HELP! HD not recognized on startup!

[dermeister]

Hi,

I've got a big problem with my 12" PB.

The HD isn't recognized on startup, so I put in the panther install disc to use the Disk Utility. The Disk Utility can't even see my HD, and neither does the OSX Installer.

What do I do!? I'll buy whatever software you recommend to fix it, I just hope somebody has experience with the same problem so I can get a good working solution because I don't want to loose my data ~_~

Thanks

 

[seamuskrat]

Did anything happen to your Mac recently? A loss of power? Drop? Crash while writing to the drive?
When you boot with the 10.3 system disk you open disk utility and it does not even see the drive? This sound slike the drive is physically detached or lacking power, something you could check or take to an Apple store to check, or the drive board itself failed.

Worst case scenario, a company like www.drivesavers.com will have to recover your contents.

But first we need to try other utilities to see if they can see the drive. Data Rescue X has a demo you can try if you have another boot volume. If you have a friend you can try Target Firewire mode as well.

I would try the boot disk again and be sure it does not show up and check the IDE cables, etc.

Hi,

I've got a big problem with my 12" PB.

The HD isn't recognized on startup, so I put in the panther install disc to use the Disk Utility. The Disk Utility can't even see my HD, and neither does the OSX Installer.

What do I do!? I'll buy whatever software you recommend to fix it, I just hope somebody has experience with the same problem so I can get a good working solution because I don't want to loose my data ~_~

Thanks

 

[dermeister]

Another thing to note is that I had low disk space when it happened.

The computer froze up, and I force restarted.

 

[Horrortaxi]

Sometimes Macs get amnesia. Try this: Boot holding command option P R and hold that until you hear the startup gong 4 times. Then hold command option O F until the text on the white screen tells you to let go. Type reset-nvram and hit enter. Then type reset-all and hit enter. The computer will reboot and with any luck it will see the hard drive again. Let us know how it goes.

And in the future, don't let it get too low on disk space. Strange things start to happen as a result.

 

[seamuskrat]

There is a known issue when an HFS+ disk gets less than 3% space left. It can corrupt the volume directory, which can often be repaired by DiskWarrior. In your case, the fact the drive does not show up at all, is strange.

Sometimes trying it a few times helps.

So, when you turn it on, what does the screen show? Just a circle with a slash?

Its a good idea to invest in DiskWarrior anyhow, and you can try that.

Another thing to note is that I had low disk space when it happened.

The computer froze up, and I force restarted.

 

[zyuzin4]

I have all of my mp3s and my OS install on a firewire HD. I maxxed out the capacity a while back and my cpu and hard drive have been hurting since.

According to Disc Utility it can see my 76GB "IBM 80" partition. I clicked Verify Disk and it said a bunch of errors and told me to repair. I did and it said IBM 80 repaired...volume not repaired. I repaired again and it seemed OK but clicking Mount won't do anything and it will not boot off my drive. Time for Disc Warrior?

Thanks

 

[seamuskrat]

Data Rescue or Diskwarrior. DW should do the trick. Its best to boot from CD to do the repair.