iMac gurus.....I am having a helluva time...

[caledesi]

I am trying to troubleshoot my stepdaughter's 4-year old iMac.

The problem is that the hard drive does not appear (must boot w/ CD). She "thinks" she trashed it, but when I go the trash, it is locked.

The computers recognizes the HD, but says it's uninitialized.

Ok, so got the standalone floppy drive, hoping to boot w/ it. Problem is that the standalong floppy needs the driver to be installed first. I can't insert the CD for the driver, bec the CD is what I booted w/.

I am lost here. Tried rebuilding desktop, reset PRAM and tried booting with Norton to no avail.

Anyone have any idea about what's going on here?

Thanks.

[burrowowl]

1. Go to info on hard drive

and unlock it.

[Poiuyt]

2. Use Disk Utility

Boot from the CD, Open up Disk Utility (from the CD) and repair the HD

[MR. ELECTABLE]

3. Answers?

I am trying to troubleshoot my stepdaughter's 4-year old iMac.

The problem is that the hard drive does not appear (must boot w/ CD). She "thinks" she trashed it, but when I go the trash, it is locked.

>> The "Trash" is actually a hidden directory on the hard drive. If the hard drive is not working, the Trash will not work since the drive is malfunctioning.

The computers recognizes the HD, but says it's uninitialized.

>> Sounds like your hard drive might be hosed, or the directory structure might have become corrected. Try and fix it using the "Drive Setup" or "Disk Utility" application on the CD. (I've been using Mac OS X for years, can't remember what the OS 9 application is named.)

Ok, so got the standalone floppy drive, hoping to boot w/ it. Problem is that the standalong floppy needs the driver to be installed first. I can't insert the CD for the driver, bec the CD is what I booted w/.

>> No way you'll be able to boot from that floppy, so don't even try. Even if you could get the drivers to load, a floppy disk is incapable of holding a bootable system (not big enough).

I am lost here. Tried rebuilding desktop, reset PRAM and tried booting with Norton to no avail.

>> If Norton can't fix it, you might need to replace the hard drive...

[Poiuyt]

4. It sounds more like a software problem to me

As long as the computer is recognizing the HD, you should be able to repair it. Apple's Disk Utility may or may not do it. DiskWarrior or Tech Tool Pro can fix things that Disk Utility cannot.

caledesi, is your boot CD OS9 or OSX?

[caledesi]

8. Original iMac Software Install System 8.5 nt

[gold_bug]

5. directory damage

The computers recognizes the HD, but says it's uninitialized

That might mean the directory is damaged. DiskWarrior might be able to fix it, but other than that I don't know of any way to recover it....
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. When that happened to my iMac

(also four years old) it was the prelude to a hard drive crash.

Take it to your local Mac dealer for a checkup.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. I just had that problem with my iMac a few weeks ago

I ran Norton Disk Doctor on it and that took care of the problem. I had to try starting with the Norton CD two or three times to get it going, though.

[caledesi]

9. Art - Finally go Norton to boot the iMac, but

It's a "no-go." Won't even recognize the hard disk for volume recovery.

So frustrating, because the Drive Setup recognizes the HD, but says it is not initialize and when I tried to initialize it (low format and zero ...), it failed initialization.

I guess it's cooked,

I even got Disk Warrier up, but the HD did not appear at the SWITCH DISK button.