I've been working with my ailing eMac G4 for a couple weeks now. Nothing is working. When I run Quick Test on the Apple Hardware Test (after booting off the Install and Restore Disk) I get an "everything is fine" message. Then, when I run the extended test, I get the following error code: 2STF/8/3:ATA-100 ata-6-Master.
I tried your suggestion, but when I launch Disk Utility it fails and I get the following message: "DU started, but a background process needed in DU didn't start properly."
I kind of think the HD is dead, though Disk Warrior and the Genius Bar didn't think so. When I used Data Rescue, it often said "error reading block" which may be a sign of HD failure.
I may be at the point of no return on the HD, at which point I suppose the best option is to physically remove the HD and replace it.
If you know of another way to erase or zero the HD, please let me know. I have info on replacing the HD from an earlier part of the discussion.
If you know of another way to erase or zero the HD, please let me know. If you have TechTool Pro it has an erase feature. However, my guess it that if the disk cannot be read or mounted you are just spinning your wheels. I suggest that you give yourself a New Year's present of a new HDD.
ATA
Your error refers to the ATA 100 bus controller, which is a chip that connects the hard drive to the mother (logic) board.
The ATA stands for Advanced Technology Attachment and hard drives are categorized by their use of reading/writing hard drive standards that are successively numbered. (
For example, in 1998, most drives were ATA-4, ATA-5 drives, and then ATA-6 drives and so on)
Master
The last part of the error message is master, which is what position the drive occupies. When there are two drives, many computers use a master/slave setup, which the master drive is the boot drive and the secondary slave drive is the storage drive. When there is only one drive, it is still referred to as the Master drive by default.
To summarize the hard drive could be failed and needs to be replaced.
It could also be the ribbon cable that connects the hard drive to the logic board, or the logic board itself.
First you could try to repair the disc:
Boot into single user mode by rebooting and holding down the command + s keys...until you get to a "prompt"
Then type
/sbin/fsck -fy
then press return
This will manually run FSCK...then once it has finished (it may take a while) type
reboot
and press return.
If you are really lucky your Mac could boot up successfully.
If you still want to give it a go...
Try using DiskWarrior, to see if it could fix it...I have heard it fixes things that the normal Disk Utility.
...if not then try DataRescue to retreive your files.
