Something Bad Happened! I don't Know What. Seeking Advice.

[RickCoMatic]

One moment everything was perfect. The MAC running good as new. Then, a neighborhood power failure occurred, briefly, do to an accident nearby. The whole house just went dark and quiet. I went to give those sleeping a Heads-up that their clocks stopped. Before we lighted the first candle, the power was back on an I went back to my desk to find my MAC trying to reboot.

The screen never went beyond the blue background with white box and progress bar that never completed getting to the end. A visit to the local "Genius Bar" got the MAC Booted from an External Drive and a good deal of what was important to us got saved.

The advice I got was to Reinstall the Operating System. Clean start.
That worked until this afternoon when the Computer just stopped dead in its tracks.

When I managed to get the Installation Disc to let me select the Diisc Utility in an attempt to Verify Disc Permissions; the Disk Utility "Selection Options" showed only the External Hard Drive as an option. The Internal Hard Disk was not included. The Disc Utility Program couldn't find the Internal Disk.

Is there a procedure to reset the Software to recognize the Internal Hard Drive?
What should I do first?
What can be done to fix this computer?
Did the power failure screw-up something that can be replaced?
How serious is it on a scale of: 1 -to 10. With 1 being it can be fixed and 10 being "Stick a fork in it, Ricky-Baby, ... put it up on Craigs List AS-IS"???

Not that it means much. But, I have been a really good boy all summer.
I don't deserve this to be happening to me.

RickCoMatic

 

[flopticalcube]

Check out the link in my sig. It could be a dead HD. Is it the iMac in your sig? If it is, 4 years is average for a HD.

 

[Thermonuclear]

If the Disk Utility application can't recognize the disk, then the disk is probably broken beyond repair.

A new 2.5 inch 1 TB drive can be had for under US$200:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/WD10TPVT/

However, you might want to have a repair shop do the replacement as your iMac is not easily opened.

 

[InfoSecmgr]

If the Disk Utility application can't recognize the disk, then the disk is probably broken beyond repair.

A new 2.5 inch 1 TB drive can be had for under US$200:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/WD10TPVT/

However, you might want to have a repair shop do the replacement as your iMac is not easily opened.

I thought iMacs had 3.5 inch drives?

 

[flopticalcube]

I thought iMacs had 3.5 inch drives?

They do.

 

[nobias]

If the Disk Utility application can't recognize the disk, then the disk is probably broken beyond repair.

Wrong. There are many circumstances where a disk might not show up in disk utility.

Try diskwarrior. It's gotten me out of many a bind.

 

[RickCoMatic]

I'm going to hope the Hard Disk died. That original Hard Drive had a LOT of hours on it. What with a few games, political commentary and poker playing: I owe the Drive that died a State Funeral.

I can't think of one good reason to get more than a Western Digital 320GB for just under fiddy-buck-ah-rooskies!
I looked on YouTube and surfed my behind off and found the Illustrated "Play-by-play' for slapping that new Giggah-bighter right in-there.

Badda-bing; badda-boom. How long does it it take to loosen six screws.
They must have figured the original hard drive was going to sheet the bed, 'cuz they couldn't be easier to yank out of there if they were Velcro-ed!

Maybe I go crazy and get the 4-something.
I hate it when you have to wait for more than three rapid eye-blinks for the web site.

When I get to put-away this old G-3 that bailing me out through the Hard Drive failure; I'm going to celebrate by seeing how far I can knock the old drive with a Louisville Slugger.

This was a very favorable experience and youze-guys who helped-out should put a Gold Star on the fridge.

I'm going to pop for a four or five hundred gig Western Digital over at Best Buy instead of waiting for one to fall-off a truck, ... if you know what I'm sayin', ... 'cause I read those other ones were assembled in the Far East by starving, homeless, slave-orphans.

Hey, take it light!

 

[tears2040]

They do.

Not the older models

 

[Chundles]

Not the older models

Every iMac since they launched has used standard 3.5" HDDs

 

[tears2040]

Every iMac since they launched has used standard 3.5" HDDs

I know I remember somewhere dealing with a 2.5" hard drive on a Imac back in the days?

Well thanks for the clarification and my apologies to the OP for posting wrong information


peace

 

[Iamthinking]

You probably are thinking of those times they used really thin (ie single platter) drives- but they were still 3.5" wide, just very thin!

Iamthinking

 

[RickCoMatic]

Back In Business // Plus Free Tip!!

Folks:

I am back in business. After buying a 350GB HD and a #-6 TORX Screwdriver; I cleared-off the dining room table and cracked my MAC.
Found a magnificent "How-to" with pix and read the instrux off the screen of my old G3 as I performed Hard Drive Surgery on the Model 2118 G5.

I couldn't get the Camera wires unhooked; so I propped the frame up with a ruler and duct tape.
Jumped-in and followed the directions and before too long had the dead HD out and the bigger HD in its grave.

You need the right screwdrivers. Go buy 'em if you don't own them.
You need the screwdrivers to be MAGNETIC.
You can buy a slip-on Magnet that will magnetize any screwdriver.
DON'T Peel the Tape back.
Use a Razor and cut a clean line through the foil.
Buy a roll of Foil tape to reseal it.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
Seardh:
Installing iMac Intel 20" EMC 2105 and 2118 Hard Drive Replacement.
Get the pdf somehow.

Go in there and get that broke drive out and put the new one in.
Treat yourself to 2 gigs of RAM and get yourself back in the game.

My only complaint is that all my Web pages are now outdated.
I've got this 20" iSight Intel Duo popping so fast its going back in time!!!

The KEY to the process is having the RIGHT Screwdrivers and not trying to hack it with one that don't fit.

<><><><><><><><>

Make your Mac easier to navigate.
Add DUAL Top & Bottom Scroll Arrows.

Open TERMINAL
Type following command including punctuation.

defaults write "Apple Global Domain" AppleScrollBarVarient" DoubleBoth

You'll get Up/Dn arrows at both endns of the scroll bar after a reboot.

RickCoMatic

 

[IndustrialSpace]

Did you have a surge protector and would this have helped prvent any frying?

 

[rworne]

Did you have a surge protector and would this have helped prvent any frying?

It may or may not have helped. If they are like me and leave the beast on all the time, the drive could have just been waiting for a power cycle to crap out. Nearly every failure I had with HDs have been with a power cycle. Those that were not usually were due to heat.

 

[RickCoMatic]

Surge Protector?

Maybe, ... maybe not.

I read in a Computer Mag that the HD is like a Water Pump in your car.
Once it gets passed a certain amount of hours of Up-time it's going to start acting-up or just quit.

I'm still getting a Surge Protector.
I don't want to have to dive-in to this thing again any time soon.

Rick

 

[X1Lightning]

a good Uninterruptible Power Supply cant hurt either. that way if the power goes out you can keep working for a good amount of time, then just shut down normally, instead of instant off....

I can run my Mac about 40 min before i need to shut down when the power is out

 

[RickCoMatic]

I Think Its Going To Be OK ... I'm Still Working On It!

The New Hard Drive seems to be working OK. 300Gigs of HD on the job.

Hoping for a little more SPEED.

Bought (2) 1Gig Boards from Crucial ... on sale for $39.00.

Should I take this Mac to 3Gigs of RAM or stick with 2Gigs.
Am I going to see any difference in how she runs with the extra Gig or would it be a waste of dough?

Want to dust-out 5 -to- 8 Megs of Crap?
Ck-out App called: Clean My Mac

Thanks,'

RickCo