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digital821 · Sep 11, 2009, 03:29 PM

Okay so about a week ago my mac G5 just randomly froze on me. I shut it down by holding down the power button and forcing shut down, I know its not good for the machine but I cant change that now. So I tried to reboot and on startup I got now chime, then no apple on my boot up screen, all while my HD is making a chirping noise, then instead of booting up OSX I get a folder icon with the finder image and a "?" symbol. I replaced the PCB board because after I took out the drive I noticed a chip was burnt, a very small one, replaced it and reinstalled the drive and the same thing happens.

I am sick to my stomach about the thought of what I have lost on that drive. I cant believe that we can go to friggin space but cant repair a damn HD. Please someone out there tell me some good news.

ibook_steve · Sep 11, 2009, 03:53 PM

Welcome to our forums!

But I don't have good news for you. The drive is probably dead. You can try extracting the drive and putting it in an external case and testing with another computer to make sure it's not your G5 that's dead (just because it was a "small" chip that looked burned doesn't mean it's a small problem), or try booting in target disk mode (hold T at boot) and see if you can connect your computer to another through Firewire.

You should also try booting from your OS DVD and running Disk Utility from there to test the drive.

I can only presume that you have no backup and are not using at least Leopard to make a Time Machine backup. Otherwise, a dead drive would not be a huge deal.

Steve

digital821 · Sep 11, 2009, 04:36 PM

"But I don't have good news for you. The drive is probably dead. You can try extracting the drive and putting it in an external case and testing with another computer to make sure it's not your G5 that's dead (just because it was a "small" chip that looked burned doesn't mean it's a small problem), or try booting in target disk mode (hold T at boot) and see if you can connect your computer to another through Firewire.

You should also try booting from your OS DVD and running Disk Utility from there to test the drive.

I can only presume that you have no backup and are not using at least Leopard to make a Time Machine backup. Otherwise, a dead drive would not be a huge deal."

I have tried several different boot up methods, nothing works. I have put the OS disc in my computer and then booted up but it said the drive was unreadable. I cant accept defeat, there is stuff I want on there. There has got to be a way to dismantle it and rebuild it to get the info off. Also no I have no back up and I wasnt running Leopard.

ibook_steve · Sep 11, 2009, 06:24 PM

So you booted with the OS installation disk holding "c" to boot from it instead of your hard drive and you couldn't? And Disk Utility said your hard drive was unreadable?

As I mentioned, you can try putting it in an external case or get a more advanced utility program such as Disk Warrior.

Steve

reader50 · Sep 11, 2009, 07:05 PM

When you say you 'replaced the PCB board', I assume you mean the small board on the underside of the drive? Just checking - I hope you didn't mean the computer motherboard. And the HD board would have to be from the same model & revision.

digital821 · Sep 11, 2009, 08:05 PM

Yes I have booted holding "C" with the disk in and the disk utility recognized my external but said that my main HD had no information on it.

It sounds as if the drive is trying to spin but it can't.

Also yes I replaced the PCB on the bottom of the HD, everything matches, I made sure that I bought the correct one.

reader50 · Sep 11, 2009, 09:38 PM

If it can't spin up, then you've got a hardware fault inside. Assuming that is the case, your only hope is a professional drive recovery service. They'll probably want a few thou to recover files from the drive.

Is even a little of your data copied elsewhere? A file dumped on a USB flash drive to share with a friend/coworker? Copy emailed to someone (even an older version of the file)? Old versions on your previous drive / old computer? Printed hardcopies that could be OCR'd back in?

digital821 · Sep 11, 2009, 11:04 PM

No I have no back up of this stuff, I understand how stupid I am for not doing so but I can't change that now. Also a professional drive recovery service would cost thousands? Thats so f**king ridiculous it's not even funny. Anyone who charges that should be drawn and quartered. I could probably take the damn thing apart myself and replace the parts, what the hell costs so much?

This can't possibly be the only option.
But I do really appreciate everyone taking their time to throw in their two cents, thank you.

reader50 · Sep 12, 2009, 02:34 AM

If the fault is outside the case (like the PCB) then there is hope for self-repairs. Problems inside require a clean room and other things we don't have. Note: do not open the case outside a clean room - you'll let all kinds of dust in. Which will produce immediate head crashes, causing more data to become unrecoverable.

If you're sure it's not an outside cause, then you need a service like these guys. They have clean rooms and specialized tools / parts to do the deed. Like transplant the platters into a healthy mechanism. Or try to band-aid the mechanism into working just long enough to recover files.

Note that the guys I linked to have a rep for being expensive. If you absolutely positively have to get that data back, shop around. See if there are better options. Also, might your insurance cover business-critical data recovery? Check your policy.