Hello folks This is probably a hard drive issue .. but I'm hoping otherwise. Our iMac started sounding like someone inside it was shaking a spray paint canister before using..you know when you hear that sound like a marble in a pop can. Is there possibly a controller issue? Right now there is no start up without the "where did my system folder??" icon giving me the hard stare. It did start up once and ran for about 10 minutes or more before making that noise and locking up again. Is it dead in the water ? Will it go again for a few minutes ? Thanks for any advice / sympathy. Dave

That's a bad sound. One of the heads has probably crashed into the platter of your hard disk, which has trashed the disk. If you're lucky, you might be able to recover *some* of the data, but you're definitely going to need a new hard drive. p

uh huh... thought so. sure is louder than the little knockin noises the western digital ide drives make in our PM5400s at school when they go belly up. It only makes those noises now for a couple of seconds when I pull the plug, reinsert it, and power up. The top of the iMac is about four times as hot as one that is working normal... and the screen goes bright white then settles halfway to energy saver brightness for the flashing question mark slide show. Thanks for your insight P