Hi all. My wife's iBook G3 is showing the small folder icon with a flashing ? on it. She has not backed up the HD for some time and reeeealllly needs documents off it. Listening closely at start up, I do not hear the HD spin, but rather hear two sets of 10 click/click, which sounds closely to that of a wrist watch. I get the startup chime after the two sets of clicks. Then shortly the ? on folder flashes.

Is there any hope of getting the HD working again? Is there any hope in getting the data recovered? Is the drive dead, never to spin again?? (if so, she won't be a happy camper.)

Any advise out there?

Thanks!
e2brute

Hi, and welcome to DaniWeb.

If you have another Mac and a firewire cable, you might be able to use Target Disk Mode. Connect the Macs with the firewire cable, start the Mac that works, and once that's booted up, start the dead iBook, holding down the 'T' key. If all goes well, its hard drive should show up on the other Mac, in which case you can transfer your files off of it.

I've also heard numerous success stories with DiskWarrior, you might want to try that if Target Disk Mode doesn't work. Finally, if the data is really, really critical (and you've got some extra cash) you can get your data professionally recovered. But, as I said, it costs lots of money.

Target Disk Mode is a good idea...however, the G3 iBook my wife uses is one of those green 'clam shell' iBooks of a few years back...no firewire. Only USB, and network.

I'll look into DiscWarrior. Still hoping the disc is not unusable.

Thank you for responding.