Please help this dummie

[MarkMadness]

Hello, this is my first post. I am not very good at fixing computers. Please help me it really stinks.

So for some reason I can't update my mac os x it's just stuck on 10.5

When I try to install anything on my HD it won't let me it has a red circle with a exclamation point so it won't let me do anything to it so it is just stuck with what it is. I googled this problem and found people with the same problem.

This is the best answer I found for my problem. "click on the drive NOT ANY PARTITION and create 1 big partition as mac.. then, still under the drive and not that partition, goto erase adn erase it as mac format... at this point you should be able to install OS X on it again.. feel free to go back, make 2 partitions (MSDOS must be the first partition) and go again-- it should let you install osx"

I am not very good at this kind of stuff. I googled partition so I kind of learned what it is a little bit. But when I go to my disk utility, I can't even partition the Hard Drive. It says I can partition the DVD RW but when I click on the Hard Drive to try and partition it, this is what it says......

So to my knowledge, the option to partition the hard drive, is supposed to be where the text about a fatal error is. So am I screwed or is there something I can do? Thanks a lot for your help in advance I would really appreciate it.

 

[AlphaDogg]

You definitely need a new hard drive.

 

[JediMeister]

If the drive is highlighted red the SMART Status is failing; the only fix is to replace the drive. Continuing to use the drive is risky. A repartition will not fix that. A repartition has a chance at "fixing" a drive which can't be repaired with Disk Utility provided it can isolate the bad blocks and mark them as unusable. Disk Warrior can also sometimes rebuild the directory table for an irreparable drive.

 

[MarkMadness]

Ok thanks a lot. It's said this for about a year now and everything works great except I can't update anything.

So if I buy this and put it in everything should work again? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00066IJPQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A2JUPN4BTA3CZV

Thanks a lot. Does anybody know how much roughly someone would charge to put it in for me?

It is one of the aluminum looking imacs back from I think it was 2007 if not then 08 but I think 07. Thats the correct hard drive? Thanks again.

 

[Mal]

That drive will work, but I'll warn you that the replacement process isn't for the faint of heart. It's doable, but if you proceed with it yourself, make sure you get a good set of instructions and follow them closely. You can really easily screw things up if you make any mistakes.

jW