Data Recovery on Failed Drive

My son's iBook hard drive died with all his graduate school work on the drive. Apple is going to replace the drive under AppleCare, but we're trying to see how to get valuable files off before sending to Apple. DiskWarrior stalled. It was showing a SMART failure. One local tech shop said they couldn't recover anything. Right now the computer won't even show a startup screen. Are there any software options for recovering data off this kind of drive? Any recommendations on places to ship the iBook for data recovery. My daughter-in-law talked with TechRestore.com -- any experience with them?
Thanks for any help.
WK

With a hard drive mechanical failure such as you've had the only likely recourse is to send the drive to one of the various data recovery services (some advertise in the back of Mac World magazine) you might locate on Google. Recovery services will be fairly expensive - probably at least $500.00.
To avoid this in the future you should plan on purchasing an external Firewire drive and make regular backups. Much cheaper and less traumatic.
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Similar Messages

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 options if drive not accessible through Target Disk Mode

I have the classic data recovery question: my computer seems to have failed, and I'd like to save some data. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Details:
- Most recent backup was about a month ago to Time Machine (unfortunately, this laptop went off on a long trip and didn't have access to the destination disk, and then when it came home was running very slowly and my wife halted the TM backup thinking it was slowing the computer down). Some documents have been backed up more recently via Dropbox and/or Mozy, but not a couple important ones
- When booted in Target Disk Mode, no drive shows up on the computer to which I connect it
- When I boot from an OS X CD, a drive appears in Disk Utility with no volumes on it, and the options to 'repair disk' and 'verify disk' are greyed out.
- When I try to just start the computer up, it gets to the grey screen with the apple and just spins.
Questions:
- Should I attempt anything else myself? I've never learned about Lion's Recovery Mode; can it be used to copy some data off, in the unlikely case that this computer would boot into that Mode? Would any further attempts to boot, etc. potentially reduce the chances of a professional company recovering data?
- I'm planning to take this to an Apple Store today to confirm that this is indeed a hard drive problem and not a failed mother board or something; is there a way for me to do this myself? In the past I've used Hardware Test CDs from Apple and stuff; I don't know if those still work on modern computers.
Thanks again for any help!

I know I used to have a copy of Disk Warrior, but can't find it and it's probably out of date. I downloaded the Data Rescue demo, but it only got partway through scanning the disk and then failed. It told me to 'clone' the disk, but after about three days of trying still wasn't making much progress on it, so I gave up.
However, I was able to recover the few important files I needed simply by removing the drive, putting it in an enclosure, and connecting it via USB. After 10 or 20 minutes, Finder gave me a message that said something like, "this disk cannot be repaired, and is probably damaged. You can still access the disk, but copy everything off ASAP because it will probably fail soon." Some files indeed couldn't be copied, but I could copy the things I needed.
I assume that this is a hardware problem. To confirm, I assume that I can check it without having DiskWarrior simply by trying to reformat it? If it can't be reformatted, I assume there's no chance that it is a functioning drive. Is that right?

Data recovery on failed HDD

Hi everyone,
So I have a rather common problem but I thought I would ask anyway. My friend gave me his MacBook Pro to fix because the HDD failed. The hard drive clicks when the computer is turned on and the computer will also not boot. When the power button is pressed the screen is white with no Apple logo. When plugging the disk into my computer (Using an HDD data transfer cable) the disk is not recognized in the Finder, Disk Utility or the Unix command line. The Mac will not boot into safe mode, single user mode or any others (I tried them all). Another issue that I found rather interesting is it would also not boot from the Mac OS X install DVD. There is some important client data on this HDD and was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on how to save this important data. Also no backups exist and I also cannot access the recovery partition by holding (option) at startup.
Thank you all in advance for your time!

Apple0sx7,
you’ll need to install a replacement HDD (or SSD) into your friend’s MacBook Pro. If your friend’s grey Mac OS X Install DVD is the right one for his model MacBook Pro (they’re model-specific), then you can try cleaning the lens of the SuperDrive to see if that will let the MacBook Pro boot from the DVD. If that doesn’t work, then it sounds as though its SuperDrive will need to be repaired or replaced.
Those client data are so important that no backups were made of them? Your friend will need to hire a data recovery firm to have a chance at recovering those data — note that their services tend to be expensive, and that they can’t guarantee recovery, since recovery depends upon the state of the disk where those data are located.

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 crash.

