I think my MAC is dieing

[wozz]

HAd suspicion for a while my MAC book is experiencing problems, sometimes slow, gets hot, googled these and found forums that pointed to possible HD failure is on the way. turned it on tonight and the hard drive symbol appeared ad just stayed there in the middle. Turned it off and back on again and its fine.

So it may be a matter of time, is there any thing I can do? If it does go is it something I can replace myself? Ive got a back up of photos, do i need to back up itunes?

Any help appreciated.

 

[Badger]

HAd suspicion for a while my MAC book is experiencing problems, sometimes slow, gets hot, googled these and found forums that pointed to possible HD failure is on the way. turned it on tonight and the hard drive symbol appeared ad just stayed there in the middle. Turned it off and back on again and its fine. So it may be a matter of time, is there any thing I can do? If it does go is it something I can replace myself? Ive got a back up of photos, do i need to back up itunes?

Any help appreciated.

yup get windows :slap

seriously though, have you got a usb hdd/external hard disk that you can copy everything! to make a backup if you can of the whole hdd, and then replace with anew one, once done re load the backup onto the new hdd and you should be fine, if the software itself wont be able to be used youll need the setup disks dont use applce mac myself so cant say what software you need but anyinfo that is like personal photos, data, invoices etc you should be able to backup and reuse. hope that helps

 

[sparky b]

Back up everything you wanna keep/need. A quick browse on youtube might reveal how easy it is to swap HDD. Have you got the Mac OS discs?

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 18:38 ---------- Previous post was made at 18:29 ----------

Something like this maybe....

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-2CxSAVwFqE?feature=oembed

 

[steptoe]

clonezilla, will make an exact replica or your HDD, then simply copy it back to your new HDD,

canoeboy will be able to tell you exactly what to do,

myself, Deke and Brian :C have been giving him some lessons, (hes a little bit slow on the uptake though) :|

 

[Badger]

Don't bother with clone zilla1. buy, get or use a hdd the same size as your macs or bigger

2. Have you got time machine backups ?

3. Buy SuperDuper (Its cheap FREE and native OSX - you only need clonezilla for crappy windows)

4. clone the hdd with super duper

5. Boot your mac keeping the ALT key pressed and choose the SuperDuper drive (that is a copy and bootable) to boot from

6. If all is good and the mac runs nice its your HDD failing

7. If 6 is good then buy a new 2.5" internal HDD or SSD Drive and fit and boot to super duper copy and copy boot to the new disk, jobs a goo dun

8. If its no better then its hardware problems

9. Also run Disk Utility and check the disk, if the disk has errors then SUperDuper a copy (clone) first, boot the mac to the OSx CD (using ALT key) and run disk utility to repair the boot drive

Thats a start

ive got something for you dave :coat :slap

 

[steptoe]

on the subject of windoze,

Sparky, will bang it in the box fri hopefully bud, I'll email you t'other,

 

[sparky b]

on the subject of windoze,Sparky, will bang it in the box fri hopefully bud, I'll email you t'other,

Perfect timing steps, I seem to have a bit of time on my hands at the mo........

 

[wozz]

Don't bother with clone zilla1. buy, get or use a hdd the same size as your macs or bigger- will go shopping

2. Have you got time machine backups ?- no never set it up

3. Buy SuperDuper (Its cheap FREE and native OSX - you only need clonezilla for crappy windows)

4. clone the hdd with super duper

5. Boot your mac keeping the ALT key pressed and choose the SuperDuper drive (that is a copy and bootable) to boot from

6. If all is good and the mac runs nice its your HDD failing

7. If 6 is good then buy a new 2.5" internal HDD or SSD Drive and fit and boot to super duper copy and copy boot to the new disk, jobs a goo dun

8. If its no better then its hardware problems

9. Also run Disk Utility and check the disk, if the disk has errors then SUperDuper a copy (clone) first, boot the mac to the OSx CD (using ALT key) and run disk utility to repair the boot drive

Thats a start

Thanks for the replies.

Im working away for two days if when I get back its FUBAR can i buy a new hard drive and operating system on disk? Thinking worse case here.

 

[sparky b]

I've got a disc, OSX 10 i think, but no product key.....

 

[pewter]

Plug in an external hd, use it as time machine. It will back up your whole computer in case of a failure. You can then use time machine hd to get new hd exactly as your old one was. That's what time machine is there for, apple were prepared

 

[wozz]

Ok so I can get a mate with a mac to download the OS to disk and then boot from that? Seems simple enough if all else fails!

I like the sound of a SSD! Just checked I have a 160GB one at the moment, in the mac book that doesnt exist now, it looks like a pro but isnt.

Ive backed up iphoto to a 16GB flash drive, not a great deal else on here as all i do with it is browsing, all business done on a windows laptop.

