What does Apple HW Test really test about hard drive?

My 2002 FP iMac was recently jolted. The internal hard drive is no longer recognized. Here is what I know:
When I boot with the Apple Hardware Test CD which came with the computer, it does not recognize anything wrong with the hard drive.
When I boot from an external hard drive, I get a dialog with buttons to Initialize, Ignore, or Eject the hard drive.
When I open Disk Utility (external HD boot), it can see the disk, but says it is unformatted.
I also downloaded a trial data recovery program and it could not find anything identifiable on the hard drive.
I don't really know what the Apple Hardware Test program tests with the hard drive, so I don't know how to interpret the information I have.
My questions:
Is there any hope for salvaging anything from the hard drive? (Probably not?)
Is the drive itself likely to be OK if I format and re-install my OS? (Is that what the HW Test is telling me?)
I have not tried to format the drive, because there are a few things I would really like to salvage. I have also not opened it up to examine anything on the inside because I would not know what to look for.
Suggestions for how to proceed will be welcome.

The data on the ill-fated hard drive may be recoverable; could be
there has been damage to the drive or the software on it that lets
the computer read files from the drive.
Some disk utilities such as Disk Warrior could see about trying to
fix the drive; although if physical damages exist, it can't fix that.
The booted OS X Installer's Disk Utility has options in the Installer
menu bar (drop down menu to select other things, when not just
reinstalling) and you could see if OS X's Disk Utility from the booted
Installer disc could give you a status report on the drive in Verify, &
also see what it says about 'Repair drive' when chosen to try a fix.
Sometimes, the OS X's Disk Utility can't fix something, and at that
point, other utilities (retail on DVD) may be able to. Then, the tossup
is, whether or not you want to pay for the utility to fix an old drive, or
put the money into a new one.
Data Recovery software is available as download, so if the old hard
disk drive were removed from the computer and a new drive put in,
later on the failed drive could be investigated through use of software
(such as those which can recover, then you pay to unlock results)
and that is another way to consider addressing the old drive contents.
Some would suggest, if you had Disk Warrior or some other disk utility
that could fix the old drive good enough to try and get data off it, maybe
even a full clone or just the files you need, then you would not need to
get the data recovery software. Of course, that software which runs to
see if you have recoverable files, can do that part for free.
The AHT may see the drive is present, while not recognizing a
failure in its firmware or in its directory, etc. Some kinds of disk
utilities can try to rebuild and replace a damaged directory or
other bits of software on the drive so it can be read again.
Usually, the test for the hard disk drive is Disk Utility on the
OS X Installer; and that gives you the boot version that sees
even a healthy drive as an unmounted and repairable volume
when it is correct and not beyond the limited ability of the utility.
Hopefully something practical comes from all these words...
Good luck & happy computing!

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HT201250 What does it mean to "partition" an external hard drive? Is it something that I want to do?

What does it mean to "partition" the external hard drive? Is it something I want to do? How do I save files from another hard drive to the new one? I have to reformat the old one as it was not set up correctly. The drive I have is Seagate but not specifically for MAC, so I have to format it.. never have done this before. Don't know the jargon. I read that Time Machine will back up automatically but I want to take files from the old drive to the new one. Do I have to take them to the computer first and then to the new drive? I need more memory on my computer. It's way too cluttered and congested. HELP!

Whoa! Slow donw. TRhere's a lot here. I would suggest you buy a good book on computers in general or macs in particular, one is "OSX the missing manual".
What does it mean to "partition" the external hard drive?
It means you take one large drive and make it into more than one volume. This means that it might show up as 2,3 or 4 inde[pendenmt drives. Each one could have, for example, a different operating system on it. Its a good thing to do if you want to use a drive for several purposes
Is it something I want to do?
beats me, you didnt way what you're trying to accomplish. Sorta like sking "should i turn left?" Depends on where you want to go.
How do I save files from another hard drive to the new one?
See advice n book above. Copy them in finder. Copy them in unix. Use a backup or sync utility. No different from Windows in that respect.
I have to reformat the old one as it was not set up correctly. The drive I have is Seagate but not specifically for MAC, so I have to format it.. never have done this before. Don't know the jargon.
Hook it up. Run disk utility. Partition 1 or more partions. GUID map. Format each partition Mac OS extended, Journaled. for more, read book, above. Seriously - we could give you more tips, but you really should learn enough to be comnfident.
I read that Time Machine will back up automatically but I want to take files from the old drive to the new one. Do I have to take them to the computer first and then to the new drive?
I have no idea what you are asking.
I need more memory on my computer. It's way too cluttered and congested. HELP!
What kind of memory and why? RTAM? Hard drive space? Explain. By the time you are done explaining, i suspect you will have ansered your own question.
Good luck,
Have you read the PDF manual for your cmputer?
Have you used a search engine to look for info, for example, in two seconds i got this from google and wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning
Grant

What does a "full surface scan" of a hard drive?

I've been advised to do a "hard format and full surface scan" of new internal hard drives I'm adding to my new mac pro to hopefully avoid encountering any problems down the line. (mostly HDV video editing purposes) If there are any problems I would just exchange the drives now rather than wait for the problem to pop up unexpectedly. I'm not sure if disk utility does a true surface scan. So, is there any included apple application that does a true "full surface scan"? If not, what other inexpensive software would do it? I've heard of disk warrior and similar software but they are $100 which I'd like to avoid spending on a preemptive surface scan. Thanks.