I've been using Palm Desktop Software 4.1.4 basically as a great Index Card app. My hard drive died but I recovered my DAT files from backups. On a new computer (Windows 7 x64) I reinstalled PDF 4.1.4 and added my .DAT files, but the software doesn't recognize them--nor will it allow me to use the User Names from the original installation. I tried re-installation x3 with no success--I repeated the process with the 6xx version of PDF, again with no success.
Is there any way I can retrieve my data and avoid having to re-type all of them?
Thanks. Haddox Sothoron
Post relates to: HP TouchPad (WiFi)

1.
If you can boot, try using a linux liveCD like systemrescue. Use a flash drive to copy everything to the flash drive.
2.
If you can't boot, then you can try connecting the drive from another computer - not sure how that works, but it has
been done before.
Here's some links from my website,
http://shengchieh.50webs.com/tuxslinks.html
http://www.sysresccd.org/ (non-commercial; SystemRescueCd)
http://www.mondorescue.org/ (non-commercial; Mondo)
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk (non-commercial; TestDisk)
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec (non-commercial; PhotoRec)
https://grc.com/ (commercial; SpinRite)
These links are for linux systems, but some may be applicable for your machine.
http://www.antrix.net/journal/techtalk/reiserfs_data_recovery_howto.html (ReiserFS)
http://linuxshellaccount.blogspot.com/2008/08/recovering-deleted-files-by-inode.html (Recovering Deleted Files By Inode Number In Linux And Unix)
http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/397719-repair-a-linux-file-system-and-reclaim-deleted-files (Reclaim Deleted Files and Repair Filesystems on Linux; 1/25/11)
If you need more, do a search for "data recovery".
Regardless, look at system rescue link first. And ask questions in their forum if you still have questions after reading
their docs, et.al.
Sheng-Chieh

Help with data recovery on failed MBP HD Please

Hello
My MacBook Pro 160 GB froze the other night and I had to hard reset it. Ever since I have not been able to turn it on and log into the OS (Mountain Lion). All I could do was get the Apple logo when you turn the MacBook on or a folder with a question mark (a couple times).
I took it to the Apple store even though I was out of warranty and they still helped (got to love Apple customer service!). The genious plugged in a cable and did his diagnosis and it froze tyring to load the into the hard drive but said that the OS was reconginzed in this diganostic machine so he said it was probably a harware issue and not software.
Long story short, they took it to the back and tried a new Hard drive cable, which was not the issue. They said that they were able to log into the HD in the back and that all my infomation was still on there but it was really slow to use and said I should replace the HD and transfer the data off of that failed drive onto the new one.
However, I dont now how to do this on a Mac. Do I get an enclosure or a "HD sled" as the genious recommended. Do I use software to recover, and is my data really safe? Please anyone, help me out. I have some pictures I really do not want to lose and form now on will make sure I buy an external HD to backup all my data via Time Machine.
Thank you so much.
Will make sure to give you 10 points if you can help me or 5 if you give input.

Buy an enclosure for your old drive, and you will need to buy a new drive to replace it.
How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) 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.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the
      mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of
      the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive
      is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the
      Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from
      the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
      (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
      GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and
      wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the
      drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main
      window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the
      Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to
      return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several
      hours depending upon the drive size.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the
      Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the
      Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.
The above takes you through the entire process that you need to follow. This assumes you have removed the old drive, installed the new drive in the computer, and installed the old drive in an external enclosure.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
1. Cool Drives
2. OWC
3. Firewire Direct
4. California Drives
5. NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.
The above sites also sell replacement hard drives. You are looking for 2.5" SATA Notebook-sized hard drives and enclosures. If you want good performance spend a little extra on the hard drive. Look for 7200 RPM drives with 16 MB cache. You are looking for a drive with SATA 3.0 Gb/s support with a capacity of around 500 GBs that is not more than 9.5 mm high.
Any cheap USB enclosure will be suitable for the data transfer. You should find one under $25.00.

