Couldn't find a forum for PPCs here, so opted for the Tiger Forum. Apologies.
This week I've had four HDD failures, two on one day (today).
Good one moment, gone (literally, from Finder + Disk Utility) the next.
Two were ATA, two were SATA (connected via Sonnet tempo PCI).
One of the SATA drives was only 24 hours old.
Any ideas?
Jet
iMac PPC,eMac, PowerMac, Powerbook, Mac Mini (combines Intel and PPC), and iBook are all hardware forums you can find here:
SATA hard drives only were possible on G5 iMacs and G5 PowerMacs for internal drives.
It is possible you bought all the hard drives in the same time frame.
It is possible that a power surge gave all the hard drives a problem at some time, and just now that surge has managed to rear its ugly head.
Regardless, hopefully your backup drives are not damaged simultaneously.
Also directory issues may make a hard drive look bad, when it really is not.
This tip should at least see if it is only partially dead, if not really dead:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1689
Obviously for PowerPC Macs, you'll want a recovery tool that boots into 10.5.8 or earlier depending on the speed of the Mac.
G4 867 Mhz and faster can take 10.5.8.
G4 800 Mhz, including dual processor can only take 10.4.11 and earlier.
The lack of Firewire on certain machines will mean you can only use 10.3.9 or earlier.
And Beige PPC Macs can only use 10.2.8 and earlier. Although ATA drives from the Beige can be inserted in a newer machine or hard drive case to allow recovery.
Could it be the Power Supply dropping out, or RAM messing them up for good?
It is possible, though I'd want to look at it one machine at a time.
Yes, agreed, I'd do yours first, mine was just additional info, not replacement for your info. 🙂
Hello. I'm down to two ATA drives (NOS)
and am waiting to see what happens next
before I throw money at SATA replacements.
A few days now, the beast seems stable.
Yes, the original drives were all purchased at the
same time and from the same vendor, so
maybe that's why they all died in the same week?
Still, an amazing coincidence for all four of them
to go at once?
Problem where I live (Hong Kong) is that Apple
doesn't repair older Macs here and there are certainly
no parts lying around. The late-teens store staff were all born
after my G4 was made, so they've never seen one
let alone care about fixing one. I'd have to source
a PSU on Ebay and fly it here...
Hence...the wait-and-watch to see what happens
(hopefully nothing).
Thanks for your feedback earlier.
Jet
Still, an amazing coincidence for all four of them to go at once?
Yeah, I'd put it in the realm of highly unlikely.
Problem where I live (Hong Kong) is that Apple doesn't repair older Macs here...
Nowhere does Apple repair Macs over 5 years old, nor do they stock parts as far as I know.
I'd look as some common component to the four hd's to have failed.
To test a hd, I suggest:
Extract the harddrive. Attach the 'bare' harddrive to the adapter. Attach the adapter to a Mac. Try reading the data. Run a household fan on the harddrive.
examples:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=32765 54&CatId=3770
Look around to a used g4 to salvage parts.
Robert
All my HDDs are failing
