My portable powers up without the battery inside it as well. I'm assuming
by your email address "dartmouth.edu" that you are in Nova Scotia? (If not
- pardon my ignorance). If so these machines have probably been subjected
to some cold weather. I have lost 2 Mac Portable hard drives to cold
weather - I'd put them in the trunk of my car, travel to location X and
then fire up the Mac only to learn that the drive didn't work anymore.
This was most likely due to condensation inside the drives.
If I read your post correctly the drives aren't spinning up at all, but
they emit noises which make it sound as if they are trying to - in this
case they are most likely stuck. I have convinced old hard drives to
become 'unstuck' by whacking them on the side. I know it sounds cruel but
if the drive isn't working there is nothing to loose.
Also, when the death chimes sound, is there a picture of a sad mac on the
screen with an error number? The error number (if I remember correctly)
may be a key indication as to what is happening. If your mac is repeatedly
sounding the death chimes it is in some kind of endless loop and you are
most likely not getting to the error #.
I have also opened the drives and lubricated the 'spindle' or whatever
it's called - however doing so allowed dust particles inside the drive.
The end result though was a reliable, non sticking drive that works to
this day. Perhaps I was lucky...
Markus Blumrich - mailto:ab594_at_sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
Student: Anatomy & Computer Science / University of Saskatchewan
http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~ab594/Profile.html
"Who's the more foolish - the fool, or the fool who follows him?" -
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Received on Thu Aug 20 1998 - 16:17:10 BST