Data recovery question

Hi,
I'll try to make this as clear as possible. A little while ago my powerbook suffered a fall on pavement. Not only did the hinges break but the battery adapter input module on the inside of the case broke as well. Now the internal battery can't take a charge. Any suggestions on how I can get the data off the disk despite the fact that I can't get the machine to boot because it's dead? My only alternate macs are a 17" powerbook g4 (I think it's aluminum) and a PowerMac G4 desktop (the silver one with the large speaker hole on the front).
Thanks,
Matt

Hi, Matt. Rory's got the right idea. The hard drive is easy to remove from your Powerbook and easy to install in an external drive enclosure. Unless the Powerbook was actually reading or writing data when it hit the pavement, its hard drive is probably fine, and will immediately appear on the desktop of any Mac you connect it to via FireWire (or USB2, in the case of your Aluminum Powerbook). 2.5" drive enclosures can be had for as little as about $30, and putting your drive into one will make it useful with whatever Mac you get to replace the dropped Powerbook. I strongly recommend a FireWire-capable enclosure even though USB2-only enclosures are a little less expensive, because a FireWire enclosure will be bootable and a USB enclosure won't.
For a large selection of enclosures for 2.5" drives, check newegg.com, zipzoomfly.com, and macsales.com. For instructions on removing the drive from your Powerbook, select your model from the list of available guides at http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/. Good luck!

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Data recovery question / challenge...

Please email me if you have any advice: [email protected] / challenge:Is there a tool by hyperion or anyone else, that will recover data from a valid index file & page file? As an administrator you can only export cubes through the server process, which is great when the server process is not locked up. Assuming that the Essbase server is not involved, a data recovery tool is needed. Hyperion must know how it reads and writes data to the index and page file, therefore, have they or can they create a tool to do so when the server process is not available. I am sure I am not the only one who would benefit from a data recovery utility such as this.Problem Source:I have an Essbase server that freezes after going through the startup sequence. The server process starts fine (I can run ports, dump, etc), then as soon as I start ANY application the server process is locked up. (no recovering free space it appears to start the app fine, just locked up) support says something is corrupted. (I agree) 1 strange behavior is that client timed out messages are not thrown. Clients just sit locked up when connecting. This implies that the server is "alive" just stuck on or thinking really hard about something. Either way, it's not responsive from them on, as no client threads are spawned.

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Urgent OSX data recovery question

Hello,
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https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repairers
And kits available.. https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/time-capsule-power-supply-repair-kits
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Data recovery options if drive not accessible through Target Disk Mode

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Details:
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General question about data recovery from raid on windows server !

hi,
I like to buy data recovery software for windows server to recover data with any raid( or whitout raid
so the company tells me you should be sure the Raid can be recognized correctly as local disk drive first, otherwise, our product wil not help you. so if I want to recover data of my customers which has windows server with any raid form ,how
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thanks
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h.david

I have myself NAS which is connected to my computer through router.
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A friend has asked for my help - his Macbook (1st generation - about 4 years old) suddenly refuses to start but displays a grey screen, sometimes with a question mark. You can also (sometimes) hear a few clicks from the hard drive. I'm assuming the drive has died - is that most likely?
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The only other thing I would try is physically removing the drive from the Macbook and, if you have one, installing it in an external FW enclosure, connecting it to a Mac using a raw SATA cable, or using a (preferably read-only) SATA drive dock.
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Data Recovery On an iBook G3

