Intel Mac Pro Stuck on Gray Apple screen before OS load.

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LastFx

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So I'm aware that the rules for posting are use the search function first, and I have and have found many similar topics but nothing has work thus far.

So here's the lowdown. I'm a PC user switched to mac after attending college and using Mac Pros daily for video editing. Bought the intel mac right after they came out (since I'm a PC user, to be able to use XP)

I have the OSX 10.4.7 installed that came with my computer, and run XP pro on my other partition. (I also just want to vent that I really dont like the fact that Boot Camp Beta stopped working so I cant update from service pack 2 or reformat which I usually do every 6mos to a year) anyway, The problem:

Approx 2 years ago my screen started tweaking shades of yellow and on hot days, would just turn off and go black. someone informed me about changing thermal paste on the graphics card. so i assume I partially fried my graphics card. I haven't had the money to replace it.

since then I had been dealing with keeping XP alive since I can't reformat. and its just to messed up now to get to work in a timely manner. So recently Ive been using Mac.

Was working fine and then about a month ago started bogging down, taking forever to do anything, constantly getting what I like to call "The Spinning Pinwheel of Death" lol. and I made a coloration between my machine getting hot and it bogging down or so I thought. I also remember this all happening shortly after I tried to use apple's updater.

It would work great right after I turned it on and slowly get slower and slower. I was beginning to think that since the screen wasn't tweaking that It was no longer my graphics card but something else effected by the heat, Mind you I live on a 3rd floor apt and it gets hot. I had a similar problem before when I had it in a loft that got hot.

I was hoping it wasn't my processor?

so what its been doing now is that I'f it had been on for a while and got hot and was sitting there with the pinwheel for a long time if I tried to restart it it would get stuck at the gray apple screen and not turn on, but if I let it cool down for a couple hours it would start up, so I had just been doing that.

Once It didn't start for 2 hrs so I inserted the install disk and verified permissions and it came up with some errors, but only about printers I no longer used so I did nothing and exited. it loaded fine after that for a week.

Then It started taking a while to load even after that. longer and longer and longer. now it wont even go past that screen.

as I said before I already look this up and tried some of the other stuff suggested. I've inserted my install disk and verified permissions and disk, fixed permission errors, no errors on disk. I've tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM by booting and Pressing and holding the Command-Option-P-R keys.
(that fixed this issue I was having with the boot up sound being chopping, sounding like it would play, then someone would hit pause then play, and it would play, then they would hip pause then play again and it would finish. It also got louder.) anyway it still isn't loading. The last thing that I have tried is booting into safe mode, which I read can take a really long time. I tried holding shift at the chime and still the same thing. I also tried rebooting and holding Shift-Cmd-V to see what it was saying. I left it to do its thing for 5.5 hours and this is what I got:

(there is a little bit from the beginning missing because I typed this myself and this was all I could see the rest had went off screen. and I don't think there is anything in this that will allow anyone to get enough information to like hack into or mess up my stuff, but if so please don't and let me know so I can edit it out. Since I dont know all that much about mac. thx.)

