Unable to start my IMac - is it hardware failure?

[kristiankjaer]

The last couple of days my IMac 27" (late 2009) started to behave strangely. It was slow with lots of spinning beach balls. Today it got totalle stuck and only resolution was to reset (power button 10 secs).

Next boot gave me a startup error:
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800625b0a1): "Unable to find driver for this platform: \"ACPI\".\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2050.24.15/iokit/Kernel/IOPlatformExpert.cpp:1514 (more lines with CPU backtrace, kernel info etc).

Next thought was reinstall OS (Mountain Lion). I am able to boot from my Mountain Lion recovery drive, but when trying to reinstall I get when selecting drive:
"This disk has S.M.A.R.T. error. This disk has a hardware problem that can't be repaired. Back up as much data as possible and replace the disk."

Just to be sure, I tried to boot from my old Snow Leopard DVD, but when hitting 'c' on startup after a while, the disc is ejected and boot from main HD is tried (with the above error as result).

Running Disk Utility from recovery drive my drive is red text and details sat "This drive has a hardware problem that can't be repaired.
Trying to Verify/repair mac partition results in error:
"Disk utility stopped repairing "iMac HD" - Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files. - The volume iMac HD could not be verified completely."

Any suggestions to save data from hard drive? I have a Qnap NAS ready to receive any data I am able to recover, but how (no, I do not a have a Time machine backup )

Any suggestions to something to do/try?

Is it a hardware failure, and what are my options?`

Please help!

 

[Intell]

The hard drive is failing, it will have to be replaced. If you have another Mac, you may be able to put the failing on in Target Disk Mode and copy the data off of it.

 

[kristiankjaer]

Thanks for the tip. I was worried it might be the harddrive - well all indications point to that at least.

However, I do not have a second Mac. I might be able to borrow one, but before doing so, are there any way to use the same feature to my Windows 7 laptop to extract the data?

And from your description, the solution is a new harddrive, and I cannot change this myself, right?

 

[Intell]

Unless your Windows machine has a FireWire port and you know how to install HFS+ drivers for Windows, you can't use it. If you have an external hard drive, you may be able to format it and install Snow Leopard or Mountain Lion on it. Then boot from it and copy over your files to the external hard drive.

Replacing a hard drive in that model iMac is not something for the faint of heart. There are many steps in order to open it up and extract the old one. If you feel daring, look over the required steps at iFixit.com. Then decide if you want to replace it or not.

 

[DLary]

Apple had a hard drive replacement program going for 2009 models with 1tb Seagate drives. I would check with Apple to see if you are eligible for a new drive.