Mini Weirdness

[mrmikegreen]

Switched my Mac Mini (first rev PPC 2005 model) yesterday morning to find that the internal drive had vanished, seemingly. It was not mounted on the desktop(I boot from an external Lacie firewire drive as a rule.
Went into Disk Utility and attempted to initialise the drive. Failed with and 'Input/Output' error.

Rebooted into open firmware as there was a DVD in the drive which I could not eject, was unable to eject the DVD using the Open Firmware command for doing so. Not happy

Began to assume the drive was completely Kaput and maybe also the DVD/CD drive as this had been acting up of late. New Mac time...
Switched all my equip off at the plug last night as I turned in for bed and switched everything back on this morning and as if by magic the internal drive was there and I was able to eject the 'stuck' DVD

I have run Disk Utility a number of times and the drive appears to be fine. Also downloaded a copy of 'Smart Reporter' which shows it as being fine.

Weird.

My Mini is I admit now rather elderly...

 

[mstrze]

I had similar issues with my same-era PPC Mini....I would just get the question mark flashing on the screen asking where is the hard drive upon booting.

It hit me for the first time after I moved. I assumed it was a loose connection inside because when I readjusted my cables...especially the monitor cable...my drive 'came back'. If I moved anything back there in the future, I generally had to be careful or the next time I restarted the computer, my drive would be missing again. It wouldn't affect performance while it was on mind you, just upon rebooting, the drive would be gone.

All I can say is make sure your cables are connected tightly and are not prone to shifting or movement which can put strain on the internal board.

I upgraded to the 'newest' Mini earlier in 2009 btw....to avoid that problem AND to be able to run the latest and greatest software.

 

[mrmikegreen]

I upgraded to the 'newest' Mini earlier in 2009 btw....to avoid that problem AND to be able to run the latest and greatest software.

Thanks for your reply. There might be something in your scenario that matches mine.

I was this close to clicking on the 'Order' button for a new Mini on the Apple website yesterday

 

[Alrescha]

When the HD died in my January '05 mini died, it also kept the CD/DVD drive from working properly. As soon as I replaced the HD, everything was back to normal.

A.

 

[mrmikegreen]

I had similar issues with my same-era PPC Mini....I would just get the question mark flashing on the screen asking where is the hard drive upon booting.

It hit me for the first time after I moved. I assumed it was a loose connection inside because when I readjusted my cables...especially the monitor cable...my drive 'came back'. If I moved anything back there in the future, I generally had to be careful or the next time I restarted the computer, my drive would be missing again. It wouldn't affect performance while it was on mind you, just upon rebooting, the drive would be gone.

All I can say is make sure your cables are connected tightly and are not prone to shifting or movement which can put strain on the internal board.

I upgraded to the 'newest' Mini earlier in 2009 btw....to avoid that problem AND to be able to run the latest and greatest software.

In fact I really do think the problems you experienced my be the same as mine are/were. Bluetooth mouse has (at the same time as loss of internal drive and etc) started being very flaky, connection is lost on sleep and randomly. Investigating (Googling) and some folk seem to say it is due to a loose connection... who has been shifting my Mac about that is what I want to know!