About to buy a new internal drive, quick question first!

Hello,
I've been using this forum for years to solve all my iMac problems.
So first of all, I'd like to say that you guys are awesome. truly awesome.

My girlfriends iMac (late 2006, 20inch, 250GB, 3GB RAM) crashed last week, and I have done absolutely everything to try and fix it.
I've erased and reformatted the disk numerous times, tried re-installing Snow Leopard and even Leopard from DVD, and from USB. I've zero'd the hard drive three times, and have even swapped the RAM to ensure it wasn't the RAM which was faulty.
Nothing works. i can install Leopard and get it running, but it's really buggy and usually won't start up the second time I turn it on. it will come up with either a question mark, or will just keep restarting. Now Leopard won't even install properly.
I tried using Disk Warrior to rebuild the Directory, and long story short Disk Warrior said it can't replace the Directory because it's WRECKED, and said it will get worse over time. Tech Tool said that the Imac had 136 Bad Blocks, but zeroing the disk didn't change anything.

So i've concluded that it must be the internal hard drive which is broken, so i'm about to purchase a new one. But I thought I would just run this problem by you guys, incase anyone here has had a problem like this, and can give me a diagnosis which is different to mine.

Thank you in advance for any help you might have.

Micah.

So i've concluded that it must be the internal hard drive which is broken, so i'm about to purchase a new one. But I thought I would just run this problem by you guys, incase anyone here has had a problem like this, and can give me a diagnosis which is different to mine.

Click to expand...

You got my vote. After that warning from Disk Warrior, there should have been no doubt in your mind that her hard drive was failing. A note of caution, however: Changing a hard drive in an iMac is a fairly involved task. Be certain that you have the proper tools (sucker cups, torx drivers) and the skill needed to do the job. I say this because most folks do not realize that the entire front panel and display must be removed first before you can gain access to the innards and the hard drive.

Go to the iFixit: The free repair manual web site and look up their step by step instructions for changing out the drive. They also sell the necessary tools if you can't find them locally.

Thanks for the reply chscag.

I might just see if I can get apple to do it, it sounds a bit risky!
by the way, the hard drive i am going to buy is a:

'Western Digital 500G SATAII 7200 rpm HDD(16Mb Cache)'

the store said it should work fine in an iMac, but it's a PC store and i'm sure you guys would know better!

Thanks again.

DW is NEVER wrong - the HDD is a goner alas. Hard drives do not come in PC and/or Mac models, they are just hard drives. Pop it in, boot from your install disk, partition and select GUID under Options and format to Mac OS Extended (Journalled) and away you go with your new install. WD make great hard drives!

Thanks for the advice harryb2448.

You're from Nambucca!? I grew up in Nambucca! i lived there until i was 19.

I heard that you should only buy SATA drives if you have an iMac, is this true? and something about 3.5inch?
That's great news about any hard drive working on a mac, i was under the impression you could only get certain kinds.

Thanks guys.

The iMac uses a 3.5" SATA drive. Any good quality drive - WD, Seagate, Hitachi, etc should be OK. Large drives are fairly inexpensive nowadays, so get her one that will last for awhile.

And the Heads ain't changed. Still no highway by pass, although Macksville, Urunga and Kempsey are about to be by-passed.

Thanks for confirming the drive guys.

I rang the Apple store to see how much they charge to replace the drive, and it's $150AU. A bit steep....but I looked at the manual at fixit.com, and the instructions on how to replace the drive myself are almost as daunting as what Apple charges to do it!
So I might just get Apple to do it...oh well.

Thanks for all your advice guys.
And harryb2448, I hope Nambucca isn't too bad these days...last time I was there it was starting to get dangerous!

Dangerous? Wow you must hang out in B-A-D places my boy!

well yeah harryb2448

a year or so ago I got an e-mail from the 'Nambucca Shire Action Group' and they were holding urgent meetings with the local policemen due to the growing concerns over the amount of gangs frequenting the area from Kempsey. This was linked to the rise in crime that was happening the area.
If you call the beach a bad place to hang out, or main street, then maybe?
Last time I was there I got chased down main street by some drugged out freak with a bat, simply because i looked at him? well that's what he was screaming anyway. if you were young, you would notice it.

The Action group should be taken with a grain of salt.