[X4U] Hard drive or hard drive controller gone (mirrored doors G4)

[Philip J Robar]

On Jan 8, 2006, at 8:21 PM, Jim Robertson wrote:

> Two days ago applications began halting. For example, playback in  
> iTunes
> would just stop for a few seconds. ...
>
> There are two internal drives in this Mac, both IBM/Hitachi  
> DeskStars. I ran
> disk first aid/disk utility from the Tiger installation DVD, and it  
> reported
> that there was an incorrect sibling on the boot drive. It said the  
> other
> drive was OK. ...

I'm not familiar enough with any of the Mac disk utilities/testers to  
recommend any of them, but if you can get access to a PC there is  
free disk diagnostics software at Hitachi's site. The best disk  
testing software on any platform is Steve Gibson's Spinrite ($90),  
but it is also PC only.

I'd have to agree with Stroller in that I would suspect the drive  
before I would the controller on the motherboard. Even though hard  
disk failures are so rare that most consumers will never see one, the  
physical failure of a hard disk's mechanics is far more likely than  
that of the electronics on your motherboard.


Phil