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velvetelvis

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 26, 2007
470
7
any idea what would cause the read arm of a hdd to just go back and forth but not read anything?
 
well, i put a new hdd in my macbook. and i put my old hdd into a case. i had some problems with the new one so i had to take it back. in the mean time i used my old one to keep my macbook running. just booting from the usb connection. suddenly, it wont boot and i can hear the read/write arm just moving back and forth.
 
Were you able to boot from that HDD connected via USB before?

I changed my drive too not much time ago and the external case had some problem powering one of the hardisk (the new one in my case). It just tried to spin up and I could hear the head park and retry and so on. The new drive is now working perfectly inside my macbook, so I guess there was ot enough power through the USB cable, for some reason.
 
yea, i booted from the usb for the whole night, until i went back to frys and exchanged the new drive. now, it wont boot... lots of music on the old drive.
 
yea, i booted from the usb for the whole night, until i went back to frys and exchanged the new drive. now, it wont boot... lots of music on the old drive.

I see. I would try booting form the CD/DVD of OS X and test the drive from there with disk utility. Does the drive show up from there?
 
no, it doesnt show up at all... just spins.

Any chance you can put it back in the Macbook and place the new one in the USB case? This would rule out problems with the drive. If it works you can always copy the data on the new drive, or better clone it with Carbon Copy Cloner or similar.
 
sounds like your old HDD is dead.....

how old is the MacBook ?

is it a Seagate ?

do you have a backup somewhere ?
 
sounds like your old HDD is dead.....

I fear this is true. Especially if the old drive is not recognized by disk utility at all. If the new drive is working correctly inside or in the external case then it must be the drive that is dead. :(
 
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