Data Recovery off of a drive that will not boot

I have a server which will not boot into windows, I really just need to grab a few files off of it, I have downloaded several types of software and of course there is a limit on how much it will restore then it wants you to pay, the size is about 52 gb's, I used to use WINPE, does anyone have a piece of software that is free that I can recover this data since I can not boot into windows?
This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

Did you do this:
Repair the Hard Drive
Boot from your Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Select the external volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. Quit the installer to restart the computer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
See if this works to repair the drive.

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How can I deactivate Photoshop Elements 5.0 on hard drive that will not boot?

I have Elements 5.0 loaded on a hard drive which will no longer boot. I have a new hard drive and can access the old drive as an extra internal hard drive. I cannot use Photoshop, so I was thinking I need to deactivate the copy loaded on the old hard drive and reload it on the new hard drive. Is this the best solution? If so, how do I deactivate? When I start up the editor, it does not have an option for deactivating as I read about in another post. Under the help menu, there is a grayed out option for Registration. After a few seconds, a window appears saying there is a problem with my serial number and the application closes. Also, I would like to load Photoshop on a laptop later, so I do not want to waste one of my allowable loads. I would appreciate any help.

Yes, as long as you don't have it on more than two computers at once you're in compliance with the license. (Back in the days of PSE 5 adobe worked more on the honor system.)

HT3964 I have a MacBook Pro that will not boot up. The apple symbol Read more: I have a MacBook Pro that will not boot up. The apple symbol is there and a spinning wheel continues to spin. Any options??

I have a MacBook Pro that will not boot up. The apple symbol is there and the spinning wheel keeps spinning. Any idea how I can fix this?

Reinstall OS X.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
OR
Reinstall Snow Leopard without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.

I have a powerPC 8500 that will not boot up.

I have a powerPC 8500 that will not boot up. Lights come on, drives spins up and nothing. Any ideas? It has been sitting in storage for years. I would like to get some info off it.

If you wish to do further testing to insure it is the PRAM battery at fault before ripping into the computer, there are a couple of things that always worked for me if the battery was really the problem:
1) Zap the PRAM--cold boot and immediately press and hold these four keys simultaneously:
command
option
p
r
Keep holding until you here a total of three (3) startup chimes, then let go the keys. NOTE: In some Mac models, the second and third start-up chime tone during a PRAM zap can be rather quiet. Either crank up the volume, do the zap when the room is quiet, of use headphones to be sure you are hearing teh tones.
2) See if the computer will boot from a system disk by holding c during boot. The disk can be a full retail install disk, a system restore disk supplied with the computer, or a utility disk like DiskWarrior or TechTools that allows booting. If the computer boots and you get video, you can feel confident that the only thing needed is a PRAM battery. You can do a hot boot back to the hard drive and the computer should work as long as someone doesn't unplug it again.
However, if neither of these work, that can mean something more sinister than a PRAM battery has gone walkabout.

G4 that will not boot from any disc EXCEPT the Apple Hardware Test CD

We have a DP 1ghz Quicksilver PowerMac G4 that will not boot from any disc EXCEPT the Apple Hardware Test CD that came with the machine.
We were in the process of installing 10.4 Tiger before placing it for sale.
The Mac was originally OSX Server 10.1 that we later converted to a worksation running 10.3 Panther.
It has 1 GB of memory, 80GB hardrive, 250MB Zip Drive and a Radeon 7500 video card.
Since this machine only has a CD-R drive and not a DVD-R, we installed Tiger using another Mac via Target Disk Mode. The installation process went well, but when I tried to reboot I got a Kernel Panic right after startup screen with the grey Apple logo.
On some reboots we get to the blue startup screen, others it stops at the grey Apple logo, others a black box like the a Kernel Panic - but with no text. Twice it went directly into Open Firmware.
We have done the following during our troubleshooting:
- Reseat RAM, Video Card, Hard Drive, Zip & CD-R connections
- Remove RAM 1 stick at a time and reboot
- Replace RAM with RAM from another working Quicksilver
- Replace Video Card with one from another working Quicksilver
- Zap PRAM
- Reset CUDA switch
- Unplug the MAC and remove everything (RAM, Battery, etc) for 30 minutes and try to reboot
- Tried booting from the Macintosh Server G4 Software Restore CD
- Tried booting from Mac OS X Server CD
- Tried booting from AppleCare Protection Plan CD with TechTool
- Tried booting from Diskwarrior CD
- Tried booting from an external FireWire drive with a disk image of Tiger OS Install
- Tried booting with the hard drive disconnected
The Mac WILL boot from the Apple Hardware Test CD and will pass ALL of the extended tests.

