My computer is dead....help (HD problem it seems)

DJ Dylan

DJ Dylan

Registered
Well, my computer started making some weird noises today, coming from the HD it sounded like. Then it locks u, the spinning wheel on the screen, and not going away. I restart it, and it takes a long time to boot up. It eventually does and I go on my merry way. Well, it locks up again a couple minutes later. This time though, when I restart it.....it hangs on the apple logo screen. Then, the apple logo turns into a circle with a line through it, like "NO". Thats where I'm at now, the computer gets there and then stops working. So, I'm screwed pretty much. I dont have the OS X disks here at school with me. And I dont wanna lose all my info on there.

867 Powerbook G4
640mb memory
10.3.5
 
I would try booting up with your install cd (but don't do ANYTHING but go to the file menu and choose disk utility.) Actually, better yet, use your Hardware Test utility cd to see if your hard drive is foo-barred.

Hopefully you have back ups of the info on that drive, because from your description it doesn't sound good. :(
 
First thing I would do: backup your data. Try to boot into the target mode (boot holding apple+t) and plug your book to another Mac over a firewire cable. Once you have your important data backuped, you can start checking what's actually wrong with your drive. The more read/write actions you have on a dying disk (which seems to be the case for you) the more the chance decreases to get back your data. So, first backup and then check.
 
(there's no need to hold down the apple key when booting in firewire target mode. Just hold down the T key when booting up.)
 
Well, couldnt even boot into anything. It's totally FUBARED. So, I took it to CompUSA today, the only place here that can service Macs. So, we'll see what they say. Since, Apple was gonna charge me 50 bucks to tell me what I already knew was wrong with the computer. They referred me to CompUSA to get it fixed.
 
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