but want to know if anyone has done this and experienced any problems or data loss.

samberl wrote:
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He already has Time Machine backups.
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Much faster than TM machine,
Should take about the same time as from a clone.
you should be up and running in an hour or two.
Depending on how much there is, and especially how many complex apps, that may be rather optimistic.
Save yourself a bundle by not buying a new iMac.
Absolutely (although that didn't seem serious).

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=-=-=-=-
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Moderator, forums.bombich.com

IMac Finder cannot see external hard drive but Disk Utility can

I have a WD external hard drive and it has been attached to my iMac for a year or two. About two months ago I upgraded to Lion 10.7.5 and hard drive still worked. Then suddenly about a week ago the iMac no longer sees the external hard drive in Finder.
I have connected the hard drive to the iMac with different USB cables and into different ports and it makes no difference so deduce there is no issues with the cables or the ports. I have connected the hard drive to an old Macbook and it can see the harddrive and read some of the info but I really need the hard drive attached to the iMac as I store all my music and photos on the external hard drive.
I read another thread and someone asked if you can see the hard drive in Disk Utility. I tried this and Disk Utility can see the hard drive.
What does this mean? Any suggestions as to how to get the iMac to see the hard drive so I can access the data on it?
I dont really know how Disk Utility works therefore if that is any help to me.
thanks

Open the Finder.
From the Finder menu bar click Finder > Preferences then select the General tab.
Make sure: External disks is selected.

On a macbook I purchased secondhand hard drive got corrupted and I started to get the flashing folder with the question mark, I purchased a new hard drive and snow lion install DVD I installed the hard drive and tried disc but kept getting blinking folder

On a macbook I purchased secondhand hard drive got corrupted and I started to get the flashing folder with the question mark, I purchased a new hard drive and snow lion install DVD I installed the hard drive and tried disc but kept getting blinking folder

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We're users here and do not speak for "Apple Inc."
Power on the computer and insert the DVD immediately.
Hold down the 'C' key to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533
After selecting the appropriate language, if necessary, select Utilities, and Disk Utility.
You'll likely need to partition and format the new drive before it's recognized.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA161/en_US/MacBook_13inch_HardDrive_DIY .pdf
(Yes, these instructions ARE 7 years old, but the procedure is the same for installing from DVD media.)

This morning my PB G4 would not get to the password screen after power on. I have rebooted many times and very loud noises (like a HD spinning/rubbing) emits. Tried the Install disk and it cannot find the hard drive. Ran HW test and got a "Mass storage E

this morning my PB G4 would not get to the password screen after power on. I have rebooted many times and very loud noises (like a HD spinning/rubbing) emits. Tried the Install disk and it cannot find the hard drive. Ran HW test and got a "Mass storage Error Code" message.
Did my HD just crash and unrecoverable? Time to replace my notebook?

I believe your hard drive has failed. Hope you have a backup.
Failing Hard Drive Sounds http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php
Listed by drive manufacturer. Click on the > next to the drive & you will hear the typical failure sound.
How to Tell When Your Hard Drive is Going to Fail
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/how-to-tell-when-your-hard-drive-is- going-to-fail.html
Grinding And Clicking – Symptoms Of A Failing Hard Drive
http://pcperformancetools.com/getdata/grinding-and-clicking-symptoms-of-failing- hard-drive.html
Failing Hard Drives
http://losangelescomputerhelp.com/computer_networking_news/failing-hard-drives.h tml
 Cheers, Tom

On my macbook pro the hard drive icon is not on my desktop and I don't know how to find the hard drive or get the icon back on my desktop

on my macbook pro the hard drive icon is not on my desktop and I don't know how to find the hard drive or get the icon back on my desktop

Click on the Desktop. From the Finder menu select Preferences. Check the boxes for what you want on your Desktop. If they are already checked, then try unchecking and rechecking.

Disk utility can't find the hard drive

I'm getting the flashing question mark when I try to start up my computer. I tried to use disk utility (starting the machine from the system software CD) to diagnose the problem but it wouldn't even find the hard drive. Any suggestions? Any help greatly appreciated!

Nothing at all, Tony. When I came back to work on my computer after a 30-minute break, one of the applications was frozen. Soon after, everything froze. After restarting, the flashing question mark came up. I was able to boot from CD but when I tried to run disk utility it wouldn't find the hard drive. At this point I'm at a loss and I'm worried about my data, which, as it happens, I hadn't stored elsewhere! Any suggestions?

Where do i find the hard drive? then the library? i just got netflix, it says i have to delete silverlight

don't know where to find the hard drive.
you have encountered an issue specific to Microsoft Silverlight, the software used to watch movies on the Netflix website. This issue is often resolved by uninstalling and then reinstalling Microsoft Silverlight on your computer.
To uninstall Microsoft Silverlight on your Macintosh computer, please follow these steps:
Completely close any currently open internet browser windows.
Navigate to your Hard Drive.
Select Library.
Select Internet Plugins.
Drag Silverlight.plugin to your trash.
Once you have emptied your trash, Microsoft Silverlight uninstallation will be complete.
After completing the above steps, attempting to Watch Instantly on www.netflix.com will prompt you to reinstall Microsoft Silverlight.

Choose Computer from the Finder's Go menu, double-click the internal drive, and then the Library folder.
(109563)

CI********C13 is the serial no. Mac book pro. Blinking folder unable to connect the hard drive why?

CI********C13 is the serial no. Mac book pro. Blinking folder unable to connect the hard drive why?
<Personal Information Edited by Host>

That means that a valid startup disk can't be found.
A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support
Your startup disk could be corrupted, the disk failed, or poor connections
Reset the SMC and NVRAM
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
About NVRAM and PRAM
Try booting to Recovery and repairing the HD
OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support
Next reinstall the OS if Disk Utility in Recovery can see the HD
OS X Yosemite: Reinstall OS X
If the HD can be found check the connection. Next replae tthe HD
Last:
Make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

Snow Leopard crashed : unable to find the hard drive in Disk utility

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