URGENT!! Can't mount hard drive on my iBook!!

[Wilson]

I can't mount my hard drive on my iBook 500mhz. This has happened before but I was always able to repair it by running disk utility and repairing the hard disk. This time it isn't working. It keeps saying to try to run repair again...I ran repair many times, but i keep getting the same msg.

What can I do? I really don't want to bring it in for service, is there another alternative?

I have files in the hard drive that are important too....so i can't just reformat it!!

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says....your best hope is probably Diskwarrior - it is a great disk tool and well worth the money. If you are able to recover your drive and data, you may want to look at replacing it as it seems the ongoing trouble may be indicative of a bad or failing hard drive...and start some kind of back-up strategy in case you get hooped again...oh yeah!

 

[Horrortaxi]

Do you have access to another Mac? You could connect them with Firewire and start the iBook in target disk mode and retrieve your files. Then you'd be free to reformat. It'd also save you a hundred bucks. If that can't happen, zap your PRAM and reset the firmware just in case. Hold control option P R while booting and let it chime 4 times. Then hold control option O F and type reset-nvram at the prompt. Hit enter. Type reset-all and hit enter again. When it reboots you might be able to boot from your drive. If not, then Disk Warrior is my suggestion.

 

[Wilson]

If that can't happen, zap your PRAM and reset the firmware just in case. Hold control option P R while booting and let it chime 4 times. Then hold control option O F and type reset-nvram at the prompt. Hit enter. Type reset-all and hit enter again. When it reboots you might be able to boot from your drive. If not, then Disk Warrior is my suggestion.

If I zap my PRAM and reset the firmware...do I lose all the information on my hard drive?

 

[King Cobra]

Resetting your open firmware shouldn't hurt. Zapping your PRAM will probably reset your monitor resolution. If you have 3rd party hardware installed on your machine, just reset the open firmware but not the PRAM.

 

[Horrortaxi]

If I zap my PRAM and reset the firmware...do I lose all the information on my hard drive?

It has nothing to do with the hard drive.

King Cobra: Why do you say not to zap PRAM with 3rd party hardware? And what hardware do you mean?

 

[Wilson]

Do you have access to another Mac? You could connect them with Firewire and start the iBook in target disk mode and retrieve your files. Then you'd be free to reformat.

So do I purchase a firewire cable which is the same on both ends? and then I attatch them together? When attatched, my ibook should mount on the desktop on my other Mac(desktop)? Would this also be possible to do if I have a PC with a firewire card?

How would I start my iBook in target disk mode? I'm running OS 9.1 on my iBook G3 500Mhz.

Thanks.

 

[King Cobra]

King Cobra: Why do you say not to zap PRAM with 3rd party hardware? And what hardware do you mean?

Processor upgrade cards, my man. I've actually been at the fault end of recommending someone to zap their PRAM because the person was in a very similar situation and had a graphics card installed on his machine, and ended up not being able to turn on the computer after the zap.

EDIT: The situation can apply to either processor upgrade cards or 3rd party graqphics cards.

 

[Horrortaxi]

Really? Good to know. I usually try to steer people away from processor upgrades, but I'll try to remember this.