08-27-2009, 08:17 PM

computer started freezing up on me today, restarted / rebooted several times. it would run, then lock up. Now the lights go on, but the screen stays blank. the next to last time i restarted, it made this rhythmic whirring noise, so i shut it down again.

tried calling macedge but figures, it was 10 minutes after closing time. if i hadn't spent so much time fudging around, i could have the claim ticket already started.

holy crap, i've never had this happen before. is this typical hard drive failure?

I've got my sister's mac book going through my cable modem, i've got connection at the moment. what is the prognosis of recovery from the non-functioning unit? it was working fine until the last update 2 weeks ago, i was running os x 10.4.11, on safari 4.0.3 (4531.9). i started getting download alerts that i was downloading 'Desktop-X-1', where 'X' increased by one each time this download window popped up. 9 was the last one about an hour before the computer started freezing up.

At first, I thought it was a safari thing, then it froze up when i was using firefox. i got in safari one last time and it froze up trying to open the google (home) page. Then blank screen with whirring breath-like sound, finally lights on at power switch and screen corner, screen blank, no sound at all.

i'm trying to stqart it one more time, and wtf, now it lights up and it just did. i tried to write a quick journal entry, saved it (I think, heard the little 'ching' noise). then it froze up again.

08-27-2009, 08:25 PM

Sounds like the drive is beginning to fail and disk recovery is not a cheap item. If you can boot from the OS install disc, and not from your sister's Macbook discs, go to Utilities and select Disk Utility and run Verify Disk from there and see what is reported.

08-27-2009, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by harryb2448

Sounds like the drive is beginning to fail and disk recovery is not a cheap item. If you can boot from the OS install disc, and not from your sister's Macbook discs, go to Utilities and select Disk Utility and run Verify Disk from there and see what is reported.

what if i can boot from the hard drive? should i try doing that and select Disk Utility, or do I have to go and try to find my original install discs?

08-27-2009, 11:14 PM

You cannot verify or repair a hard drive you are booted from and need the original install discs as stated.

08-27-2009, 11:39 PM

Originally Posted by harryb2448

You cannot verify or repair a hard drive you are booted from and need the original install discs as stated.

how original are we talking, I've got three different boxes, 10.0, 10.3, 10.4.

do i just go back to the most recent one, or hope that 10.0 is the original? I've had this computer since 2005, and wanted to have OSX right from the start without OS 9 Classic being the default like it is on my G3.

08-28-2009, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by BluesForDan

what if i can boot from the hard drive? should i try doing that and select Disk Utility, or do I have to go and try to find my original install discs?

I think that the #1 thing you should do at this moment if you are able to access your hard drive is copy all of your important files ASAP!!!

If your hard drive is failing it could completely crash at anytime, your important files will be lost, and then you will be very very unhappy!

- Nick

08-28-2009, 06:24 PM

And if you shared with us your current OS and machine details, could tell you which discs to use. At a guess you have Tiger installed, so use the OS X.4 disc.

08-28-2009, 09:18 PM

i've decided to give my macedge store a shot at this. well, at least it has been educational. I bought the computer with Tiger installed, I've found the orginal install disks. For the time being, i'm going to have them try to reboot the computer and backup my personal documents, and then anything else.

fortunately, i did not have any of my music stuff on there. the LE version of Pro Tools did not work with Tiger, so I did not record with my G5 at all.

maybe i could have done it myself, but i should have practiced doing this before it was a crisis situation. i'm going to bite the bullet and pay the 90 bucks an hour. hope it works.

thanks for the replies. its out of my hands, now, literally. The G5 is in the store. my next thing is to drag my sister's notebook kicking and screaming into the present day. i somehow have a feeling it might not be able to upgrade all the way to snow leopard.