Hard drive failed, help moving old files

My hard drive failed, and i had the Genius Bar replace it. I bought a sled at BestBuy and can read most of the files/structure.
I am having difficulty moving some database files because I don't have priveledges. Tried to use old username and password to change the file permissions, but can't. How can I resolve this issue?

Click on the Finder/Desktop and choose Go > Computer and navigate to your User/Public/DropBox folder.
Drag and drop your files from Music, Pictures, Documents etc., into this folder, the permissions and ownership should change to you.
If not drag to the desktop and perform a users permission reset
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
The iTunes libray file and iPhoto Libray have paths names in them to the old user, so you will need to copy the music out of the old iTunes folder and reimport. Right click on iPhoto Library and "show package contents" to get the Originals folder out and reimport. That should corrrect the pathnames in the db files.
You can also edit the iTunes/db file in TextEdit and Find and Replace All the partial pathnames so you can keep your playlists.

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2007 iMac, replaced hard drive, can't recover old files from old hard drive!

So I have a 2007 intell imac, the hard drive went out, I replaced it and bought a thermalake blacx hard drive doc to get my files off the old hard drive. I run Disk Utility, it can see the old hard drive but it can't repair it or verify it. Do I need to get a third party to get the info off hte old hard drive??? HELP!!!HELP!!!!!

You could use a data recovery service but that's going to be really expensive. You could also try a data recovery software like DataRescue III http://store.apple.com/us/product/TX415LL/A/prosoft-data-rescue-3
Or DiskWarrior http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
Either might help, I prefer DiskWarrior, but it's also possible that neither will. A hard lesson learned regarding backups I suppose.

Ive lost iphotots and iweb after hard drive failed help

Hi my hard drive failed yesterday and I took it to the apple store who confirmed it had failed. They advised I should purchase a new one, provided me the specs and fit it myself. I've now clearly done that because I'm writing this
However I've reloaded everything back on but i've noticed my iphoto and iweb are missing!!! I really need these apps, I cant remember how I put them on the machine, be it disc or download but clearly ive paid for these app.
Please please help me I really need these apps as I have current workload dependant on having these apps

iPhoto is included with the iLife apps and can be downloaded from the Mac App store or if your Mac is slightly older and came with an earlier version of OS X then Mt Lion then those apps are on the second system install discs that came with your system (Which I suspect it is an older Mac as iWeb is no longer included in the iLife suit of programs).
So dig out your original system discs and use the one marked Applications to reinstall those apps. Then update them from software update.
If for some reason they won't install on Mt Lion then you will need to wipe the drive, Re-Install the original OS X version and the iLife apps then upgrade back to Mt Lion.
EDIT, NOTE: To the OP and DS store.
iWEB Still works on ML as long as it is updated to the newest version. If the Applications disc is new enough it will even install on Mt Lion.

TS3212 ITunes worked fine on my Windows 7 machine. Had to rebuild the machine but all the data remains. Downloaded a new version of iTunes and cannot figure out how to load all of my music currently on my hard drive. Tried moving Library file. Did not

ITunes worked fine on my Windows 7 machine. Had to rebuild the machine but all the data remains. Downloaded a new version of iTunes and cannot figure out how to load all of my music currently on my hard drive. Tried moving "iTunes Library" file. Did not work. Never had trouble like this before.

Many thanks for your post. I've been trying for days to get this sorted and was getting well fed up with I-Tunes. Really thought i'd never get it working again. Tried un-installing it, loading older versions and they still wouldn't work.
Came across your suggestion by chance and top man - it worked..!!!!
How you even knew what to do is beyond me - but thanks so much. I really was pulling my hair out.
You need to put your post over the Web as there seem to be loads of people having the same trouble.
Thanks again.

I just got my first MacBook pro and dedicated an external hard drive for time capsule. I also have a WD 3TB hard drive with all my old files, photos and movies (mostly from a pc). My Mac book pro would not allow me to add or delete any files from this har

This hard drive so I copies all the files (400gb worth) to my time capsule hard drive (WD 3 TB but set up by the Mac book pro). Now I am not sure what I need to do. I wiped the other WD hard drive cleAn on my pc and want to set it up in a way that I can access the files on both a pc and a Mac. If I partition it on my MacBook pro will this work? If I do it do I need to save the file twice on both the pc and Mac partitions or simply by partitioning it the hard drive will ave files in both formats regardless of if it's from a pc or a Mac. X
Thanks

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How to share a Mac's files with a PC and vice versa.

My 5 year old iMac's hard drive is at the point of failing. I'm trying to save al files on it, but it wont allow backup via Time Machine to an external hard drive. How can I keep from losing all the files and programs if the hard drive fails?

I'm concerned that my iMac, purchased 5 years ago, is about the crash and I can't back up my files and programs to an external hard drive via Time Machine because the computer freezes after only a couple hundred MB and gets nowhere near the required amount.
How can I save these files and programs if the computer hard drive fails or has to be replaced without the backup being able to be done? I need to do something quickly, but I'm not sure what I can or should be doing.

Get an external hard drive, some good ones that I like are the OWC, http://www.macsales.com Mercury Elite Pro drives...they are very good and reasonably priced.
Get the drive, connect via USB or FireWire, then use Disk Utility to format the new drive as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), and then use Disk Utility to Restore the current drive to the new drive. Restore actually clones the drive so you will have a bootable backup on the external drive.
After you have formatted and named the external drive, click Restore in the main Disk Utility window, drag the name of the old hard drive to the Source box, and drag the name of the new external drive to the Destination box. DU will make an exact clone of the internal drive on the external drive.
That clone will be a complete backup of the operating system and all of your data.
You can test it by restarting the iMac and hold the Option key. That will give you a grey screen showing all bootable drives. Just click the external drive, then click the upward pointing arrow under it and the iMac will boot from that drive.

