[asodamiac]

Hey guys,

So my trusty, 2 year old Powerbook G4 has failed me. I can't seem to get passed the gray loading screen with the twirling circle. I was looking through my external hard drive when the Mac crashed. I got the spinning beach ball and it would not go away after several minutes, so I restarted the computer. Now, I can't get passed that beginning load up screen!

Any know what's what up? I really can't afford to format my computer right now... I have valuable data on there. Oh yeah, the Mac crashed as I was backing up some photos.

Thanks,

Jason

[asodamiac]

OK, so I just ran the hardware test via my install disc and an error came up:

Mass Storage: Error detected

***ERROR*CODE***ERROR*CODE***
2STF/83:ATA-100 ata-6-Master
***ERROR*CODE***ERROR*CODE***

Is my hard drive gone for good? I have some important data on there (mainly photos). Luckily, I backed up the most important things, such as my music, documents, and most of my photos, but I did lose a lot of "newer" photos that I just took these past few months. They're important photos, but not important enough to send to a company and have the data retrieved.

Thanks for your help,

Jason

EDIT: BTW, my hard drive was NOT making any unusual noises. It just crashed.

[seanc]

You could try putting it into target disk mode and pulling the pictures off of it via another Mac. Try not to boot it any more unless you're going to be recovering data because the more you boot it, the more the drive will fail, if it still has any life left in it.

[asodamiac]

Thanks Sean. I seem to be having a problem with target disk mode. I am using a firewire cord and have booted up my Powerbook G4 while holding T. I get the firewire screen, but my hard drive is not showing up on my roommates MBP.

Does it matter if I use an Intel based Mac while trying to retrieve data from a Powerbook? It would be REAL nice if I could get my data back...

I'll be taking my Powerbook to the Apple store tomorrow anyways. Hope they can figure something out as well.

[Big Mac]

Backup. With the cheap, plentiful supply of large hard drives in the modern market there's no reason not to.

[seanc]

Do you remember your Firewire port as being working?

If the Firewire port is working and the HDD still isn't showing up then it could mean that the electronics on your drive has failed.

[Sherman Homan]

Target mode from a PPC to an Intel Mac should work. The fact that the drive isn't showing up, along with that error message from the Hardware test, is not good. I wish you luck, get a nice cheap external backup drive when this is all settled!

[asodamiac]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have backed up my data, but I have not gotten around to backing up recent photos (finals week at a university is no fun ).

I HAVE however, backed up all my important photos and music. There are miscellaneous items (and other photos) that I would like torecover. If I lose them, lesson learned and I might be sad for a little bit, but if I can recover them, it would be all the better.

I'm glad my Powerbook lasted me until the last day of my finals. It's a champ for doing just that