[iBook] Hard drive problems

[Eric Richardson]

No, gentle taps don't work. I am unwilling to smash it against the 
table or throw it on the floor, but have been tempted to a couple of 
times... <grin>. Of course, this computer did do a end over end 
tumble down about 15 marble subway steps about 8 months ago, but has 
worked well ever since, until now.

Eric<--- in England on his way back to Seoul all too soon.

PS I do have AppleCare.


>In the "old days", i.e. more than 5 years ago, older hard drives might
>suffer from "stiction", which was a sticky head after non-use.
>Solution: bang it.  And then the drives would work fine.
>
>I doubt that's your problem, but it would be curious to see that after
>your next freeze, if a gentle nudge or tap to the hard drive made it
>work again.
>
>Tom
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ibook-bounces at listserver.themacintoshguy.com
>[mailto:ibook-bounces at listserver.themacintoshguy.com] On Behalf Of Eric
>Richardson
>Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2005 5:11 PM
>To: A place to discuss Apple's iBook computers.
>Subject: [iBook] Hard drive problems
>
>
>
>I have been having problems with my G4 iBook, 60 gig, 640 MB, using
>Panther lately. The problem is that it will just freeze up on me and
>when I reboot it can't find the system folder on the hard drive. I
>think the hard drive is whirring for a couple of seconds, but it
>doesn't see the drive and I get the flashing question mark file
>folder icon that says it can't find the system. I was thinking that
>maybe it was a heat issue, if I shut it down for a half hour or so it
>would reboot okay... until yesterday.
>
>The internal hard drive checks out okay with disk utility including
>the SMART verification and techtools pro from AppleCare and
>DiskWarrior, when the system is up. But when the system is down on
>the internal drive, I can boot up from an emergency CD I made, from a
>firewire external drive that I have, from the installation disk that
>came with the iBook, etc, and none of them will see the internal hard
>drive to check it out when the internal system won't boot.
>
>I was thinking I would take it in to the Apple Store soon, and ask
>them about it. But yesterday, it froze up and wouldn't reboot and
>couldn't see the system... for the last 30 some hours. I have to
>leave town tomorrow and not having the iBook with me would be a
>problem, but I was preparing to take it in today anyway (what else
>could I do?), and spent a couple of hours booted off the external
>drive taking care of business that needed to be done before I
>could... and shut it down, and went to start it up one more time. Lo
>and behold, after multiple retries and starting up with all those
>other disks, it finally saw the internal hard drive system again.
>
>Since not having it with me will be a problem, I have decided to hold
>off taking the iBook to the repair until later, and will spend the
>evening backing up some things that I realized today I would regret
>losing. If whatever it is doesn't happen again before I can.
>
>Anyway, does anyone have any insight on what the problem is here? or
>suggestions? Part of the problem of course is that when it does boot
>up fine, then it will appear to the Apple tech folks that it has no
>problem, since none of the repair programs see any problem. And when
>it is down, you can't see it the disk at all. And then it will
>randomly just start acting okay again. As it stands now, I can make
>the two hour trek to the Apple store and say it isn't working and
>then have it boot up fine. Or not, but then have it sit waiting for
>the tech guy to boot... and then it will boot up fine.
>
>Eric in Seoul (on his way to England)