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#1 2008-05-27 12:53 am
- manwe
- Member
- Registered: 2006-01-28
- Posts: 125
HDD failure?
All of a sudden, my laptop froze. There was no alternative but to do a hard reboot. I've booted up with my clone and I can access the internal drive however most of my attempts to copy anything off it are met with the error message "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "yadayadayada" cannot be read or written. (Error code -36)
The weird thing is that I have 2 partitions on my internal. I can read off my Media partition, just not my boot partition. Could this just be a software issue? Or is my HDD about to die?
Thanks for any ideas
G4 iBook 933 MHz 1.12 GB Ram running 10.5.1
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#2 2008-05-27 6:30 am
- pottymouth
- Uncreative
- Moderator
- From: JP, MA
- Registered: 2002-02-06
- Posts: 17410
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Re: HDD failure?
Could be either, but I'm guessing it's hardware. Try running the Hardware Test disk that came with your Mac. Dunno if it's got a surface scan, but it's worth a shot. Disk Utility is worth a go as well.
Try copying your data to the clone in smaller chunks until you've got it as close to backed up as possible. Hopefully you won't be missing much. Then try to wipe it and reinstall. If that fails, I'd say it's definitely the HD.
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#3 2008-05-27 3:29 pm
- manwe
- Member
- Registered: 2006-01-28
- Posts: 125
Re: HDD failure?
Totally strange but, the issue seemed to be resolved after a while. I was attempting to copy the "most important" data off the internal and all of a sudden it was allowing big chunks to be copied. I haven't had any issues since. SMART status has been verified, but I haven't done a surface scan.
Console logs showed multiple ATServer failed errors accompanied by I/O Disk errors.
I'll just keep a solid back-up regime in place over the next little while and see how things go.
Also, there are no weird noises coming from the drive or sporadic, but frequent freezes. I've had 1 HDD fail on me already in this laptop (http://www.maclife.com/forums/topic/93582) and this situation seems to be quite different from that time.
G4 iBook 933 MHz 1.12 GB Ram running 10.5.1
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#4 2008-05-27 3:34 pm
- SamGuy
- (Leave blank to use forum default.)
- From: SD
- Registered: 2000-08-19
- Posts: 1165
Re: HDD failure?
any time i've seen "I/O Disk error"s.. it was bad.
the problem going away suddenly can also be a symptom of the drive going bad.
I say you replace the HDD. Can you do it yourself?
MacBook 1.83 CoreDuo 2GB 160GB 10.5.4
iPhone 3G 16GB Black
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#5 2008-05-27 3:44 pm
- manwe
- Member
- Registered: 2006-01-28
- Posts: 125
Re: HDD failure?
I've done it once before. My iBook still sports the scars; she still loves me though. Thanks for the info, i'll start shopping for a new drive.
G4 iBook 933 MHz 1.12 GB Ram running 10.5.1
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#6 2008-05-27 4:48 pm
- SamGuy
- (Leave blank to use forum default.)
- From: SD
- Registered: 2000-08-19
- Posts: 1165
Re: HDD failure?
macsales.com to find out which drives are compatible and then go to newegg.com to see if you can get em cheaper (usually can)
ifixit.com has the manual as well as black sticks or "spudgers". however the blue ones that come with iPod battery replacements work perfectly well too (to pry the plastic)
and you don't have to completely remove the metal shield from the top to get to the hard drive (usually) . you can just remove about six screws directly around the hard drive and bend the shield up. saves time.
MacBook 1.83 CoreDuo 2GB 160GB 10.5.4
iPhone 3G 16GB Black
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