Question-mark in folder - start up problems on iMac - please help! xx

S

stephj

Registered
Hi there, am wondering if anyone can give me advice!

I have an early 2006 iMac, running 10.4.11. Have had no problems with it whatsoever, until a couple of weeks ago, it went to sleep and when trying to start it up, after the chime noise I could hear a click-click-click noise inside the computer (and a sort of sighing noise then click click-click again. On the screen a folder containing a question-mark came up, and the computer would not start up.

I used the install disks to start the machine up, and ran Disk First Aid, which showed no problems on my HD. Via Utilities>Start-Up Disk I managed to select my HD volume to start up from, which took me straight into the computer with no clicking noise.

On subsequent attempts to start up the machine (after it falling asleep, when waking it up I would get a perpetually spinning mouse icon/all seemed to have hung, so had to restart) the only way I could get it going was using the above method, unfortunately most of the time my volume would not mount as an option t restart from, so was having to restart from the install disk over and over until it did show as an option... so hard to know what's wrong as it doesn't seem to happen every time!

I have backed up all my files onto an external hard drive, and I did an Easy Install a couple of days ago - this seemed to work for a while - I did it late at night, turned the comp on and off several times and it shut down/opened up fine. I went to bed feeling all pleased that the problem was fixed, only to try the next morning and get the click-click-click noise again - yesterday I had to restart the comp 40 times or so from the install disk before it finally gave me my HD as a restart option, and was able to get online again.

I would like to know if it would be worth trying to do a clean install of software from the install discs/wipe the machine altogether (bearing in mind I'm not sure what I'm doing! and am a little worried that I won't be able to get it going again at all, at least I can currently use it - I have worked out that if I put iTunes on in the background playing softly and let it run through my music library, this stops the machine going to sleep and saves me having to restart - obviously this is not ideal though as can't leave the comp running forever without shutting it down!

Or does this sound more like a corrupt disk/hardware problem needing physical repair?

Obviously I would really like to be able to fix this myself if possible but my brain seems to be working on about 5% of its usual capacity at the moment (I am a full time carer for my disabled husband, and have a young baby who is teething, am soooo tired!) I hope that what I have written will make sense to somebody! - any advice would be truly appreciated!
 
The "click-click-click" is a telltale sign of a hard drive that is physically damaged and must be replaced. Back up anything you need (in addition to the backups you already have) immediately, as the hard drive is a ticking time bomb waiting to catastrophically fail (at which point it will cease working altogether).

You can replace the hard drive yourself with a little elbow grease, some containers for holding screws, and a little know-how (or a good tutorial/walk-through). An Apple-authorized service center can always do this for you as well.

Another option to get up-and-running in a jiffy is to get an external hard drive, install OS X onto the external hard drive, and run your computer with the external drive as the boot drive until you can find the time to take the computer in somewhere and get a new internal hard drive.
 
Thanks so much for the reply - I kinda had a feeling that was the case.

I will contact an authorised Apple Service provider tomorrow re getting it replaced (do you have any ideas on a ballpark figure of how much this is likely to cost me?)

Am now wondering whether to

a) have a go at installing OSX onto my external hard drive, this will require me restarting the comp though so am not sure if I'll be able to get back!

b) just let the comp carry on playing iTunes as this at least lets me use it, knowing that time is ticking away before it dies - if I do this and the HD does die, is this likely to cause damage to anything else?

Once again thanks so much, it never ceases to amaze me how kind some people are at donating their time on their internet to help others!

Stephanie xxx
 
Typically, it will run you in the ballpark of $200 or so, depending on the place. The cost of a new hard drive is around $100, and you'll typically pay that again in labor.

You can do this for as little as $50 at home, if you're experienced with the innards of a computer.

If your hard drive dies, it's highly unlikely that anything else will fail along with it or that the actual act of failing will cause damage to anything else. The hard drive will simply stop working, making funny sounds in the process, finally ending up as a silent piece of dead weight. Nothing too fancy, nothing earth-shattering, it will simply stop working.

When will this happen? Nobody but the hard drive knows. Glad to hear you're one of the few that take backups, as this is the precise moment when they become worth their weight in gold!
 
I usually charge $80 for labor on replacing a drive which includes loading an OS. Most high capacity 7200RPM 3.5" drives are around the $100 range.
 
Thanks djackmac, that's useful to know - am in the UK so it will be interesting to see how much more I will get charged over here!

ElDiablo - I just had a go at installing OSX onto my external hard drive (which is a WD Elements 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive) and got the following message -

"You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. Mac OS X cannot start up from this volume."

So I guess I will be keeping iTunes running to (hopefully!) keep the comp alive until I can get it in for repair (am not techy enough/wouldn't be confident enough to even think of trying myself).

Thanks once again xxxx
 
PBear - thanks so much, that's just what I needed - I hadn't partitioned the external HD using GUID table - have done so now and re-backed up all my stuff - will now go try to install OSX onto external HD again.

You guys are great! xxxxxxx
 
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