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cantona7 · Feb 12, 2004, 07:16 PM

i have a powermac 533mhz. the original drive is starting to grind away during normal operation, ie. open a file and i hear the grinding for a about 10 seconds and then it opens the file. its been happening for a while but now its starting to stop me from working. its getting worse basically.

i've been waiting for the new powermac to come out so i've not replaced the drive.

is there any utilities out there that will check the drive and either fix the bad blocks or mark them as bad and allow me to get through this waiting time. of course i'm hoping that apple release the new machines soon.

i've run apples verify disk util but it says all is well.

thanks

SSharon · Feb 12, 2004, 07:48 PM

back up everything important right now.

If you are waiting for a new mac to come out my best advice is to invest in a cheap hard drive and buy a firewire case for it that you can then use with your new mac and transfer all of your old files quickly.

As for your question I think most drive utility apps like Drive 10 and Norton, etc. can map out bad sectors but it sounds like you are having more of a hardware issue which I do not think is repairable. good luck though. (if you need help looking for a firewire case just head over to newegg,com)

BobK · Feb 12, 2004, 08:28 PM

IME, when it a drive starts making clicking or hard grinding noises, it is going to die. No software will fix it. Noise means there is a physical problem. Physical can not be over come with software.
Back up!!!!
Look for a cheap drive on ebay.

djohnson · Feb 12, 2004, 11:03 PM

So... when a drive starts clicking it is dead. More then likely the drive reading mechanism broke. Is there anyways that a place like Western Digital can retrieve the data???

redJag · Feb 12, 2004, 11:28 PM

There are places that retrieve data off dead drives, but the price is prohibitive (sorry, don't have any exact figures).

Detrius · Feb 12, 2004, 11:33 PM

Originally posted by redJag:
There are places that retrieve data off dead drives, but the price is prohibitive (sorry, don't have any exact figures).

>$1000

Drive Savers

djohnson · Feb 13, 2004, 12:19 AM

Yeah I knew about them. I guess what I meant to say is that since my HD is dead and I have the warranty, I am sending it back to WD once I get a new one from them. Will they go through the HD? I can wipe it clean here, but I really need 1 excel sheet and a few word documents. Luckily it was being built for someone but we decided to keep it so there isnt much on it that is important. Most of that is on our mac, which get BACKED UP!!!!!

cantona7 · Feb 13, 2004, 01:05 AM

i have setup the system with 2 extra drives so almost all of my data is on them. the problem drive has the OS, apps, iphoto pics (which i backed up) and email (which i haven't backed up in 3 weeks) so i'm not that worried about it crapping out.

already thrown a lot of money at this machine and i really don't want to spend anymore. especially as the drives won't go into a g5.

fingers crossed the drive lasts until the g5 comes !!!

scottiB · Feb 13, 2004, 12:52 PM

Originally posted by cantona7:
i have setup the system with 2 extra drives so almost all of my data is on them.

If you have two other drives, load OS X on one of them and use that for a system drive.

cantona7 · Feb 13, 2004, 01:22 PM

Originally posted by scottiB:
If you have two other drives, load OS X on one of them and use that for a system drive.

i can't as there's not that much free space on them.

anyway, i figure that the new g5 won't in my hands for at a while at least , i brought another drive to get me through. getting it tomorrow, so hopefully no crash tonight.