HD Failed?

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Level 1

93 points

HD Failed?

Woke my iMac from its sleep this morning to find the spinning beach ball and also noticed some of the icons from the menu bar had dissapeared (airport). I rebooted it and when it came back on there was very loud fan noise and instead of OSX i got a folder icon with a question mark in it!

I have tried to boot with the install disk (holding down C) but nothing is happening (just a white screen) so I cant run the disk check utility.

My questions are, can I assume the HD has failed and is there another way to boot from the install disk?

Fortunately, i have a full time machine backup. The annoyance is, this machine is less than a year old and it looks like its about to have its second trip back to the apple store for a repair 😟

Paul

Macbook Core Duo 2, iMac 21.5" (2009), Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Jun 8, 2010 1:52 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 8, 2010 8:03 AM in response to Paul J. Hart

Sounds like a good possibility, but you should try a SMC reset first. Shut the system down, unplug it, hold the power button in for about 5 seconds, then plug it back in.

And if you remember the general shape of a bell curve... Some drives/systems will be on the left side of the bulge, others will be on the right. It's never fun when it's your turn to be "it" but everyone gets a lemon now and again. At least with your iMac there's a warranty that means it gets repaired on someone else's dime. So sooner or later you're likely to get parts that are on the other side of the bell curve.

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Answer 2

vx6000

Level 1

4 points

Jun 8, 2010 1:04 PM in response to Paul J. Hart

You can try the hardware test. Insert install CD and hold "d" key down while start up. Run hardware test and it will give you details. Don't know if it would be install disk 1 or 2. Thought I read somewhere that 10.5.4 is on disk 1, 10.5.5 is on disk 2. Either way if you try 1 and it doesn't work try another.

My machines hard drive has been going out for around 6 months now (about 5 mos off warranty). I do believe it finally died for sure last night. The usual trick to get it back up and on isn't working (leaving it unplugged for a couple hours). Now maybe I can find the time to install the new drive I bought months ago.

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