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Hard Disk problems

Hi,

about a week ago my apps started to slow right down even 'freeze' with the mouse showing the rainbow circle thing.

I backed all my data onto my external HD - ran disk utility to try and find any problems with the HD which there were. Managed to repair them but didn't have an effect. So i decided to format the HD and re install OSX Snow Leopard and start again.

i then tried to put my saved files and folders from my External HD back onto my mac. However i then realised that several folders in 'Document' were missing even though i copied them all over by dragging the 'Documents' folder to the external HD so im not sure why im missing at least 3 huge folders?

Can anyone help me recover them? i know there are programs to do this but not found one that looks decent.

I also cant sync my iphone properly, keeps disconnecting from itunes and wont connect with iphoto.

any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Will

MacBookPro 17" 2.8GHz Intel Core Duo 4GB 1067 MHz RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.3), Iphone (32GB White)

Posted on Jul 12, 2010 6:44 AM

Reply
10 replies

Jul 12, 2010 7:18 AM in response to SuperArmy

If there is any chance of recovery at all your best bet is Prosoft Data Rescue 3 . There is a free trial to see if it can recover what you need. But don't do another process on that drive until you've downloaded and run it.

That means that ideally you should use another bootable drive to download and run Data Rescue. Or booted from another Mac in firewire mode. Also, there is always the option of ordering or going to the store to purchase the DVD. Then running from the optical drive.

Also, a service that has been recommended but I cannot personally endorse is DriveSavers.


User uploaded file
-mj

Jul 12, 2010 10:54 AM in response to SuperArmy

If you don't know a term, look it up.

Volume or Partition

And Pogue's book "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual"

Open Disk Utility Help and type "partition" and look at the list of topics for starters.

Shrink and add a partition, then restore the ISO or .dmg to the paritition, also using Disk Utility -> Restore

Any program if it didn't come on bootable DVD would either have instructions how to burn such, or what I suggest:

INSTALL OS X to a small "emergency" 30GB partition, and have a partition to recover your files to (essential) either on same drive or 2nd drive.

I suspect that you are expected to copy the contents of the DMG to said "Emergency" volume and run from there. Also good for running repairs, like Disk Utility and I would buy a copy of Alsoft Disk Warrior too, for preventative repairs and maintenance; SuperDuper to clone your drive; and another drive for TimeMachine

An external drive could look like:

Emergency OS X - 30GB
Clone OS X - 150% of the size of your internal hard drive
Recovery - 150% internal hard drive (could be used for TimeMachine later)

1.5TB drives are $100-120 and cases go for $49-89.

Obviously it is better to have backups, and to have more than one, and not just one backup drive either. And rotate and use SuperDuper (weekly?) and TimeMachine for daily or on-demand (manual or auto).

Jul 16, 2010 5:49 AM in response to SuperArmy

ok i have managed to scan my HD from someone elses macbook with a mini firewire cable. only found about 1.8GB of files. i know that i may not be able to get the files i want back what is the best way to search all the folders and files as there are a lot of .zip files under an 'archive' folder?

im looking for 3 big folders that were lost


thanks

Hard Disk problems

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