HDD Failure? In an iMac?

[appleupnorth]

Oh crap. .

So it finally happened- my iMac will not start up. Its a iMac 700mhz G3 / 60 GB HDD / 768MB RAM / Mac OS X Panther.

Did all the usual - unplug all FireWire devices / USB (besides keyboard/mouse)

So I think its the HDD - gets to the Apple logo with no spinning lines thing. . upon restart while holding the option key (to choose one of the three partitions - Mac OS X Panther / OS 9 / Server) finds all partitions but does nothing to start up on them.

I also hear clicking; the drive spinning up and down - but not actually running like normal.

So am I crazy? Anyone have some suggestions to get 1) a replacement drive 2) someone to get data off that drive on to the new one?

Thanks all!

Matt

 

[Jigglelicious]

It most likely is the drive dying, at least, thats what it sounds like.

Replacing the drive is very easy. You can buy pretty much any IDE drive on the market and stick it in your iMac with no trouble. However, getting the data off your old drive would be much more difficult. You would need someone with another mac (a Powermac) so you could plug your drive in and copy all your data over. Of course, this would only work if the drive is still operational. If its not, your data might be lost forever, unless you feel like spending thousands on data recovery.

 

[appleupnorth]

Great. .

Well the information on there is worth thousands - so spending thousands is not a bad thing. .

Any recommendations for companies to do the work?

Matt

 

[Danrose1977]

Sometimes failed drives are still accessable, just not bootable, try mounting it as a slave....

Also sometimes drives can be recovered for emergency access by freezing them. Seal in a ziplock bag and place in the freezer for an hour...

Professional data recovery is way to expensive for home machines though.

Good luck!

Edit: Sorry, started posting before your response was live..... I can recomend a few... all in the UK though.

 

[whooleytoo]

So am I crazy? Anyone have some suggestions to get 1) a replacement drive 2) someone to get data off that drive on to the new one?

Thanks all!

Matt

You could also try target disk mode, if you have another Mac nearby, connect them via a Firewire cable, then boot up the iMac with the dodgy drive while holding "T".

This effectively uses the iMacs HD as an external HD of the other Mac. If the drive is still functional, but not bootable, this may work.