[ruca333]

Hi. I stepped away from using my computer this morning and about an hour later started to hear an odd "repetitive motorish clicking sound" coming from my home office. I discovered the unknown noise coming from my G4 tower. Uh oh!?! Not good. When I went to use the mouse, everything was frozen. So I tried to manually reboot my computer. Not only did the odd noise not go away, but I was greeted by that wonderful "flashing file with the question mark" in the middle of a solid grey background on my monitor. I tried doing a soft boot while holding down the shift key, but NOTHING? I tried disconnecting the ethernet cable...NOTHING? Finally I tried inserting the Mac OSX Panther version 10.3 Install Disc while holding down the C key and opened the disc utility to try repairing the hard drive, but there is NO visible Hard Drive icon on the left where there should be... shouldn't it be there?? Plus, when the install disc asks me to "Select a destination volume to install the Mac OSX software" there is nothing for me to chooses from. Shouldn't there be an icon of my Hard Drive here for me to choose? If this question has been asked before, please post the link if you know where to find it.

I don't want to reinstall the OSX if I absolutely don't have to. I just want that annoying clicking motor sound to go away and my computer back to normal working order.

Thank you for your time : )

[Uncle Skeleton]

Hard drives make repetitive clicking noises when they fail. Not Disk-Repair software fail, like hardware, the platter is scratched or a head has broken off fail. You need to back up your data from that disk, first thing (if that's even possible). After that, you can try to find out of the drive has broken, or if I were you I wouldn't trust it either way. Once you back up your data, I suggest cloning it to another drive. Don't waste time cloning it before you get your backups off of there. Any sustained activity (write especially but read too) risks sending the drive over the edge, and just copying what you know is important is faster than "cloning."

Or it might not be broken, but it sure sounds like it.

[ruca333]

Thank you for your reply.

1) Do you think my computer is fixable? Or is it's days numbered? (I bought it used in 2003). Is this common for the age of my computer (its a G4 Quicksilver model).
2) On average, how much is it to repair vs replace a Hard Disk Drive?
3) Will I lose any files saved on my desktop?
4) Where would you take your Mac to get fixed (I've never had anything like this happen, the only two places off the top of my head to bring it into would be the Apple Store or Geek Squad in Best Buy)?
5) How do I go about backing up my data?? I can't access my hard drive, let alone my desktop?

Thx

[TheoCryst]

First thing first: In the future, please don't say things like "Help! PLEASE read this" in your subjects. It irritates some people, and that's just a bad idea. Just simply state your problem, and elaborate in your post. But you're new, so I'll cut you some slack.

EDIT: Ninja'd! But your new questions:

1) Your computer should be completely fixable. Standard off-the-shelf hard drives should work fine in your Mac.
2) Repairing a HDD isn't actually a viable option. It'll be best just to toss it and buy a new one.
3) Unfortunately yes. Everything on the disk is probably gone.
4) It's a pretty simple operation; you can probably do it yourself. Otherwise, the Geek Squad should be able to do it.
5) See #3.

[wataru]

Originally Posted by ruca333 

2) On average, how much is it to repair vs replace a Hard Disk Drive?

You don't repair a broken hard drive. It's gone, unless you're the FBI or something.

3) Will I lose any files saved on my desktop?

You've already lost them.

4) Where would you take your Mac to get fixed (I've never had anything like this happen, the only two places off the top of my head to bring it into would be the Apple Store or Geek Squad in Best Buy)?

I wouldn't trust anyone other than an authorized Apple service center.

5) How do I go about backing up my data?? I can't access my hard drive, let alone my desktop?

You backup your data before your hard drive crashes.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Even the FBI doesn't "repair" them, they just have more advanced methods of getting the data off the broken parts. Hard drives don't get repaired in the sense that they can function as hard drives again.

But sometimes broken hard drives have intermittent periods before they completely die. If you can't read it, you can try letting it sit overnight, knocking on wood and waving a dead chicken over it, then see if it will mount the next day. There's a small chance you can copy your files off it. But choose the most important files first, you may only get 100 MB or so before the act of reading it kills it.

If you have really important data on there, services exist to extract the bare platters in a clean room and read them "by hand." If you have $500 or so to throw at that they're there (but even then they can't always get it, and hardly ever get ALL of it).

[TheoCryst]

Actually, here's how you do it: put your hard drive in the freezer overnight. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but it's been known to bring drives back to life just long enough to get any important data off of them. Give it a shot, it's not like you have anything to lose at this point.

[ruca333]

Thanks again for all the advice everyone! This might be a silly question, but:

1) Where is my hard drive located in my tower?
2) How do I remove my hard drive once I locate it?

The most I've ever done internally with my Mac was installing additional RAM (I know, I know...).

Thx

[badidea]

Originally Posted by ruca333 

1) Where is my hard drive located in my tower?

2) How do I remove my hard drive once I locate it?

unplug -> unscrew -> take it out

[ruca333]

Thanks again everyone for all the great advice! I know I'm new to the forum and just begining to learn the etiquette of posting threads, I'm learning more and more everyday. I wish I knew more about the inner workings of my hardware (hell, I wish I knew more about my software). I admit, I kinda went through a "quarter life crisis" when my hard drive crashed yesterday. Never had anything like that happen to me before. You always hear about peoples hard drives crashing, but never think it will happen to you until it's too late (like most things in life). But, like most things in life, you live and you learn. I'm chalking this up to "the lesser of two evils" (I purchased an external hard drive a few months back and fortunately backed up the majority of my most important design files). I don't remember if I backed up my photos (I think I'll miss those the most). Thanks again for everything and wish you all the best!

Thx

[tinkered]

I would take this opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of your computer. I have no doubt you will be surprised by how easy it is to work on your tower. Apple pioneered easy access in the B&W g3, which was carried over tot he G4 towers. This was a vast improvement over the old days (or the recent days if you own a Dell). You can get any Ultra ATA/100, not SATA, drive off the self. I would recommend a 500 GB seagate (500GB Barracuda 7200.10 Ultra ATA/100 7200... (ST3500630A) at OWC. It is vastly larger then what you have and has a three year warranty, longer then the computer will stay current.

[Bogartte]

You get yourself a new hard drive, they're not that expensive at all.

Take out the old one, install the new one, install OS X on it. Connect to your
internet connection, and download a copy of DataRescue ll, or newer version. Pay for it, since it will most likely save your files.

Reinstall your old hard drive, and use DataRescue to access it. Simple as pie, and if your old drive is not totally gerfunct, you will be able to retrieve all your data.