Please help! Powerbook makes noise, screen stays grey

[nemozine]

Few days ago my Powerbook 1,66 Ghz was running very slow so I decided to reboot it. I re-installed Mac Os X and run a hard ware test, no problem it said, it still went way to slow, spinning wheel etc. then I thought of backing up some files creating more space, while writing the first dvd it frooze and started to make a scary scraping noise, after restarting the screen stayed grey and the noise came back. I tried booting off of the restore disk to do an "Archive and Restore" but there isn't even an option to restore to on the menu. I ran the Hardware test and got this error from Mass Storage: 2STF/4/3:ATA-100ata-6-Master
I looked this up and followed some advice starting up with command and "S" key held down, it does give me a prompt window with text but does not allow me to write please please advice I am seriously worried and know bringing it away means loosing two years of work.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Few days ago my Powerbook 1,66 Ghz was running very slow so I decided to reboot it. I re-installed Mac Os X and run a hard ware test, no problem it said, it still went way to slow, spinning wheel etc. then I thought of backing up some files creating more space, while writing the first dvd it frooze and started to make a scary scraping noise, after restarting the screen stayed grey and the noise came back. I tried booting off of the restore disk to do an "Archive and Restore" but there isn't even an option to restore to on the menu. I ran the Hardware test and got this error from Mass Storage: 2STF/4/3:ATA-100ata-6-Master
I looked this up and followed some advice starting up with command and "S" key held down, it does give me a prompt window with text but does not allow me to write please please advice I am seriously worried and know bringing it away means loosing two years of work.

Hi nemozine and welcome,

This sounds quite serious and I'm worried about you losing all your work ... If I were you I would take it into the nearest AppleStore and have them take a look at it ... it really does sound like your hard drive may be ready to go and the AppleStore will be able to retrieve your data.

I would hate to give you the wrong advice here ... Do you have access to another Mac?

 

[Walrus666]

Hi nemozine, before bringing your Mac in for repairs, try getting your Mac to run so you can back up your files first by TILTING your PowerBook approximately thirty degrees or so to either the left, (Experiment with this) right, backwards or forward. Others have had luck by doing this. Hopefully, this will work and let you back up your files so you can avoid additional charges for data retrieval. Good luck!

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Hi nemozine,

If you do manage to get your PowerBook up and running, a good method of backup in your situation if you don't want to use DVDs is to buy an external HD and use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner to backup your important data/files such as iTunes purchases, photo collections, documents etc ..

In its simplest form, CCC will clone one hard drive to another, copying every single block or file to create an exact replica of your source hard drive. This is very useful if, for example, your laptop is damaged and you must send it in for repair.