Conventional wisdom says that any Mac that will not boot up from a System/Install CD OS 9 or an Install CD Mac OS X, has a Hardware problem.
The diagnostic CD is a red herring because it uses a very primitive method of reading the CD, and so does not properly represent the machines general ability to read CDs.
I would look at the CD drive cables, etc, and see if another drive gives different results.
You have not mentioned using the Startup Manager (option key at Startup) to do any checking:
HT1310- Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume

We have a DVD in the super drive that will not eject. The DVD does not show up on the desktop. Have tried the keyboard eject button, and also restarting the computer. Any ideas on how to eject it?

We have a DVD in the super drive on our Macbook Pro that will not eject. The DVD does not show up on the desktop. Have tried the keyboard eject button, and also restarting the computer. Any ideas on how to eject it?

here is a troubleshooting article from Apple about this: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2801. Hope this helps

I am in mavericks disk utility recovery mode as my mac book will not boot up & stays only on the grey apple screen. When I verify the disk I get open error5 :input /output error on Syst stuck on 1 minute pouring out over 50 error messages & still counting

I am in Mavericks disk utility recovery mode as my mac book pro will not boot up & stays on the Apple grey screen . When I verify disk permissions I get
Open error 5:"input/ output error" on syst with over 50 of this messages & still counting . Disk Utility says 1 minute
But this has been going on for over 10 mins .
I can not verify disk or repair disk .
I have tried to reinstall mavericks operating system but it says my hard drive is locked which is very strange .
Does anyone know what is going on here ?
My system looks like it has been totally corrupted . Thanks Andrew

Could be. The "lock" isn't actually looking for a password.
WARNING: This will completely erase the ENTIRE hard drive.
What you would need to do is boot to recovery > disk utility > select the MAIN drive on the left side > partition > change partition layout from CURRENT to 1 PARTITION > ensure on the right side it says Format : Mac OSX Extended (Journaled) then push APPLY.
Then if it will allow us, close the windows until you see the 4 options popup again and select "Reinstall Mac OS X" select the Mac HD and you should be good to go!

Mid-2009 MacBook Pro sees internal SATA hard drive, but will not boot from or format

I inherited a Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53 GHz model) with a very strange issue.
It first presented itself as not being able to boot from the internal SATA hard drive that came with the computer. Nothing I tried could get it to boot, so I assumed the file system was corrupted beyond repair and booted from a CD to try to format the drive. Disk Utility on the CD would not format the drive, giving me strange error messages like "Unable to write to the last block of the device".
At this point I figured the drive itself must be toast, so I pulled it out and put another known-good SATA hard drive in, booted from CD, and attempted to format. Again, same error messages and an unsuccesful format.
So I had the bright idea of formatting one of the drives in an external enclosure and then putting it in the MBP to see if OS X would even install. No dice. Get a cryptic error message before installation even begins.
So I installed OS X on the drive in the external enclosure and put it in the MBP, and it attempts to boot, but never goes anywhere.
So to sum up, the symptoms I'm seeing:
MacBook Pro CAN see internal SATA hard drives.
MacBook Pro WILL NOT boot from any internal SATA hard drive and cannot format or install OS X to any internal SATA hard drive.
MacBook Pro WILL boot from any CD or external device and seems to work properly otherwise.
At this point I'm thinking it's one of two things: the hard drive ribbon cable or the SATA controller on the logic board.
Since the MacBook Pro seems to work completely fine other than this one issue, and will boot properly from both external devices and the CD (also a SATA device), I'm thinking and hoping that it's just the hard drive ribbon cable. From my searches online, I've heard that this batch of MacBook Pros is known to have issues with the hard drive ribbon cable, but it seems in most cases this manifests itself by the Mac not being able to see a drive at all.
I've done quite a bit of troubleshooting to get to this point, but right now I'm just looking for any feedback at all. Specifically I'd love to know a way I can easily test to see whether it's the logic board or the cable.

UPDATE: An interesting development!
I just tried a third known-good SATA hard drive, one which I believe supports SATA I only (but I'm not sure), and unlike the other drives that the Mac sees but cannot properly interact with, the Mac can't even see this one when I put it inside.
Frustrating as this may be, I believe I'm actually getting closer to a solution since my symptoms now appear to be closely aligned with people having SATA ribbon cable issues.
Onward!

