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Question Profile
| DATE | Sep 19, 2006 |
| TICKET | #28358 |
| STATUS | Closed |
| SUBJECT | Hard Disk wil not mount |
| CAT | Computers, Operating Systems, Applications or Connected Devices |
| TYPE | Operating System Features, Bugs and Problems |
| DESC | Apple |
| DESC | 10.4.X (Tiger) |
| PLATFORM | Apple Macintosh (PowerPC G3,G4,G5) |
| MODEL | powerbook |
| PROC | 1.33 ppc |
| RAM | 1 gb |
| DRIVE | 80gb |
| NAME | Mike |
| USERNAME | CKayote |
| TECHNICAL | Little Experience |
| ISSUE | Some Troubleshooting |
Question Details
TICKET ARCHIVE -> Hard Disk wil not mount
CKayote - Sep 19, 2006 - 2:33 pm
I have a Powerbook G4 1.33 Ghz 1Gb Ram, 80 Gig Hard Drive running Tiger 10.4.7.
It crashed, and now it will not boot. I turn it on and get to the apple screen and circle spins and the drive turns for about 5 minutes. Then the drive stops and circle keeps spinning for another minute or two, when the drive starts up again and I get to a blue with the spinning circle. It will stay in that screen indefinitely.
When I boot from my install DVD Disk Utility shows that my disk isn't mounted. It won't mount when in DU. I have run the disk repair function and it tells me the disk is fine.
Yesterday it occured to me that to try safe mode. I thought that holding "s" on boot would do it. The computer booted fine, but then froze up when I tried to check the remaing battery life while backing up data to my external HD (USB).
After that nothing I've tried has made it work again. I try to boot in safe mode by holding shift but that only causes it to crash (it turns it self off while booting). Holding "d" on boot to force mount the drive does nothing. Holding "option" and then selecting my HD only causing it to repeat the blue screen problem I mentioned above. I have reset the PRAM, and tried booting holding "x" to no effect. When I boot in Single-user and Verbose modes and screens reach a point where new text stops adding to the screen.
I have a PC laptop and USB external hard drive. If you know anyway for me to use the PC in a mode similar to target disk mode, or to copy a disk image to the eternal, I don't have problem with simply backing up my data and sending the machine back to apple for service (I'm still under Applecare).
It crashed, and now it will not boot. I turn it on and get to the apple screen and circle spins and the drive turns for about 5 minutes. Then the drive stops and circle keeps spinning for another minute or two, when the drive starts up again and I get to a blue with the spinning circle. It will stay in that screen indefinitely.
When I boot from my install DVD Disk Utility shows that my disk isn't mounted. It won't mount when in DU. I have run the disk repair function and it tells me the disk is fine.
Yesterday it occured to me that to try safe mode. I thought that holding "s" on boot would do it. The computer booted fine, but then froze up when I tried to check the remaing battery life while backing up data to my external HD (USB).
After that nothing I've tried has made it work again. I try to boot in safe mode by holding shift but that only causes it to crash (it turns it self off while booting). Holding "d" on boot to force mount the drive does nothing. Holding "option" and then selecting my HD only causing it to repeat the blue screen problem I mentioned above. I have reset the PRAM, and tried booting holding "x" to no effect. When I boot in Single-user and Verbose modes and screens reach a point where new text stops adding to the screen.
I have a PC laptop and USB external hard drive. If you know anyway for me to use the PC in a mode similar to target disk mode, or to copy a disk image to the eternal, I don't have problem with simply backing up my data and sending the machine back to apple for service (I'm still under Applecare).
philippe99 - Sep 19, 2006 - 9:45 pm
Hi and welcome to macosx.com
(1) your USB external drive cannot be used; as an USB one, you cannot boot on it -in case of you had clone a valid OS X system on it foremergency; a firewire drive would be usefull as you can boot on it
(2) placing your Mac in target mode and hooking it on your PC will be desatrous; Windows cannot read mac OS formatted drive -some tools like macDrive can- and the frist thing Windows file manager will ask you is to put information in the header of the disk to mount it...and the drive will no longer been recognised by your Mac
So, one solution -in my eyes-: place the mac in target mode and hook it to another Mac running OS X
And do not ask/hope that Applecare's guys will back up you data when trying to solve your drive failure !
There is perhaps - I say perhaps- a solution if the drive is only software damaged: use Alsoft's DiskWarrior (commercial) to try to take it back to life.
This is a possibility and I do not want to ask you to buy a software whick will perhaps fail to repare the drive
In your case "drive spins during 5' then stops", it may be a hard drive mechanical problem or a failure of the hard drive's controller circuit on the mainboard
Do you run the Apple hardware Test utility from your Tiger DVD ??