I had an iBook G3 in college (2002, exact model @ http://bit.ly/VGVpSh), and when it died I purchased a new Mac and shoved the iBook in a box (About 7 years ago). It died from the logic board/display issues that all those dual-USB iBooks had. I actually had one, or maybe even two, logic board(s) replaced under warranty, but it eventually went out again, and I just bought a whole new laptop. I know I have a ton of photos from college on there, and that's really the data I'm now after! I can get the screen to work most of the time by placing a clamp under the 'Option' key on the left half of the keyboard. New problem though, as fired it up to take a stab at finding my data; I'm getting a flashing question mark when it boots up, which a little research shows is indicative of hard drive failure... My photos!!! So I've messed around with the computer for an hour or so, and haven't had any luck.
First and foremost, does the flashing question mark mean that data's dead and gone for good, period? Or could the drive itself be fine, but the controller/cables be bad? Sadly, ten years later I don't have the install CD, so that's not an option. I used a random OS9 disc I found online, but it wouldn't boot off that either; I'm guessing because it's not the original OS CD for this model... I also can't get the 'Firewire target' to work. The oldest computer I have in the house is an Intel 2ghz core duo 2 (exact machine @ http://bit.ly/LqDkzw) running 10.6. I'm guessing the new machine/OS won't do the Firewire target mode, as I've been unsuccessful when I've tried. I just read there are different Firewire 400 vs Firewire 800 cables, so I guess I could just be using the wrong cable as well..? I found an old Firewire cable to even try this in the first place, but I have no idea if it's 400 vs 800. Or would a bad hard drive preclude the Firewire target mode anyway?
I've also tried random things like Ethernet connections, but no luck. I'm guessing the probably-wide OS gap won't allow them to communicate anyway.
I found a bunch of these laptops on ebay for $45, So I guess I could just buy one used, and swap the hard drives? That way, if the HD it self’s ok, moving it to a new home might help (plus it'd fix the logic board issue). Downside is that the hard drive swap doesn't look easy at all, and I could end up messing up the HD even more.
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I use the external caddy as edex67 has suggested you try. This is probably the cheapest and easiest way to recover the pics providing that the hard drive is working. The only catch is you must remove the drive in order to attach to the adapter. Since you are not trying to resurect the iBook, the drive removal would be easier as disassembly would not have to be as cautious. Below links to disassembly and a source for an adapter.
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/iBook_G3_12%22
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/

Data Recovery - External Hard Drive

Hi,
I have recently copied over a folder on my iOmega (Prestige Portable) External Hard Drive with a folder from my Power Book Hard Drive, with the replace all.
What I need to know is there a way to step back to the point before I copied over this folder?
Ok so here comes the Dumb bit, I have never set up Time Machine! Yes I know, very stupid!
So I'm now in the process of seeing if it is possible to step back with data recovery software and if this is possible what do people reccomend! I have tried SanDisk RescuePro but It comes up with a message saying that the drive is too big, I think it is meant for Flash Drives!
Have I posted this in the right Discussion thread? If not were do you think I would be best to post this?
Thanks

Johno11111 wrote:
Ok so here comes the Dumb bit, I have never set up Time Machine! Yes I know, very stupid!
Us mere mortals do tend to learn things the hard way, don't we?
So I'm now in the process of seeing if it is possible to step back with data recovery software and if this is possible what do people reccomend!
FIrst, stop using the drive immediately. If the files haven't been overwritten already, the more you use it, the more likely that is.
There are several Data Recovery apps for Macs; +Data Rescue II+ seems to be the one mentioned here most often, but others get good reviews, too. I've not used any, so can't say one is better than another.
I understand you'll need another external disk to receive the recovered files. (But you'll probably need one anyway for Time Machine or other backup app that you'll be using regularly from now on, right? You can use a second internal HD, Time Capsule, or in some cases back-up over your network.)
I also understand that some of these apps have a trial version that will tell you whether there's anything to be recovered, and perhaps recover a single file, so you don't spend the $$ for nothing.
Look for +Data Recovery+ via Google, VersionTracker.com or MacUpdate.com. The last two have user reviews. Just be certain whatever you use is compatible with Leopard.
And/or, search for +Data Recovery+ in the Using Leopard forum.
Once this is sorted out (or to explore Time Machine options), you might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

Data Recovery After Hard Drive Failure!