Jul 15 22:08:29 kextd[25]: registering service "com.apple.KernelExtensionServer"
Resetting IOCatalogue.
Matching service count = 0
Matching service count = 0
Matching service count = 0
Matching service count = 0
Matching service count = 0
Matching service count = 0
Jul 15 22:08:30 kextd[25]: 377 cached, 0 uncached personalities to catalog
Previous Shutdown Cause: 3
BTCOEXIST on
wl0: Broadcom BCM4328 802.11 Wireless Controller
IPv6 packet filtering initialized, default to accept, logging disabled
Jul 15 22:08:39 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:08:49 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:08:49 kextd[25]: diskarb isn't ready yet; we'll try again soon
Jul 15 22:08:59 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:08:59 kextd[25]: diskarb isn't ready yet; we'll try again soon
Jul 15 22:09:09 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:09:09 kextd[25]: diskarb isn't ready yet; we'll try again soon
Jul 15 22:09:19 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:09:19 kextd[25]: diskarb isn't ready yet; we'll try again soon
Jul 15 22:09:29 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:09:29 kextd[25]: diskarb isn't ready yet; we'll try again soon
Jul 15 22:09:39 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:09:39 kextd[25]: diskarb isn't ready yet; we'll try again soon
Jul 15 22:09:49 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:09:49 kextd[25]: diskarb isn't ready yet; we'll try again soon
Jul 15 22:09:59 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:09:59 kextd[25]: diskarb isn't ready yet; we'll try again soon
Jul 15 22:10:09 kextd[25]: kextd_watch_volumes: Couldn't set up diskarb sessions
Jul 15 22:10:09 kextd[25]: giving up on diskarb; auto-rebuild disabled
disk0s2: 0xe0030003 (UNDEFINED).
disk0s2: 0xe0030003 (UNDEFINED).
shared_region: 0x38668b0: lsf_map: ZF mapping #0 beyond EOFshared region: 0x38668b0: 5 mappings Base_offset=0x80a000
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #0: addr=0x0, size=0xc9000, file_offset=0x0, prot=(5,5)
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #1: addr=0x10000000, size=0x9000, file-offset=0xc9000, prot=(11,11)
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #2: addr=0x10009000, size=0x1000, file-offset=0x0, prot=(27,27)
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #3: addr=0x1000a000, size=0x1000, file-offset=0xd2000, prot=(15,15)
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #4: addr=0xc9000, size=0x3ca7c, file-offset=0xd3000, prot=(1,1)
shared_region: 0x38668b0: lsf_map: ZF mapping #0 beyond EOFshared region: 0x38668b0: 5 mappings Base_offset=0x80a000
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #0: addr=0x0, size=0xc9000, file_offset=0x0, prot=(5,5)
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #1: addr=0x10000000, size=0x9000, file-offset=0xc9000, prot=(11,11)
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #2: addr=0x10009000, size=0x1000, file-offset=0x0, prot=(27,27)
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #3: addr=0x1000a000, size=0x1000, file-offset=0xd2000, prot=(15,15)
shared_region: 0x38668b0: #4: addr=0xc9000, size=0x3ca7c, file-offset=0xd3000, prot=(1,1)
4.170.46.9disk0s2: 0xe0030003 (UNDEFINED).
/etc/re: line 258: 28 Bus error launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons /etc/mach_init.d
disk0s2: 0xe0030003 (UNDEFINED).
disk0s2: 0xe0030003 (UNDEFINED).
/etc/rc: line 257: /sbin/SystemStarter: Input/output error


My machine has an Intel Xeon 3.0 Ghz Quad Core Processor, 4x 512MB Ram, and and ATI Radeon x1900 graphics card if any of that help. If you require any additional information, please let me know.

I was hoping to not have to reinstall the OS so I wouldn't lose the information on there, unless there is a way you know of that I can. that is the only reason I haven't tried that yet. I'm just hoping that this isn't a problem with some hardware that I may need to replace.

Thank You for all you help in advance,
Shane
 
Good to know that almost a week, and 138 views later, no one has any suggestions or ideas about what to do? not even a, "I think your outta luck and are going to have to reformat it." thx for the support! looks like I will just have to start doing the endless process of tedious research about Mac and educate myself.

If this bumps the thread and anyone else has any insight, suggestions, or Ideas please feel free to post. Otherwise, I guess I may or may not post the resolution to my problem for all of you.
 
You can upgrade your MacPro to a newer OS X version without losing your files and your additional apps. You are on version 10.4.11, and the current version is 2 full versions newer - 10.6.4
It's better optimized for the intel processors than what you are running now. It will also give you a working version of the Boot Camp again. The original Boot Camp beta was provided to 10.4 users, just as a temporary measure, and was offered as a feature of the then-upcoming release of 10.5 (Leopard) So, to stay current with your Boot Camp, and allow you that full use again, you would need to update your operating system. Perhaps this is the reason that you need, to justify purchasing the up-to-date software.
All that being said, your symptoms lead me to suspect your hard drive. You should test that. You can boot to your original restore DVD, or you can boot to single-user mode (boot holding command-S. At the screen where the text scrolls down - type fsck -fy
then press enter, and you will see the hard drive tests appear. Let me know if it shows any problems with the hard drive that the test can't repair. If you do get a message like that, run the same fsck - fy a second time.
Come back with the results that you get, or any other questions that my post might trigger for you.
 
