iMac Hard Drive Failure

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Level 3

565 points

iMac Hard Drive Failure

Hi,

I think the Hard Drive in my iMac (24" 2.16GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo) has fairly much died. This afternoon, I was able to start it up but after entering my login details, the Desktop picture would load up however the Menu Bar & the Dock would not load. After several attempts at restarting etc, I then decided to reset PRAM, try booting in safe mode & also unplugging the power cord. Every time I tried to boot up after this, it started up but before the login window appeared, the computer turned itself off. I managed to then boot via my Techtool Pro eDrive & it indicated that my HD couldn't be repaired. It also indicated an error with Volume Structures. I managed to get in to Disk Utility & although "Verify Permissions" & "Repair Permissions" were greyed out, I managed to select "Verify Disk" & that also indicated that there was a major problem with "Bad Nodes".

Just wondering if there was anything else I should try or can I safely assume that the HD is bad?

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Ben

iMac 24" 2.16GHZ, MacBook Pro 15" 2.2GHZ, iMac G3 15" 700MHZ (Graphite/CRT), Mac OS X (10.6.2), iMac G4 15" 700MHZ, 2nd Generation iPod 10GB, iPhone 16GB, iPhone 3G 16GB 

Posted on Jan 27, 2010 12:31 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

elmac

Level 5

4,252 points

Jan 27, 2010 12:39 PM in response to BenRector

Hi, Wickford guy, I used to live in Rayleigh.. anyways, the more you play around with the HD the more chance you have of NOT being able to recover any info via the Recovery Programs. Have you Back Up your info etc.. on another ext HD?
Do you have AppleCare? if Yes - Apple will repair your Mac but will NOT pay to recover your files etc..
If you do have your Mac repaired it would be a good idea to have an external HD & use something like SuperDuper to have a backUp & a bootable drive...L

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Answer 2

BenRector Author

Level 3

565 points

Jan 27, 2010 12:47 PM in response to elmac

Hi Fellow Essex Man!

Many thanks for your reply. Luckily, I have managed to access the Macintosh HD whilst booted via my eDrive & have managed to drag some important files on to an External Drive. I generally keep everything backed up & am lucky that I have managed to access some of my data in this way.

I haven't got Apple Care. Luckily, I also have a MacBook Pro & I keep both machines exactly the same in case of one of them failing & then all I have to do is plug it in to my Daisy Chained Hard Drives & I am then back in business. I have just about all I need recovered...it's just the hassle of having to install everything again!

With regards

Ben

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Answer 3

elmac

Level 5

4,252 points

Jan 27, 2010 12:51 PM in response to BenRector

Hi, well done on the back up - i have 4 Macs - (MBpro/iMac/iBook & New MB) anyways as per you,
I keep everything backed up from the iMac via SDuper & TM.
All my computers are as yours duplicates of each other..Lucky us..L

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Answer 4

Jan 27, 2010 12:52 PM in response to BenRector

I managed to then boot via my Techtool Pro eDrive

If that's a partition on the same internal drive, then it is possible that the cause is only data corruption on your startup disk, and the drive itself is OK.

If you have your data backed up, you can try starting up from the Mac OS X installation disc. At the first Installer screen, go up to menu bar and run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

Select the internal drive in the sidebar. Select the drive and not the volume indented under the drive. First, go to the +First Aid+ tab. Use +Repair Disk+ (not +Repair Disk Permissions+ ). TechTool Pro did the same type of test, but let Disk Utility identify and attempt to repair the problem.

If that does not work, go to the Erase tab. Instead of doing a normal erase, click on +Security Options+; then select the option for +Zero Out Data+. Back on the main window, name the drive and set the format to +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+. Click in Erase. This will write zeros to all drive sectors, and serve as a good stress test. If the drive itself is starting to fail, this procedure usually stalls or errors out. Note: It will take some time to complete (even a few hours) even when everything is normal; depends on the size of the drive.

Erasing the drive also repartitions and reformats the drive. If that eDrive was on the same drive, it will be gone too. Your data will obviously be erased, so if you don't have a backup, you can considered other options first.

Once the erase completes, quit Disk Utility to go back to Installer. Perform a standard install of Mac OS X and bundled apps onto the blank drive. Then, run it +as is+ after only running Software Update to install Apple's updates. Do not immediately restore your data or install third-party apps, until you are satisfied that everything is working properly.

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Answer 5

BenRector Author

Level 3

565 points

Jan 27, 2010 1:05 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Hi Kenichi,

Many thanks for that...I will certainly try that. I did wonder if perhaps it was data corruption on the Macintosh HD Volume as I managed to access via my eDrive & they are both on the same internal Hard Drive.

Elmac...yes it is very lucky having several Macs in order to be able to carry on as normal in case of a failure & to also check an applications preferences etc. Lucky us indeed!

Thank you guys.

Ben

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Answer 6

BenRector Author

Level 3

565 points

Jan 27, 2010 3:37 PM in response to BenRector

Hi Kenichi,

I Have booted via the DVD as recommended & have run Disk Utility. I selected the Hard Drive & not the Volume but after clicking "Verify Disk", I get the message "Invalid Node Structure, Volume Check Failed, Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed".

Looks like I will have to try the Zero Data option.

Ben

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Answer 7

Jan 27, 2010 3:43 PM in response to BenRector

You don't have the option to run +Repair Disk+ (instead of +Verify Disk+ ) in Disk Utility, even when booted off the installation disc?

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Answer 8

BenRector Author

Level 3

565 points

Jan 27, 2010 3:46 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

No..that option is greyed out. After it has verified, I get a prompt saying that it couldn't continue due to the error.

Ben

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Answer 9

Jan 27, 2010 4:27 PM in response to BenRector

If it's only data corruption, it must be serious. I think you'll need to erase and reinstall, with the option to do a +zero out data+ erase (instead of a regular one-minute erase).

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Answer 10

Widdzuk

Level 1

0 points

Jan 28, 2010 6:30 AM in response to BenRector

Hi,

LAST WEEK, I had the Invalid node structure on my imac i5 27, It did it 3 times in a row, somebody had warned me that the Hdd was about to die, and sure enough it did. Id STRONGLY ADVISE TO BACK UP YOUR DATA.

Took it to be repaired under Applecare at my local reseller, and all is perfect again.

To NOTE; The Hdd that failed was one of the 1tb Seagate drives, if you read there has being no end of trouble with these drives. The replacement apple sent is a WD Caviar Black which is voted one of the top 7200 drives available.

Hope this helps.

Martin

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Answer 11

Switch900

Level 2

232 points

Jan 28, 2010 9:40 AM in response to Widdzuk

thanks for tell ming me this because I just have my iMac i7 27 inch on its way to my home I hope that it doesn´t come with a seagate drive all seagate drives are really bad western digital are freaking awesome drives.

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Answer 12

Jan 28, 2010 11:33 AM in response to BenRector

I've just found out my drive is also failing by running the SMART Utility. Here's a screenshot of the results: http://ryanr.eu/dump/imac-hdd-failing.jpg

Can anyone shed some light on this? It all says Old-age and Pre-fail, yet it's a new i7 iMac.

I've got TimeMachine set to run every hour so everything important is backed up but is this pretty much a lost cause? I should just take it into the local AppleStore?

Thanks.

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