iMac late '06: HDD clicking - PANIC!


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Hi all.

Since yesterday night, when I started my Mac back after ccidently plugging it out and back in to the outlet (coincidence?) my HDD is clicking when starting up my Mac.

It won't show me the bootmanager so the screen stays grey.

Here's the funny thing though: it does work after a bunch of tries (yesterday i needed less than today) BUT the HDD is running perfectly once booting etc...

proper boot up and all that, perfect operation once getting after that starting barrier.

it's clicking rather long and I wonder what that could be.

Is it fixable?

Is there any way to upen my iMac and replace the HDD in case i have to?

Help me out guys, thanks for your help in advance!

Glassed Silver:win

PS: mind you, there is no more warranty on this baby, as since its a late '06 model.

if I have to void the warranty to fix it myself, no probs at all for me.

a pro repair would probably be quite costy, not sure though. oh well. (atm my money is tight, getting super green in about 6 weeks)

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Sounds like the drive is on it's last legs. My friend had a hard-drive that did what you are describing.Best thing is to get another drive to replace it, and try to move all your files off of it when you can get it to boot.

Also as a side note,another friend of mine replaced his reader arm in his drive.He has Mac. He found another hard-drive model that matched and swapped out the parts . It worked for him. I believe he used E-Bay.

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currently on OS X and I'll do some heavy backuping now... argh, this is bad... really bad.

HOW DO I REPLACE THE BAD DRIVE? it's an iMac, you know... tough question. mind you it's a late '06 - 20" screen model.

gives me the creeps.

Glassed Silver:win

PS: dead lucky I still got my netbook for bare "getting things done" stuff... even though, I need the Mac for some gaming, etc... my music's on there, too... BACKIP UP ASAP-NOW-INSTANTLY.

/following this thread now/

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Backup all your important files immediately (do not wait). The HDD is going south (bad). Time for a new HDD. Backup now this second; cannot say it enough.

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for the backup, what's the best to backup with (as in setting in disk utility.app)

image format that is. (got snow leopard, if that's of any relevance)

got a mac os x system partition to backup and a windows one.

it would be frickin' awesome, if I could get those back in a new drive with boot capabilities right away (as in, pop in mac os x dvd, drive utilities, restore drive - BAM- repair done setting me to a point as if this never happend (my dream haha))

Glassed Silver:win

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for the backup, what's the best to backup with (as in setting in disk utility.app)

image format that is. (got snow leopard, if that's of any relevance)

got a mac os x system partition to backup and a windows one.

it would be frickin' awesome, if I could get those back in a new drive with boot capabilities right away (as in, pop in mac os x dvd, drive utilities, restore drive - BAM- repair done setting me to a point as if this never happend (my dream haha))

Glassed Silver:win

These are both FREE!

Carbon Copy Cloner

http://www.bombich.com/

You can make a fully bootable backup use it to boot the computer and the re-copy it back to a new system drive

Winclone can make a Windows Partition image and restore it to a same size or larger partition later

http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone/

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Carbon Copy Cloner

http://www.bombich.com/

You can make a fully bootable backup use it to boot the computer and the re-copy it back to a new system drive

os x AND win 7 being bootable after retransfering the backup to then new drive?

do I have to mind any settings there in CCC?

thanks a lot so far, whahaw... this is making me sweat!

Glassed Silver:win

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os x AND win 7 being bootable after retransfering the backup to then new drive?

do I have to mind any settings there in CCC?

thanks a lot so far, whahaw... this is making me sweat!

Glassed Silver:win

well CCC can't copy the Windows partition but WINclone can but it won't be bootable untill you restore it back to the new drive

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well CCC can't copy the Windows partition but WINclone can but it won't be bootable untill you restore it back to the new drive

sounds like hazzle haha...

probs going to make an unbootable backup of it and just install win 7 when new hdd is in there...

oh dude...

at least the disassembly is less hard than i thought it would be. oh dear...

Glassed Silver:win

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the drive is still going fine... ROFL...

maybe it continues to work for just a little longer, so that I don't need to buy a new HDD this month haha...

also, I'm not like looking forward to opening the Mac, but hey, I probably save 100bucks by doing it on my own and I guess if you're careful enough, you basically don#t destroy anything.

and if anyone reads this thread because he or she has the same problem: ALWAYS GROUND YOURSELF WHEN TOUCHING SYSTEM INTERNALS! ;)

Glassed Silver:mac

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I opened both my 2006 and late 2008 iMacs, successfully changing parts in both. It's a hassle to get to in the '06, but you'll get there.

Do it IMMEDIATELY as well. It'll save a headache in the long run!

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I opened both my 2006 and late 2008 iMacs, successfully changing parts in both. It's a hassle to get to in the '06, but you'll get there.

Do it IMMEDIATELY as well. It'll save a headache in the long run!

no money for the HDD at the moment (it sounds ridiculous, but yea, I'm really tight on money)

since I'm doing just a little Web surfing, Gaming (games are stored on external HDD) and eBaying as long as I haven't replaced it, moving all my "productive" works to the external HDD, I can actually provoke the death of the HDD, really.

Glassed Silver:mac

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  • 1 month later...

UPDATE:

Wow, it really carried me till about one week ago.

Had the new HDD by then (it's noisy! but 70gig more and actually functioning xD sata2, runs as sata2, too (not downleveled)).

Just about one hour ago I finished installing it, it wasn't too easy. (Darn, the black tape stuff has made me go crazy about "don't f** break it!)

Currently copying my HDD backup back. :)

THANK GOD there are second pc systems...

*hugs netbook*

CELEBRATION! ^^ :fun:

Glassed Silver:win

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