Help Please on Hard Drives (iMac 11,2)

[jhaycutexp]

Hi guys

I am a newbie on iMac .. I have the i3 3.0GHz... my Identifier is 11,2 so its around Mid 2010?

What my problem is... my hard drive died on me... or atleast I think it died on me..

Here's the thing.. I left my iMac opened for about 3 days or 2 days straight.. cause I was downloading stuff for work.. and when I sat on it.. I noticed that it froze.. so what I did was to of course restart my iMac... but then it won't boot up.. it suddenly flashed a "stop" image on the gray window.. and then after that a folder with a question mark pops up and started flashing..

I did every tutorial on how to fix this.. but mostly about resetting PRAM or NRAM or something it is called by that..

Anyways.. it didn't worked.. so I tried the disk utility method... so I got my installation disk.. put on the DVDROM.. and waited for it to boot.. for a fresh installation.. but the thing is.. I don't see the partitions.. to where should I put my OS...

So I checked again on the disk utility.. and it can't detect the Hard Drive.. I tried several times of restarting.. but still it doesn't show.. the Hard Drive.. I mean literally it doesnt show the HARD DRIVE... cause normally you would see the partitions and the Hard DRive itself...

any solution to this?? can I still save my hard drive?

My iMac is around 1year and 1 month old..

And as for my Hard Drive solution.. I was thinking to get a new one.. but the thing is.. can I buy any brand?? cause I read somewhere about apple having problems with other brands?

But some says it's Okay.. unless its SATA...

and how big should I buy?? I mean.. 3.5" or those for the laptops? cause I don't know..

Any help will be appreciated..

 

[robgendreau]

Sounds like your drive is, in fact, dead.

Go over to ifixit.com; I think they have instructions on replacing the drive. It isn't that difficult on the 2010 iMacs if you're careful, IIRC.

Rob

 

[jhaycutexp]

So it is dead??

Well my followup question is.. what kind of HD will I buy? the standard 3.5" SATA HD?

Any brand will do? cause some shop is way cheaper than the apple store.. It's the same brand... and same specs.. but on apple store.. its way more pricey...

I was thinking of getting it on our local store.. will that be okay?

I'll just get a WDC SATA HD.. just like the one that was inside my iMac?

Sounds like your drive is, in fact, dead.

Go over to ifixit.com; I think they have instructions on replacing the drive. It isn't that difficult on the 2010 iMacs if you're careful, IIRC.

Rob

 

[jsolares]

So it is dead??

Well my followup question is.. what kind of HD will I buy? the standard 3.5" SATA HD?

Any brand will do? cause some shop is way cheaper than the apple store.. It's the same brand... and same specs.. but on apple store.. its way more pricey...

I was thinking of getting it on our local store.. will that be okay?

I'll just get a WDC SATA HD.. just like the one that was inside my iMac?

You should open the iMac and see what HD it does have, and then buy one of the same brand, it could be Seagate as well. in the 2010 models they use cables for the temp sensor and the plug for Seagate is different than for WD