Peaceluvr

Q: Can I retrieve data from crashed hard drive on MacBook Pro?

Any help appreciated

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 17, 2014 10:30 AM

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Q: Can I retrieve data from crashed hard drive on MacBook Pro?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Melophage,Helpful

    Melophage Melophage Mar 17, 2014 6:32 PM in response to Peaceluvr
    Level 5 (7,161 points)
    Mar 17, 2014 6:32 PM in response to Peaceluvr

    Peaceluvr,

     

    contact a data recovery service, and buy yourself an external drive to function as a Time Machine backup, so that in the future you won’t have to contact a data recovery service the next time that you have a hard disk that crashes.

  • by clintonfrombirmingham,Helpful

    clintonfrombirmingham clintonfrombirmingham Mar 17, 2014 6:34 PM in response to Peaceluvr
    Level 7 (30,009 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 17, 2014 6:34 PM in response to Peaceluvr

    You can always try...

     

    ...you can use a tool such as Date Rescue 3 or DiskWarrior to try to retrieve files. If that doesn't work then you'll have to use a specialized service.

     

    Clinton

  • by Peaceluvr,Solvedanswer

    Peaceluvr Peaceluvr Mar 19, 2014 6:07 AM in response to Melophage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 19, 2014 6:07 AM in response to Melophage

    I have a time capsule but it apparently stopped auto back up in October and I didn't realize til crash. I have most of my photos but not current course papers.

  • by Peaceluvr,

    Peaceluvr Peaceluvr Mar 19, 2014 6:11 AM in response to Melophage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 19, 2014 6:11 AM in response to Melophage

    Any advice for data recovery service, I'm getting quotes from 199.00 to 1000.00 +. Can recovery software work on a failed hard drive, went to Genius Bar yesterday and they weren't able to help. They said data recovery is not something they do. They offered to replace hard drive for 160.00 but would not give me back my original( company policy) is what I was told.

  • by Peaceluvr,

    Peaceluvr Peaceluvr Mar 19, 2014 6:18 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 19, 2014 6:18 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

    Will a data recovery software work with a failed hard drive, apple confirmed that it failed, what should I expect to pay a mail in service?

  • by Peaceluvr,

    Peaceluvr Peaceluvr Mar 19, 2014 6:19 AM in response to Peaceluvr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 19, 2014 6:19 AM in response to Peaceluvr

    This did not solve my problem, hit it by mistake :(

  • by Melophage,

    Melophage Melophage Mar 19, 2014 7:56 PM in response to Peaceluvr
    Level 5 (7,161 points)
    Mar 19, 2014 7:56 PM in response to Peaceluvr

    Peaceluvr,

     

    since I don’t know where on the planet you’re located, I’m almost certainly unaware of the data recovery services in your area. It’s possible for  data recovery services to recover data from dead drives, but it depends partially upon skill (the ability of the data recoverers) and partially upon luck (whether your data are on readable sectors of the disk or not).

  • by Peaceluvr,

    Peaceluvr Peaceluvr Mar 20, 2014 9:53 AM in response to Melophage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 20, 2014 9:53 AM in response to Melophage

    I live in greensboro, nc

    Thanks for replying

  • by Peaceluvr,

    Peaceluvr Peaceluvr Mar 20, 2014 11:14 AM in response to Melophage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 20, 2014 11:14 AM in response to Melophage

    Thanks any other help or advice is appreciated.

  • by clintonfrombirmingham,

    clintonfrombirmingham clintonfrombirmingham Mar 20, 2014 11:20 AM in response to Peaceluvr
    Level 7 (30,009 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 20, 2014 11:20 AM in response to Peaceluvr

    Will a data recovery software work with a failed hard drive

    With the two that I'm familiar with (noted above) the software tries to, at least temporarily, 'fix' the drive so that data can be recovered.

     

    I've no idea what data recovery services would charge - I've seen some advertise for thousands of dollars for major recovery. You'll just have to shop around for those services - or take a chance with either of the $100 packages first.

     

    Clinton

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Mar 20, 2014 11:20 AM in response to Peaceluvr
    Level 9 (61,095 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 20, 2014 11:20 AM in response to Peaceluvr

    First, get yourself an External Enclosure and a new drive that can be used eventually to place inside your MacBook.

     

    Install Mac OS X on the new External and Boot from it. Now your Mac is operating again.

     

    Later, you can swap the new drive with the old drive and get back your portability.

     

    --------

     

    Mac OS X has over 250,000 files in it. Booting is very complex. Just reading a few files off your old drive may be relatively easy -- or may be completely impossible.

     

    If you have a spare drive, programs like DataRescue may be able to grab a few files off it -- or maybe not.

  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Mar 20, 2014 11:22 AM in response to Peaceluvr
    Level 9 (53,766 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 20, 2014 11:22 AM in response to Peaceluvr

    If Apple says the disk drive has failed, the only way I know to recover anything from is to send it to a data recovery service. Expect to pay for their services like $$$$.

     

    Allan

  • by Curtisssere,

    Curtisssere Curtisssere May 14, 2015 8:05 PM in response to Peaceluvr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 14, 2015 8:05 PM in response to Peaceluvr

    Do you mean the hard drive is mechanically broken for sure?  It's not a data corruption issue that is causing a problem with starting up the Mac, but maybe not be a bad mechanism?

     

    If the drive is definitely broken, there are businesses that specialize in recovering data from bad hard drives.  For example

     

    http://www.drivesaverdatarecovery.com/  (I always saw their booth at MacWorld Expos...)

     

    The cost of such services is usually high.

    cannot get into the computer

    So that probably means the hard drive in question is the internal drive?  If you don't know for sure that the hard drive is physically broken, you can try starting up using your Mac OS X installation disc.  Insert disc in optical drive and start up with the C key held down.  When you get to Installer's screen, go up to the menu bar and run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.  Does the internal drive appear in the Disk Utility sidebar?

     

    Alternately, if you have another Mac (that has FireWire), you can try starting the Mac with the problem in FireWire Target Disk Mode,

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661

     

    Connect the "target" Mac to the other Mac (running normally) using a FireWire cable.  Run Disk Utility on that Mac.  Does the hard drive of the Mac in FireWire Target Disk Mode appear in the sidebar?

     

    If you can get the internal drive to appear in Disk Utility, you may be able to run Repair Disk on the First Aid tab.  There are also third-party utilities, such as TechTool Pro (Micromat), Drive Genius (Prosoft), and Disk Warrior (Alsoft), that may be able to fix (or at least recover data from) the hard drive.