My computer gets bogged down in disk utility "gathering disk information." I can't get past this to reach the first aid tab. The little icon just keeps going round and round. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

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My computer gets bogged down in disk utility "gathering disk information." I can't get past this to reach the first aid tab. The little icon just keeps going round and round. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

My Mac crashed today for the first time in the seven years I have owned it. I was working in Photoshop. It had been getting slower and slower in Photoshop. Now I can't start the computer at all. Using the Installer CD, I can't get through to use the Disk Utility to try to fix it. The computer gets bogged down in disk utility "gathering disk information." I can't get past this to reach the first aid tab. The little icon just keeps going round and round. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.3.x)

Posted on Jun 2, 2012 7:45 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 3, 2012 7:02 PM in response to L Straws

You may have had a hard drive failure. Have you been hearing any unusual sounds? Have you been getting messages about a full hard drive?

Will it boot in Safe Mode? See What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392 Takes a while to run, but it usually "fixes" problems.

Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 2

L Straws Author

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Jun 4, 2012 4:28 AM in response to Texas Mac Man

Thanks. No, it won't boot in Safe Mode. I tried resetting the PRAM and that didn't work either. Using my installer disk, I finally got through to disk utility but the hard drive icon doesn't show up. I ran the extended Apple Hardware Test and no hardware problems were detected. When I try to boot up though, I get a flashing globe followed by the flashing question mark alternating with a happy face folder and can't get any farther. Maybe I better head over to TechServe. They'll probably tell me my 2005 PowerBook G4 has reached the end of its life.

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