Hard Drive Back-Up

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Hard Drive Back-Up

I purchased my Macbook Pro in late 2008. I have had no trouble with it at all until about a month ago. I was running on the Lion OS X (10.4). It is a 13" unibody, without the battery door.

Recently, it was seriously lagging. Rainbow wheel popping up all the time. I restarted it and it came up fine, until one day it had been loading for what seemed like forever, I tried to restart and I could not get it past the grey startup screen. I have used SEVERAL tutorials. Once and only once was I able to get it to start up in safemode, it crashed again. So I did fsck booting in a single user mode, tried to reinstall my OS (with the Snow Leopard disk that came with)
But, nothing helps. I finally saw through disk utility (the only menu I can get to) that my S.M.A.R.T. disk was failing. After doing some research, I learned that meant I needed a new harddrive.

I am not opposed to buying a new harddrive. I have searched for some. I have read reviews. My problem lies now in that I was stupid and never bought an external harddrive. So, ALL of my files, music, pictures are on my laptop and I don't see any way to get them off if I can't boot in safemode to now transfer them.

Anyone out there have any advice or tips? Is there anything I can even do?

Also anyone have any good advice about what harddrive to buy?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4)

Posted on Mar 13, 2013 8:20 AM

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Answer 1

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OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Mar 13, 2013 8:31 AM in response to sjm8907

If you can get to Disk Utility and if you can connect an external HDD to your MBP that is recognized in Disk Utility, you may be able to copy your data using Disk Utility>Restore.

If you go to the OWC website, they offer a number of HDDs that can be used internally. Any SATA 2.5", 9.5 mm thick HDD will be compatible . You will need an enclosure for the external HDD. Give consideration for a HDD with a greater capacity than what you have now.

Ciao.

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Answer 2

sjm8907 Author

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Mar 13, 2013 8:35 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Thanks for the speedy reply

If my existing harddrive is labeled as failing though, will it be able to restore my files? Would I be able to use the existing harddrive as an external harddrive in the future?

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Answer 3

Mar 13, 2013 9:25 AM in response to sjm8907

If your drive is failing, I strongly recommend you do not ask it to do anything until you are ready to implement a solution. Trying to read it for example, can only make things worse.

My suggestion is to get an external drive and connect it to the MBP. Boot the MBP from your OS disc. Use Disk Utility on the OS disk to format the external, then install the OS on that drive. Next boot from the external drive and start your rescue efforts, including running DU to repair the drive.

Your external drive can later be installed in the MBP. An enclosure costs <$10.00.

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Answer 4

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Mar 13, 2013 9:33 AM in response to sjm8907

You said:"If my existing harddrive is labeled as failing though, will it be able to restore my files?", Maybe. You will only know that when you try.

"Would I be able to use the existing harddrive as an external harddrive in the future?" Not likely. If the HDD is failing, it will not suddenly get better. After you transfer the data, it should be sent to the recycle bin.

Note you will need to order two HDDs, one for the MBP and the other for backup.

Eustace Mendis has given you some excellent advice. I suggest to heed same.

Ciao.

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