Thanks for replying, Yersinia. I appreciate that you bothered. When I referred to the "very little was amiss," I meant the computer's own HD showed discrepancies that were truly insignificant in both number and type. Stuff like "two files (the same two that have done so for the entire life of the computer) should have been named X and were named Y." I don't think they were red flags at all.
On the other hand, I'm hitting my palm to my forehead Homer Simpson- style at your realization (which somehow escaped my densehood entirely) that the HD problem might be not the computer's HD, but that of the backup. I have no idea how this never occurred to me. Maybe it's just the psychology of thinking "well, it's my BACKUP," or maybe it's that the backup is still putting its icons on the desktop in a timely manner, showing up in Disk Utility, and starting to back up before the cloning operation then quits. Lots to pursue here. Again, thanks. -- Tony On Jan 11, 10:50 pm, Yersinia <[email protected]> wrote: > On 1/11/11 11:28 PM, tonycd wrote: > > > > > > > Hi. I have a Quicksilver 2002 G4 with an OWC 1.8 Ghz CPU upgrade. The > > hard drive is a Seagate Barracude IDE 80 gig drive. It s a few years > > old, but has gotten only moderate use. > > > The computer is working perfectly, but I m unable to back up the hard > > drive contents by any of several different methods. > > > I ve tried cloning the HD contents to my external FireWire drive, > > using both Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper. In each case, the clone > > operation starts but then stalls within a matter of minutes. > > > With CC Cloner, it states at the very beginning of the cloning > > operation that There may be a physical problem with the disk. When I > > check the option to continue, it runs for maybe 5-10 minutes, copying > > maybe 2 gb or so, then freezes. > > > With Super Duper, it starts normally, runs 5-10 minutes, then states > > that some particular file can t be read or written and freezes. > > > With either program, I can t opt to stop the cloning operation, you > > can t force-quit the program, and I m forced into a hard restart using > > the power button. > > > I tried running Disk Warrior, which detected very little out of the > > ordinary, and Disk Utility, which found very little was amiss with the > > disk permissions. Neither made any difference, and the cloning > > attempts still failed. > > Well, whatever that "very little was out of the ordinary and "very > little was amiss" sounds to me like reason(s) why this drive is > failing. Do you care to specify what exactly WAS out of the ordinary and > even a little bit amiss? > > > The hard drive isn t making any untoward noises, and the computer is > > operating perfectly normally. But having irreplaceable old Classic > > apps, family photos and business data at risk makes me really, really > > nervous. > > > Could the problem be something other than the hard drive? > > I don't think so. I'm usually the LAST person around here who will > suggest that a fellow Lister with a malfunctioning item should go "buy > another one" -- but in this case, I have to suggest it. IMO, your > would-be backup drive sounds like it's fried. Dead or dying HDs (either > external or internal) don't ALWAYS make weird noises -- the first one > that died on me, which was my object "backups are important" lesson, ate > 50,000 words of the novel I was writing with nary a sound or a sign > until it was Too Late. A backup system is CRUCIAL -- this is a > necessity, not a "toy," particularly if you have business data and > "irreplaceable" apps of ANY kind. > > Oh and BTW, I also just had to get a new external backup drive too -- > MINE just dropped dead last week -- had its second failure within three > months and I totally freaked! OK at least I had my flash drives but > STILL... Finally got the new one in and the QS and Mini are all CCC'ed > as of today; will CCC the iBook tomorrow. > > Hope you resolve this SOON. It's IMPORTANT! > > ~Yersinia. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
