Hard Drive Failing
 

I have a G4 tower running 10.4 but my HD is failing. It is a 30GB Maxtor that came with the computer when I got it. I want get a new HD, but I was wondering if I should get an external of internal replacement HD. Also, what are some good brands and what are some that I should stay away from? Also, does it matter if I get EIDE, ATA...I don't know what to look for.

Any help is appreciated!

You can find the specs for your mac here.

new world macs between the yosemite g3 and the ‘03 g4 use ultra-ata. SATA didn’t get introduced until the G5 era.

Personally, I think Hitachi is the best, followed by Seagate. Seems like Western Digital has been making up for its bad reputation lately; their drives seem pretty good.

You should get an internal. It’s pretty easy to swap out a hard drive in any of the new world mac towers. Here’s a link that explains the process.

Get an internal EIDE/ATA drive (sometimes called PATA). Don't get SATA, don't get SCSI (not like they make those anymore?). Don't buy used ones.

Having a secondary HD (internal or external) is optional.

I also prefer Hitachi and Seagate, but pretty much any brand HD is good.

Also, what model Mac do you have? Some older G4's have trouble with today's larger hard disks.

I got a 320GB Seagate. I am now trying to backup my failing HD using Superduper! but whenever I try it times out and fails. Is there anything else I can try?

Backup the individual files that are most important to you first. You may not get much time, and backing up individual files gives you finer control over what gets backed up.

Trevor

Thanks for the help!!

Can I copy my user libraries and use them if I end up haveing to re-install programs so that I keep my user preferences?? Would you recommend doing this or just starting fresh?

Well, yes you can in theory. Unfortunately, theory and practice don't always match, as occasionally there will be version conflicts and the like.

I'd recommend copying your documents before your user libraries though.

Trevor

Thanks trevor,

I guess I'm gonna have to re-install everything. Nothing seems to be working. At least it happened now just before school starts again.

You can use Disk Utility > First Aid > Repair Disk (not Repair Disk Permissions) to see if that will help repair filesystem damage. A better app for this purpose that costs money is DiskWarrior http://alsoft.com . And finally, if it's too late or impossible to repair the filesystem due to how extensive the damage is, you can try Data Rescue II: http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue_info.php

Trevor

I tried rebuilding with DiskWarrior and I got this message:

"The directory of the disk cannot be rebuilt. The original directory is too severely damaged. The disk was not modified (2155, 2179)."

Is all hope lost??

When the DiskWarrior window is frontmost, hold down the Option (Alt) key, and the "Rebuild" button will turn into a "Scavenge" button. Press Scavenge.

Trevor

I tried it using the "Scavenge" button but I still got the message:

"The directory of the disk cannot be rebuilt. The original directory is too severely damaged. The disk was not modified (2155, 2179)."

On a side note, the HD was journaled. Can this work to my advantage?

I tried using Disk Warrior to rebuild my backup HD but I got the "The directory of the disk cannot be rebuilt. The original directory is too severely damaged. The disk was not modified (2155, 2179)" message that I got when I tried to rebuilt my failing HD. When I tested the backup HD it said "This drive's built-in S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics indicate the drive is functioning normally".

Is there something wrong with my version of Disk Warrior? I'm using version 3.0.

You shouldn't use DiskWarrior 3.x on drives being used with OS X 10.4. You need to use DiskWarrior 4 with Tiger drives. http://alsoft.com

I believe that there is still a discounted upgrade path from DiskWarrior 3 to DiskWarrior 4. http://alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/upgrade.html

Trevor

Thanks for all your help so far. I'll try again with DiskWarrior 4 and let you know what happens.

I tried rebuilding with DiskWarrior and it said that I need to create more contiguous space. How do I do that?

Different ways:

Delete stuff that you don't need
Move stuff to another drive

Trevor

It said that it needed 80MB of contiguous free space. I still have 4 GB of space left on the drive.

I fixed all of the other problems and I want to try doing a full copy with Superduper! but I don't want to erase my new HD (I boot from this HD now). Can I do this? Also, if I have to erase the disk to try and do a full copy how do I create a boot disc (so I can boot my comp)?

If this isn't possible, I want to keep my preferences for all of the applications I had on the failing HD (I don't want to have to deal with the problem of having all my apps go back to their default settings). I tried reading the Superduper! help files but I am very lost. What is the best way to go about this? Can anyone suggest a way for me to accomplish this?

Also, should I reinstall my apps on the new HD before I do this, or wait until I copy my prefs over and then re-install my apps?

It's best of you make a copy of your disk to another hard drive. If the hard drive fails, your original data and the backup will be lost.

When DiskWarrior asks aboout the free space, it is basically saying is that if there is a power outage in the 5 mins that it takes to fix the problem, you could lose everything, while it moves your files around. That is very unlikely to happen, but it is letting you know, "just in case".

You can continue with repairing your drive.

If I were to reinstall my apps on the new HD and copy my preference files to the new HD will everything run as it did on the old HD (e.g. same program settings, keep my contacts in Entourage, etc)? If I can do this, what setting do I use if I am using Superduper! to duplicate my pref files?

Not just your pref files need to be copied. You'll also need at least your /Users/yourusername/Documents folder, as Entourage keeps it's information in there in a folder named "Microsoft User Data". For maximum transferability from a previous hard drive, you should copy your entire home folder (i.e. /Users/yourusername).

There's also some apps that keep things in /Library, especially /Library/Application Support, so copy that as well.

Trevor

Do I need to copy /Library/Application or the whole /Library folder?

Also, when I try to copy the myhome/library folder, I get a message saying The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "PMingLiU.ttf" could not be read or written. (Error code - 36). What could the problem be?

I assume you mean /Library/Application Support?

The answer depends on what you have in the other directories in /Library other than /Application Support. It's quite possible that you need to copy other directories as well--look around.

blah.ttf means it is a TrueType font. There's something wrong with one of your TrueType fonts, perhaps it is corrupt, or perhaps you've got the system immutable flag set or something like that.

If you're not worried about that font, don't bother copying it. If you are worried about that font, try running Font Doctor or similar to see if it is corrupted.

Trevor

Thanks to everyone for their help.

I'm finally back up and running!

Excellent! Could you tell us exactly what fixed the situation?

Trevor