My computer is unable to boot and stays on the gray screen. I've tried to repair my computer with every method up to disk utility but nothing will work, so I want to back up my computer if possible before reinstalling the software. I don't use time machine, so I was wondering if there is a way to do it by external hard drive.
Thank you for any suggestions!
MacBook Air
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Thank you for your help!
I tried step one, but I got the error: unable to creat ".dmg" (input/output error).
Could this possibly be because my external hd doesn't have enough free space?
It means the internal drive is too far gone to be readable. If you have no backups at all, you'll have to use a recovery service such as Drive Savers, or find a local consultant. Some people have reported success wiith do-it-yourself data recovery using software, but I can't advise you about that.
To retrieve files, that have been deleted and also been emptied from the Trash or from a formatted HDD, you can use
Data Rescue 3 (trial lets you scan the HDD and see, if data is recoverable, but to actually recover files, you need to buy the full version for 99 USD) or
Data Recovery for Mac (trial lets you scan the HDD and see, if data is recoverable, but to actually recover files, you need to buy the full version for 89.95 USD).
DiskDrill - lets you recover data from HFS/HFS+, FAT, NTFS & other file systems right on your Mac, for free.
Also know, that you should immediately stop any writing processes to the actual HDD. If it is the same HDD as the one your operating system (OS) resides on, it is better to use an external HDD with Mac OS X on to boot from and install Data Rescue or Data Recovery for Mac onto to scan the HDD from which the data has been accidentally deleted.
All your deleted data remain on your Mac, therefore you are still able to recover deleted files only if you don’t write any new files to overwrite them. You should try some specific software to scan your Mac and then choose the wanted ones to recover.
After reinstalling the system software, you may lost some files and data of your Macbook. If that so, you can turn to the customer serivce for help. Or have a try to retrive deleted data from Mac by using apps yourself.
nhdgr wrote:
After reinstalling the system software, you may lost some files and data of your Macbook. If that so, you can turn to the customer serivce for help. Or have a try to retrive deleted data from Mac by using apps yourself.
Backup the data usually can get rid of troubles. If coming across this, try some software to scan the hard drive.
Data Recovery for Macbook Air when repair efforts failed
