Do I need a new hard drive?

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iMac

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Larry Reynolds @larryreynolds

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Posted: Feb 5, 2011

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Do I need a new hard drive?

When the hard drive is listed in Disk Utility it shows a "250.06 GB WDC WD 250..." in the red. A hard drive indented below the red line is in black. Disk repair says the "250.06 .." cannot be repaired, but the indented hard drive appears to work okay although it is painfully slow sometimes.

However, the Mac will not boot from a start-up disk by holding down either C or D keys (or by changing the start-up disk). Sometimes it cannot find the hard drive when booting up.

Do I need a hard drive or can it be repaired? - Larry

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mayer @mayer

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Posted: Feb 5, 2011

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Disconnect the drive and see if it will start from the system installation DVD. You cannot use the Disk Utilities installed on the hard drive to repair the hard drive because it has to be unmounted. Since it will not start up from the optical drive, it may be bad too. Start it up in Target mode using another Mac connected via firewire cable. Hold down the "T" key on the bad machine, its hard drive icon should show up on the other machine. Try running it's Disk Utility on the suspect hard drive. If it won't do it then replace the drive. For hard drive replacement we need to know which iMac you have. With a 250 GB hard drive, I would suspect a 2007 aluminum iMac. The EMC number is on the bottom of the stand.

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Your machine:

Apple iMac "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 20-Inch (Early 2008) Specs

Identifiers: Early 2008 - MB323LL/A - iMac8,1 - A1224 - 2210

Before you replace the drive - in Target Mode - Disk Utility - Reformat the drive using the "write zeros" option. Do one partition. Then try reinstalling a system. Make sure both machine have an Intel processor.

Feb 7, 2011 by mayer

Both machines have intel processors. I selected "zero" and tried to format the line in red that reads "250.06 GB WDC etc." It did not repair nor did it format. I assume that was one partition, although the hard drive indented under that title says it has 250 GB. I earlier reformed that drive with "zero" out, but Disk Utility still said the red line was unrepairable.

Feb 7, 2011 by Larry Reynolds

If you can't format the drive, then it needs to be replaced.

Feb 7, 2011 by mayer

Thanks for the info. I hadn't figured out how to use the Target mode yet (I'm a newcomer to Mac & don't even understand why the hard drive is listed under the heading "250.06 GB WDC etc." What is the difference between that & the indented hard drive?). Anyway, the Target mode worked slick as a whistle. Unfortunately, Disk Utility couldn't fix the problem nor would it reformat the damaged hard drive, although, as I said, the indented hard drive works fairly well. According to diagnostics, the start-up mode was included in the damage. I will need a new HD, a 500 GB or 1 TB drive depending on price. Regarding my 2.4 GHz 20-inch aluminum iMac 8.1 - Apple ID'd it as an Early 2008 intel-based model based on it's SN - VM8284W7ZE2, although based on the EWD (2210), iFixit said it was a 2007 model. Thanks again.

Feb 7, 2011 by Larry Reynolds

Sorry, I just figured out that the above graph in "answered" should have been in "comments."

Feb 7, 2011 by Larry Reynolds

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Your machine:

Apple iMac "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 20-Inch (Early 2008) Specs

Identifiers: Early 2008 - MB323LL/A - iMac8,1 - A1224 - 2210

Before you replace the drive - in Target Mode - Disk Utility - Reformat the drive using the "write zeros" option. Do one partition. Then try reinstalling a system. Make sure both machine have an Intel processor. — mayer
Both machines have intel processors. I selected "zero" and tried to format the line in red that reads "250.06 GB WDC etc." It did not repair nor did it format. I assume that was one partition, although the hard drive indented under that title says it has 250 GB. I earlier reformed that drive with "zero" out, but Disk Utility still said the red line was unrepairable. — Larry Reynolds
If you can't format the drive, then it needs to be replaced. — mayer
Thanks for the info. I hadn't figured out how to use the Target mode yet (I'm a newcomer to Mac & don't even understand why the hard drive is listed under the heading "250.06 GB WDC etc." What is the difference between that & the indented hard drive?). Anyway, the Target mode worked slick as a whistle. Unfortunately, Disk Utility couldn't fix the problem nor would it reformat the damaged hard drive, although, as I said, the indented hard drive works fairly well. According to diagnostics, the start-up mode was included in the damage. I will need a new HD, a 500 GB or 1 TB drive depending on price. Regarding my 2.4 GHz 20-inch aluminum iMac 8.1 - Apple ID'd it as an Early 2008 intel-based model based on it's SN - VM8284W7ZE2, although based on the EWD (2210), iFixit said it was a 2007 model. Thanks again. — Larry Reynolds
Sorry, I just figured out that the above graph in "answered" should have been in "comments." — Larry Reynolds

Larry Reynolds @larryreynolds Rep: 1 1 · Answer 1 · 2011-02-07T12:33:16-07:00

Thanks for the info. I hadn't figured out how to use the Target mode yet (I'm a newcomer to Mac & don't even understand why the hard drive is listed under the heading "250.06 GB WDC etc." What is the difference between that & the indented hard drive?). Anyway, the Target mode worked slick as a whistle. Unfortunately, Disk Utility couldn't fix the problem nor would it reformat the damaged hard drive, although, as I said, the indented hard drive works fairly well. According to diagnostics, the start-up mode was included in the damage. I will need a new HD, a 500 GB or 1 TB drive depending on price. Regarding my 2.4 GHz 20-inch aluminum iMac 8.1 - Apple ID'd it as an Early 2008 intel-based model based on it's SN - VM8284W7ZE2, although based on the EWD (2210), iFixit said it was a 2007 model. Thanks again.