internal HDD = not mounting. please help, very frustrated.

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Hi, my name is Luca this is my first post on Mac-forums, and I am graciously hoping that someone with greater knowledge than myself about hardware issues will stumble across this post!

2 days ago my 24" iMac (September 2007, alu.) started to be really.. REALLY slow. I had no idea what could possibly be the cause so I instinctively rebooted my computer.

normally, this process takes a minute or two. It took 15 minutes just to get to the login screen, then another 10 to get finder up and running !!

I then put in my SnowLeopard install disc to run disc utility on my internal hard drive, I verified and repaired the drive and tried to boot once again. No luck. Back in goes the Install disk to verify disc permissions.. loads of errors, all come out clean and fixed. Will it boot better? no.

I partitioned my external WD MyBook, 1TB and installed a fresh SnowLeopard, all of a sudden.. MIGRATION ASSISTANT! what a beautiful program, transfers EVERYTHING down to the contents of my trash to my new EXTERNAL install of snow leopard. I now boot into snow leopard on the external partition and see all 3 partitions. 2 from the MyBook and the internal drive. now that I have everything safe, I tried to erase the internal drive (using zero-out data method from disc utility). after completetion and reboot into snow leopard installer I start the install, get an error claiming that it cannot be installed and as of that moment my internal hard drive does not mount! I don't see it on the desktop, in finder or disc utility!

what is going on?

Please save me from this crazy mess!

-Thank you so very much


Luca.
 

Kax


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Have you been using the Hard Disk sense 2007, did you change it? If not your Hard Disk might be corrupted. Buy another Hard Disk ;)
 
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Have you been using the Hard Disk sense 2007, did you change it? If not your Hard Disk might be corrupted. Buy another Hard Disk ;)


thank you for your input!

Are those really the only two possibilities?

I'm dreading taking apart my iMac...
 

Kax


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thank you for your input!

Are those really the only two possibilities?

I'm dreading taking apart my iMac...

You already said you have repaired it but it did not fix it, I really don`t know what other choice you have, try to wait if others say something else :)

Sorry I did not help that much :p
 

bobtomay

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...

2 days ago my 24" iMac (September 2007, alu.) started to be really.. REALLY slow. I had no idea what could possibly be the cause so I instinctively rebooted my computer.

normally, this process takes a minute or two. It took 15 minutes just to get to the login screen, then another 10 to get finder up and running !!

...

what is going on?

Please save me from this crazy mess!

-Thank you so very much


Luca.

Typical issue indicating dead/dying drive.

I had 2 such last year including a brand new drive which WD replaced, no questions asked, when I told them what it was doing.
 
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Thank you Kax, I'll just have to come to terms with my loss.. :p !
 
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You do have an external with a copy of all your files etc? Critical for when the hdd fails and a new drive is needed.
 
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Yes, I do. Currently I am running my mac in it's "pre-internal-HardDrive-failure" state from a second partition on my external drive. within the next two weeks i'm going to sit myself down and swap out my HDD.. kinda dreading the task but I think i'm capable of doing this myself. I'm gonna go buy a 1.5TB WD Caviar Green drive to replace my dead 500gb internal WD.

I will then use the Migration assistant again to move my life back to the internal drive after SnowLeopard is installed internally.
 

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