First off I would like to thank you, DeltaMAC, for responding to my post. I would like to apologize for my somewhat irate flaming in my last post. As I explained, I was a PC user. I know a lot about PC's and have never had a problem diagnosing and resolving a problem in windows and this is all just quite frustrating to me as I feel ignorant about Mac.

I would love to and will at some point invest the time into leaning more about this operating system so that I may be self-sufficient.

Anyway, back to the task at hand.

I've been researching problems all day (for the past 7.5 hrs). When I tried booting this morning, into verbose mode I got a different error, something along the lines of:

error writing the journal header!

and

IOBluetoothHCIController::start Idle Timer Stopped
(than just hanging there)

However, that's not the problem that I have now. I fixed those problems by resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) by unplugging the power cord from the back of my tower, pressing and holding the power button for 5 seconds, then reconnecting the power cord and restarting.

Now every time I restart the computer into verbose mode it gets past that... the end goes:

Resetting files and devices
Starting virtual memory
Removing /mach.sym /var/tmp/folders.* /etc/nologin /private/_tmp_/var/_run_/private/var/vm/swapfile0
IOBluetoothHCIController::start Idle Timer Stopped
\mach.sym
(then hangs for about 5-10 min)
disk0s2: 0xe0030003 (UNDEFINED).
disk0s2: 0xe0030003 (UNDEFINED).
Configuring kernel extensions
(then hangs for about 15 min)
disk0s2: 0xe0030003 (UNDEFINED).
(then hangs indefinitely)

Another thing is that I just tried to restart in verbose mode again to confirm and so I would be able to type exactly what it said for you, with the install disk in accidentally, and it said some different stuff (I'm assuming from booting the disk) then went to the first screen of the installer. I restarted and held down the key to get to the OS select screen, but it didn't show my mac or windows partitions, only the installer disk. So I ejected that and had to restart, and instead of going into verbose mode when I held down the keys, it went to the gray screen and showed a flashing folder with a question mark in it. I powered the computer off, removed my HDD and reinserted it and it worked as it had been and did the above again.

Is it possible that my HDD is just going out maybe? hopefully not!

On to your suggestion:
(I have already done this before, both methods. Originally there were a few permission errors that I repaired but it has passed many times since then, including earlier today. It has never failed being able to verify the disk and has passed a few times today in disk utility and single user mode, but I will do it again now and write exactly what it says.)

First thing that I notice is now, when I go into the OS select screen to eject the drive it still does not show either of the OS. its only blank, then the disk shows up after I insert it. (alarming to me)

when I get into disk utility it does show both partitions however...

Click Verify Disk Permissions:

Verify permissions for "Macintosh"
(the sits there thinking)

If I restart and do it again but try to Verify disk it says:
Verifying volume "Macintosh"
Verify volume failed with error Could not unmount disk

If I try to manually unmount it says:
Unmount failed
The disk "Macintosh" could not be unmounted.
Make sure that all applications and files are closed on the disk.

If I try to boot into single-user mode after ejecting the disk, it does not and goes to the gray screen flashing the folder with the question mark now.

If I try to boot into verbose mode now, it wont and goes to the gray screen flashing the folder with the question mark.

Turning the power off and removing and reinserting the HDD doesn't change this now.

Turning the power off and switching HDD bay's does not change this.

WOW! does this mean that my HDD literally just crapped out on me as I was doing this?

