Failing hard drive. What to do...

[maxp1]

This is on my dad's computer and he lives 500 miles away so I don't have physical access. Kind of makes it a pain in the ass. He's getting SMART warnings and stuff is starting to run unreliably.

I got him to buy an external hard drive thinking that we could just clone everything off using CCC then swap the drive out, but it wouldn't complete the clone.

So I had him copy the users directory onto the external hard drive for safety but I'm a bit stuck as to what to do next. Probably the best thing I can think of is to have him buy another hard drive and do a fresh install on it. Probably not a bad thing to have an extra hard drive around.

So the question is, are there any obvious alternatives that I'm missing? Better way to deal with this? Thanks in advance.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Get him to use the OSX install disk to install a viable system on the external (assuming it is a bootable type). Then boot from the external.

Then you have some time for copying all the bits and pieces over.

IF the machine uses the same type of drive as the external, you could physically install the external mechanism into the machine replacing the existing drive.

Can't guess too much more unless you tell us the model and speed of Mac...

 

[maxp1]

Yeah, that's a pretty good idea. The external he bought is firewire so he should be able to boot off it.

The computer is an old G4 tower. I haven't been inside that machine for a while so I can't remember if it had the cables and tray for an extra drive internally. The original plan was clone the drive and then take the new one out of it's enclosure and swap it out for the failing one but the failed clone nixed that plan.

 

[IJ Reilly]

A G4 tower should have several empty drive bays. The drive you buy will have to be parallel ATA (unless somebody knows how to convert a SATA drive to work on a parallel bus). Also, the new drive will probably require a jumper setting for it to run as a slave drive, assuming it's on the bus with either the original drive or the optical drive.

 

[CanadaRAM]

A G4 tower should have several empty drive bays. The drive you buy will have to be parallel ATA (unless somebody knows how to convert a SATA drive to work on a parallel bus). Also, the new drive will probably require a jumper setting for it to run as a slave drive, assuming it's on the bus with either the original drive or the optical drive.

Yup, up to 4 drives, but only IDE cables for 2 hard drives, the stock plus one other. To install more than 2 you have to put in an interface card or run it off the CD IDE connection (not recommended). You will need 4 drive screws to mount it -- available from any PC shop. Get the hard drive screws, not the CD ROM screws which are a different thread pitch.

 

[velocityg4]

What model G4 is your father using? What size is the external HD?

The 2001 model Quicksilver and all previous models can only address 128GB on the internal memory controller. So if the drive is larger than that all will not be available. Though you may be able to partition it and break it up into sub 128GB chunks, I don't recall if this is possible.

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

What model G4 is your father using? What size is the external HD?

The 2001 model Quicksilver and all previous models can only address 128GB on the internal memory controller. So if the drive is larger than that all will not be available. Though you may be able to partition it and break it up into sub 128GB chunks, I don't recall if this is possible.

uummm......... machine no space can see, partiton u no can make

IDE card u add, problem u have more no

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

This is on my dad's computer and he lives 500 miles away so I don't have physical access. Kind of makes it a pain in the ass. He's getting SMART warnings and stuff is starting to run unreliably.

I got him to buy an external hard drive thinking that we could just clone everything off using CCC then swap the drive out, but it wouldn't complete the clone.

So I had him copy the users directory onto the external hard drive for safety but I'm a bit stuck as to what to do next. Probably the best thing I can think of is to have him buy another hard drive and do a fresh install on it. Probably not a bad thing to have an extra hard drive around.

So the question is, are there any obvious alternatives that I'm missing? Better way to deal with this? Thanks in advance.

step 1:

go
to
dad's
house
bend
him
over
insert
foot
into
his
backside
for
not
having
a
backup
plan