Regards
Philippe
(1) your USB external drive cannot be used; as an USB one, you cannot boot on it -in case of you had clone a valid OS X system on it foremergency; a firewire drive would be usefull as you can boot on it
(2) placing your Mac in target mode and hooking it on your PC will be desatrous; Windows cannot read mac OS formatted drive -some tools like macDrive can- and the frist thing Windows file manager will ask you is to put information in the header of the disk to mount it...and the drive will no longer been recognised by your Mac
So, one solution -in my eyes-: place the mac in target mode and hook it to another Mac running OS X
And do not ask/hope that Applecare's guys will back up you data when trying to solve your drive failure !
There is perhaps - I say perhaps- a solution if the drive is only software damaged: use Alsoft's DiskWarrior (commercial) to try to take it back to life.
This is a possibility and I do not want to ask you to buy a software whick will perhaps fail to repare the drive
In your case "drive spins during 5' then stops", it may be a hard drive mechanical problem or a failure of the hard drive's controller circuit on the mainboard
Do you run the Apple hardware Test utility from your Tiger DVD ??
Regards
Philippe
CKayote - Sep 19, 2006 - 10:21 pm
How do I run hardware test? I don't see it in the Utilities menu?
philippe99 - Sep 20, 2006 - 1:27 am
Here is the complete procedure.
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/aht.html
The AHT is a boottable partition of the DVD; so, with the DVD in the drive, restart the mac and press the Option key until a dialog is prompted to you with all the available bootable partitions: your internal disk,.. but also the Apple Hardware Test volume; select it with the mouse, then click on the "->" arrow to continue the boot process
From Apple, in images:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86287
Regards
Philippe
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/aht.html
The AHT is a boottable partition of the DVD; so, with the DVD in the drive, restart the mac and press the Option key until a dialog is prompted to you with all the available bootable partitions: your internal disk,.. but also the Apple Hardware Test volume; select it with the mouse, then click on the "->" arrow to continue the boot process
From Apple, in images:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86287
Regards
Philippe
CKayote - Sep 20, 2006 - 7:34 am
I don't have a "restore and install DVD". The machine is second hand. I had to purchase the OS DVD seperately.
When I boot holding option, all I see is the HD and the install DVD.
When I boot holding option, all I see is the HD and the install DVD.
philippe99 - Sep 20, 2006 - 8:49 am
Ok, disk shown when option-boot; perhaps only software damaged
(1) try fsck
To run fsck, you first need to start up your Mac in single-user mode. Here's how:
1. Restart your Mac.
2. Immediately press and hold the Command and "S" keys.
You'll see a bunch of text begin scrolling on your screen. In a few more seconds, you'll see the Unix command line prompt (#).
You're now in single-user mode.
Now that you're at the # prompt, here's how to run fsck:
1. Type: "fsck -y" (that's fsck-space-minus-y).
If the 1st pass says that nothing has to be repaired, try "fsck -fy"
Option "-y" forces a "yes" response to every question of the system, which is very important because answering "no" to a fsck question will stop the process !
Option "-f" forces fsck to chack a system that this command seems to have find "clean"
2. Press Return.
The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says:
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems..
When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears:
3. Type: "reboot" to restart,
or type "exit" to start up without rebooting.
4. Press Return.
Your Mac should proceed to start up normally to the login window or the Finder.
(2) if not solved, I would let DiskWarrior a chance
If both failed, quite sure that the drive is physically fried
Philippe
(1) try fsck
To run fsck, you first need to start up your Mac in single-user mode. Here's how:
1. Restart your Mac.
2. Immediately press and hold the Command and "S" keys.
You'll see a bunch of text begin scrolling on your screen. In a few more seconds, you'll see the Unix command line prompt (#).
You're now in single-user mode.
Now that you're at the # prompt, here's how to run fsck:
1. Type: "fsck -y" (that's fsck-space-minus-y).
If the 1st pass says that nothing has to be repaired, try "fsck -fy"
Option "-y" forces a "yes" response to every question of the system, which is very important because answering "no" to a fsck question will stop the process !
Option "-f" forces fsck to chack a system that this command seems to have find "clean"
2. Press Return.
The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says:
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems..
When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears:
3. Type: "reboot" to restart,
or type "exit" to start up without rebooting.
4. Press Return.
Your Mac should proceed to start up normally to the login window or the Finder.
(2) if not solved, I would let DiskWarrior a chance
If both failed, quite sure that the drive is physically fried
Philippe
CKayote - Sep 20, 2006 - 10:01 am
It tells me that it can't check because the volume is journaled. I used the -f to force a check but it tells me the vloume checks failed.
disk0s3: I/O error.
Invalid Sibling Link
(4, 12322)
** Volume Check Failed.
disk0s3: I/O error.
Invalid Sibling Link
(4, 12322)
** Volume Check Failed.
philippe99 - Sep 20, 2006 - 10:47 am
Ok yes
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....hreadID=432266
I would try DiskWarrior before zeroing the drive
Philippe
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....hreadID=432266
I would try DiskWarrior before zeroing the drive
Philippe
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