Imac G3 Not booting with Noisy Hard drive

[schemadesign]

i tried to reboot my G3 imac yesterday and i got the question mark in the box icon, once again i tried to re-boot and i got as far as the gray log-on screen when there was a loud clunking noise coming from what sounded like the hard drive. That was as far is it got to booting up. I have tried several times and it does the same thing.

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am running 10.3 OSX.

Regards
Carl

 

[eric2006]

What's the model of your iMac? Slot loading? Processor?

 

[schemadesign]

G3 Imac (Gray model) - 600mhz - Slot loader

i'm pretty sire it's 600mhz - machine is at home, i am at work.

Thanks in advance for any help

Carl

 

[eric2006]

Your harddrive might be toast. Those iMacs have a history of burning out their harddrives.
Try booting into safe mode (when you get home):
http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268546

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

The "clunking" sound (like a marble being dropped on a countertop) indicates that your hard drive has either already failed or is getting VERY close to failing. Other symptoms of this are a steady, rhythmic "clicking" sound or a "screeching" noise coming from the hard drive.

There's nothing you can do to fix the hard drive -- once a hard drive decides to go bad, your only option is to replace it. Replacing a hard drive in an iMac isn't a trivial process, but it's not overly difficult either. Once you get past replacing the drive, then it's very easy to reload OS X from the install CDs/DVDs and restore your files from your backup.

 

[eric2006]

Here's how to upgrade your hard-drive: http://www.sterpin.net/uk/imacslotinukp.htm

Don't get a hard-drive over 128 GB.. your iMac will not read anything over the first 128 GB's of space. New hard-drives are pretty cheap, you can get a 100GB one at CompUSA for 30 bucks (after mail in rebates).