Failing hard drive... help advise!

[DRR]

Asking the collective intellect for advice on this...

Friend brought me her PBG4 12"1GHz. Wouldn't boot. I think it's Panther. Maybe Tiger.

I tried it. She was right. Zapped PRAM, started to boot. "Yay!" I thought. "That was easy!"

BUT- I noticed a LOT of HD activity and it took a LONG time trying to boot. There is something wrong I thought. It gets as far as loading her desktop picture and then it hangs. HD activity continues.

My first thought is, the OS got hosed somehow. I don't hear any obvious clicking or sounds of distress from the HD but that doesn't mean it's not failing. And if it is failing, I wanted to ask the collective (that's you guys) what the protocol should be for trying to recover data. Of course nothing is backed up. I have paused recovery operations until I can get some advice. I want to avoid stressing a failing drive (if that is what the problem is).

My goal is to recover her user folder. I have a spare HD I can upgrade into that machine, and I have OS install disks. I can replace a HD in that machine, no problem. It's the data I'm worried about.

It does go into FW disk mode but I haven't hooked it up to a good mac yet. Is this the way to go, and run Disk Util on it? Probably needs a runthrough with DW also? How would you proceed?

[SteveO]

>It does go into FW disk mode but I haven't hooked it up to a good mac yet.

I'd probably do this first, then run DW. Others may have better advice.

[clay]

do you know how many GB of data you're trying to save? If it's less than 10 or so, you might be able to get it backed up without doing anything else. If it's a ton of data, you may want to do DW first, though that won't really do much for a drive that's facing impending mechanical failure.

[C(-)ris]

Yes, put it into Target Disk mode and hook it up to a good Mac. Copy off her data as quickly as possible, starting with the most important stuff. If it is indeed a bad hard drive it might take multiple attempts to get all she needs. Do not use Diskwarrior, while it is great for directory damage it is worthless if the hard drive is failing, in fact, it will make it harder to get the data off. A good software tool for recovering data is Data Rescue II, I've had great luck using that to recover data. It can take a very long time depending on how badly damaged the hard drive is. I've had some go weeks before getting everything.

Once you get all her data you need backed up, format the drive writing zeros. This will let the drive map out bad blocks. If it makes it past this the drive is likely ok, install an OS on it. Then install Smart Utility and have it check the health of the drive. If it comes back as failed then replace it.

[Dick Moore]

Your last paragraph is the best course. Just try and get the data off with FW target disk, don't do anything else until that's done, Then try Disk Util. Sounds like some bad sectors in the boot area, so you might be able to get at the data.

[DRR]

It's a 40GB disk and not a power user, so I'm guessing about 10-15; 20 tops.

Good point about the mechanical failure - either it's dying mechanical death, or it's not.

[DRR]

It's working right now under FW disk mode. I still don't hear any obvious sounds of mechanical failure, but it's acting a little strangely:

I am copying the user folder first, as the info in there would be the hardest to replace (applications can be reinstalled, etc) The good news is that it's only 1.23GB total for her user folder. The bad news is that it hangs - and on the PB, even the firewire symbol on screen to indicate FW DM stops moving.

[C(-)ris]

DRR wrote:
The bad news is that it hangs - and on the PB, even the firewire symbol on screen to indicate FW DM stops moving.

That would be an indication of a drive failure, they don't necessarily make horrible noises when they die. When the symbol stops moving TDM is froze, you will have to restart and try again. Pulling the drive from the machine and putting it in a spare case if you have one sometimes works better than TDM.

[Lux Interior]

DRR wrote:
Friend brought me her PBG4 12"1GHz. Wouldn't boot. I think it's Panther. Maybe Tiger.

Is your friend bound for Cupertino, by any chance?

[DRR]

Lux Interior wrote:
[quote=DRR]
Friend brought me her PBG4 12"1GHz. Wouldn't boot. I think it's Panther. Maybe Tiger.

Is your friend bound for Cupertino, by any chance?
No... do you know someone who has a dead PB who is?