[MrHappyMonkey]

I think my hard drive in my flat panel 17" 1.25Ghz iMac is dying. It seems to be making a churning sound when trying to boot up. It gets as far as the "login window starting" screen with a blue background. Is there any way to use some type of boot disk to login and backup my files? I've tried to put the iMac into target mode and connect via firewire to my PC, but the PC does not recognize the iMac as a HD. Device manager shows the iMac as a SBP2 Compliant IEEE 1394 device, but does not have a proper driver for it (there is a yellow '!' symbol by the name).

[dtriska]

You should buy DiskWarrior. It's, quite frankly, the best disk utility for OS X. It can fix just about anything that's wrong with your hard drive, can tell whether your drive is failing, and allows you to back up before it tries to fix the drive.

It, of course, comes with a boot CD, but you'll need another drive (such as a FireWire drive) for back up.

[Zoom]

Do you have another FW-equipped Mac? If so, you can boot your ailing Mac in "target disk mode" to pull data off the drive, if the drive is readable. I just learned this trick recently myself. Hook up a FW cable between the two Macs. On the bad Mac, restart while holding down "t". This should bring up a big FW symbol on the bad Mac and the hard drive should show up on the desktop of the good Mac. Then you can try running Disk Utility or any other drive software you might have. You can also try to copy off the important files. You can reinstall OSX, too, if you think that's a culprit.

Borrow a friend's iBook or PowerBook, if necessary.

I've also heard very good things about DiskWarrior, but it's about $80. Try the free stuff first, if you can.

[MrHappyMonkey]

Originally posted by Zoom:
Do you have another FW-equipped Mac? If so, you can boot your ailing Mac in "target disk mode" to pull data off the drive, if the drive is readable. I just learned this trick recently myself. Hook up a FW cable between the two Macs. On the bad Mac, restart while holding down "t". This should bring up a big FW symbol on the bad Mac and the hard drive should show up on the desktop of the good Mac. Then you can try running Disk Utility or any other drive software you might have. You can also try to copy off the important files. You can reinstall OSX, too, if you think that's a culprit.

Borrow a friend's iBook or PowerBook, if necessary.

I've also heard very good things about DiskWarrior, but it's about $80. Try the free stuff first, if you can.

I don't have another Mac, but I tried to connect the iMac to my PC via target disk mode. It didn't seem to want to mount to the PC. I also tried booting into single user mode and Typing fsck -f. I got an error message saying "invalid node structure, can't repair". Right now I'm trying to do an "archive and install" installation of OS X. It seems to be hanging since the status bar has not updated in awhile. It says "Processing essential system software: writing files" with an hour and 17 minutes remaining.

[Don Pickett]

Originally posted by MrHappyMonkey:
I don't have another Mac, but I tried to connect the iMac to my PC via target disk mode. It didn't seem to want to mount to the PC. I also tried booting into single user mode and Typing fsck -f. I got an error message saying "invalid node structure, can't repair". Right now I'm trying to do an "archive and install" installation of OS X. It seems to be hanging since the status bar has not updated in awhile. It says "Processing essential system software: writing files" with an hour and 17 minutes remaining.

Fascinating:I seem to be having almost the same problem with my Powerbook. I tried to boot up yesterday and the drive made horrible crunching/grinding sounds. When I restored it with Tech Tool Pro, I had lost ~2 gigs of data. I also have not been able to boot into OS X for a while, with almost the same exact symptoms.

FWIW, I have ordered a new drive and backed up all my critical files to my iPod.

[Detrius]

Originally posted by dtriska:
You should buy DiskWarrior. It's, quite frankly, the best disk utility for OS X. It can fix just about anything that's wrong with your hard drive, can tell whether your drive is failing, and allows you to back up before it tries to fix the drive.

It, of course, comes with a boot CD, but you'll need another drive (such as a FireWire drive) for back up.

I hate to be blunt about this but you are flat out wrong to recommend DiskWarrior like this. It can't tell you when your drive is failing. The *ONLY* hardware things it is capable of doing is checking the SMART status on the drive and telling you if there is a bad block in the directory structure--if you are paying attention. Expecting DiskWarrior to inform you about all hardware failures is unwise; telling other people that it is the only thing they need is irresponsible.

You need to have a utility that can run a reliable surface scan. There are two good tools available: Apple's Drive Setup if your machine will boot into OS 9 and Tech Tool Pro 4 if your machine won't.

I will agree that Disk Warrior is the best at repairing directory structure issues.

BTW, if you think there is any possibility you have a bad hard drive, back up your data before running a surface scan because that may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

[dtriska]

Originally posted by Detrius:
I hate to be blunt about this but you are flat out wrong to recommend DiskWarrior like this. It can't tell you when your drive is failing. The *ONLY* hardware things it is capable of doing is checking the SMART status on the drive and telling you if there is a bad block in the directory structure--if you are paying attention. Expecting DiskWarrior to inform you about all hardware failures is unwise; telling other people that it is the only thing they need is irresponsible.

I hate to be blunt about this but f-ck you, too. I didn't say DiskWarrior will "inform you about all hardware failures." Nor did I say DiskWarrior is the only disk utility anyone needs.

Since you obviously failed any reading comprehension tests you've taken, let's take a look at what I posted:

Originally posted by dtriska:
You should buy DiskWarrior. It's, quite frankly, the best disk utility for OS X. It can fix just about anything that's wrong with your hard drive, can tell whether your drive is failing, and allows you to back up before it tries to fix the drive.

It, of course, comes with a boot CD, but you'll need another drive (such as a FireWire drive) for back up.

Do you see anything along the lines of "all hardware failures" or "only thing" anyone needs? No, you don't.

And, regarding drive failures, what do you think the S.M.A.R.T. status is for? Not to mention the automatic diagnostic function of DiskWarrior for people who don't pay "attention."

Putting words in someone else's mouth is unwise; acting stupid is, well, stupid. Don't be such an ass next time.

[Detrius]

Originally posted by dtriska:
I hate to be blunt about this but f-ck you, too. I didn't say DiskWarrior will "inform you about all hardware failures." Nor did I say DiskWarrior is the only disk utility anyone needs.

Since you obviously failed any reading comprehension tests you've taken, let's take a look at what I posted:



Do you see anything along the lines of "all hardware failures" or "only thing" anyone needs? No, you don't.

And, regarding drive failures, what do you think the S.M.A.R.T. status is for? Not to mention the automatic diagnostic function of DiskWarrior for people who don't pay "attention."

Putting words in someone else's mouth is unwise; acting stupid is, well, stupid. Don't be such an ass next time.

I didn't put words in anyone's mouth. You said that DiskWarrior can tell you whether the drive is failing. If SMART is not supported (or has failed), DiskWarrior won't tell you anything. If you have bad blocks on your drive, DiskWarrior will only tell you about it if the directory is located on one of them. In these cases, DiskWarrior cannot tell you whether your drive is failing.

There is a very large group of people out there that say "DiskWarrior is the only disk utility you need" (like the guy that runs our local Users' Group). I'm the guy that has to call people up and tell them that their drive is gone and that there is nothing I can do to get their data. They relied on DiskWarrior as their savior.

There was absolutely nothing in your statement that implied that people should not rely on DiskWarrior as their only tool. After all, getting that from what you said really would be putting words in your mouth.

I'm just trying to make an impression here for the general good. If I saved one person's data by upsetting you, then I have done my job.