clicking hard drive - am I toast?

[kick-ass-bob]

I was playing some Civilization on my older iBook (G3) and the drive started clicking. Is there any hope for me? What would be the recovery/HD replacement process and cost?

[Ready4Change]

1. I had that, and I'm ok now?

I was SURE my drive was toast. It sounded like a sandstorm in there, and the machine locked up hard. Wouldn't reboot at all. I mourned my lost, unsaved data (since my last backup, that is.) All day of trying, no go.

Next morning, it booted, and has run ok since, for the last couple months in fact.

I just don't know. Elves?

[politicat]

2. Back it up now to something external.

Firewire, USB, ethernet, but something.

You will probably lose that hard drive - even if it stops clicking on the next reboot, that's a warning sign.

Hard drive replacement on an iBook isn't terribly painful. We've done a couple of them on 500 MHz iceBooks and on an old toilet seat Blueberry ibook. Plus, if you replace the drive, you can get a bigger, faster one.

We buy our laptop drives from these folk (and no, I have no association with them, just a happy customer) http://www.laptopsforless.com/laptop-accessories/laptop-harddrive/

I can warn you away from an online vendor who does a lot of work through ebay - afterthemac. Hideous customer service. (Again, no association save being an unhappy customer.)

[MalachiConstant]

3. i fully agree

back everything up ASAP. a couple of months ago i lost everything on my year old powerbook. it was covered under applecare, but i still lost EVERYTHING. it would have cost me about $350 for the replacement.

[Ready4Change]

4. I agree as well.

When my HDs odd behavior stopped and the machine first started working properly again the very first thing I did was back it all up, with fingers crossed and breath held.

When that was done I started trying things out, probing for damage. I've yet to find anything.

Still, fingers crossed.