New 2.8 just died in Target Mode, now won't start - What the?

[AdamTro]

Just got this machine yesterday brand new. Had finished installing all my software (a day long process) and then hooked it up Firewire to a Macbook via target mode to do a quick defrag before I was gonna add a bunch more files.

The HD was on the Macbook's desktop. So I had started iDefrag and it was analyzing the HD. Hadn't started actually defraging yet. All of a sudden the HD disappeared off the desktop and the fans came on full blast it seemed.

When you turn it on the fans come on like normal and you can hear the drive being accessed for a couple seconds, then stops and just sits there with the fans on low speed. It won't boot up on it's own, no monitors come on. Not responsive to keyboard commands. Called Apple care, they walked me through all the things I had already done, to no avail.

I pulled the 320GB HD and put it in an external USB eSATA dock - the drive mounted right up on the Macbook, so the drive is not bad.

What the hell is going on?

 

[AdamTro]

I noticed what looks like some kind of "reset" button. Little white button to the right of the top PCI slot. What happens if I press it with the power on?

 

[tobyg]

Call the apple store where you got it yesterday immediately and see if they have anymore. Tell them you bought one yesterday and it's broke and have them hold one for you. I'd return it if they have another. If they don't, call the other stores in WI and see who has one.

Something sounds really wrong with this one. Do any lights light up inside when you turn it on?

 

[hugodrax]

ESD damage?

 

[rylin]

Why on earth would you try to defrag a fresh installation of a OS running on top of a online-defragging filesystem?

 

[Consultant]

Why on earth would you try to defrag a fresh installation of a OS running on top of a online-defragging filesystem?

Exactly. OSX defrags itself and works for 99.9% of users that don't deal with huge files on a constant basis.

 

[AdamTro]

Why on earth would you try to defrag a fresh installation of a OS running on top of a online-defragging filesystem?

LOL. Why? Because I wanted all the permanent system/apps files all defragged together on the platters and out of the way for large video files. OS X does not defrag this way, iDefrag does. The HD was always a mess after installing, frags all over the place. I've done this countless times before on other machines over the years with no problems. That wasn't the reason for failure, it's one of the boards. Just dropped it off at an authorized dealer for repair. Will report back.

 

[bearcatrp]

I tried using idefrag once. BAD IDEA. I ended up reinstalling.