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Help did i break my computer?

G

greenbreadmmm

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 4, 2007
638
1,648
So i feel like my computer had been getting kinda slow lately. last night i accidentaly dropped it on the corner when the hard drive was kinda spinning. it wasnt awake but i had unplugged a usb mouse so the hd was spinning but not like the full on its awake spinning. so i dented the corner. now my computer gets the spinning pinwheel all the time. writing this i have gotten in over 5 times. i dont see how dropping it could do this? is it just coincidence that it timed up right or did i somehow screw something up.

ok so iv been restarting and now it seems firefox is causing hte pinwheel,BUT i just opened my widgets and there all gone and have been reset with factory defaults? wtf is going on?
 
I'm sorry to hear you've had an accident with your Mac. The problems your discribing sounds like you've crashed the heads of the Harddrive, all caused by the sudden impact of the system hitting a hard surface, during it's most volatile time.

I think, because your system can be powered on, the majority of it's hardware is fine. Unfortunately, I think you'll need to invest some funds into getting a replacement hard-drive as your current one has died prematurely.

In the mean time, what you can do is test the system using the hardware test on your systems DVD, this will check for faults and issues regarding the rest of the system, except the HD. To be honest, I don't think anything will revive the HD's life. As for your data, well.. I'm afraid to say it's gone. Unless your prepared to pay hundred of dollars for it's retrieval via data recover companies.

Unfortunately Apple's warranty won't cover those sort of accidents, so to rectify the problem, you'll have two choices...
Find a service centre to repair and install a new drive or do it yourself. Looking at your siggy, you'll be in the market for a 2.5" SATA hard-drive with either 5400RPM or 7200RPM.
 
greenbreadmmm said:
So i feel like my computer had been getting kinda slow lately. last night i accidentaly dropped it on the corner when the hard drive was kinda spinning. it wasnt awake but i had unplugged a usb mouse so the hd was spinning but not like the full on its awake spinning. so i dented the corner. now my computer gets the spinning pinwheel all the time. writing this i have gotten in over 5 times. i dont see how dropping it could do this? is it just coincidence that it timed up right or did i somehow screw something up.

ok so iv been restarting and now it seems firefox is causing hte pinwheel,BUT i just opened my widgets and there all gone and have been reset with factory defaults? wtf is going on?
Click to expand...

There's a chance you've lost data, possibly damaged sectors of the drive too, making certain bit's of data unretrievable, hence the beach ball. All signs point to when you've dropped the system.
 
i just got this drive less then 2 months ago, anyway i can return it and say its dead, i got it from newegg.
 
hang on, wont the sudden motion sensor park the read/write head of the HDD in this kind of event so this does not happen?
 
greenbreadmmm said:
So is there any chance anything else isbroke or will a new hdd be all I need
Click to expand...

How you can check..

If you have an external Firewire drive with free space available (say 10GB). You can use disk utility to create an partition on-the-fly without destroying the rest of the drives data (assuming you know what your doing). After which, you could install your OS on that drive and make your system boot from it. If after completion your system appears to work without a glitch, no lengthy spinning beach balls, pauses between processes etc, If and only then, there's a good chance the rest of the system is fault less. If however, your unfortunate, and you encounter unusual oddities, then.. well.. there might be lose connections, internally cause from a fall.

20090207-cgri923r7g7xpa23rd9a5g2y7q.jpg


As for your casing and dent..

You might be able to find replacement parts from the likes of fleabay or powerbookmedic.com - assuming you like to replace them.
 
You can use a USB hard drive too since it's just the PPC Macs that required Firewire to boot off of.

That's also your best bet to try and recover any data that's still on your drive. You better do it quickly if you have anything important on there.
 
My windows partition works fine?

i decided to try and use my windows partition and it works perfect? does it have something to do with the fact that it was running os x when the accident happend? also i dropped it on the hard drive corner so front left.
 
bump

does anyone know why my windows work, does that mean i can just reinstall osx or is it just luck that windows works?
 
Well it probably means you damaged the OS X part of the HDD. You may need to run some utilities like Drive Genius 2 to repair the damaged sectors and try to recover them.
 
OrangeSVTguy said:
You can use a USB hard drive too since it's just the PPC Macs that required Firewire to boot off of.

That's also your best bet to try and recover any data that's still on your drive. You better do it quickly if you have anything important on there.
Click to expand...

Actually, PowerPC Macs can boot from USB device.
 
greenbreadmmm said:
bump

does anyone know why my windows work, does that mean i can just reinstall osx or is it just luck that windows works?
Click to expand...

Dude, stop dicking around. If you can still access the drive get your data off of it NOW NOW NOW. Then go buy another drive. My 350gb 7200rpm cost $80. That's chicken feed.

Back up your data, get a new drive. Do it now before there is a total failure and you're kicking yourself in the ass for not acting sooner.
 
Mark2000 said:
Dude, stop dicking around. If you can still access the drive get your data off of it NOW NOW NOW. Then go buy another drive. My 350gb 7200rpm cost $80. That's chicken feed.

Back up your data, get a new drive. Do it now before there is a total failure and you're kicking yourself in the ass for not acting sooner.
Click to expand...

I have data backed up on a time machine backup from a week ago or so. i didnt think i was dicking around by asking questions and using windows. all i was asking is why windows is working. i cant access data on os x because it wont turn on. and i already ordered a new drive.
 
greenbreadmmm said:
I have data backed up on a time machine backup from a week ago or so. i didnt think i was dicking around by asking questions and using windows. all i was asking is why windows is working. i cant access data on os x because it wont turn on. and i already ordered a new drive.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to make sure you have your data safe rather than experimenting before getting it out. Because the disk is a lost cause. You can access that OS X data one of two ways:

Download a demo of MacDrive http://www.mediafour.com/support/downloads.asp and give windows the ability to read and HFS drive.

Get another mac, and use your computer in target disk mode. Pull the data that way. Good luck!
 
Mark2000 said:
I just wanted to make sure you have your data safe rather than experimenting before getting it out. Because the disk is a lost cause. You can access that OS X data one of two ways:

Download a demo of MacDrive http://www.mediafour.com/support/downloads.asp and give windows the ability to read and HFS drive.

Get another mac, and use your computer in target disk mode. Pull the data that way. Good luck!
Click to expand...
If you don't have access to another Mac, just get a cheapie USB 2.5" SATA enclosure and install your old drive in it when you get your new drive installed, you'll be able to access your old data on the external enclosure.

It sounds like just the OS-X side got corrupted from the drop. You still might be able to access it since it's probably just the OS that got corrupted and not your data so if there's anything within the last week since your last TM backup, you should still be able to access it. Macdrive is a great App for your windows side to access it. I bought it for my Windoze machine because the 30 day limit sucks when you need to get data off on the 31st day :p.

ElectroGhandi said:
Actually, PowerPC Macs can boot from USB device.
Click to expand...

PPC can only boot from a USB optical drive and not a hard drive.
 
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