iMAC Disappearing Hard Drive

[DMoose]

Has anyone else experienced this?

I got my iMac last week, spent ages switching from my PC, almost filled the 1TB hard drive. Suddenly, whilst using Finder it froze and the HD has gone. Can't boot up, lost everything. Worst thing is, i just formatted my PC so have no backup.. I could cry..

Would appreciate any suggestions.. Yes i've tried the Samaritans.

2.8Ghz 24" iMac, 4Gb RAM, 1Tb HD

 

[Whistleway]

DMoose,

I know how you feel. I had something like that happen very recently as well.

Could you describe your problem? What happens when you try to start the computer? Anything on the screen?

Have you tried using the Apple cd and ran the disk utility from it?

I had used Disk Warrior and it rescued my disk. Let us know your problem in detail and more folks will jump in.

 

[DMoose]

Thanks for your kind response.

When i boot up i get the folder with a question mark. I tried disk utility but internal HD doesn't register so there's not a lot i can do.

Never heard of disk warrior.. Apple have sent me to one of their local advisers today, but maybe i should look for this program first.

 

[anemone]

so sorry

Unfortunately, the same thing happened to me with a month old iMac (bought the first week they came out). The hard drive was just gone. I had just awakened my computer from sleep in the morning, and got a spinning beachball, tried to force quit a few things, but nothing worked and it refused to reboot (just the folder w/ the question mark, like you have). After trying a few things while on the phone with Apple Care, I took it to the Apple store and they couldn't read the drive. It was beyond the time frame when they would just give me a new iMac, so they ended up replacing the HD (it took a week, darn it) but it's been running perfectly ever since. My iMac is not a "freezer" and still isn't, fortunately.

Fortunately, I still had my old files backed up, so all I really lost was a few weeks of email. I was not happy about the problem, but I got my HD replacement, and I already loved OS X so much I was not about to go back to PC, so this hasn't soured me too much on Apple yet, though I will definitely buy AppleCare for this machine, since it has already been opened up once.

I'm sorry you lost your backup. I took my experience as a sign that I should finally go out and get that external drive I'd been planning to get, so I did. I now do a full clone of my drive once a week and will use the external for Time Machine once I upgrade to Leopard.

 

[DMoose]

Thanks for your sympathy guys, here's a quick update..

Took my PC to Apple advisors today and they ran some tests. Told me my 6 day old 1TB Hard Drive had burned out with overuse. Apparently it had gotten too hot!! They can't access my data and have to order me a new HD.

Have you ever heard anything so rediculous? I've used my HD too much?!?!

I'm thinking of ringing Apple tomorrow, but don't expect them to do anything. I really hoped i'd escaped this nonsense when i got rid of my PC.

 

[swiftaw]

I'm thinking of ringing Apple tomorrow, but don't expect them to do anything. I really hoped i'd escaped this nonsense when i got rid of my PC.

Apple uses the same hardware as every other PC, thus suffers the same level of hardware failures.

 

[Mindflux]

Thanks for your sympathy guys, here's a quick update..

Took my PC to Apple advisors today and they ran some tests. Told me my 6 day old 1TB Hard Drive had burned out with overuse. Apparently it had gotten too hot!! They can't access my data and have to order me a new HD.

Have you ever heard anything so rediculous? I've used my HD too much?!?!

I'm thinking of ringing Apple tomorrow, but don't expect them to do anything. I really hoped i'd escaped this nonsense when i got rid of my PC.

You hoped to escape hardware failure? Better go back to writing with charcoal bits and parchment.

 

[DMoose]

Maybe i'm a bit naive, but when someone tells me "It just works", i expected longer than 6 days.

 

[Mindflux]

Maybe i'm a bit naive, but when someone tells me "It just works", i expected longer than 6 days.

It's just luck of the draw there. I moved all my data over from my PC but didn't format my PC until yesterday (two weeks after setting up my iMac).

 

[Whistleway]

Thanks for your kind response.

When i boot up i get the folder with a question mark. I tried disk utility but internal HD doesn't register so there's not a lot i can do.

Never heard of disk warrior.. Apple have sent me to one of their local advisers today, but maybe i should look for this program first.

Oh.. when you run from the Apple cd's disk utility, does it recognize the hard drive or nothing at all?

It would show something like 200GB Fujitsu ...

If it doesn't recognize the volume (Macintosh HD) that is ok. If it doesn't recognize the hard drive, then it is quite a big problem.

I have attached a screen shot. Please keep us posted. Also see,\
http://8help.osu.edu/1244.html

Do call Apple.. They have a reasonable good customer service. Just tell them you want to speak to a technician. Worse case scenario, if you can write a professional looking letter to sjobs@apple.com, people have posted as to saying quick resolution of the problem.