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MacBook Pro hard drive failure- data recovery possible?

Hi everyone, I have a June 2009 MBP that stopped turning on the other day and it just sits on a gray screen when trying to boot up. I had it taken in to a small little authorized Apple repair shop since I am living out in BFE and they said it has a hard drive failure which is causing the problems. They said there is no way to recover the data. Is that right? I'd imagine there has to be someway to recover it. Is there somewhere I can send it in or something? At this point even if it were to cost a lot I'd like to get the data off of it if there is the possibility.


Inb4: should've backed it up!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Nov 8, 2012 2:03 PM

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Posted on Nov 8, 2012 2:17 PM

Inb4: should've backed it up!


Oh how true.


How much of the data you'll get back if any, depends on what is defect. If it's the disks in the drive themselves, e.g. due to a headcrash, it might be bitter and a large to total loss. If it's the interface or other parts other than the disks, it is eventually possible to recover the data, and it can be fairly easy to very hard and costly, depending on several factors.


In any case, you should google for "harddisk recovery" in your area, then talk to the pro's. They will probably even charge you for checking what's wrong, but that's somewhat understandable and might be well worth it. More $$$ may then become due, again depending on what's damaged.


Good luck. And never again:

Inb4: should've backed it up!

6 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Nov 8, 2012 2:17 PM in response to OperationGoldenSpoon

Inb4: should've backed it up!


Oh how true.


How much of the data you'll get back if any, depends on what is defect. If it's the disks in the drive themselves, e.g. due to a headcrash, it might be bitter and a large to total loss. If it's the interface or other parts other than the disks, it is eventually possible to recover the data, and it can be fairly easy to very hard and costly, depending on several factors.


In any case, you should google for "harddisk recovery" in your area, then talk to the pro's. They will probably even charge you for checking what's wrong, but that's somewhat understandable and might be well worth it. More $$$ may then become due, again depending on what's damaged.


Good luck. And never again:

Inb4: should've backed it up!

Nov 8, 2012 5:10 PM in response to OperationGoldenSpoon

You may be able to boot from an external hard drive and repair the disk enough to copy the data from it, even if it will no longer boot. There are a number of hard drive recovery services. Apple even lists a couple of them (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3974) that are authorized to recover data from hard drives without voiding the warranty. The warranty is not an issue with a machine from 2009, but those are high quality, reputable companies.


Most such companies have you send them the hard drive and they will give you an estimate of how much it will cost to recover the data, if possible. Some people have reported that Data Rescue 3 comes with a coupon for free diagnostics and $100 off data recovery from The Data Rescue Center. That was a couple of years ago. I don't know if the same deals are in place now.

Dec 15, 2016 11:57 PM in response to OperationGoldenSpoon

Have you tried some data recovery software? You can use the Google search tool in this regard. .My Mac Book Pro hard drive has crashed and I'm in the process of replacing it. However, I had a lot of important data on that hard drive that he needs recovered. Then I found uFlysoft data recovery software that recovers data from corrupt/bad hard drives. And fully supported for NTFS/FAT32 mac files.

MacBook Pro hard drive failure- data recovery possible?

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