Data Recovery on External Drives

I have an external LaCie 200GB FireWire 400 drive, the F.A. Porsche one. While unmounting it before a trip I was in a hurry and unplugged the FireWire cable too soon and it came up with the customary message informing me as such. I paid it no mind as I was in a hurry and I'd done it once or twice before on accident and had suffered no wrath.
Anyway when I got home this evening I went to plug it in and found the drive unresponsive. I got a message saying I couldn't mount the volume but could initialise it in Disk Utility, so I did. The drive was showing but the volume with my data was gone, or rather it was showing up as "disk1s3" instead of "Rei" as it is named.
I tried the following steps to recover my data:
1. Disk Utility: I tried to repair the volume. I received an error saying it could not be done.
2. TechTool Pro: I did the drive test and it came back as having passed.
3. TechTool Pro: I tested the volume, found that the index was corrupted. Made sense.
4. DiskWarrior: I tried to recover it with DiskWarrior. During the recovering process the program became unresponsive and I got the beach ball of doom. After pressing AppleAltEsc I found the program was not responding and highlighted in red. I force-quit the application. I tried again and it proceeded to do the exact same thing. This time I noticed a message stating something along the lines of performance being slowed due to a drive malfunction. I was, once again, forced to force-quit the program.
5. DataRescue II: I attempted to use DataRescue II to see if I could at least view the files and transfer them off the drive and back them up to DVD so I could format the drive and reload all my data. Though it is visible to Disk Utility, DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro it is not, however, visible to DataRescue II.
6. TechTool Pro: I am now having TT P attempt to recover the data. I'm planning on letting it run into the night and hope in the morning it will be fine.
If anyone has any more recommendations on what I can do let me know. I can afford to buy another external to transfer all of my data onto that if I can access it long enough to pull it all off, but I need a program that can at least see the files to grab them.

Hi, Doug.
By not ejecting the drive before disconnecting it, the partition map was corrupted. Short of professional data recovery, you've covered everything and then some in my "Data Recovery" FAQ. If DR-II and TTP can't recover the data, then you're left with professional data recovery, per my FAQ.
I presume you don't have backups of the contents on the LaCie. After you recover from this incident, I suggest you implement a comprehensive Backup and Recovery solution addressing all of your drives. For advice on the backup and recovery solution I employ, see my "Backup and Recovery" FAQ.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Data recovery from Hard Drive using external USB adaptor

Hi all,
Satellite L655D-S5066BN laptop.
My moderboard or processor failed the other day. (Computer power is on, but it would not boot at all, only the fan seems to run at full speed. Other than that, it is totally dead, not even the Toshiba BIOS logo, no hard drive activity at all).
I removed the hard drive and pluged it in an external adaptor and tried to read it from my desktop.
It seems to work fine, as I was able to access it and copy all the pictures and music files.
They were under c:\Pictures and respectively c:\Music directories.
However, when I try to access My Documents forlder I get an error telling me that I don't have credentials to access that directory.
The computer did not have any passoword protecting the User Account, and didn't use any encription software.
Only my daughter was the only user.
Questions:
Is any way to access those folders that seem to be protected?
Would it be worth trying to replace the motherboard / processor ? If so where would I find such a motherboard?
Thank you for your feedback.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Apparently, I found the solution.
Doing the below procedure I was able to access the files and copy all the content of My Documents.
To resolve this issue, you must turn off Simple File Sharing, and then take ownership of the folder:
Turn off Simple File Sharing:
Click Start, and then click My Computer.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box, and then click OK.
Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if one appears.
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.
If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
Click OK.
You may receive the following error message, where Folderis the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of:You do not have permission to read the contents of directory Folder. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control? All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
Click Yes.
Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and the folder contents.
Disclaimer: Not my idea, but I learned from this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881/en-us

Data Recovery external hard drive - Stellar Phoenix or Disk Drill?

Hi guys
This might not be the right location for my post, sorry, but I didn't know where to put it elsewhere.
This is the situation: My Finder keeps telling me that copying a huge folder to my My Book Studio Edition II is imposible, so I tried to reconfiger the external hard drive. Result: all my data is lost on that one (stupid me, indeed )
Luckily, I have another external HD with a back-up from the 1st of july, and the most recent files are on my computer. Only some folders an files are lost, or not up-to-date anymore, since I stored them on the external hard drive without making a back-up on the other external HD.
Google told me that Stellar Phoenix and Disk Drill can help, and indeed, Stellar Phoenix already showed me the map structure I had on my My Book Studio Edition II before completely erasing it, and this after only having scanned less than 5 %, but before continuing, I wonder if this software (and Disk Drill) are reliable, and they won't do anything bad to me beloved MacBook Pro
Thanks for your opinion!
Bob

Apparently, I found the solution.
Doing the below procedure I was able to access the files and copy all the content of My Documents.
To resolve this issue, you must turn off Simple File Sharing, and then take ownership of the folder:
Turn off Simple File Sharing:
Click Start, and then click My Computer.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box, and then click OK.
Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if one appears.
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.
If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
Click OK.
You may receive the following error message, where Folderis the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of:You do not have permission to read the contents of directory Folder. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control? All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
Click Yes.
Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and the folder contents.
Disclaimer: Not my idea, but I learned from this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881/en-us

Data recovery from failed HDD in my 2.16 Core 2 Duo black case?