Advice for troubleshooting an emac that will not boot

My mom's emac will not boot, and gets stuck with a gray screen and apple logo along with the circling timer. We have tried the following:
(OSX.2x)
turning off and unplugging computer.
removed all peripherals
reboot in safe mode
reboot from installation disc
nothing works. The computer gets stuck in the boot process. We have run the hardware repair disc, there are no problems with the hardware.
I would like to make as many attempts to troubleshoot problem at home before spending a lot of money by taking it to a repair shop. I would also like some information before I go in order to be prepared to discuss the problem. I do not want to get 'taken' for repairs that may be unnecessary.
Any guidance, suggestions, advice would be very helpful and greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
emac Mac OS X (10.2.x)
Mac OS X (10.2.x)

It sounds as if you've already figured the standard trobleshooting / startup methods. There is one additional thing that can block an eMac from starting: if the PRAM battery is failing, that can prevent the Mac from starting up. My understanding is that a failed battery would block the eMac from starting up to the Apple Hardware Test (AHT) Disk also, through. Perhaps the battery is low enough to prevent a normal start but still has enough in it to let AHT come up? If you have an electronics multimeter, you can test the battery while it's under load (i.e., still in the eMac's PRAM battery holder) and see if it's within 0.1v of the nominal 3.6v specification. If the battery is low, replacing it is straightforward (see eMac - Do-It-Yourself). The 1/2 AA 3.6v lithium battery is available online and is usually in stock at places like Radio Shack, where it costs about US$11 or so (the battery is cheaper online, but after adding shipping and handling, the brick-and-motar store is about the same, plus quicker).

DATA RECOVERY for a hard drive that isn't recognized.

Hi,
I just found today that my hard drive is bad. I had one of those geek squad people come look at it and he was able to get it to boot from the Mac OS X Leopard CD, but my hard drive was no where to be seen.
I'm taking the hard drive to one of those places that specializes in data recovery. But, I was wondering...can they retrieve files that were on the desktop? Or are those files gone forever?

Hello Again! Now that there is serious soul searching going on now would be a good time to think about your backup plans for when you get everything up and running again. If the drive is going off to the recovery center worrying further won't help so I suggest coming up with a good recovery plan for times like these. Hard drives are going to fail and they always seem to fail at the most inopertune times but with a good backup plan this could have only been a restart. A second hard drive is a must if there is anything at all important on the computer. It can be an external or internal. I have 4 320 gig SATA drives in my G4 (and I really don't have anything very important on there) I usually keep two secondary bootable clones and rotate between them in case of a backup failure. Then I try to keep another clone on an external and finally I keep a partition with only a fresh install and my utilities for drive repair. I tinker a lot and I've screwed things up a few times but it really wasn't even a minor irritation. Good luck. Tom

New hard drive. Will not boot from install dvd.

Earlier this week, I dropped my computer.
It was probably a 3 foot fall.
Computer froze, so I restarted and got the flashing folder with question mark.
Started in internet recovery, and disk utility confirmed that I had killed my hard drive.
Got a new hard drive and installed. Started in internet recovery, formatted hard drive. Disk utility says it's good to go.
Was given the option to install Mavericks, but keep getting an error message.
Attempted to restart from install dvd that came with the MBP. Tried every startup shortcut there is.
Optical drive recognizes the disk, but I always get stuck on the gray screen with the wheel.
Reset PRAM. Reset SMC. Same problems. I do not have access to another mac or a PC with admin rights.
I'd rather not brave the Apple Store this weekend in the snow in a town that never gets snow (people drive poorly on a good day!).
Any tips?
Got the MBP in 2010, new. Was running mountain lion when I dropped it.
Thanks!

Yiou can't use Internet recovery on a 2010 Mac notebook to install any version of OS X on it. That is why you are getting that error. You have to use the original System reinstall discs that came with it to install OS X on a new drive or use the OS X reinstall disk to restore from a time machine backup.
Since your system doesn't seem to want to completely boot from that disc you should try an external DVD drive that connects by USB port as the built in superdrives are known to fail or partially fail at any time. Don't buy an Apple external Superdrive as they only work on Mac computer that did not originally come with a built in DVD drive. Any Brand external DVD drive will work on your Mac except Apples own external DVD drive.

Had larger drive installed, will not boot...help !

