Member Avatar for grgreen

So I'm an idiot. I'll get that out there right away. I was trying to back up all my MP3s from my G4 onto an external HD. Well I had that same day managed to get my wireless network all up and running with a PC, Mac, Internet, External HD and printer. Everyone was sharing everything beautifully. Not wanting to mess with that I decided to back up all these thousands of MP3s over wireless to my external. This was going to take all night and then some so I just left it. When I cam back in the morning the computer was frozen. I shut it down, but now it won't start back up. The HD just makes some very audible clicking noises and feezes at the grey apple screen, if it makes it that far.

Any suggestions on fixing this or am I just screwed and need a new HD. Needless to say I probably should of just plugged the external right into the Mac and this problem would have been avoided due to the much quicker transfer rate. My G4 is already about 4 years old. It didn't need an all night transfer session.

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Dani AI

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Quick summary: reports a G4 that sometimes boots but the internal drive now makes audible clicking and stalls; it briefly copied about 300 MB before failing again. correctly flagged imminent drive failure — the goal now is to maximize recoverable data without making the drive worse.

Why this happens (short): audible clicking usually means the drive’s read/write heads or actuator are failing (sometimes a stuck spindle or PCB/firmware fault). Each power-on and large copy attempt risks further mechanical damage, so stop repeated bulk transfers.

Practical, prioritized plan

  • If the data is critical, stop using the drive and image it first (work from the image, not the original). Sector-by-sector imaging tools such as GNU ddrescue are designed for this: do a fast first pass to grab readable sectors, then controlled retries on bad areas. Example workflow:
    ddrescue -n /dev/sdX /path/to/backup.img /path/to/backup.log
ddrescue -r3 /dev/sdX /path/to/backup.img /path/to/backup.log
  • If the Mac can get into FireWire Target Disk Mode (hold T at boot on PowerPC Macs), connect to another Mac and copy small, critical files first (home folder, Documents, Mail, etc.). On macOS, ditto preserves Mac metadata:
    ditto /Volumes/FailedDrive/Users/yourname /Volumes/Backup/yourname
  • If you must remove the drive, connect it to a different machine with a proper adapter and image it from a Linux/Live environment that includes ddrescue. Always image to a drive at least as large as the source and keep a logfile so you can resume.

When to call pros: if the drive keeps clicking, makes grinding noises, or the data is irreplaceable, stop DIY attempts and use a professional recovery lab — they can repair mechanical damage that home tools cannot. Avoid opening the drive platter assembly yourself and avoid “freezer” tricks; those often make things worse.

For future transfers, prefer a wired, direct connection and routine backups (two copies, one offsite).

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Member Avatar for John A

Sorry, I think you'll have to buy a new hard drive. Don't feel too mad at yourself, though: an overnight copy session can hardly be considered disk-intensive, and a little bit of extra work was just enough to push it over the edge. The hard drive was probably on its way out anyway.

Member Avatar for grgreen

Well...after letting it set all day it booted up! I immidiately hooked up the external hard drive and started backing up some documents. It transfered about 300 MB before the hard drive gave out and the whole thing froze again.

Any thoughts on keeping it cool long enough to get some stuf off of it. Unfortunately the damn thing was engineered to get rediculously hot.

Member Avatar for John A

Well, the first thing I'd do is take the case off the computer. This will allow more airflow while it's running. If you have a gel icepack or something, feel free to use it, but make sure it's mildly cold (read: not frozen), and preferably not directly touching the hard drive. If the data is really important however, I'd recommend getting it professionally done right away, as your messing around with it could potentially make it worse.

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