I have a question mark upon startup and the OS never launches, and I tried using a new 10.6 DVD to install the OS again and use the utilities on the DVD. I quickly saw there was no recognition of the HDD. I ordered and am installing a new 320GB 7200 RPM HDD soon as it arrives here. I also am thinking of picking up a Newer Tech universal USB drive adapter to see what I can grab from my original HDD if possible. Is this the best route to go to recover data? Super Duper can also be used to clone the old drive, I think, during the install of 10.6 on the new HDD, but I'm unclear about that step. Why not just start the old drive as a target drive and pull files from it?
Am I crazy or will this work?
Your help is much appreciated in advance.

kklare wrote:
BTW Firewire is not faster but is perhaps more uniform in transfers.
-Ken
Minor correction (or just clarification, if you will):
The maximum transfer speed for the older Firewire was 400MB/s. The newer technology maxes out at 800MB/s. USB has a maximum of 480MB/s.
The important thing to note is that the average transfer speed for Firewire (the older version) is faster than the average transfer speed for USB in nearly every case. If you're moving a lot of data (dozens or hundreds of GBs) around, you'll want the higher average speed to save the time.
Some sources:
(even though I dislike Wikipedia in most cases!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#ComparisonwithFireWire
http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm
http://www.ehow.com/facts4869289firewire-vs-usb.html
~Lyssa

Data recovery MacBook Hard drive

Hello, my hard drive died, and Apple replaced it because it was covered under extended warranty. But I do have photos I'd very much like to recover from the old drive....any hints on good ways to go? The info online is not very helpful so far. Thanks!

Hi Scott, thanks for the info. I am not sure what an external enclosure is exactly, though I'm getting the importance of having a very sealed static-free environment, and will probably have to pay a professional service to do it....but several thousand dollars won't be worth it! Thanks, Julie

Help need to Recover data from 2009 iMac failing drive won't boot?

How can I boot my 2009 iMac which came with Snow, from my macbook pro yosemite to recover my data on iMacs failed drive?

Yes in target mode can I do wirelessly? or does it need wired firewire cable between the computers?I want to try to repair from disc utility and recover my data using my data rescue app first.Will there be any problems using
macbook pro which is using
yosemite?

Data migration from rescued drive to new internal drive

Need assistance! I recently experienced a hard drive failure on my MacBook (OS 10.5). Apple replaced my hard drive with a new one (running 10.6), and a data recovery company was able to resuce the data from my failed drive; they put it all on an external drive. I then used migration assistant to get my old data back onto the new drive. The problem is that my old home folder was encrypted with File Vault, so that data would not transfer -- i.e., my photos, music, bookmarks, old emails, etc.
I've tried booting up from the external drive, but no dice. The laptop sees the drive and looks like it attempts to start up from it, but it just keeps spinning. Are there any other tricks to access my old home folder in order to turn off File Vault so that I may transfer that data onto my new hard drive?

I tried it and i got the runtime error with "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library"
When I tried a part of options, that is no problem at all. However, when i select all options, the memory usage is increase and then the error will be returned.
The server is Win2003 with 4GB memory.
From Samson
Edited by: samson leung on Sep 21, 2009 6:40 PM

Help with Mac Mini data recovery from damaged harddrive

So I've recently had a hard drive failure with my Mac. This is the second time it's happened with the first instance being my fault as I overloaded the fan with too much ram and it kept overheating. This time I got it home turned it on and got the icon that has a folder with a question mark. So I rebooted it while holding alt and performed an internet recovery. I tried a repair but it was greyed out, so I contacted apple and they said I should have it checked and attempt a data recovery providing the drive is not badly damaged.
I have been on the phone to a repair service and they said they can perform a recovery for a minimum of £100 to a max of £200. I'm aware there are places that provide services on badly damaged drives for extortionate prices so I won't be giving them a try. The turn around time is also a maximum of a week. The hard drive is over a year old so I would like to keep the files i have on it as I need them for work.
Is this a good price for data recovery, or is it possible to get it cheaper at other shops? And is there anyway I could do the same at home for cheaper? If anyone has any places they could recommend that can do the same for a better price that would be great as I'm currently living in London.
Thanks

It depends on the nature of the problem what the best solution will be. However in a case where I had a hard drive with a physical problem (rather than corruption), I was able to recover the data using Disk Warrior. Disk Warrior can not only rebuild the hard disk directory (in the even of corruption), but if the hard drive has a physical problem it can build a hard drive catalog in memory and with that create a virtual drive on your desktop from which you can recover files.
It depends on how sick the drive is but if it is 'merely' terminally ill rather than completely dead it can get you out of a hole. If you hear the drive repeatedly clicking then this is usually a sign of a terminally ill drive. I recovered several hundred GB this way.

Data Recovery on Failed Drive

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