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Hard Drive not responding

I have a 2007 iMac that I have never had any problems with. I unplugged it for a couple of days to paint a desk and have now reconnected and restarted it. For some reason it no longer recognizes that the hard drive is there. Upon reboot, I see the gray Apple, a bar as if it were loading software, then a OSX Utilities display box shows up asking me if I want to restore from a Time Machine disk. I do have a 2 TB Time Machine backup but I can't load from it. Also, one of the selections in the display box is Disk Utilities. I did do a verify on the OSX disk and it seems to be working so it is there, but it doesn't show the whole 750 GB hard drive that is available. Any thoughts on what to do?

iMac, iOS 8.2

Posted on Mar 27, 2015 5:03 PM

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6 replies

Mar 27, 2015 5:46 PM in response to sluker8670

You are correct in that TM will not boot, in order to do this you need a bootable clone which I'd recommend in addition to the TM backup.


However more to the point of your problem, this could be a failed HD however you didn't tell us what version of OS X is installed on the computer, IOS 8.2 is for IOS devices such as iPhones, iPads, & iPods. OS X is for Macs, if you are running Lion or later attempt to boot from the Recovery Partition (Command + R) on startup, if that boots then it open Disk Utility and try to repair the Mac's HD. If the Recovery Mode won't boot or the repairing the HD continues to report errors then it's clear your computer needs a new HD and you need to take it into your local Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) for service. If you don't know of an AASP in your area, click AASP Locator.

Mar 27, 2015 6:02 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Sorry, I have the latest OS X Yosemite. I tried the Command+R on start-up. If I disconnect my TM back-up drive (USB), then I don't even get the gray Apple. I just get a blinking folder with a ? in it. I have a feeling it's the hard drive and I'll have to get it replaced. I should be able to retrieve files from the TM drive later when the iMac is fixed, right? I was probably about to get a new Mac anyway so I guess this helps the decision process. Again, if I do get a new Mac, I should be able to get files off the Time Machine backup drive.


Thanks,

Shane

Mar 28, 2015 7:42 AM in response to sluker8670

Yes, if you either get the HD replaced or get a new Mac you can use your TM backup to restore. With a new Mac you would use Setup Assistant, when you turn on a Mac for the first time it asks if you are migrating from another Mac, select Yes then select the TM backup (that is now connected to the new machine) and let it restore. When it's done your new machine has all the apps, settings, and files from the old machine.

Mar 28, 2015 12:41 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I'm replacing the hard drive and was wondering, the Hitachi 750 GB SATA II 3.0 Gb/s hard drive is not really available and I was looking at increasing the size to at least 1TB. The old hard drive has a 32 MB cache. Some of the newer ones have 64 MB cache. Do I need to stick with the 32 MB for any reason, or would a 64 be OK? Or do I have any limits? (1 TB SSD SATA III drive, 4 TB SATA III mechanical drive, etc...)

Hard Drive not responding

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