Just had Power Cut, now iMac is running increadibly slow and hard drive making noise

[shippouk]

Hey all
Just experienced a power cut while iMac was running, it went off for a split second and then the power came back on, so I rebooted and then 3 seconds into rebooting the power went out AGAIN for about 10 minutes.
It came back on so I rebooted and everything was working OK but REALLY slowly and the hard drive was making more noise than usual (well, I dont think Ive ever actually heard the hard drive before). Ive fully powered down and back up again but the slowness and constant hard drive noise still persist.

I was actually in the middle of updating VLC player at the time (and running Garageband, firefox and a few other programs)

Any ideas?
Thanks

iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 1046 MHz DDR3
Mac OS X 10.6.7

 

[velocityg4]

Hard Drive was probably damaged. Maybe from a power surge or the quick on and off. I would stop fiddling with it if your data is not backed up. Then buy a new drive and enclosure for the old one to try, install OS X on the new drive and try to retrieve your files.

If you are backed up. Try removing your RAM sticks one at a time and booting. Also try booting off your OS install disc.

By the way those little cheap surge strips don't really protect against much. Even many cheap battery backups have a low surge ratings. For any kind of protection you need a good power strip these also wear out over time and should be replaced.

 

[shippouk]

Hey
It seems to have calmed down now and gone back to normal. I think the hard drive may have got stuck in the middle of something, but it must have corrected and completed its task itself after running for half an hour or so.

Phew!!!!!!

If any changes I will post again.
Thanks