Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

ehwang114 · Mar 4, 2007, 02:20 AM

my pb crashed yesterday. i tried a soft boot and that couldnt do it. i tried to reinstall my os x and its not showing my hd as an option. does this mean my hd failed. i was able to run disk utility and its saying my hd is failing. please tell me what i should do? i never backed up my info. i think im screwed.

Waragainstsleep · Mar 4, 2007, 11:54 AM

It very much looks as if your HD has indeed failed.
As far as retrieving your data goes, you might try it target disc mode and see if you can get at any of it from another Mac. A program like Diskwarrior might get it running long enough to save something. It might not though.

ehwang114 · Mar 4, 2007, 03:28 PM

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

It very much looks as if your HD has indeed failed.
As far as retrieving your data goes, you might try it target disc mode and see if you can get at any of it from another Mac. A program like Diskwarrior might get it running long enough to save something. It might not though.

does this happen a lot with hd? what causes a hd to fail? how much does it cost to replace my hd and where should I take it to? sorry for all the questions, im just surprised this happened and obviously frustrated.

Waragainstsleep · Mar 4, 2007, 06:08 PM

If its not long out of warranty, you might try asking Apple to cover it. Otherwise the cost of a new drive will vary with capacity. You are looking for a Parallel ATA 2.5" drive. If you don't want to fit it your self, then do not pay more than one hours labour. I can change a drive in pretty much any PowerBook in under 30 minutes. (Most shops will charge a minimum of one hour for anything).

If you want to fit it yourself, follow the guides on iFixit.com. Take your time, don't force anything and you will not have a problem.

ehwang114 · Mar 6, 2007, 05:28 AM

i tried the target disk mode and just as i had expected the other mac could not even detect it. i already have a new hd being delivered. currently when i turn on the computer, itll go to the apple screen with the spinning cogs and then shut down by itself. when i put in my tiger disk it does read it but when i try to reinstall, the hard drive does not even show as a destination. i guess my question now is whether buying diskwarrior is worth it? would it even work with my computer being the way it is right now?

erniesthings · Mar 6, 2007, 02:49 PM

I hope so. I'm kind of having the same problem now. It's with an ibook though. It started acting really slow to do anything. I rebooted and it came up I needed to re-boot. I have the same situation with re-installing from the CD, the drive isn't showing up as a destination.

I'm running diskwarrior now. It's on step 6: overlapping files detetcted (currently at 74.) I've heard to let the program to run for as much as 48 hours.

Here goes nothing. I'll let you know how it turns out.

ehwang114 · Mar 6, 2007, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by erniesthings

I hope so. I'm kind of having the same problem now. It's with an ibook though. It started acting really slow to do anything. I rebooted and it came up I needed to re-boot. I have the same situation with re-installing from the CD, the drive isn't showing up as a destination.

I'm running diskwarrior now. It's on step 6: overlapping files detetcted (currently at 74.) I've heard to let the program to run for as much as 48 hours.

Here goes nothing. I'll let you know how it turns out.

please do. i would be very interested.

MrN79 · Mar 8, 2007, 03:54 AM

Originally Posted by ehwang114

i tried the target disk mode and just as i had expected the other mac could not even detect it. i already have a new hd being delivered. currently when i turn on the computer, itll go to the apple screen with the spinning cogs and then shut down by itself. when i put in my tiger disk it does read it but when i try to reinstall, the hard drive does not even show as a destination. i guess my question now is whether buying diskwarrior is worth it? would it even work with my computer being the way it is right now?

I had the exact thing happen to my PB 15" 1.5 (almost a year ago). A friend told me to buy DiskWarrior and try to recover my data from a supposedly failed HD.

I replaced the HD myself with a faster and larger model, put the failed disk in an external enclosure and ran DW on it...it fixed the bad blocks/sectors and allowed me to recover my data.

Yes DiskWarrior was worth it, for me

jools · Mar 8, 2007, 06:29 AM

I had the same problem last year but managed to restart my pb in target disk mode after 24 hours of no use, and it lasted long enough to backup most of my data, although some of the data was corrupted.

The replacement hard drive - installed at Apple Store - lasted two weeks, failing gradually over an additional two week period. This was long enough to get a replacement ordered and installed for free from Apple.

Lessons learned:
- .Mac Backup is invaluable
- Apple will only replace HD with an identical model
- Go to an authorised reseller instead and get a larger HD installed for same price

ehwang114 · Mar 8, 2007, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by MrN79

I had the exact thing happen to my PB 15" 1.5 (almost a year ago). A friend told me to buy DiskWarrior and try to recover my data from a supposedly failed HD.

