Possible iMac HDD Failure

J1234 · 18 Mar 2011 at 17:50

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar problem to me with their iMac.

For the past week or so, when waking it up it sometimes hangs for a very long time (5-10 mins usually - beachballing) followed by what can only be described as a 'odd high pitched HDD sounding noise' coming from somewhere. My external HDD sits under my iMac and I put it down to that causing the problem and making the noise so I was going to look into it further when I had time. However, today when switching the computer on on, I kept getting the folder with a question mark picture which usually indicates a missing HDD. After trying many more times it finally started up. Luckily it's still under warranty, but I want to confirm that it's the HDD causing the problem and not something else. Has this happened to anyone else?

Some details:

Early 2008 24" alu model
WD Caviar Blue 500GB internal HDD
OS X 10.6.6

cu3ed · 18 Mar 2011 at 17:57

If your getting a sound its sommin physical..was gonna suggest playing with the RAM sticks, but if theirs an audible sound its either fans or the HDD,and the fans arnt gonna stop it booting.

If its under warrenty you know what to do tho!.

MagicBoy · 18 Mar 2011 at 19:28

Sounds likely to be the HDD.

Tried running the Apple Hardware Test that ships on the installation DVDs?

theheyes · 18 Mar 2011 at 20:19

Does sound suspect, I'd be backing up stuff you wanted if you havent already before testing your theory.

You could test the memory, but faulty is faulty at the end of the day you might as well take it back and just say "no worky". I've pretended to be clueless with things that have been under warranty in the past because they tend to take it off me more quickly.

J1234 · 27 Mar 2011 at 18:38

Definitely not right. It's been off all week as I have been away and it kept giving me the folder when I switched it on just now. I put the install disk in and from Disk Utility there is no HDD showing at all. After about 10 attempts of turning it on and off again it finally came on.. The Apple hardware test on the install disk shows no problems which is odd.

Will get in contact with Apple asap. Luckily I use TimeMachine so don't have to worry about losing anything.