I was going to say, after it passed (which obviously it didn't now) I was going to barrow a 16gb flash drive from a friend and install OS X on there to boot from so that I could access this drive and back up the information from both partitions tomorrow and then possibly try reformatting, or and archive and install if we couldn't figure out something, so I could see how well it works since I've never done one before and I was skeptical and didn't want to lose any information.

I guess I'll power off for the night, and let it sit and cool down. I have been running it all day and I like to think that there is a pattern between it getting hot and not working (hoping that my HDD didn't just fail, and I lost everything)

I'll get back to you tomorrow and let you know if there's any change.

On a lighter note, considering my Graphics Card doesn't work too well, I found out it would only be about $200 to buy a New ATI PCI-E 2.1 HD graphics card that should work in my machine that would be better than the one I have in there now if it were pristine, and less expensive than replacing it with the exact one.

So honest opinion, do you think my HDD is dead?
 
Yes, I suspect that you have a failing hard drive, or it has already failed completely.
You can try a better hard drive repair utility, such as Disk Warrior.
Do you have an empty drive bay in your MacPro? New hard drives are quite inexpensive, and you can even get one to install just OS X (for possible troubleshooting, or some file transfer, if possible).

Be careful about a different graphics card. Don't purchase one that "should work". Get one that you know works, because it's been tested in a MacPro like yours. I think this thread has some good info: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=712470
You can also check at www.xlr8yourmac.com for other upgrade possibilities.
 
Thanks for the info on the graphics card. I was gonna do some research before I bought one. The guy at Geek Squad told me that they should all work as long ans the manufacturer supports Mac and has correct drivers, and the guy in the computer section at Best Buy told me to research online too make sure too. But even if it didn't they told me they would take it back. So I will look into your link, when im done typing this.

To answer the other question, Yes, I have three other empty HDD bays. I do believe they run SATA-2 drives, correct? I'm thinking that the HDD is failing. and I only have a 250 GB HDD currently in 2 partitions (one for OS X 10.4 and one for Win XP Pro) so I was considering expanding storage anyway. Was also looking into messing around with Linux (I never have) and possibly installing Vista or 7 (I own an unopened copy of vista) so that would add another 2 partitions. That and I just want more internal disk space for each partition. I do have a 1 TB WD external HDD.

Anyway, back to my update of the system.

After leaving it off all night, I just acquired the 16 GB flash stick, started up the system to see if it was working again now, but it wasn't. Restarted the system to be able to insert the install disk and, WAIT! it's working now. The OS select screen shows both partitions.

So on to the questions you asked last night:

When I go into single-user mode:

after I type fsck -fy it says:

-: No such file or directory
Can't stat -
Can't stat -: No such file or directory
fy: No such file or directory
Can't stat fy
Can't stat fy: No such file or directory


However, before I typed that, the two things before where it says:
localhost:/ root# (which is where I had input the command you asked)

it said:

If you want to make modifications to files:
/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /

If you wish to boot the system, but stay in single user mode:
sh /etc/rc

So I made an intuitive leap and guessed the whole string of code I should enter was that "/sbin/fsck -fy"

When I enter /sbin/fsck -fy it says:

** /dev/rdisk0s2
** Root file system
** Checking HFS Plus volume.
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
** Checking Catalog file.
** Checking multi-linked files.
** Checking Catalog Hierarchy.
** Checking Extended Attributes file.
** Checking volume bitmap.
** Checking volume information.
** The volume Macintosh appears to be OK.
localhost:/ root#

That is essentially the same thing as going into the Disk Utility on the install disk and running Verify Disk, correct?

Anyway, If i insert the install disk and go into Disk Utility and run Verify Disk it's still saying:

Verifying volume "Macintosh"
Verify volume failed with error Could not unmount disk

At the bottom of the window it lists the information:

Mount Point: /volumes/Macintosh
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Owners Enabled: Yes
Number of Folders: 123,457
Capacity: 116.0 GB (124,554,051,584 Bytes)
Available: 58.0 GB (62,302,490,624 Bytes)
Used: 58.0 GB (62,251,560,960 Bytes)
Number of Files: 539,671

Again, if I try to unmount manually it says:

Unmount Failed
The disk "Macintosh" could not be unmounted.
Make sure that all applications and files are closed on the disk.

