Help! Hd Failure!

Couldn't be more frustrated right now...

Just got back from being away for a month w/ my powerbook. Everything worked great, I used it all the time. This afternoon, in the middle of normal operations (safari, ichat, mail, etc), it froze. I heard a cracking/ticking sound from the hd. I knew that that is not a good thing, so I shut it off by holding the power button. Now IT WON'T START UP!

I tried using disk utility via the mac os x disk, and no luck; it wouldn't even detect the internal drive. IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR RESTORING MY DATA!?

I last backed up a month ago, before I left. I really hope I don't lose a whole months worth of data. Can anyone provide any helpful hints? (I've already contacted AppleCare; It will be brought in for repair tomorrow).

There are companies you can send your hard drive to that can restore your hard drives data from dead drives... I don't know how much it cost, but it is normally worth the money if you can not replicate what you have been working on easily.

Out of curiosity, how old is your powerbook?

If your data is real important and you have the money then Drive Savers is for you.

It appears that your hard disk has failed, and it is time for a new one. Also it appears that you have learned a valuable lesson on the frequency of making back ups.

Harryc said:

Out of curiosity, how old is your powerbook?

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About a month.

rman said:

If your data is real important and you have the money then Drive Savers is for you.

It appears that your hard disk has failed, and it is time for a new one. Also it appears that you have learned a valuable lesson on the frequency of making back ups.

Click to expand...

Luckily, I really didn't gain much data while I was away, just some digital photos (about 100) and what-not. It isn't something that I'd pay hundreds of dollars to retrieve. My iMac at home has the majority of my data, as does my external LaCie HD.

EDIT: It's en route to the apple store today.

djlee12 said:

About a month.

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This is bad, very bad. Hopefully it's not a chronic problem with recent iBooks or Powerbooks. Good luck with your problem and thanks.

Just wanted to let everyone know that apple had the hd replaced at the apple store in less then a week. Not that I'm happy about the whole situation, but I am glad apple backed me up. I'm up and running as usuall. However, the HD they gave me definitly isn't the same as the old one, it sounds different when it spins.