You can look for free utility. But you won't find a better disk catalogue maintenance program.
You could buy TechTool Pro that does a good media surface scan but then fails or doesn't actually do anything to map a sector out.
Windows wlll let you use the vendor's own tool and does an excellent job.
SMART Utility sounds like it does a good job.
Intech Speedtools has a suite of tools but I found it to not do a good job when I did notice the side effects and behavior of weak and bad blocks. ZoneBench/QuickBench set is only $29 and you can do a lot with those, helps to create multiple partitions to force write test to every block.
Bottom line i see: no free lunches.
I use to believe that a zero all would attempt but the errors have to be really bad to pick them up. And a 7-way write erase takes 7X longer and really strains things. So I stict to WD Diagnostic Utility running in Windows, and I swear by the results and job it does. Excellect.
In theory, enterprise drives with 1.4 million MTBF hours have longer burn-in and therefore should be safer.
You could torture a drive for a few days and load it with files and then erase with zero and/or 7-way.

Why does Apple prevent ipad from accessing Extreme hard drives?

I have a very simple requirement. I want to access my pictures from my NAS (Extreme with external HD). While OSX can do this, Apple has prevented iOS from doing this pedestrian feat. It is very frustrating and 'feels' like it was done to merely propogate Hard drive consumption by copying videos everywhere. If Apple has to hang on this approach for their upgrade strategy, it is extremely weak. The ipads/etc. don't have enough storage to even begin to support the video storage requirements and backing up to iCloud to have a latent solution is even more weak. Even if I could get a 1TB I wouldn't do it as I don't want to stream HD videos that could be placed locally.
So Apple. Why? And btw, if you don't have a good reason, just think about all those enterprises, etc. that want server file access.
Sincerely,
Very irritated Customer.

You are not addressing Apple here. This is a user-to-user technical support forum. If you wish to provide feedback to Apple go here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback

Does apple needs to make a external hard drive?

me personally. i think if apple would make a external hard drive or make the ipad/iphone/ipod compatible with a third party hard drive i wouldnt have a need for a computer the apple system would be a all in one. Im going to get a ipad 2 but was interested to see if any one else was interested in this. thank you

I don't quite understand the original post. The iPad already has internal storage, using flash memory. What do you believe you need the hard drive for? As the other poster pointed out, the hard drive is not what you initialize the iPad with - you still need an actual computer. Some kind of external drive wouldn't help you.
Matt

What does the "other" section contain on my hard drive?

It is taking up 155 gigs on my hard drive.

Same website, different page than what leroydouglas provided, should complete the picture.
http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html
Ciao.

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There is no equivalent to Adobe's Flash Player. You either have it installed or not. For the reasons outlined below, Apple no longer sell Macs with Flash Player pre-installed, you have to obtain it from Adobe.
Flash - Apple's official position:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
Flash v. HTML5
http://www.streaminglearningcenter.com/articles/flash-player-cpu-hog-or-hot-tama le-it-depends-.html
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http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2010/11/the-future-of-notebooks-ars-reviews -the-11-macbook-air.ars/3
And this:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2011-02-18-changes-web_N.htm
You can check here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ to see which version you should install for your Mac and OS.
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http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/909/cpsid_90906.html
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What does Apple class as a "high quality" download from iTunes (music)?

What does Apple class as a "high quality" download from iTunes (music)?

no1villafan wrote:
Not really high quality, then?
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Why is the sound of my new ipad cutting out intermittently and what does Apple recommend to solve the problem in lieu of any updates?

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When the Apple Store tests a zeroed out hard drive, is their test as intensive as wd lifesaver etc. software's in napping out bad sectors etc.

When the Apple Store tests a zeroed out hard drive, is their test as intensive as wd lifesaver etc. software's in napping out bad sectors etc.
I do know one test at the Apple store is a three or four hour test that is very thorough for the whole Mac Pro computer, system by system test, I'm curious what kind of test they perform if you're testing the hard drive for bad sectors or whatever I'm a novice
I mean is it as effective or more effective than the software called wd lifesaver?
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I am moving from PC to Mac right now I have not even use my 2009 Mac Pro yet I was told to have the hard drives zeroed out and tested to start with a clean slate this is what I'm trying to do.
Thank you

The chip on the hard drive itself basically takes care of bad sectors. If an operation tries to write to such a sector, the drive will mark it bad and move onto the next one. That's why zeroing the drive effectively does the operation of mapping bad sectors - the whole drive is checked.
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Matt

TS2310 what does it mean when you're about to install itunes and it says This update requires OS X version 10.6.8 or later.??? i don't understand... Can someone please explain to me what that means...??? And how to fix it.

what does it mean when you're about to install itunes and it says This update requires OS X version 10.6.8 or later.??? i don't understand... Can someone please explain to me what that means...??? And how to fix it.

1. It means exactly what it says. Apple dropped support for earlier Mac OS X versions in iTunes 10.7.
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My iphone plus is bending, what does Apple offer regarding this issue? I am trying to get to contact with Apple Customer Care, but not clear to me how to do it beside this channel of communication. I bought the phone from kosovar carrier which is u

My iphone plus is bending, what does Apple offer regarding this issue?
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What does apple do with my address if I ever give it to them to create an account at iTunes store?
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GageJC wrote:
What does apple do with my address if I ever give it to them to create an account at iTunes store?
Do they ever send me mail? Or even junk-mail?
Thanks for the help.
Unless you want to recieve advertising alerts on artists, its just use to send you receipts for purchases and that's it.

What does Apple do for it's employees........

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Welcome to the Apple Community.
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What does Apple HW Test really test about hard drive?

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