[SOLVED] iMac OSX Yosemite not booting, cannot repair disk

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Michelle Cleary

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Feb 17, 2015
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I just received this iMac 27" with OSX Yosemite two days ago from a client that I will be doing freelance work for. I got it placed on my desk and hooked up to power (but not internet) to verify that the computer was working after transport. Everything booted up fine but there are issues with the Quark Licence Administrator so I immediately shut it down.

This evening I tried booting it up to connect the internet and possibly resolve the QLA issue. Upon power up I see the Apple boot screen with the spinning gray circle - and now a gray progress bar which I did not see two days ago. I can hear the machine making grinding noises whenever the gray bar moves. Once the progress bar becomes full, the machine shut down automatically. I booted up again and held Command+R to run Disk Repair. When verifying Disk Utility states the main Macintosh HD cannot be repaired and asks to backup files and restore the hard drive. There are also no Time Machine capsules when I try restoring using Time Machine.

My main issue is that once I contact the client tomorrow, he is going to think I broke his very expensive Mac. Though I am convinced this Hard Drive failure had nothing do with any of my actions since the machine was working fine two days ago and has remained shut off until tonight. What are my options to fix? I am already in a financial pinch which is why I am taking on this second job, so doing expensive repairs out of my pocket is not an option. Thank you!
 
Solution
Contact the machine owner and be honest about what happened, do you know what model and approximate age? some of the 1TB machines were subject to a recall due to known hard drive issues, also some of the early 'Fusion' drives had stability issues.

JustSomeJoe

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Oct 8, 2008
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Contact the machine owner and be honest about what happened, do you know what model and approximate age? some of the 1TB machines were subject to a recall due to known hard drive issues, also some of the early 'Fusion' drives had stability issues.
 
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Michelle Cleary

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Feb 17, 2015
9
0
4,510



Looks like the Hard Drive is 1TB ST31000528AS (Seagate) which fell under the widespread Apple recall a few years ago. Guessing this client missed the opportunity to have it replaced. I will have to let him know the hard disk is failing and hopefully he will understand that Seagate is to blame and not myself.
 
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