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vault86 · Oct 28, 2002, 05:19 PM

I have an AV 7500/100 powermac. I think it is the HD that isn't working, but i'm not sure. Can anyone give me some suggestions???
Any help would be great.

Phil Quinney · Oct 28, 2002, 08:08 PM

Hey,

Could you give us some more details on your problem. Specifically things like:

1. OS

2. Exact details of the symptoms

eg: Does the machine show a flashing floppy disk icon on startup

or: Can it boot from a cd

3. Have you tried any kind of fix: eg: Zapping the PRAM?

Hopefully these will help us to sort your problem out.

Phil.

vault86 · Oct 28, 2002, 11:05 PM

Originally posted by Phil Quinney:
Hey,

Could you give us some more details on your problem. Specifically things like:

1. OS

2. Exact details of the symptoms

eg: Does the machine show a flashing floppy disk icon on startup

or: Can it boot from a cd

3. Have you tried any kind of fix: eg: Zapping the PRAM?

Hopefully these will help us to sort your problem out.

Phil.

it's running 9.1
when it starts up, it will go to the desktop, but i will hear a clicking noise from the HD, every few seconds, i turned off all extensions, and the same thing happened (the clicking), it won't boot from a cd, well it will get to the cd desktop, but then it won't load(clicking), i zapped the pram, and rebuilt the desktop, but nothing seems to work.

vault86 · Oct 29, 2002, 08:51 AM

so, anyone got any suggestions???

jasonyates · Oct 29, 2002, 09:37 AM

Well if the computer boots up and everything, and the hard drive is making a noise, then it is probably bad or getting ready to fail. Are you able to use the computer with the clicking noise, or does it freeze up or something? You can get pretty decent cheap drives from MacResQ or OWC..

-Jason

vault86 · Oct 29, 2002, 09:53 AM

no, i can't boot up with the clicking noise-i get to the desktop, but no more than that. i think the computer is still trying to load at that point. the problem is, i have a lot of important stuff on that computer, and i don't want to have to start all over.

vault86 · Oct 29, 2002, 12:33 PM

help me people!

Justin W. Williams · Oct 29, 2002, 05:28 PM

Originally posted by vault86:
help me people!

my my. aren't we impatient.

vault86 · Oct 29, 2002, 06:11 PM

i try, i try.

firefly · Oct 29, 2002, 06:51 PM

Firstly you want to format the HD (zero all blocks, low level format if possible) and do a fresh install of the OS - it could just be corrupt. If at this point you are still having problems, you will likely have to ditch the drive. If possible you could also try a media scan using Norton Utilities.

vault86 · Oct 29, 2002, 07:02 PM

Originally posted by firefly:
Firstly you want to format the HD (zero all blocks, low level format if possible) and do a fresh install of the OS - it could just be corrupt. If at this point you are still having problems, you will likely have to ditch the drive. If possible you could also try a media scan using Norton Utilities.

i don't know how to format it-tell me how.

arclight · Oct 29, 2002, 07:25 PM

Even if you reformat it and get it up and running again, I would suggest picking up a new drive off Ebay or a legacy mac site. 50 pin SCSI drives are dirt cheap. In fact I have a few old Performas around if you would like one of the drives from it. I believe they are 2GB drives. I'll have to check. Let me know if you're interested and I'll look into it. All I ask is that you of course pay for shipping-

I had a drive begin to click in my 8600 two weeks ago. It began to lock up the entire system and finally refused to mount after several attempts. It has since died but I was able to scrounge the important stuff before it took it's last breath.

McDriver · Oct 29, 2002, 07:33 PM

Originally posted by firefly:
Firstly you want to format the HD (zero all blocks, low level format if possible) and do a fresh install of the OS - it could just be corrupt. If at this point you are still having problems, you will likely have to ditch the drive. If possible you could also try a media scan using Norton Utilities.

Hmmz did he not say that he had a lot of important stuff on that drive. So you suggest that he format

which will zero the important stuff

Better to get a second drive or move the drive to another mac and copy the important stuff first

or do I miss something here

firefly · Oct 29, 2002, 07:36 PM

The way to do it would be to boot from a CD, and run the included drive setup program. However - things are a little more complicated because upon booting, the mac is trying to mount a damaged HD, and hanging.

You could unplug the power to the HD, boot from a CD, then plug it back in again, and run drive setup, but that might be a bit precarious. Anyone else got an idea?

vault86 · Oct 29, 2002, 10:35 PM

what he said^^^(any other ideas???)

gadster · Oct 30, 2002, 08:15 AM

Firstly, have you tried to restart with shift key down after unplugging all usb, scsi, ethernet etc plugs (except keyboard and mouse, of course)? Also if you have TechTools or Nortons here are the instructions for using them.
1) Open the nearest window
2) Throw them through the window
3) Close the window
IMHO

vault86 · Oct 30, 2002, 08:53 AM

Originally posted by gadster:
Firstly, have you tried to restart with shift key down after unplugging all usb, scsi, ethernet etc plugs (except keyboard and mouse, of course)? Also if you have TechTools or Nortons here are the instructions for using them.
1) Open the nearest window
2) Throw them through the window
3) Close the window
IMHO

yes, i have tried to restart with all the extensions off...doesn't work. i have already done 1, 2, and 3.

gadster · Oct 30, 2002, 09:19 AM

Sounds bad. Sounds a bit like the click of death on a zip disk. Do you have a local data recovery service? Here in Sydney we have a company calle Xyber that specialise in data recovery off mac HDs. They've been around for ages. I'd be trying someone like that to transfer your data to a fresh HD then installing that.

vault86 · Oct 30, 2002, 10:16 AM

that's a good idea, thanx for the suggestion. um, where would i go to find such a place in or around New England?

gadster · Oct 30, 2002, 10:26 AM

Well I'd be trying your local Yellow Pages (do you have them there?) or maybe someone at a nearby apple store could help. Or you could FedEx your HD all the way to Australia to Xyber...

arclight · Oct 31, 2002, 12:01 PM

Unless the files on your bad disk are extremely important, I wouldn't look at having them recovered. Most of the places that I've seen around on the web have a minimum of $500 to recover a drive. That is just ridiculous (although there is probably quite a bit if work involved with removing the platter(s) ). Backups seem so unnecessary until something like this happens.

I have an application called Data Rescue that was awesome for recovering a few bad MO disks that had been corrupted. However, unless you can get the drive to mount, there is little to no chance of being able to access anything on it.

My condolences on your data loss. I recently lost a drive too-

The only suggestion is to try it in another machine. Weird that the CD booting doesn't work-

vault86 · Oct 31, 2002, 06:48 PM

well, thanks to everyone who gave me all these suggestions. i guess i'll just have to get a new mac, prolly about time, anyway. so, thanx again