Startup Disk Failure. Can Anything be Saved?

I'm bought a used PowerMac G4 which I've been very happy with. However, I received a warning that my startup disk was failing. Before I could get a new one, it appears to have died. This computer has two hard drives (the smaller of the two was the startup disk). The 160g drive should still be working. Is there any way I can move the startup disk to the second drive? I should also mention that I get absolutely nothing on the screen when I boot up. It stays black so I can't see anything. The power light does come on and dim when I let go.
Thanks!

Hi, Beth!
If the SMART status of the errant drive indicated that the disk was failing, it's a very good indicator that the drive needs immediate replacement. It may be dead now, but you won't be certain until you get the Mac to successfully boot.
The power light lighting while you're depressing it and then going out when you release it is a sign that the PMU needs to be reset. I would reset the PMU, load the Tiger install disc into the optical drive, and boot to the install disc. From the installer screen, choose Disk Utility from the menubar, select your errant startup volume, and run Repair Disk & Repair Permissions. Check the SMART status of this drive at the bottom of the Disk Utility window. Please advise us if the above is successful and what the SMART staus reads.
If the errant startup drive is indeed accessible, but the SMART status indicates an impending failure, you'll need to backup the startup volume to another drive. In the interim, I'd advise you not to use the Mac until you decide how you want to proceed.
You may certainly use your 160GB drive as the startup drive. If you have an empty volume on the 160 GB drive which is large enough to hold your startup volume, you can clone the entire startup volume to it. I'd recommend using SuperDuper , but you can use Disk Utility's Restore option to do this. If you don't have a spare, empty volume on the 160GB drive, then you'll either need to backup the data which is on it now, erase the drive, and then clone/restore. (Cloning the startup volume involves erasing whatever data that is currently on the destination volume it's being cloned to.) If you don't have an empty volume available, it may be easiest and safest to instead purchase another drive for this task. If you provide info on your specific Mac model, we can better advise you on different methods/options you might consider.
Gary

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Hi All,
My hard is disk making repetitive clicking noises and the machine won't boot up, I just get a grey screen and eventually a flashing folder/question mark. I did manage just once to start from the install CD,but Disk Utility couldn't see the internal HD so that was a dead end, can't repair what it can't see! and I haven't been able to start it since. Tried various key combos on start (safe mode,clearing PRAM) still nothing. Bit the bullet and took out the internal drive and put it back (nothing to lose, you never know? ). As it seems the HD is beyond help and the fact that changing over the HD is reasonably straightforward physically, I am considering buying a replacement and doing it myself. Now I haven't done a repair like this before and wonder if when I power up with the new HD in place will I be able to boot from the original install disk ie. holding down "c" (which is not the case at the moment) and format and install the OS onto the new Hard Disk ?
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I did try using my external USB connected CD reader/writer using the option key on start but couldn't get past the blue screen with the arrow and refresh icons.
The iMac G3 will not boot from a USB device.
Be careful when booting software that hasn't run on the machine before. You need to have the lastest firmware on the machine when booting 10.2, 10.3, or 10.4 on the machine. I
You could disassemble the external firewire drive & swap in a dvd drive. I did this. The dvd drive will not fit in the case, but who needs a case anyway. Just use the electronic parts.
You need to figure out the level of your firmware before installing10.2 or greater. ( The PC name for firmware is BIOS. ) Installing 10.2with a down level firmware will most likely make your iMac unusable anddifficult to fix.
What is firmware?
The firmware software receives control when you poweron your machine. It does some hardware testing and some hardware configuration then passes control to your version of MacOS. It reside on a PROM ( program read only memory ) chipon the logic board.
Figuring out what level of firmware you have?
1) Mac OS 9.x or 8.x, you need to use the Apple System Profiler.
Apple -> Apple System Profiler
2) Mac OS X, use the System Profiler.
Apple -> About This Mac
click on the More Info... tab
click on Hardware
read the Boot ROM Version
3) Open Firmware, boot into Open Firmware.
Power on your iMac while holding down command+option+o+f
The first output line contains the firmware level. Mine reads:
Apple PowerMac4,1 4.1.9f1 BootRom built on 09/14/01 at 13.18.04
Copyright 1994-2001 Apple Computer Inc.
On my machine, I have 4.1.9f1.
What firmware do you need?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
For a slot loading iMac, this article indicates that you need to berunning 9.1 or later version of Mac OS Classic.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130
"The iMac Firmware Update 4.1.9 will only run on iMac computers withlot-loading CD or DVD drives running Mac OS 9.1 or later from a localdrive. If you are using Mac OS X you must boot from a local Mac OS 9.1or later writeable partition (not a CD, or network disk) prior tofollowing the update instructions."
You can download the Mac OS 9 updates from the Apple site.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1387?viewlocale=en_US

Message startup disk full (can't find the files)

Newb here so please bear with me on this.
I am using Handbrake to rip DVD's to put in iTunes. I transfer them to the external that iTunes is on fine, but I can't find the originals to delete them. The default save to location was a folder called "voulmes". I have since found that this is not the right location for the initial save to location, so it has been changed. My problem as stated is that I can't find the files to delete them. Even if I use spotlight and type in the original file name nothing comes up and I can't find a folder named "Volumes"
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Message was edited by: liftman
Message was edited by: liftman

Launch the Terminal app in /Applications/Utilities/, paste this command into the window, and hit the return key:
*ls -Al /Volumes/*
that will give you a list of actual and virtual volumes. Anything that isn't one of your actual volumes is the culprit. To access it, type in this, and hit the return key:
*open /Volumes/"name of virtual volume"*
that will open the virtual volume and allow you to delete it's contents. Alternatively, you could run this:
*sudo rm -R /Volumes/"name of virtual volume"*
for this last one, you'll get a Password: prompt, carefully enter your admin password (nothing shows up on the screen), and hit the return key again.