I replaced the HD myself with a faster and larger model, put the failed disk in an external enclosure and ran DW on it...it fixed the bad blocks/sectors and allowed me to recover my data.

Yes DiskWarrior was worth it, for me

this may be stupid but what do you mean when you say you put it in an external enclosure.

chipchen · Mar 8, 2007, 05:03 PM

Careful... DW and an actual failing hard drive are different subjects.

DiskWarrior can repair problems on the hard drive, corrupt directories, and etc.

BUT, a failing hard drive (that is failing mechanically) is different. And DW may actually make it fail faster. Actually, anything you do will make it fail faster.

If Disk Utility says your hard drive is failing, it only says that if SMART status has failed and the hard drive is in red on the left. If that's the case, then your drive is being read as the signs of a physically failing drive. You need to REPLACE the hard drive, and then try to recover the data.

Once the hard drive is out, you can put it in an external exclosure (basically a gadget that makes your internal harddrive into an external one) and you can TRY to extract data from it or run DiskWarrior. Or, if the data is ABSOLUTELY important to you, you might want to think about sending it to DRIVESAVERS... they're expensive, but they're good. Just remember, anything more you try to do to recover your own data could hinder their ability to get it too.

ehwang114 · Mar 8, 2007, 05:56 PM

i think my drive is already out. last week my smart showed failing. so i was going to wait until the weekend to get a new internal as well as an external to do the backing up. and sure enough on friday it completely gave out. now when i turn on the pb, the computer will just turn off after the spinning cogs come on for about 5 minutes. lesson learned. i shouldve backed it up right away. where can i get an external enclosure?

wubrew · Mar 8, 2007, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by ehwang114

i think my drive is already out. last week my smart showed failing. so i was going to wait until the weekend to get a new internal as well as an external to do the backing up. and sure enough on friday it completely gave out. now when i turn on the pb, the computer will just turn off after the spinning cogs come on for about 5 minutes. lesson learned. i shouldve backed it up right away. where can i get an external enclosure?

Google enclosure. Make sure it is for ATA. OWC and newegg are mac friedly vendors. Sometime if the HDD connecting cable come loose the HDD will not show up. The same goes if the mobo is failing.

ehwang114 · Mar 9, 2007, 02:34 PM

thanks for the info. ill take a look into it.

earthlings · Mar 9, 2007, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by ehwang114

my pb crashed yesterday. i tried a soft boot and that couldnt do it. i tried to reinstall my os x and its not showing my hd as an option. does this mean my hd failed. i was able to run disk utility and its saying my hd is failing. please tell me what i should do? i never backed up my info. i think im screwed.

Did the same thing, never backed up my info. Went to Apple, got it fixed, but they decided to erase everything, even though they told me everything would be there when it would be fixed. Lost over 1000 pictures....
My problem was the logic board/hd.

erniesthings · Mar 9, 2007, 06:10 PM

Well I let DW finish and to told me it couldn't replace the directory because of "Mac OS Services failure" and to rebuild again. I got the same message. I can't remember what it said about SMART status. I do remember is said there were some bad directories and it could repair them.

I was using DW 3.0.3 would the newer version make a difference?

MrN79 · Mar 10, 2007, 01:31 AM

Originally Posted by ehwang114

this may be stupid but what do you mean when you say you put it in an external enclosure.

I purchased a 2.5" External enclosure (Fry's has a large selection or online search)

After installing OSX on my new HD, I ran DiskWarrior on the failed HD in the external enclosure, it fixed whatever was wrong with it and i'm still using it in the external enclosure.

MrN79 · Mar 10, 2007, 01:33 AM

Originally Posted by erniesthings

Well I let DW finish and to told me it couldn't replace the directory because of "Mac OS Services failure" and to rebuild again. I got the same message. I can't remember what it said about SMART status. I do remember is said there were some bad directories and it could repair them.

I was using DW 3.0.3 would the newer version make a difference?

Not sure a newer version will help any, i'm sure it's going to give you the same message.

erniesthings · Mar 10, 2007, 10:43 AM

I just ran Tech Tools on the drive: "Reallocating Sectors" failing. Is this a hardware issue?

Originally Posted by MrN79

I purchased a 2.5" External enclosure (Fry's has a large selection or online search)

After installing OSX on my new HD, I ran DiskWarrior on the failed HD in the external enclosure, it fixed whatever was wrong with it and i'm still using it in the external enclosure.

I think I'm going to go this route to see if any of the data can be recovered. I haven't lost years worth of stuff. I would like to get the last 5 months worth of pics back.

