imac troubles

[iluvmacs]

I have a 333 MHz imac with OS 9.2. I booted it up after a couple days being shut off and it seemed to boot normally but after about 10 minutes I heard the hard drive spin up then down and then it froze. I couldn't turn it off with the keyboard so I had to shut it off with the power button. I then tried to start it again and I got the blinking ? mark and folder icon. I then inserted the original recovery cd and it booted up. I tried to run disk firstaid but the hard drive wasn't recognized. After that I shut it down and left it turned off for two hours and it booted from the hard drive again. I then ran disk firstaid and it said the disk had no errors. Acouple minutes later it froze again after the hard drive spinning up and then down. I've went through this same process several times and get the same result. Does anyone have any suggestions, has anyone else experienced this, pleeeese help me.

 

[DeltaMac]

Sure, this is fairly typical of a failing hard drive. The hard drive is shutting down, probably due to heat. It's also possible that the IDE controller on the logic board is acting up for the same reason, but it's a cheaper task to replace the hard drive, and the most likely at fault. Back up your important files as soon as you can.

 

[sinclair_tm]

i second delta, your hd is on the way out for good. and there is no saving it when it finaly gives up the ghost, so back up asap when it does run.