Ok, basically, I've got a 2 1/2 year old iBook G4 with a bombed hard drive, and unfortunately, the last time I backed up was around 3 months ago. Here's what happened right before the crash: some applications like Widgets and Safari were acting fluky, and it wouldn't let me open Word documents, so I restarted, because I thought it might have something to do with the fact that i had downloaded the new version of itunes not that long ago and hadn't restarted since. well, when i restarted, the gray screen with the wheel and the apple symbol went on for a really long time, and then the blue screen came up with the cursor, but nothing else happened, and the blue screen just stayed there. as far as i know, the hard drive wasn't making any unusual noises, just the usual occasional soft sounds that my hard drive has always made (there are usual sounds, right?) a piece of information that might be useful is that the hard drive was almost full (it only had about 5 GB left, which i understand is how much you should leave) could this have caused the failure maybe? anyway, i tried using the hard drive as a target and tried getting another computer to recognize it and pull the files off, but that didn't work. so, i brought it into the apple store, and they got it to boot up but using some external hard drive, i think. they tried disk utility, but that didn't see my hard drive. then the tried disk warrior, and that saw it and repaired it or something, but then it couldn't get the drive to mount. so, i'm assuming that because disk warrior didn't work and couldn't get it to mount, then other software like data rescue, etc... won't either. like all computer users, i've got some REALLY REALLY important data on there, and all the data recovery places i've gotten quotes from are pretty pricey. if the drive doesn't require physical data recovery, only non-physical, as i hope, the cheapest is still $350. even so, the person on the phone there didn't seem to know nearly as much as the people at the more pricier places. so, are there any other options besides expensive data recovery? i read something about using dd - a unix thing, but i don't know the first thing about it (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050302225659382) so i'm not sure i want to risk messing it up even more. and, if worse comes to worst, then i'll use a data recovery place... but can anyone tell me if they've used any of the data recovery companies below, and which ones are good?
(first three do evaluation for free, and then you decide if you want to continue based on more accurate price idea)
MacintoshDataRecovery.com
$500 non physical
$1100-1600 physical
Heroic Efforts
http://www.heroicdata.com/data_recovery
$350 non physical
ships to another (very expensive) place if physical
ACS Data Recovery
http://www.acsdata.com/index.htm
$600-700 non physical
DriveSavers.com
(recommended by Apple, probably the best, but the most steep, too)
could cost anywhere from $500-$2700 and $200 evaluation fee even if data is unrecoverable
Since this is our fourth hard drive failure in four different iBooks in 2 1/2 years, i am starting to become seriously disillusioned about the quality of the hardware Apple uses...not that i would ever get a dell or anything, but still....
THANK YOU in advance for any tips you might be able to offer, and also for reading this extremely long post!
katie
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I have read good reports concerning Data Rescue although I have not used it myself.
Once you get your data back, focus on a regular (even daily) backup routine, because as you know only so well, the question is not if a drive will fail, it's when.
My condolences, by the way.

Data recovery from a disk that is unmounted

Here is my problem:
disk utility had indicated that I had a couple of bad blocks in my start up disk and recommended that it be replaced. Since I already had a second internal hard drive with plenty of room on it, I simply installed OS 10.4 on the second hard drive and designated it as the startup drive.
Then I ran maintenance on the problem drive. After spending an hour or more grinding through every sector it appeared that the drive would pass master. However for some reason it hung up, stopped making progress and disabled my computer, i.e., I could move the cursor but could not click anything or select anything. Finally my only choice was to manually shut down and restart. Restart seemed to work fine except the disk on which I was performing maintenance did not show up on the desktop.
Finally I was able to locate it using disk utility and discovered that the mount point was missing and it was not mounted. Of course this is what I should have expected since techtool pro unmounts a drive while it performs maintenance and when I had to interrupt, it did not remount.
I spent three days trying to find a way to remount it, including downloading MountMe. Strangely when I ran MountMe it recognized the drive and gave me a successful remount message, but the drive was not actually remounted according to disk utility.
I have moved the drive to a different G-4 with no more success.
my greatest problem -- I had used Backup from .Mac but apparently was not careful enough about where the backup file was located. Generally I download to my desktop and then if I want to save a download I move it to an appropriate location. Unwisely I had done the same with backup which means of course that when the old startup drive crashed it took my desktop files with it.
Included among those backups were all of my financial records (Quicken) for the year. Three checking accounts, all of my credit card accounts, all of my business accounts, etc. I am talking about days of contacting credit card companies and banks for replacement of records for the year and, worse yet, they don't have the details in their files regarding the accounts to be charged nor do they have any info about inter account transfer, etc., etc., etc.
So, I am looking for a reasonably priced service provider to copy my defective hard drive for me. I don't think there is any problem with the data on the drive, I just can't get it remounted.
Maybe someone knows how to work around the mount point problem????
My main desktop computer is a G-4 quicksilver with dual 800, OS 10.4.3 and 1.4 GB of memory.
thanks,
John Cleek