Somewhat related note. Will Win 2k recognize an HFS+ drive in an external enclosure? I had a bad CD burn once and was able to get some of the data off of it when I put in the windows drive. If I can't get the drive repaired/restored I'm thinking of trying this.

ehwang114 · Mar 11, 2007, 10:08 PM

well heres an update. i installed a new 80gig hitachi hd. it wasnt too hard except the screws in the battery compartment was stuck. i had to basically force one out. but everything else was easy. i used ifixit.com. i then put my dead hd in an external enclosure and my pb still could pick it up meaning it did not mount. should i still go and get disk warrior or is this the end of my hd. any advice is appreciated.

mmurray · Mar 11, 2007, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by ehwang114

should i still go and get disk warrior or is this the end of my hd. any advice is appreciated.

It depends on how much money you have. DW is a great tool to have and has saved me on a number of occasions. You also need some sort of backup regime. I use a combination of regularly burning really critical things (basically my ~/Documents directory) to DVD's and then less often making a clone with SuperDuper to an external firewire drive. My MacBook HD recently died and after it came back from the shop I just cloned back from the external firewire and I was up and running. Luckily I had done the clone the day before the HD died.

By the way if this doesn't make sense a clone is a bootable copy of your hard drive. I think Apple's Disk Utility can do them but I use SuperDuper as I have found it reliable.

As to you original question basically a hard disk can fail at any moment. On average of course they will be reliable in the sense that of a million hard drives not that many will fail but of course that is no consolation if the failed one is yours. You can't rely on them for storage of irreplaceable data. Of course you can't rely on anything for storage of irreplaceable data except multiple copies in different physical locations on different media.

There are lots of other backup approaches to what I have done.

Regards - Michael

ehwang114 · Mar 11, 2007, 11:11 PM

would dw work even though my failed drive is not even mounting anymore on my computer?

mmurray · Mar 11, 2007, 11:41 PM

Originally Posted by ehwang114

would dw work even though my failed drive is not even mounting anymore on my computer?

No if it does't mount DW can't do anything. The problem I had DW could find it but when it started to do things it complained that it was running slowly due to a physical fault in the hard disk. So I went looking for a new hd.

Regards

Michael

ehwang114 · Mar 12, 2007, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by mmurray

No if it does't mount DW can't do anything. The problem I had DW could find it but when it started to do things it complained that it was running slowly due to a physical fault in the hard disk. So I went looking for a new hd.

Regards

Michael

thank you michael. I kind of thought that would be the answer but wanted to make sure in case there was something i didnt know about. i guess now i have a cool/techy looking paper weight.

MrN79 · Mar 14, 2007, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by ehwang114

would dw work even though my failed drive is not even mounting anymore on my computer?

Just because it doesn't mount from the external enclosure doesn't mean DW won't or can't fix it...the only way to know is to try DW.

I had the same problem occur on my PB 15, the HD would not boot...I took it out and replaced it with a larger faster HD, put the so called failed HD that wouldn't boot into an external enclosure and ran DW on it.

DW fixed the bad HD to the point where i could get my data off of it.

If the data is worth more than the price of DW, then is the price worth it?

MrN79 · Mar 14, 2007, 09:16 PM

Remember some external HD enclosures require additional power (ie USB enclosures)...just because it isn't mounting doesn't mean it's bad, the enclosure you're using may not have the right power requirements to spin the HD

erniesthings · Mar 20, 2007, 12:06 PM

Originally Posted by erniesthings

I just ran Tech Tools on the drive: "Reallocating Sectors" failing. Is this a hardware issue?

I think I'm going to go this route to see if any of the data can be recovered. I haven't lost years worth of stuff. I would like to get the last 5 months worth of pics back.

Somewhat related note. Will Win 2k recognize an HFS+ drive in an external enclosure? I had a bad CD burn once and was able to get some of the data off of it when I put in the windows drive. If I can't get the drive repaired/restored I'm thinking of trying this.

UPDATE: A co-worker has a kind or IDE to USB adapter. It doesn't have an enclosure so the drive just sits on my desk. Since the drive still spins and is recognized by Disk Utility. I plugged it into the Win 2k box I have to use at work. It recognized the drive, but wouldn't mount the drive, since it's HFS+. I installed a MacDrive6 Trial onto the PC. The PC recognized and mounted the drive with all the files still on it. The problem is the files that are on bad sectors won't copy.

The Good news is I was able to get all the pictures that I hadn't backed up. They must have not been on bad sectors. I had done some backing up of other stuff somewhat recently, so most of that wasn't a problem. The pics were the main concern and those were all fine and good.

Now I'm going to reformat the drive and try to use it as a "unsafe" back-up/copy until I back up my things to CD/DVD.

So I recommend trying one of the Trial PC to Mac drive software(s) if you have a PC available and you can get Disk Utility to see the drive, but not mount the drive.