If I try to Verify Disk Permissions it says:

Verify permissions for "Macintosh"
(then sits there thinking)

I have to hard boot, and now it doesn't show either partiton in the OS select screen anymore. Basically, back to the same problem I had last night.

So it sounds like my disk is failing?
I think I'm gonna go ahead and try to install the OS onto the flash drive and see if I can get at the files that way. If that doesn't work, a friend of mine just got an iMac last holiday season and I read something about target disk mode. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a firewire, and I don't want to go buy one, but I think I read somewhere that you could use an ethernet cable, is that correct? I think I'll try that possibly, and I'm gonna take a look into DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro.

Long story short, if I manage to get at the files on my disk somehow, I should back them up immediately because my disk is most likely failing. Then, after that, I should invest in purchasing a new HDD.

Any suggestions as to which brand or model offer superior performance?

I know you kind of have to trade off speed for storage space, but is there any middle ground? Will any SATA(-2) drive work as long as its formatted correctly?

After I replace that I should then Find a replacement Graphics Card.

And from there I should upgrade my OS?
I think I read somewhere that you can upgrade to Snow Leopard without having leopard (ie. Tiger to Snow Leopard). However, you wouldn't have the new iWork and a couple other programs. If I upgrade to Snow leopard then I will have a working copy of Boot Camp? What are the benefits of purchasing Leopard then upgrading to Snow Leopard vs. upgrading to Snow Leopard straight from Tiger?

Obviously, as long as there is nothing wrong with my processor, it's still a beast and there is no need to upgrade. (I do believe its a Intel xeon 3.3 Ghz Quad core)

And last but not least, since were on the topic of upgrades, I'm just gonna ask this so I know. Is it possible to upgrade my RAM. currently I have 4x512 MB sticks. Any suggestions as to brands or models that offer superior quality and performance?

Sorry these have all been so long. I feel the more information, the easier it is to diagnose what the exact problem is.

I'll write back soon and keep you updated!

Again, thanks for all your patience and help. It's much appreciated!

-Shane
 
To answer your question about upgrades for RAM memory:
You have 8 memory slots, and are only using 4 of those. You can upgrade in sets of two identical memory sticks. You cannot add just one stick, they must be in pairs. Each pair would be added to the two open slots on one of the memory banks. The memory is FB-DIMMs, and not always easy to find.
Here's a good place to get additional memory: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#667-memory
You have pairs of 512 MB right now. You can install pairs as large as 4GB x 2. You'll see that the large chips are still expensive. You can use those to upgrade to as much as 32 GB total.

There is no benefit from upgrading your Tiger system to Leopard, then to Snow Leopard. You can also upgrade directly to Snow Leopard without ever having Leopard installed.

I think you can use any SATA-II hard drive in your Mac Pro. Most capacity for those right now is 2 TB. I just saw 1 TB SATA drives for sale for less than $60 at Compusa.
If I was wanting a HD right now, I would get this one - http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4691122&CatId=2459
 
Okay, so I got the flash stick formatted and installed my OS X 10.4 on it. It boots up fine to the flash drive. It even shows the Macintosh, and Untitled (windows partition) on the desktop.

If I try to open the Macintosh disk in finder the computer sits there thinking indefinitely. Then I have to hard Reboot.

That's probably exactly what it would do even if I were to run it in target disk mode isn't it? It would mount and show up on my buddy's iMac but if I tried to open it the spinning pinwheel of doom would just sit there since the disk is probably failing and it wouldn't be able to actually load it into the finder?

I've obtained a copy of DiskWarrior 4.2, and installed it onto the Flash drives OS. When I run the Rebuild option for the "Macintosh" volume, it gets to Replacing Directory, then sits there for a few hours with no progress and comes up with an error message that says:

A disk malfunction occurred while writing the replacement directory to the disk "Macintosh".
Rebuild this disk again. Preview the disk and backup all files from the preview disk.If you report this error, please mention the error code (2351,-36).