Whenever someone reports issues with their drive my first question is always, "Do you hear any unusual noises coming from the computer?"
What I'm listening for is anything like grinding, scraping, what we always call 'ping-ponging' or other unusual clicking noises that would indicate a mechanical problem inside the drive. If you don't hear anything unusual then the problem is more likely to be corrupt volume information or a broken hard drive controller board.
If you hear noises then my recommendation is to stop trying to get anything off the drive because any more attempts would do yet more damage.
The only data recovery company I've used is www.drivesavers.com. I've called them multiple times to get quotes and their reps always seems to actualy have an idea what they're talking about. It is very expensive to use a service such as theirs but sometimes it is the only option available.

Data recovery for crashed hard drive?

Ok, recently my macbook pro internal hard drive crashed (I was receiving the question mark on folder at bootup). I have recently purchased a new hard drive and replaced it with the corrupt one. I tried to gain access to the data using an external caddy, however the hard drive did not appear in finder and I could not mount it in utilities.
Is there any possible way I can recover my files, preferably not through some company which wants thousands of $$$.

hi friend,
No need to worry. There are many cases due to which hard drive crashes and not works. Don't worry! The data is not lost forever; it is only invisible from your computer. You might be thinking that the disk will overwrite the space of the deleted data with some other data. Running a wrong data recovery software application might corrupt your data and there are chances of losing them forever. By using a good hard drive recovery tool you can recover all your lost data from corrupted hard drive, crashed hard drives.You can easily download the free trial version of the software.

Data recovery from a nonfictional Macbook Pro?

I have a 2010 Macbook Pro and earlier this evening, I think it might've given up. I closed the lid and opened it up a few minutes later and the screen wouldn't light up. So i restarted it and got this File with a question mark image on my screen. I did a bit of research and people mentioned it could be do to the MBP not finding the software it needs to boot up. So I restarted it, holding down Command + R and went through the OSX servers. I then went to repair disc permissions, repair disc, etc and everything checked out okay. It said it found nothing wrong and so I restarted it again and I was still left with the same problem.
Now before I decide to purchase an external HD case to move over data from my MBP to my iMac. I was wondering if there was any way I could possibly do it using an ethernet cable, wifi, bluetooth, or anything really, before I purchased said item.
Thank you.

If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdateor CNET Downloads. Recovery software usually provide trial versions that enable you to determine if the software would help before actually paying for it. Beyond this or if the drive has completely failed, then you would need to send the drive to a recovery service which is very expensive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

Data Recovery from TC 4gen drive

HI,
I just had problems with my TC, it shows "drive needs to be repaired" in Air Port Utility. After trying some backup via a connected USB drive (connected to TC) i did not succeeded so I just reinitialized the TC, keeping in mind using diskwarrior or disk drill for data recovery afterwards. The bad thing is, I can't reach the TC anymore with those tools, because it is a net drive?!?
Any ideas how to recover my data (photos, itunes lib etc.)?
Note: My question has nothing to do with Time machine.
Thanks in advance.

thanks for your reply, no other chance but replacing the drive out of the box?
I just read the
http://pondini.org/OSX/Recover.html
and I was afraid of such an answer :-).
Can you shortly explain, why it is not possible to recover a net drive?
I guess the cable connection via ethernet/Thunderboldt wouldn't change your advice?!
Many thanks anyway
And YES, factory reset was done
Message was edited by: luquaas

Is Data recovery from a damaged DVB-3000 COT notebook/laptop possible?

I replaced a hard drive for a DVB-3000 COT notebook/laptop. There are no additional cables to plug the old drive to attempt data recovery. Are there any external adaptors to attempt data recovery? Will I need software?
Any advise or link is appreciated
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
If you wish to use your old HDD as an external HDD to recover data, you can use one of the external enclosure like one of these:
External Enclosures for HDD's
My suggestion, spend few dollars more to get the one with USB 3.0
Regards.
BH
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