My Imac may be dead :(

[Barrister]

I imagine removing a harddrive from an iMac would be difficult though.

[Caliga]

I imagine removing a harddrive from an iMac would be difficult though.

Not familiar with the innards of an iMac but I mean there has to be a way to get one out... why do you think it would be tough?

[Grey Fox]

Such defeatist attidude from our mac loving brothers.

[Barrister]

I imagine removing a harddrive from an iMac would be difficult though.

Not familiar with the innards of an iMac but I mean there has to be a way to get one out... why do you think it would be tough?

Because it's an "all in one" computer that wasn't designed for easy access to it's innards (unlike my Mac Pro, which has easily swappable hard drives).

But a quick google shows it isn't all that bad:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/imacG5_20inch_harddrive.pdf

[Barrister]

Of course this doesn't make it sound too easy (but is a different model):

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10210484-17.html

RHubard, you able to tell us exactly what kind of iMac you have?

[grumbler]

I've replaced drives on iMacs before, and it just takes time.  It isn't difficult, per se.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

fuck that, if I can't do it myself (which is unlikely) then it's not worth some scam "data recovery" bullshit.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I looked up stuff myself, my imac is an old early g5 ppc. (were it able to turn on i could get the exact specs.) but i googled and it definitely seems like either a mobo, or power suply ish. more likely mobo.

so hdd should be ok, hopefully. I'll find out online how to get it apart, and put the hdd into a empty shell, reasonably cheap to buy a casing for an old internal drive. and rescue my data. it's really just the novel, and some photos that I'm worried about, prob. less than a dvd's worth of data.

[Barrister]

I looked up stuff myself, my imac is an old early g5 ppc. (were it able to turn on i could get the exact specs.) but i googled and it definitely seems like either a mobo, or power suply ish. more likely mobo.

so hdd should be ok, hopefully. I'll find out online how to get it apart, and put the hdd into a empty shell, reasonably cheap to buy a casing for an old internal drive. and rescue my data. it's really just the novel, and some photos that I'm worried about, prob. less than a dvd's worth of data.

Then take a look at the link I supplied above which describes how to take the HDD out of a G5 iMac.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

that's the same link i got googling last night, but thanks for perma linking me here.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

have an appointment at the so-called "Genius Bar" at the downtown apple store on Wed. Morning. My boss is coming with me (he has a car & is good at offering moral support.) Free tech look at to see if it's fixable/whether it's too expensive, etc.

google has shown me today that likely what happened is a relatively (or was a few years ago) common issue with this gen of imacs. capacitor issues on the logic boards. apparently so many imacs went down a few years ago, apple was fixing them free whether you had applecare or not,

of course google also told me that that policy stopped end of 08. I do however have anecdotal testimony from a friend that hers was fixed after that time for free.

we'll see. if they want hundreds of dollars I'll simply ask to get some links to how to take the back off and get the hdd out myself to get the data off.

I do have backup of some of it, and most of my storage is on ext hdds. from now on, all of it will be external, nothing but apps on the system hdd.

[Jaron]

moral support?

God damn you act like your cat is dying.

[ulmont]

from now on, all of it will be external, nothing but apps on the system hdd.

Wouldn't the key just be in redundancy (system, backup, google docs or one of the online backup places) rather than some magic of the system hdd?

[Lucidor]

from now on, all of it will be external, nothing but apps on the system hdd.

Wouldn't the key just be in redundancy (system, backup, google docs or one of the online backup places) rather than some magic of the system hdd?

Yeah, backup is the key. If I had been using the computer for anything important I'd personally do it more than once a year...

[BuddhaRhubarb]

moral support?

God damn you act like your cat is dying.

you are confusing me with CDM