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crazeazn · 01:06 AM

my computer just recently keeps freezing on me completlely. i cant force quit applications so im forced to hold down the power key until the machine shuts off. when i power back on i get a single loud beep (after PRAM reset) and the machine wont seem to post. what should i do?

tooki · Mar 2, 2005, 12:00 AM

Bad RAM.

And use real thread titles in the future. This one says exactly nothing about your question.

tooki

crazeazn · Mar 2, 2005, 12:01 AM

tooki,

i removed my extra ram piece (1 gig),

when i try PRAM reset it still beeps, and wont given the mac sound twice to reset...

no avail. any ideas? and still no booting up.

crazeazn · Mar 3, 2005, 02:02 AM

the hard drive has failed. ive lost about 4 years of work, school and pictures sighs

Randman · Mar 3, 2005, 02:16 AM

You do have a backup plan, don't you?

crazeazn · Mar 3, 2005, 02:36 AM

no i dont, i was attempting to backup the drive the night before but it kept failing. apple store told me to archive and reinstall. i tried to do that tonight but it wont work....

only thing i hvae saved is my mp3s, since its on my ipod

i want to scream and cry so hard its not even funny.

the funny thing is they ran short test, extended test and the longer test, all three came clear.

analogika · Mar 3, 2005, 07:20 AM

Originally posted by crazeazn:
no i dont, i was attempting to backup the drive the night before but it kept failing.

ouch.

I ordered my new external backup hard drive in December. It took over four weeks to arrive, for some unfathomable reason.

Ten days before it got here, my Powerbook hard drive went down flaming, with the weirdest noises I have ever heard out of a piece of computer hardware.

About 20 gigs of recording I hadn't (yet) backed up.

cpac · Mar 3, 2005, 09:16 AM

Originally posted by crazeazn:
the funny thing is they ran short test, extended test and the longer test, all three came clear.

Then how do you know your hard drive is dead? If it shows up at all when you attempt to install, it's probably not the drive itself that's broken - it may just be that some of your files are corrupt and so the system wont boot.

romeosc · Mar 3, 2005, 10:12 AM

Originally posted by cpac:
Then how do you know your hard drive is dead? If it shows up at all when you attempt to install, it's probably not the drive itself that's broken - it may just be that some of your files are corrupt and so the system wont boot.

$60 for a 40 GB 2 1/2" hard drive and a $20 firewire case!

I use carbon cloner at least twice a week!

Better safe than sorry!

crazeazn · Mar 4, 2005, 04:15 AM

Originally posted by cpac:
Then how do you know your hard drive is dead? If it shows up at all when you attempt to install, it's probably not the drive itself that's broken - it may just be that some of your files are corrupt and so the system wont boot.

i ran target disk mode on a diff. machine. disk utility, s.m.a.r.t status: drive failing.

Mastrap · Mar 4, 2005, 07:00 AM

That sucks. Sorry to hear it.
If it's any consolation, I think we all have at least one similar horror story. At least that's true for me. Then we learn how to back up. And back up the back ups.

With data loss, it's not a question of 'if', it's a question of 'when'. Hope it all works out for you.

JKT · Mar 4, 2005, 08:04 AM

This very timely hint at MacOSX Hints.com may just save you.

You will need to get two external firewire hd kits (or have access to another MacOS X box with a very large hard drive). The first is to put your borked drive into and the second is for a big hard drive - the process will create a disk image of the entire borked drive (hence you'll need the space on the recovery disk to accommodate that image and also to mount it subsequently).

I'd recommend getting at least one external FW drive anyway so that you can then put in a new hard drive for keeping regular backups once you have - hopefully - rescued your data off the old one.