I cant find almost 100gb in my startup disk where can they be?

hello
My star up disk is almmost full ive tried to delete files but still no result, when I go to the user folder and press get info it shows 130gb size yet when I enter and try to fing where these gbs are I cant. According to my calculations everything in the User folder is no more than 30 gbs
Please anyone to help?

Download from the Internet OmniDiskSweeper (free) and open it. It will show all of your files and the respective sizes. Delete the ones you do not need or transfer them to another HDD. To verify how much space is taken on your HDD, click on the HDD icon on your desktop COMMAND I (as in the letter i). This will generate a display the shows the space used and space available.
EX;.
Ciao.

HT201364 how do I remove items from startup disk to load OS X Mavericks?

I'm trying to load OS X Mavericks and I'm getting a message to remove items from startup disk. Can anyone tell me how to do that??

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Reboot and it should go away.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective
Launch the built-in 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 icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Low memory startup disk

Computer very slow or freezes when running 2 programs at the same time. popup: memory low on startup disk. what can i do????? please!!!!

Delete some of the Junk files you have on the hard drive.

I'm confused about the startup disks

When I press 'option (alt)' when booting up, the mac takes me to a screen with three startup disks I can choose from, those being:
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2. Recovery 10.9
3. Windows
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I think #2 is a tool that comes preinstalled?
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*My usb on the right side of the mac just stopped working as intended and instead cannot detect whatever I plug in (mouse, hard disk etc...) after I installed Windows 7 and I still have that problem now even thought I've already deleted the Windows partition. So I thought that this startup disk thing might be the problem.
Early 2013 Retina 15-inch macbook pro running mavericks OSX.
Would be so grateful for any any answers!
Thanks in advance,
pip_wu

Number 2 is the Recovery partition you boot from to do maintenance on the system drive, such as repairing the disk with Disk Utility or reinstalling an operating system. Hopefully you will never need to use it but it is there when you need it.
Number 3 appears to be the partition you created for Windows. Deleting Windows from that partition does not remove the partition. It may be an empty partition at this time.
For the USB problem, try an SMC reset.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Why is my HD not shown as a startup disk?

My macbook pro died on me, since it has stopped going into safe sleep (hibernate). Only this time I couldnt start it up again, it only gave me the question mark. When I start up from the CD and check the drive with Disk Utility everything is ok. But when I want to set my HD as startup disk I can not see it anywhere. I have run all the checks possible with Disk utility but still it does not show as a startup disk. It doesnt show either on desktop, but maybe thats normal in CD-mode. I would rather not have to reformat the drive if there is a way to get around this.

So to verify...
You ran "Repair Disk" and "Repair Permissions" from the install DVD's Disk Utilities?
If so I assume no troubles found?
What was the drives S.M.A.R.T. status? This could be found in Disk Utilities First Aid.
Try booting into the Startup Manager by pressing and holding the option key during boot. This will launch the graphical Startup Manager where you can select the drive you wish to boot from. This is if your drive shows up, which would be the norm.
If that does not work then you can also try booting while holding the X-key.
If these do not work then you probably have drive that is dying on ya. Yeah you could format and rebuild or even do an Archive and install which may work for ya, but be prepared to replace the drive.

Need Startup Disk for OS X

Where can I get a replacement Startup Disk for OS X? I have an ancient iMac running OS X version 10.6.8. When I try to verify disk using the disk utility i get a message that my disk is corrupt and needs to be repaired by booting from the startup disks. Unfortunately the OS was already installed on my computer and I do not have any startup disks. Can I find them anywhere? I appreciate your time and suggestions.

You already did the Verify. Now you need to repair.
Hold down the C key while booting from your install disc.
Insert your install disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu and launch Disk Utility.
(In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first from the installer menu)
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your startup disk and click Restart

Flash drive as safety startup disk?

Do you think I can get a big [2 GB] USB flash drive and load a bare bones OSX onto it and some utilities like disk warrior and techtool and use it as a worst case scenerio startup disk? Can I startup from a USB device if it had an OS on it?

Hi Christopher
usb drives are not bootable. TTP can create an "e-drive" which is an eraseable, removable partition on your current volume that it can run from.
-mj
[email protected]
Message was edited by: macjack

Eminent hard disk failure problem

hai !
my notebook is g62 series.
operating system - windows 7 64-bit home basic
my problem is eminent hard disk failure,can u solve this problem as soon as possible.

Seems that it is a hard disk failure. You could run a hard disk diagnostic test.
Once you turn on the notebook, keep tapping F2. Select hard disk test and hit enter to run it.
take note of the result and call hp tech support at 1-800-474-6836 so it could be serviced.
HTH
Click the White Kudos Star to say Thanks
Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem

HT201364 When I try to download this I get a message that says I haven't got sufficient space on my startup disk. I have checked my available space on the disc and I have only 3GB free out of 500. I have hardly anything on my mac - how can this be?

When I try to download this I get a message that says I haven't got sufficient space on my startup disk. I have checked my available space on the disc and I have only 3GB free out of 500. I have hardly anything on my mac - how can this be?

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion's Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

Startup Disk Failure. Can Anything be Saved?

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