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Bad harddrive in iMac Aluminum?

Macman756

Macman756

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 24, 2008
544
0
Atlanta, GA
My iMac is doing some really weird things, it would freeze and be really slow, Now it won't start up, just an International NO sing on startup. so I attempted to do a clean install and now it boots up from the disc, then when I try to select the harddrive, it's grayed out. Bad harddrive?
 
Yea, sounds like. Try Disk Utility from your installation disk. Utilities from top bar -> Disk Utility -> Fix it
 
Macman756 said:
Yeah I think it's gonna need a new one. How hard is replacing this?
Click to expand...

It's not a user-replaceable item, but you can do it yourself with some suction cups to pull off the glass cover. As long as you don't damage anything and put back any parts you put into it before being serviced then your warranty is fine.

Anyway, if you have a warranty then just get the hard drive changed by Apple for free. If not, buy your own drive and you don't have to worry about it anyway.
 
Yeah I have to replace mine too, tried a fsck but it didn't work. I am going to try to take it apart in the morning. Its a 24", I saw a vid on youtube to use a suction cup to pull out the glass. Anyone done this ?
 
Yeah u use 2 suctions cups to pull off the glass. Glass is held by magnets I've read. There's some good instructions and visuals on ifixit.com
 
Yes, getting lint on the back of the glass panel is a big concern. Apple supplies a sticky roller to its service personnel to remove any stray lint or dust. Your best bet is to work in a very clean area and lay the glass panel on a soft lint free cloth as soon as you pop it out and then immediately cover it with another lint free cloth and don't mess with it till your done.
Also, try to find a service manual for the aluminum iMac online. These will not be on the Apple website as they are not for public distribution but if you look hard enough I bet you could find one. Any model of Aluminum iMac will do, the disassembly is all the same.

That being said, if you have applecare, LET APPLE SWAP THE DRIVE! Its not that hard but there is a chance you'll screw something up while your in there.
 
was there a batch of these aluminum imacs that had bad hds? because the same thing happened to mine about a year ago.
 
I changed mine out recently. This has nothing to do with a bad batch. It's because of the excessive heat this machine generates. Apple is poor at managing the fans too. Do a few searches on hard drives failing in Imacs and you'll see a whole bunch of posts.

To avoid this happening again I'm using a fan control program now.
 
I'll do that on mine, then to protect against another failure. But i'm pretty sure i saw something about a bad batch of imac hds.
 
iMac22 said:
I changed mine out recently. This has nothing to do with a bad batch. It's because of the excessive heat this machine generates. Apple is poor at managing the fans too. Do a few searches on hard drives failing in Imacs and you'll see a whole bunch of posts.

To avoid this happening again I'm using a fan control program now.
Click to expand...

Didn't the 2009 Imacs take a refreshed approach to cooling specifically because of this (I believe the fans go faster or are triggered earlier now)?
 
Whackintosh said:
Didn't the 2009 Imacs take a refreshed approach to cooling specifically because of this (I believe the fans go faster or are triggered earlier now)?
Click to expand...

Cooling is the same, maybe faster rpm though. CPUs runs 11W/20W cooler (55W vs 44W/35W) in current than they did in previous.
 
I was a huge Apple advocate on here in the "heat kills HDDs" threads regarding the iMacs, defending the high temps reported by most iMac owners.

Then a week and a half ago the 320GB Western Digital Caviar in my mid-2007 24" iMac died. I don't know what caused the failure but I thank goodness I had both A) full Superduper and Time Machine backups and B) 11 months of Applecare coverage left.

Actually, if I didn't have the Applecare I would have had no qualms about swapping out the bad 320GB drive for a nice 2TB once since the procedure doesn't appear to be that involved at all.

But in the end I decided to let Apple do it since they owed me a replacement disk and I didn't want to give them any reason to deny me in the next 11 months of remaining coverage should the logic board fail or something.
 
I have the 3.06GHz 8800GS iMac, and the 500GB (WDC) HDD repeatedly gets up to around 55 degrees Celsius just by leaving it on (takes around 3 hours).

Is it probable that my HDD (like the others in this thread) will fail soon?

(I've had the iMac since March this year)

Thanks.
 
Blue Sun said:
I have the 3.06GHz 8800GS iMac, and the 500GB (WDC) HDD repeatedly gets up to around 55 degrees Celsius just by leaving it on (takes around 3 hours).

Is it probable that my HDD (like the others in this thread) will fail soon?
Click to expand...

As I mentioned there is no telling if my HDD failure was in any way related to heat at all. HDDs just fail period sometimes. The new one was averaging around 55C. It is at 52C now.

The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to keep full backups and I also highly recommend Applecare if you don't already have it. That is not just for HDD failures but for anything that can (and does) go wrong with an iMac like screen issues and logic board failures.

This time I sent my iMac in to Apple just to replace the HDD but for some reason they also replaced the rear case, front case and glass panel as well. I'm not complaining. It looks like brand new.
 
SaSaSushi said:
This time I sent my iMac in to Apple just to replace the HDD but for some reason they also replaced the rear case, front case and glass panel as well. I'm not complaining. It looks like brand new.
Click to expand...

How long did your repair take? Did they give you any reasoning for replacing the rear/front cases and the glass?
 
hawaiipoolman said:
How long did your repair take? Did they give you any reasoning for replacing the rear/front cases and the glass?
Click to expand...

The courier picked up the machine while I was out. My wife tells me the guy had a lot of trouble figuring out the packaging and ended up sort of shoving the machine into the case. Apple made no mention of why they replaced the front and rear case but I wonder if it wasn't scratched or otherwise damaged in this process.

Apple got the machine the next day and fixed it and sent it back the day after that. It took 3 days total for me to get it back.
 
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