Then after I click okay it takes me back to the screen that I clicked rebuild on, and the first thing it says below where you select the volume at is:

Directory cannot be rebuilt due to disk hardware failure (2855, 2541).

Then that volume does not appear on the desktop anymore.

The second time around before I approved the rebuild I did preview the disk and was able to back up all the important files. Now all is not lost if I cant save my HDD.

I think I'm going to look into TechTools, but I read from a lot of people that they think DiskWarrior is the best, however it can't hurt to try.

I also read somewhere about some software called Carbon Copy? Don't think its designed to save a failing disk, but it is to make a back-up, isn't it?

What is your opinion on stationary memory? Do you think it would be worth it to invest in a SATA-II Stationary Memory HDD?

Unfortunately, I have to give the flash drive that I've borrowed to do all this with back tomorrow afternoon.

However,I have a 30 GB 5th Gen iPod with a cracked screen, and I know that they have mass storage capability's. Do you think that it would be possible to reformat the iPod's HDD and use it as a temp fix for a boot disk until I can acquire or purchase a new internal HDD?

Not that you would know, but do you have any idea of a software that would essentially do the same thing for my windows partition that DiskWarrior did for the Macintosh partition? Hopefully that way I won't lose all of the information on it.

Guess I'll be doing some more research. I'm fairly satisfied with the conclusion that my HDD is failing.

I'll keep you posted...
 
LastFx said:
A disk malfunction occurred while writing the replacement directory to the disk "Macintosh".
Rebuild this disk again. Preview the disk and backup all files from the preview disk.If you report this error, please mention the error code (2351,-36).

Directory cannot be rebuilt due to disk hardware failure (2855, 2541).
Click to expand...

What part of this is not coming clear to you? The drive is wasted. DiskWarrior is the best directory structure building tool around. I've been able to work miracles with a combination of Data Rescue III and DiskWarrior in recovering data, but if DiskWarrior is saying that drive is bad, then its really bad. Get a replacement drive and move on.
 
djackmac said:
LastFx said:
A disk malfunction occurred while writing the replacement directory to the disk "Macintosh".
Rebuild this disk again. Preview the disk and backup all files from the preview disk.If you report this error, please mention the error code (2351,-36).

Directory cannot be rebuilt due to disk hardware failure (2855, 2541).
Click to expand...

What part of this is not coming clear to you? The drive is wasted. DiskWarrior is the best directory structure building tool around. I've been able to work miracles with a combination of Data Rescue III and DiskWarrior in recovering data, but if DiskWarrior is saying that drive is bad, then its really bad. Get a replacement drive and move on.
Click to expand...

None of this is "not coming clear" to me, as I mentioned in the previous post...

LastFx said:
Guess I'll be doing some more research. I'm fairly satisfied with the conclusion that my HDD is failing.
Click to expand...

I understand the drive is wasted.

The more research part was referring to being able to use Carbon Copy to create a backup of the disk image that's on the flash drive I'm using and installing it onto my iPod. That way I might be able to use the iPod as my start disk since I have to give this flash drive back. Otherwise I have no working computer and no access to the internet.

Also, I was referring to looking into possibly purchasing a Solid State Drive, as opposed to a Hard Disk Drive, and what the pro's and con's may be for each.

Lastly, it was talking about finding a software like DiskWarrior, but for windows, so that I might be able to backup my files from that partition so all is not lost. As I am primarily a windows user, most of my important files are on my XP partition. If you'll notice, obviously, I too can work miracles with DiskWarrior. I did state that I backed up my Mac files already using the software.

As for when I mentioned being fairly satisfied with the conclusion that my HDD is failing...

I was referring to being satisfied with having the conclusion, and yet being dissatisfied that my disk is failing. Thus, leaving me only fairly satisfied.

Although, I don't think anyone is ever satisfied that their disk failing, at least I know what I need to do to fix my computer now.