Had a new, larger drive installed on my MacBook Pro, running the latest version of Snow Leopard.
Booted off the startup disk, restored everything from the TimeMachine Backup. System indicated the restore was successful.
But it will not reboot, just get the white screen with the Apple Logo on it and the twirling circle.
Selected one partition, journal entry..think everything was done correctly, but must have missed something.
Any ideas?
Barbara

Barbara:
OK, so you have installed and formatted your new internal HDD. Since TM does not make a bootable backup, simply restoring it will not give you a functional system.
After installation you need to install and update the OS, then restore from backup as per this link from the Time Machine forum.
Installation Process
• With computer shut down insert install disk in optical drive.
• Hit Power button and immediately after chime hold down the "C" key.
• Select language
• Open Installer and begin installation.
• Select installation option
• Choose to Customize and deselect Foreign Language Translations and Additional Printer drivers.
• Proceed with installation.
• After installation computer will restart for setup.
• After setup, reboot computer.
• Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
• Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in left side bar.
• Select First Aid in main panel.
• Click Repair Disk Permissions.
• Connect to Internet.
• Download and install Mac OS X v10.6.7 Update Combo
Computer will restart.
• Repair Disk Permissions as previously.
• Go to Apple Menu > Software Update.
• Install all updates.
Computer may restart after updates.
• Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
• Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in left side bar.
• Select First Aid in main panel.
• Click Repair Disk Permissions.
cornelius

Deauthorizing a computer that will not boot

I've been using Itunes for about a decade. Apple limits the number of computers you can authorize to sync your ipod to 5, which I have used. To add another computer though you have to deauthorize one of the other computers. Problem is, 4 of the 5 computers have died, and I cannot boot them. So, how can I sync my ipod to my new computer? How can I deauthorize computers that won't boot, or are at the dump?

Use the Deauthorize All command documented in this article, or if it isn't an option, the 'contact iTunes Store support' link at the bottom of it.
(114390)

How to reinstall OS on Macbook Pro that will not boot

I have a mid-2010 Macbook Pro that is stuck on the grey screen with apple logo and progress bar. I'm going to get all my data off of it and then I want to wipe everything off of it and re-install the OS so it is like factory again.
Do i need a disk? What is the simplest way to do this?

accuracy_101 wrote:
Can you inform me on how to format the new hard drive once I receive it?
You will have to connect the new HDD to the MBP via USB (you will need to install the HDD in an enclosure).
Boot into the recovery partition.
Select Disk Utility from the 4 option menu.
Open Disk Utility>Erase, select the new HDD from the left hand column and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format and click on the erase button.
Exit Disk Utility and select the reinstall OSX option from the 4 option menu.
Install the OSX.
Restart the MBP with the OPTION key down. Select the new HDD icon and boot the MBP.
If successful, install the new HDD into the MBP.
Ciao.
Also, should I even bother re-installing the OS after there is a new hard drive installed? Would it make any difference?
You need an OSX in order for the MBP to function.
Ciao.

After restoring from Time Machine to new Hard drive, system will not boot

I replaced my hard drive on my Macbook (2008 model) with a larger drive. I then put in my Snow Leopard disk, and followed the steps to restore from Time Machine backup. a few hours later it said it was restored, but when trying to boot up, I just get a blue screen with an occasional flicker to the Leopard screen. I tried an earlier back up as well but with the same results. Any suggestions??

Same exact problem here just yesterday, folks.
Got a bigger hard drive on my MacBook Pro (15-inch Core 2 Duo) and installed it. Followed the restore procedures from Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/333319/the-secret-of-the-time-machine+assisted-hard-drive-swa p). Then got the blue screen immediately after the chimes.
I only managed to transfer my old disk content by using CarbonCopyCloner.
Having said that, your solution looks uselful, Portland Mac! :
Portland Mac wrote:
... But when I decided to try and just do a fresh install and work my way back through all my software, I started by installing Snow Leopard and suddenly it boots and everything from my Time Machine backup is there...
But I would not say the following:
Portland Mac wrote:
... On a new drive apparently you have to install Snow Leopard before you do a time machine restore.
Am I mistaken, or did you do a fresh install after restoring your TimeMachine backup?
In any case, I found an interesting Apple article that might confirm that there is a problem: [Mac OS X v10.6: Issues after restoring a Mac from a Time Machine backup made with a different Mac ("Restore System From Backup…")|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3243]. Or is it a completely different thing?
And another discussion that might give some good advice: [http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12578529#12578529]. Personally, I will now do as the man says: two backups, on two different external hard drives, using different apps, the other one being CarbonCopyCloner...
For info, and I don't know whether that matters, my backup disk had been full and some past content had been erased automatically by Time Machine. But I don't think this should have mattered...

Data Recovery off of a drive that will not boot

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