Imac Hard Drive Failure

[saber78]

I just finished working on a project for school today and my Imac froze. It turns out that my hard drive just might have failed and I'm freaking out.
I'm taking it to the mac store with an external drive tomorrow to see
If I can get my project off of the drive. Do you think it will be possible?

 

[chscag]

It depends on what the problem is with the hard drive. If the heads crashed, then it's very unlikely data can be recovered without having it done professionally. ($$$$)

However, the machine freezing does not necessarily mean the hard drive failed. It can be caused by a video or memory problem. Sometimes software corruption will cause freezing.

Let's hope it's something simple and your data is intact.

Regards.

 

[saber78]

thanks

Thanks for the response =)..

It seems that my computer won't boot from my drive even when my install disk is used. This is unbelievable. I hope for the best but I'm expecting the worst.

 

[Alexis]

Have you run the hardware test CD?

 

[coach_z]

boot your comp. as a firewire drive, target disk mode, and use antoher computer to grab all your files

 

[saber78]

boot your comp. as a firewire drive, target disk mode, and use antoher computer to grab all your files

That sounds like a great solution!
The other computer has to be a mac right?
If I take it to the mac store with my own hard drive they should be able to do this..correct?

 

[saber78]

Have you run the hardware test CD?

I ran some tests through apple care on the phone... for a while all seemed well. however a disk repair failed (even though my HD was recognized int he side window as an option)..eventualy the computer failed to recognize my hard drive as a bootable disk altogether.

 

[coach_z]

computer doesnt need to be a mac, just has to have a firewire port, or usb i dont know what the newer computers can do nowadays. my old PB used to be firewire only for this connection.

from there your big expensive imac will turn into a big expensive External hard drive....copy everything you will ever need off of your drive and then get it replaced (if it is actually bad, if it is not actually bad you now have a good backup)

how to do this can be found on the apple website or your user manual

chances are they wont be able to use your own drive, just because they like to use their own stuff etc.... if it is out of waranty replace the drive yourself. the process is relatively easy

 

[chscag]

I ran some tests through apple care on the phone... for a while all seemed well. however a disk repair failed (even though my HD was recognized int he side window as an option)..eventualy the computer failed to recognize my hard drive as a bootable disk altogether.

That does sound like the hard drive may be defective or at least it's not repairable with disk utility. The folks at the Apple store (genius bar) have specialized software which can repair defective drive sectors and also remove data from the drive. Don't fool with it any longer as each attempted access can actually worsen things. Let the Apple technicians have at it instead.

Regards.