Major HD Problems....IN NEED OF HELP

[Mikchek]

I have a G4 with 1 gig of ram in it......my secondary drive that I run PT on was running fine but I noticed that my primary HD was severly fragmented......I'm using Norton Systemworks and I ran disk doctor....it gave me an error that there was not enough memorty to finish....so I thought I would defragment...or optimize......well I tried to do that and it said it could not do that because the program was on the same volume....it said I had to run it from disk.....so I ran both from disk but when I restarted my HD was nolonger there.......I have been trying things all night with no luck......tha hd started making some weird nosies and once it recognized it but said it could not read it.......and askeed if I wanted to initialize......not its back to not seeing it at all again.....I can't boot from it.....the only was I can boot into anything is if I use tha OS 9 cd or the Norton CD......CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!!!!I would greatly appreciate it....

[voodoosoup]

Sounds like a job for Disk Warrior.

http://www.Alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html

I've successfully fixed severely corrupted drives that the computer wouldn't mount/recognize anymore.
It's a highly recomended utility

[cali316]

Def check out Disk Warrior like voodoosoup suggested - I've seen it save a lot of drives.

Also, when your booted off the OS 9 CD, is your hard drive mounting on the Desktop?

Also, from the CD - go into the Utilities folder and launch Disk First Aid - if the drive shows up in the list, hit the "repair" button (ignore verify) - if it is showing and if it's unable to repair the disk, def go out and get Disk Warrior - even if the drive is hosed, it's a great utility to have around.

If the drive is NOT mounting and / or DFA is unable to repair the drive - again from the Utilities folder, launch Drive Setup - if your drive is showing in this list, highlight it, then click on "Functions" up in the menubar, then choose to update disc drivers - after it's finished, it will prompt you to restart - go ahead and see if that helps in anyway.

Worst case - if the drive is starting to make noises, the drive might be toast...but, if it's giving you the option to initialize, go ahead and do it and see if that brings the drive back - do this as a last ditch effort if Disk Warrior can't repair the drive, since you'll lose all your data.

I hate to even say this to you, especially in this situation, but I've been there many times and have learned the hard way - back your stuff up DAILY!!!

Hope you get everything back and running!

[Mikchek]

Thank god I do have all of my files on a second HD......its just the drive that it boots from that will not work.......I seems to never see it.....not when i boot from tha OS 9 cd....not when I boot from the NOrton CD....and when I just try to boot it alone I get a folder with a a question mark in it alternating with a folder with a face in it.....in the beginning I didn't know how to boot from cd so I went to the start up contol panel and changed it there.....well after I ran tha norton utilites I went to change it back in tha start up control panel and it was not there.......is it possible norton messed up my disk?

[cali316]

Yeah, it's very possible that Norton messed up your drive. I know in OS X, I've seen it cause a lot of problems, where other people use it without issue...

Try those things voodoosoup and I suggested and let us know what happens - if DFA and Disk Warrior are unable to repair the drive, and as long as your files are backed up, go ahead and initialize it (if you can). But if it continues to make noise, then the next option would be to zero the drive completely and if that doesn't work, then it's time for a new drive.

I think it was about 2 years into my first G4 that my drive started making all kinds of weird noises - kept wiping it, and the drive would be stable for a couple of months, then a month, then became totally useless... had to finally replace. If you continue to hear strange sounds coming from it, it may be indicative of a HW failure.

[picksail]

I have experienced similar problems before and was able to determine that it was attributed to a firewire conflict.

Just two nights ago I was working within a session when I realized my external (FW) burner was running so I decided to turn it off. Suddenly, comes a loud burst of white noise . I close out the session and notice that nothing is inside the Audio drive and the drive was not mounted. I shut down the computer disabled and detached the drive from the computer and rebooted. I then opened Disk Warrior and reactivated the drive so that Disk Warrior could recognizie it. It then allowed me to automatically create a new directory for the drive. Took 5 minutes tops.

There is no need to have the PT app on the same drive as the audio files. It is much better to dedicate one drive to writing audio only.
For me running PT requires the use of three drives.

1) System drive
2) Audio drive
3) Backup drive

The audio /backup drives increase 1x per client/project.

[Mikchek]

thanks a lot.....I have disk warrior but I don'tknow how to get it on my computer....I get these .img files when I unstuffit.....what do I do with those?......

[Ormond]

img. files are for OSX. You cannot open them in system 9.

Suggest you go to OSX 10.2.3 - 6 and use PTLE 6. Or buy the new 6.1 bundle when it is released in a few weeks.

[Mikchek]

I couldn't get Disk Warrior so I got the drive to initialize so now it seems to be running ok....I haven't heard any noises but I'm gonig to keep a close watch on it for the next month......I have disk warrior now....do you recommend that over Norton? slso I have a audio drive I keep my PT files on.....but should I also install PT on that drive?....or should I keep it on the primary drive?....

[Mikchek]

but it said diskwarrior works for both 9 and 10.....so how am I supposed to burn my disks or what ever to boot in 9?....there has to be a way to burn a .img file or use it in 9