On startup, it's making a loud noise as described in the title. Won't then boot up. Holding down Alt won't allow me to select a different drive. Did eventually start up after a few goes, but I've been experiencing weird problems recently, and I'm wondering if the HD is failing. It's all backed up.
Tech Tool deluxe suggests a 'hardware' problem.
Does this sound like imminent failure? Or can the drive be rescued? I will replace if necessary, but if it can be sorted, then it's better for the planet...
In TTD:
Format Check: Failed
Directory Scan: Failed
Volume Structure: Failed
🙁
Oh and it's a Mac, btw.
Fanks for any advice, and feel free to post pics of nice buildings if you want to. No reason why it can't be a multi-porpoise thread.
IF you have a backup, throw that drive away.
Sounds dead, sounds like you already know that. Did you want somne good news?
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
You should really have been powering it with organic electricity, hard drives stay healthy that way.
Can I be the first to say I thought Macs didn't die! Arnt they superior to all other electrical devices and nothing ever goes wrong with them?
If the above is true I conclude that you must have a fake Mac!!
It'll be fine, take it apart and pull the bearings out, take them to a bearing supplier and get some replacements from them. fit them and put it back together.
Backup ASAP!
Does sound a bit borked, and once borked, I wouldn't trust a hard drive again.
However, there is a slight chance that as Apple laptops have a "help I'm about to be dropped" sensor, which parks the hard disk head (to prevent damaging the drive), maybe your sensor is knackered, and not allowing the hard drive to be read. I'd say it is more likely that the hard drive is failing though - lots of moving bits and they don't last forever.
Maybe stick it in an external casing to try to read stuff from it, and boot from the DVD drive?
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I've no idea what Tech Tool is, but the drive's on its way out. It might last for seconds, or for months, but I'd mentally flag it as "suspect" at the very least.
The sound can be caused by a few different things, but they all amount to the same net result.
Can I be the first to say I thought Macs didn't die! Arnt they superior to all other electrical devices and nothing ever goes wrong with them?If the above is true I conclude that you must have a fake Mac!!
I realise this is a troll, but for the uninitiated, hard drives are made by Toshiba/Hitachi/your Gran/whoever and are no more likely to fail in one laptop than any other. The sensor thing I referred to above would mean that they are less likely to fail in laptops (such as recent MacBooks) which have a movement sensor.
Buildings, spot the theme.
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And Apparently these are the glorious leaders houses.
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Or the conspiracy theorists will tell you that it was pre-programmed to fail today, as Apple has literally just released new MacBooks today.
Waz a new HDD in there and restore from your backups 😉
I had a portable drive that I tried to power off a USB connector with insufficient current availability.
It went wwwzzzzTOK wwwzzzzTOK wwwzzzzTOK indefinitely.
Maybe a power problem?
What sort of Mac? Macbook or Mac Pro = easy hdd swap, iMac or macbook pro = PITA but not that had as long as you take your time.
It sounds shot, but you can always try sticking it in a caddy once you've got OSX on the new drive.
I had a portable drive that I tried to power off a USB connector with insufficient current availability.It went wwwzzzzTOK wwwzzzzTOK wwwzzzzTOK indefinitely.
Maybe a power problem?
He's got a point, jiggling the connections won't cost you owt. Consider yourself extremely lucky if it's the case though.
jiggling the connections won't cost you owt. Consider yourself extremely lucky if it's the case though.
I've fixed quite a lot of old "failing" IDE disks this way, by just removing and reseating the cabling. To date, I've never seen the same problem / fix work on a modern SATA drive.
sounds like the tick of death to me.
I have recovered drives from this state using spinrite, but only so I can back them up. If you already have a backup, then you now also have a paperweight.