iMac Fails To Boot?

macman

My 2007 Intel iMac (running Snow Leopard) has been freezing and crashing for the last 24 hours, today after a couple of restarts it failed to boot at all, just stuck on the spinning wheel stage.
I've also tried to boot up from the Windows partition under Boot Camp, as this also failed to load due to missing files I'm assuming that I'm faced with a failed or failing hard drive rather than a corrupt OS?
I've now booted from the install DVD and running a disk repair, which is predicted to take 7 hours!
I suspect that this is not going to fix things and that I'll need to change the drive. All backed up to an external drive on Time Machine, so no worries there. A couple of questions:
1) does the white iMac use a bog-standard SATA 3.5in hard drive, or are there any MAC-specific requirements?
2) how hard is it to access the hard drive on this model, from what I've researched, the white iMac is the most difficult to get at? I'm OK with PC hardware so is this a job I can tackle myself?
Is my diagnosis along the right lines, any more tests I should run from the boot disk?

Cash-Cow_3

Check Apple's website. You can definitely change the drive in the iMac G5.

flexrider

You could try doing what i done while ago with my macbooks and macs

If you have a another computer say a windows machine folow the instructions in this video from youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zda6pGH8_1Q

what this is is a program called superduper? it will clone all your hard drive to a usb or external hard drive.
hope that helps

either that or you can install snow lep on a external and boot from external drive

RobertoMoir

macman wrote: »

1) does the white iMac use a bog-standard SATA 3.5in hard drive, or are there any MAC-specific requirements?

The last one I opened, a 2006 model, used standard SATA drives.

2) how hard is it to access the hard drive on this model, from what I've researched, the white iMac is the most difficult to get at? I'm OK with PC hardware so is this a job I can tackle myself?

See http://www.ifixit.com/ for a guide - search for your exact model and follow the guide. It's perfectly do-able, however it will take you some time and you will need the right tools - the most difficult part might be popping open the case, to be honest.

With that done, proceed slowly and take care of the various wires that get stretched as you lift them away; some of them are very delicate.

Is my diagnosis along the right lines, any more tests I should run from the boot disk?

Sounds about right to me.

r0bster

Just replaced the the HD on a 17" core 2 duo imac the other night!
Standard 3.5 SATA drive fits fine. It's not the most straight forward computer to get into, and would def. check out the numerous guides on youtube. Lots of sticky silver foil to remove! Took about 1-2 hrs
My HD was on the way out so replacement was the only option.
Before you go there it's worth running a few more tests. Booting again from the install DVD, run hardware test utility ( if you cant find it, just use the search facility ) This will test you hard disk and motherboard etc for errors.
If this comes up clean, try an erase and install from disk utility on the master DVD, then back up from time machine. It may be that the system is corrupted rather than the HD failing.

Good luck!

Hammyman

It is only the latest iMac that uses a proprietary SATA drive.

RobertoMoir

Hammyman wrote: »

It is only the latest iMac that uses a proprietary SATA drive.

True enough but some of the more recent versions use proprietary firmware, without which the fans on the box will run full tilt all the time.

macman

Update: the Disk Repair ran OK, said the volume was OK, but it still wouldn't boot. Decided to bite the bullet and do a full erase and restore via Time Machine. That ran fine to about 55% and then failed. Repeated, failed at same point once again.
That (and the fact that I also can't boot from the Windows partition under Boot Camp) makes me 99% certain that it's drive failure.
Have found a firm who will change the drive for £58, which to me sounds a reasonable sum for the work involved.
Thanks to all for the various suggestions.

RobertoMoir

macman wrote: »

Update: the Disk Repair ran OK, said the volume was OK, but it still wouldn't boot. Decided to bite the bullet and do a full erase and restore via Time Machine. That ran fine to about 55% and then failed. Repeated, failed at same point once again.
That (and the fact that I also can't boot from the Windows partition under Boot Camp) makes me 99% certain that it's drive failure.
Have found a firm who will change the drive for £58, which to me sounds a reasonable sum for the work involved.
Thanks to all for the various suggestions.

That is great value if its £58 including a new HDD. Actually its not bad even without that... I'm more than "OK" with hardware and it took me several hours to do the first time, and I still wouldn't call it "easy".

macman

Err, no, it's £58 labour plus the cost of the chosen drive(1TB). And they are only marking them up about a tenner-I can live with that.

almillar

£58's not bad TBH, meant to be pretty difficult to get at the drive - screen held on by magnets, have to sucker it and pull it out!! What's wrong with a few screws round the back, Apple?!
And yeah, any standard 3.5" drive will work, but I think on the 2007 iMac there's a cable you need to get rid of or connect for temp monitoring, and then on the newest ones it's integrated into the plug, but can still be worked around. This is what towers are for instead of all in ones!