Score? 2009 iMac A1225 @ Goodwill

[Ichinisan]

In the box with the power cord and official Apple aluminum Bluetooth keyboard. Mouse wasn't there, but I just happen to have a Mighty Mouse and a Magic Mouse.

• 24" 1920x1200 display
• 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM (box says "4GB," so I think it was upgraded)
• 1TB HDD
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 512 MB graphics

The store wrote "NEEDS REFURBISH" on top of the box and priced it for $200. It would only show an Apple logo with a spinner below when you try to turn it on. I waited a loooong time and it never got anywhere. Looked up some stuff online and tried clearing PRAM. Also tried booting the recovery partition. Neither would boot and it would just show the spinner forever. My memory is so bad, I don't know how/when/why I had already burned an OSX Mavericks install disc some time ago. I don't have access to a Mac normally. Anyway, I booted to the disc (took ages) and tried to install OSX on the "Macintosh HD" partition. Installation failed and told me to reboot, back-up data, erase the drive, and reinstall. I knew the first suggestion would never work, so I just accessed Disk Utility and deleted all partitions. I made one big partition and named it "Macintosh HD," rebooted (took a long time for the install disc to boot again), and installed OSX. It seems to be working fine after the OS reinstall

How should I check the hard drive to be sure it's not bad?

[edit]
Tried to install the Yosemite public preview last night and left it downloading. This morning, I saw that the download finished, but there was nothing to select to continue setup (no "install" or "update")...so I restarted. Now it's on the Apple logo with the endless spinner again.

[edit]
Installed OSX Mavericks again and it's working again.

[edit]
Upgraded to a 4TB hard drive last night. Probably just temporary until I buy a nice SSD. Reinstalled Mavericks this morning and updated to Yosemite final (since it was just released yesterday). Working like a champ.

 

[TheStu]

Sounds like the drive is pretty well toast. I would replace it if you want to keep the system around.

 

[CZroe]

It could be a bad HDD and it could be over-heating based on how it felt last night. Check that fan.

 

[Spineshank]

Seen that before. The hard drive was bad.

 

[Ichinisan]

Reinstalled OSX Mavericks again and it boots again. It took a long time to install. I'm not sure if I should attempt to install OSX Yosemite again. The check in Disk Utility always says the drive is OK. It goes so quickly, I know can't be doing an actual surface scan. Is there a more thorough disk check without downloading third-party software?

 

[Rakehellion]

Reinstalled OSX Mavericks again and it boots again. It took a long time to install

That hard drive is dead. Throw it away.

 

[Rakehellion]

The check in Disk Utility always says the drive is OK. It goes so quickly, I know can't be doing an actual surface scan. Is there a more thorough disk check without downloading third-party software?

You can do a low level format where you overwrite the disk with zeroes.

 

[Oyeve]

You can do a low level format where you overwrite the disk with zeroes.

Not worth the time. Get a new drive. they are dirt cheap.

 

[Pheran]

I would throw an SSD in there anyway, performance will be much nicer.

 

[Essence_of_War]

2nd'ing/3rd'ing.

Don't waste your time trying to diagnose the minutia of a bad drive. Just replace it.

 

[cronos]

4thing: throw the drive away and replace it with an SSD

 

[TheStu]

I don't know if anyone's recommended it yet, but you should replace that drive.

 

[KeithP]

You could try running the Apple Hardware Test
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

...after you replace the drive of course.

-KeithP

 

[Ichinisan]

AHT runs from the recovery partition? I deleted the recovery partition before I reinstalled OSX. Is there a way to run AHT from the OSX install disc?

 

[Dahak]

AHT runs from the recovery partition? I deleted the recovery partition before I reinstalled OSX. Is there a way to run AHT from the OSX install disc?

Been a while, bit IIRC hold down D while starting the machine and keep holding until it loads

 

[Subyman]

Nice score for sure. Add a cheap SSD and you'd only be $300 into a nice set up.

 

[RossMAN]

Has anyone suggested replacing the HD yet? Just sayin' ...

 

[CZroe]

He and I replaced the HDD last night. This was my second time replacing a 1TB drive in one of these. Now it has 4TB. We'll see if it makes the difference.

 

[CZroe]

Reinstalled OSX Mavericks again and it boots again. It took a long time to install

That hard drive is dead. Throw it away.

Perhaps, but that wouldn't be why. It took every bit as long to install to the new 4TB drive.

 

[Ichinisan]

With my brother's help, upgraded to a 4TB hard drive last night. Probably just temporary until I buy a nice SSD. Reinstalled Mavericks this morning and updated to Yosemite final (since it was just released yesterday). Working like a champ.

 

[Subyman]

With my brother's help, upgraded to a 4TB hard drive last night. Probably just temporary until I buy a nice SSD. Reinstalled Mavericks this morning and updated to Yosemite final (since it was just released yesterday). Working like a champ.

Good to hear, enjoy the score. What will you be using it for?

 

[Ichinisan]

Good to hear, enjoy the score. What will you be using it for?

Might give it to my mother or try my hand at iOS app development (nothing complex since this is an old/slow CPU).

 

[Subyman]

Might give it to my mother or try my hand at iOS app development (nothing complex since this is an old/slow CPU).

iOS app development is fun. Really easy to get into if you've done some programming before. You can do quite a bit in Xcode without much compute, although it has become a bit graphics heavy over the years.

 

[FearoftheNight]

recycle the hdd for free @ best buy