Picked up a 2.4GHz 20" that needs a little hard drive TLC; couple of questions

[iMpathetic]

Hey!

So I picked up a 20" 2.4GHz aluminum iMac in original box w/original keyboard, mouse, DVDS, foam, etc. for $350 today. The previous owner said the HDD might be going, which I can't confirm or deny.

-- Opening programs, etc is a little slower than you would expect on a fresh install of 10.5.8.

-- I've tried checking permissions. It found a lot of permissions errors in my kexts, so I repaired them.

-- It wouldn't let me verify it: "filesystem verify or repair failed"

Despite all this, no weird noises from the hard drive or anything. Is there any advice y'all might have to speed the drive up a little? I really don't want to have to take this whole thing apart!

[Dalton63841]

Have YOU done a fresh reinstall on it? That error usually means the filesystem is corrupted. Not all filesystem corruptions will prevent it from booting.

[chris98vf]

Just like what Dalton said, do a fresh install after wiping the drive with DiskUtil and then install. It helps to write zeros to the drive in case there are any bad sectors.

[iMpathetic]

Originally Posted by chris98vf

Just like what Dalton said, do a fresh install after wiping the drive with DiskUtil and then install. It helps to write zeros to the drive in case there are any bad sectors.

Well, it had the OS reinstalled very, very recently. When I first turned it on after I got it, it displayed the WELCOME WILKOMMEN BIENVENIDO etc video.

I can re-re-install though... is it possible to make the movie play even if you haven't reinstalled the OS?

[chris98vf]

you can reinstall the OS without doing a complete format, insert the DVD and when you get to the install screen click on the utility option on the system bar up top and choose Disk Util, format the drive and write zeros to it (only 1 pass is needed) Doing so will completely wipe it and you can the X out of disk util after about 45 minutes and install the OS like normal.

[iMpathetic]

All right, I'll do that once I get a laptop... this is my only computer ATM

It's mysteriously better now, actually. Used to get a beachball when doing something simple like opening System Prefs or iTunes, but now it's wayyyyy faster.