05-10-2006, 03:25 AM

The 40g HD on my powerbook is almost full. Today I made the mistake of force-restarting when Safari stalled, and now I am terrified.

When it restarted, it took forever to do so. Then it was hanging up on the two simple apps I opened. Then I started up from the 10.3.9 folder on my lacied HD because I didn't have time to deal with it, and my internal HD didn't mount!

Then I started up from an install disc and disk utility couldn't even see the HD!

I turned it off for a while and was relieved to see disk utility see it at least, but the the repair disk function stalled 2/3 of the way through.

In target disk mode on another machine, it mounts, but then stalls both machines when I try to get anything. The firewire screensaver symbol even stalls on the screen.

All the while it makes an unusually droning and repetitive 'thinking' noise.

Needless to say, my whole life is on the HD. Aaaahhhhhh!

I am I screwed?

neye:

05-10-2006, 05:32 AM

Hmmm, the prognosis does not look good.

From what you're saying, it does sound as if the internal drive is on it's way out.
To be on the safe side:
I'd get a new drive put in, then put the old one in the freezer overnight. (This sometimes helps unlock the read/write arm). Then pop it in an external enclosure and try to copy your data over... this partially worked for me when my iBook's internal drive went. I couldn't copy it 1:1, but the majority of my stuff was saved.
And then set yourself up a good backup routine for the future!

05-10-2006, 01:06 PM

thanks for answering. I am very, very, worried. So it sounds like a mechanical issue to you?

05-10-2006, 01:47 PM

I let it sit overnight in my garage. I started it in target disc mode, and pulled almost all of my stuff off of it!!!! :girl: yay!

At one point the file transfer stalled, and I was pulling like 1MB/minute. I remembered what you said about putting the HD in the freezer. So I went and grabbed a hard ice pack from the freezer, set my pb on top, and after a minute the transfer suddenly resumed normal speed!

I thought this must be too simple to be true, but then I noticed that there is no fan noise like there normally is in target disk mode. Maybe my fan is just broken?

Did my earlier HD problems sound like an overheated HD? Does an overheated HD simply swell up and close the gap between its surface and the reader things?

05-11-2006, 12:26 PM

If it's getting hot then it could be slowing down the cpu in a effort to help it cool off.

ed724

05-11-2006, 01:06 PM

short story shorter: you shouldnt be using a full hard drive, it shortens its life drastically

good luck getting your info back. buy a larger hard drive when you go to the store, or pick up a secondary external drive

05-16-2006, 03:25 AM

Originally Posted by jenn

I let it sit overnight in my garage. I started it in target disc mode, and pulled almost all of my stuff off of it!!!! :girl: yay!

At one point the file transfer stalled, and I was pulling like 1MB/minute. I remembered what you said about putting the HD in the freezer. So I went and grabbed a hard ice pack from the freezer, set my pb on top, and after a minute the transfer suddenly resumed normal speed!

I thought this must be too simple to be true, but then I noticed that there is no fan noise like there normally is in target disk mode. Maybe my fan is just broken?

Did my earlier HD problems sound like an overheated HD? Does an overheated HD simply swell up and close the gap between its surface and the reader things?

Congratulations!

I hadn't actually ever tried that, but good to hear that it works

A faulty fan could be a possibility, but maybe it just didn't spin the fan because it was so cold anyway...

I'd take it in somewhere and get it looked at.