Can I avoid repair service by using disk utility?

[njmac]

I have been searching for solutions to my PB problems for a few days now, but I still have a question.

I have a Rev. B, PowerBook 12", 1Ghz, running 10.4.6, with 768MB RAM.

My computer has been having endless beachball, only stopping when I force a shutdown. Very slow response, this post took me about 10 minutes to type because of the freezes.

I have been thinking my fans were broken because of the noise my powerbook makes. It makes a really loud buzzing noise, and when I move my computer to different angles it changes tones.

I ran disk utility, but to repair the disk it says to insert the OSX disk. My Tiger install disc is broken. I have it, I have the reciept for it, but I can't use it.

My Applecare ran out last month. I backed up all of my data as a bootable back up.


Finally, here are my questions:
Is it worth it to buy a new Tiger DVD?
Will that, most likely repair my HD?
Is it cheaper to send it in to Apple and let them have a look?
Is it cheaper/easier to buy a new Hard Drive and install it myself?
Am I right, could my fans be damaged - or is that a typical noise for a HD that doesn't work?

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Dude relax, you just need a bootable DVD with disc utility on it. Here's an option. Do you have an iPod? You could copy your system folder to your iPod and boot off of that, run Disc Utility and fix your HD. Or borrow a bootable version of Tiger or Panther from a friend. It isn't illegal if you are just using it to fix your drive.

The error you are getting needs to be repaired. And Disc Utility will almost certainly fix it for you.

 

[jsw]

I believe you mentioned that you have a bootable backup, in which case, as mentioned above, simply boot off of that drive and use Disk Utility to repair the laptop drive.

 

[eva01]

or run fsck

 

[njmac]

when I searched on fsck, I found a lot of threads with people with the same problem as I am having... I've never heard of fsck before today


THanks everyone for the advice, I figured out how to boot from my external drive, ran disk utility, and it said my hard drive has a fatal error and cannot be repaired, back up and replace drive.

I ran fsck too, just for the heck of it - and it said something like system error.

Soooo, I guess I'm getting a new hard drive!

Thanks everyone,

ninja mac