 

[pewter]

Well.... i dont think officially you can. I think you can dl an upgrade from apple but you would need your computer running to dl it. I might be wrong, but i dont think they like folk downloading there stuff, burning it and giving it to mates. You should have got a dvd with you mac when it was new, that has the OS on it, install with that and then update to newer OS from that. Which might cost money, Lion does, i have not bothered to upgrade to lion yet as when it first came out i read about conflicting issues people have had. So i was waiting for the dust to settle which it probably has by now. I will do it soon. if you dont have the DVD, borrow a mates, a mate might copy you one ( i think i have one of something somewhere) or the easiest which is what i would do if i didnt have the DVD, go to a site like Demonoid and download an ISO image with bittorrent client like Vuze, then burn the ISO to DVD using something like Toast titanium (if you dont have that download that also). You might need to check what you can run if its an old skool white mac book, and what it can run, it might not be able to cope with the power of lion etc. Both my parents have the old white mac books and from what a read before theres wouldnt cope too well with lion .

......

after all that i forgot time machine.

i would try new hd, old OS on your old Dvd to do new install. then plug in time machine HD. but you might need to upgrade to a newer OS which had time machine to get your time machine hd to start.

all sounds like hassle, someone mentioned just to clone yours, now mabey to do that would be easier....

or something like that, what would i know im just an electrician.

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 21:52 ---------- Previous post was made at 21:45 ----------

I just read you say its old silver like a pro but not.

I think with the later OS its of you have intel chip. I had old power mac that became non upgradeable as it was not intel. Paid

 

[pewter]

^^ That sounds easier. Booting from USB stick. Excellent, i am impressed, i never knew they did that now. Its the future, apple have there fingers on the pulse as usual. I want to upgrade with one, just so i can say i have done so.

If he has the old silver Mac that isnt a pro, is it pre pro? could be pre intel. It could be a sign/excuse to get a shiny new one. Im always looking for an excuse to get a new one.Just dont tell me missses.

 

[Cirrus]

Not sure Time Machine is failsafe. I have just bought a Macbook and my 21.5' iMac is now redundant. Both machines are running Lion and I used TM to back up and then migration assistant to export to new Macbook Pro. For some reason it only copied 20GB of music instead of 70. It also missed out movies and some files.

 

[ivixxiv]

My HDD died on my MAC pro(was a 1tb one so was a heat issue), by a new HDD with a caddy/cables download this Carbon Copy Cloner - Home

Clone disk then just switch them (you need a v small phillips to get the cover off and a t10 torx for the hard drive)

If you don't use your dvd drive switch that for a ssd for booting/apps and a normal hdd for everything else

If you want Lion send us a pm

 

[steptoe]

^^ That sounds easier. Booting from USB stick. Excellent, i am impressed, i never knew they did that now. Its the future, apple have there fingers on the pulse as usual. I want to upgrade with one, just so i can say i have done so. If he has the old silver Mac that isnt a pro, is it pre pro? could be pre intel. It could be a sign/excuse to get a shiny new one. Im always looking for an excuse to get a new one.Just dont tell me missses.

should we tell him how long Ubuntu/Linux has been doing this for?

its getting old hat now TBH,

you can even run Linux as a persistant USB drive now, ie, the USB acts a normal HDD and saves changes etc that you make if you dont want to actually install it to your permanent HDD.

 

[wozz]

Thanks for the help guys,seems to be behaving now so maybe just a wobble. I have everything backed up so if it does die I will get a new HDD and get LION if I can on a usb. How comes you cant buy it in store? I have the works laptop as a backup.

The mac I have i think it called unibody aluminum, looks like a pro but isnt, mentioned in canoeboys link the one with the black keyboard before the 13inch pro, has a intel core 2 duo 2Ghz.

 

[pewter]

should we tell him how long Ubuntu/Linux has been doing this for?its getting old hat now TBH,

you can even run Linux as a persistant USB drive now, ie, the USB acts a normal HDD and saves changes etc that you make if you dont want to actually install it to your permanent HDD.

I used to run Debian for years. I love the terminal. apt-get update now & apt-get install XXXXXX were amazing compared to the rubbish windoze folk used to do at the time. I was so impressed when Knoppix came out, always good to run on someones windoze puta and giving them a panic attack. I always thought Linux/Unix stuff should be free (couldnt understand why someone would buy a cd/dvd/usb)...... i always think/thought all software should be free(only because i would not have been able to afford everything i wanted). Now i have a host of other hobbies/interests & the need to work constantly so i can feed my hungry children and misses, i have turned into just another civilian consumer willing to pay apple to make it happen with as little hassle as possible so i can manage my time for the other interests in my life. I do miss Debian, i just dont have the time anymore.

 

[wozz]

forgot about this thread, been working away, will get onto it this week canoe.