[Ericeman]

I'll try and be pithy here since my issue is fairly straightforward...

I'm running an iMac G5 iSight with 10.5 and am experiencing the following symptoms:

Slow start-up
Slow performance
It freezes near constantly (with a kernel panic) and mostly, it seems, under heavy CPU loads
Freezes accompanied by the fan spinning out

The disk and permission repairs show no errors and I'm crossing my fingers that it's simply the all-too-common issue: bad capacitors. Which would mean my data is safe. It's apparently struggling to boot up via CD (was gonna try and install OSX to an external HDD)which would also point to logic board issues and not internal HDD failure.

Someone quell my fears that I'm slowly losing all my data!

Signed, Why-Am-I-Still-Running-PPC

[macnuke]

err I still use a PPC for a laptop..

personally, i would recommend DiskWarrior.
I would also say to use CarbonCopy Cloner to the external.

this provide you with 3 things....

a bootable external that you could repair the internal from as well as a full backup giving you a copy of all your data when your iMac suffers a permanent death.

run em till the wheels fall off I say... i's the data that's irreplaceable.

[Typhoon14]

Fortunately, your data is safe because you've been maintaining an up-to-date backup.

…That is, I assume you've been backing up, because just praying that your computer never fails in a way that destroys data would be an extremely poor course of action.

In the unlikely event that your backup routine has been deficient, run out, grab a nice large external hard drive, and start backing up everything immediately.

[Ericeman]

Typhoon14, on 19 July 2012 - 03:29 PM, said:

Fortunately, your data is safe because you've been maintaining an up-to-date backup.

…That is, I assume you've been backing up, because just praying that your computer never fails in a way that destroys data would be an extremely poor course of action.

In the unlikely event that your backup routine has been deficient, run out, grab a nice large external hard drive, and start backing up everything immediately.

That's just the thing, and what makes this case unique I guess...

I had a backup, the computer was unusually slow and problematic, I reinstalled OSX and it seemed fine--- went to make another backup of the newer system assuming it was all fixed but now I can't do that without it locking up. I'm now constantly messing with settings trying to find some solution that will at the very least allow me enough time to backup.

I guess the question becomes: is that a surefire sign that this is a problem with the HDD. I just don't see how the fans spinning out would be a part of that.

My main concern is, as you two said, that my data's all fine and well. If I had money I'd buy an enclosure for the full sized drive and find out but for now I need a cheaper solution