Hard Drive Toast - 2nd, more enlightened, opinion wanted

[Deron]

I've got an intel iMac big screen (white last generation) that was handed to me with the promise of, "if you can make it work it's yours."

Best I can tell it doesn't appear to get along with it's hard drive anymore....

I loaded puppy linux into ram on it and it didn't see any hard drives, but all the parts seem to work.
I tried loading Leopard but no destination drive appears to load it to.
The disk utility, available on the Leopard install disk, doesn't see a drive.
System Profiler, also on the Leopard install disk, doesn't seem to see a drive either.

Based on that, I'd say there's no working drive there. Any other tests I might run?

If I replace the drive, is there anything I should really avoid? Is there a way to remove this drive and test it somehow to eliminate other potential problems?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Kevriano]

Not really.
That's a pretty sure thing that the drive has died, so a replacement is the way to go.
If you do, stick with the better known brands I'd say. Hitachi and Seagate seem to be popular, quiet and reliable.
Have a hunt around t determine the correct one for the machine though.

 

[Chris_B]

Before buying a drive, I'd try and get your hands on another to ensure the system detects it or try the current hard drive in another computer.

If a replacement hard drive has the same problem, it could be an issue with the logic board.

 

[bobtomay]

I'd say greater than 95% chance (maybe 99%) it is the drive. While extremely rare in my experience, it could be the SATA controller or connection also. Testing another external won't give you a clue as to which it is. You'll have to test that drive, either with it attached externally or in another machine.

I have the equipment to quickly make that test. If I didn't, personally, I'd just go get a new drive. If you do that, you could be out the cash of the new drive, but that's what I'd do. I can always make use of another drive somewhere.

 

[Deron]

Thank you

Thank you all.

I'll try digging the drive out and see if another machine thinks it exists.

I've got some clunky old drives around that I might test. They may not work real well, but I'm guessing they'd at least indicate if there's a pulse.