Two iBooks, two questions (failed HD, failed FW)

[cleo]

Question One

My primary iBook (G4 800, about 15 months old) was diagnosed with a failing harddrive by the Geniuses at the Tampa store today. The told me that there's nothing I did to cause it, that certain manufacturing flaws can basically just doom a drive to failure. Nonetheless, I wonder: could bad RAM cause a harddrive to fail? My RAM was purchased from a very reputable compny and I've seen no indications that it's bad, but I still fear that I'm somehow responsible for the death of my Mac. Is there any way to tell whether a stick of RAM is good or bad (diagnostics, cl utilities, etc)?

Question Two

My secondary iBook (G3 366 - Indigo) is now my main machine for the next 7-10 days. When I attempted to restore some of my data off my external FW drive, the drive didn't light up and it didn't mount on my desktop. Is it possible for a FW port on a computer to go bad? What would cause that? Can anything be done to fix it?

 

[michaelrjohnson]

Q1

I don't know about RAM causing a HD failure... seems unlikely to me. I, however, just had Mayfair Apple Store diagnose my 12in PB with a failed HD (and sent in for service) today also.

Q2

The last time that my HD failed, I tried to make an emergency backup, but the problem had gone so far as to damage the driver for my FW port... The solution: wipe the drive and reinstall *everything*. It sucked.

 

[cleo]

The last time that my HD failed, I tried to make an emergency backup, but the problem had gone so far as to damage the driver for my FW port... The solution: wipe the drive and reinstall *everything*. It sucked.

The last time? Wow, I seriously hope this is the only time for me... $320 to replace it stings. But at least my Genius gave me a "If anyone asks, I didn't tell you this" way of getting AppleCare even though it's prohibited in my state. Doesn't do me any good on this machine, but next time I'll definitely pony up the money for it before my year is up.

Regarding FW: is there anywhere I can download the drivers? Or will running disk first aid find and fix it? I've had this machine for a few years, and it was usd when I bought it, but there are no indications of a failed hd in it... I really think it's an isolated issue.