I aslo understand that, "DiskWarrior is the best directory structure building tool around," as I stated:

LastFx said:
I think I'm going to look into TechTools, but I read from a lot of people that they think DiskWarrior is the best, however it can't hurt to try.
Click to expand...

I appreciate your interest and concern, and thank you for trying to reiterate the point that my drive is failing, so as to ensure that I understand. However, please do not make a post essentially insulting my comprehension of what error messages mean. Especially when you misunderstand what I am referring to. After all, I'm not ignorant.

As for DeltaMac, the reason I have asked him so many random questions about hardware and software because I appreciate his interest, and insight on the topic. Of all the people that could have replied to my post, he is the one person that has made me feel welcome to this site, so I feel comfortable discussing these things with him.

On to my update! Don't worry, this will be short.

Fortunately, I was able to keep the flash drive a few more days. Obtained a copy of Carbon Cloner. Just finished all software updates, including security, and firmware. Preparing now to attempt installing disk image onto iPod to use as start disk so I can return the flash drive. I'll let you know how it goes.

As for anyone that may feel like contributing something useful, please feel free to reply.

Would appreciate it still if someone could point me in the right direction of a software like DiskWarrior for windows so I can possibly back up that information before I chuck my drive.

Just so no one flames me, I do understand that this site is macosx.com and I do not necessarily expect anyone on here to know that answer to that question. I was just throwing it out there in case someone did happen to have an answer.

write back soon...

-Shane
 
LastFx said:
As for anyone that may feel like contributing something useful, please feel free to reply.

Would appreciate it still if someone could point me in the right direction of a software like DiskWarrior for windows so I can possibly back up that information before I chuck my drive.
Click to expand...

Here's more "useful" info. To back up the bootcamp volume, Winclone is going to be your best bet. It's not a directory structure repair tool like DiskWarrior, but a great image creating tool for bootcamp volumes.
 
Okay, so I checked into Winclone and downloaded it to try and use it. However, I'm running OS X 10.4.11 from this flash drive and unfortunately as of a few years ago, Boot Camp Beta no longer works, and therefor I don't think it was even installed onto the flash drive. I understand that I can just upgrade to Snow Leopard from Tiger for $29.99 and have a current Boot Camp release, but I don't have it NOW and I'm not sure when I will be upgrading. Soon hopefully.

Anyway, in terms of getting Winclone to work, I've had no success. You need to have Boot Camp installed in order for it to recognize a windows partition, and I don't know how to go about getting Boot Camp Beta working and am not upgrading to Snow Leopard at the moment. For some reason it wont recognize my windows partition even though I have Boot Camp Beta installed on that drive, most likely due to the fact that I'm running it off a different drive that does not have Boot Camp on it, I'm assuming. Long story short, Winclone does not work in this case.

I guess I will be looking into finding other options of software used for backing up a failing windows Hard disk.

On a lighter note, Back to my replacement Drive. What do you think of this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
It's currently $94.99 with free shipping and a promo code for $10 off.
It's a Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM with a 64 MB Cache.

Now the only other thing I noticed about this drive is that it is SATA-III, which shouldn't be that big of a deal, considering SATA is backwards compatible. It just means I can't use this drive to it's full potential. However, even nerfed, this drive is definitely a MASSIVE upgrade from my Western Digital Caviar Blue 250 GB with a 8 MB Cache. I can't complain, the price was right, and If I ever get a different setup that can utilize SATA-III then I can just swap this drive into that machine.

I've also been looking into the possibility of setting up a RAID on my computer. From what I've read if I set up a RAID 0 with at leaset 2-3 of these bad boys (maybe not the 1 TB, but possibly something smaller like a 250 GB or 500 GB) I should be able to reach speeds close to a SSD, if not faster, for a fraction of the cost.

Now I know that If I'm concerned about my HDD failing again that striping without parity is not the most comforting idea. However, at a slight sacrifice of the RAID 0's performance, I could go with something like a RAID 3 for a little piece of mind.

so my next question is, can you set up a RAID 3 on a MacPro 1,1?
 
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