HT1751 My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator was used). ITunes does not recognize the back up files - help! (it does show cloud & recently burned m

My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator backup software was used). ITunes does not recognize these back up files even though the location is the same as cloud & recently burned music that does show- help! The backup files consist of 34,000+ songs; almost all burned from my own CD collection. I do have most of the songs on an ipod classic but hesitate to try to restore from that. Can someone tell me how to get these 34,000 songs to show up in iTunes? Thanks!!

This diagram shows how a typical iTunes library ought to be set out (click on it to enlarge)
The red outline highlights the media folder and its contents, the various subfolders are only created if that kind of content is in your library. The right-hand side shows the files that should be found in the iTunes library folder; sentinel is normally hidden so may not be visible. The core of your iTunes library is the file iTunes Library.itl, you need to restore this, the other library files and the Album Artwork folder, as well as the media folder, to restore your library.
tt2

I keep getting "error occurred while attempting to import file *******. The disc your are attempting to use is full." I have an external hard drive that I moved files over to, but apparently they're also still on my hard drive? HELP!

I keep getting "error occurred while attempting to import file *******. The disc your are attempting to use is full." I have an external hard drive that I moved files over to, but apparently they're also still on my hard drive? HELP!

So you have backed up the content of the computer's hard drive, too?
That usually is a great idea since it is possible to lose use of the system
if parts of it have accidentally been removed or get over-written, or the
main system files get corrupted, when the hard disk drive gets too full.
If you have not trashed the originals of your created content, that remain
after you made copies on an external hard drive or other device, then
that is what you'd have to do to reclaim the capacity still in use by them.
What are specifications of the hard disk drive? The unused capacity
verses the used, in GB? If the hard drive has less than 15 to 20%
free or unused capacity, you could run into trouble. Mine are 40-50%
unused hard drive space, so ample room is available for automatic
Virtual Memory to use that capacity as temporary swap file space.
This is helpful when the computer could use more physical RAM
memory capacity, but doesn't have it. Or if the RAM is maxxed out
and you can't add any more. Virtual Memory is part of OS X and the
system automatically can use as much as is available, but it is better
to be sure there is plenty of resources available to include chip RAM
as well as unused or free hard drive capacity for use as VM.
If for some reason your files in Trash won't go away when you empty
it, you may have to restart. Be sure you have not included any System
files in the content in the Trash, or the Mac may not start up later on.
You may have to boot the computer from the install-restore OS X DVD
and run Repair Disk from its version of Disk Utility, to be sure it's OK.
I'm guessing that by now you know enough about the vintage system
in the older hardware to figure it out, so I won't write about it now.
In any event... hopefully you can simply trash the files, but check them
carefully, & you may need to remove (copy to archive first) even more.
Good luck & happy computing!

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
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I have a version Adobe pro 7, my old computer hard drive failed tried to install on my Windows 8.1, will not start up error message

I have a version Adobe pro 7.1, my old computer hard drive failed, tried to install on my Windows 8.1, will not start up get error message? any solutions? It worked perfectly fine on my old computer which was windows 7.0

Hey,
I am sorry but Acrobat 7 is not at all compatible with Windows 8. For this, you will need to upgrade your Adobe Acrobat version.
For better understanding, please refer this kb file:
Compatible web browsers and PDFMaker applications
Regards,
Anubha

I had all my files, including bookmarks, backed up to my NAS when my hard drive failed. How do I import these bookmarks to Firefox on my new notebook? Is there a single HTML file I should be looking for on my NAS?

I had all my files, including bookmarks, backed up to my NAS when my hard drive failed. How do I import these bookmarks to Firefox on my new notebook? I can easily find the folder "Favorites" on my NAS, but can't get Firefox to "see" this folder, or my bookmarks.

If you open Firefox then Firefox will always use the default profile folder as found via profiles.ini on your system drive.
You either need to import the file in your current default profile or copy the file to your current profile folder while Firefox is closed.
Firefox 3 stores the bookmarks and the browser history in [http://kb.mozillazine.org/places.sqlite places.sqlite] and no longer creates an HTML backup by default.
There are also (five) JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder within the Firefox profile folder.
You can either copy the file places.sqlite to your [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox Firefox Profile Folder] or import the most recent JSON backup from the bookmarkbackups folder of that old profile.
See:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
"Application Data" in XP/Win2K and "AppData" in Vista/Windows 7 are hidden folders.
See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders
Go to: Control Panel > Folder Options > "View" tab > under "Hidden files and folders", select "Show hidden files and folders".
You may want to un-check the box "Hide extensions for known file types" to see the file extensions of all files.

I have a new hard drive on my imac I want to sync my ipad(which has the files I lost when my old hard drive died), which holds the files I lost when my old hard drive died. How can I sync my ipad with my new hard drive?

My hard drive on my IMac died, so I have a new hard drive. I want to sync my Ipad(which has the files I lost when my old hard drive died) back with my IMac. How can I sync my Ipad with my new IMac hard drive without erasing my legacy files on the Ipad at the same time?

Copy everything from your backup copy of your cpomputer to your new hard drive.

My hard drive failed so I sent it off to get recovered. How can I get my music back that I purchased from my old iTunes account?

My hard drive failed so I sent it off to get recovered. How can I get my music back that I purchased from my old iTunes account?

See Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

Hard Drive Failed Need Help!

Hey guys, heres my story. My hard drive failed last week (wouldnt go past white screen), took it to genius bar, they ran Disk Warrior and it seemed to fix it. As a precautionary measure I bought a 1tb external drive and backep up my system via time machine. Today my imac froze and I am having the same problem, wont boot past white screen. I am 2 months out of my warranty and need to know what is the easiest fastest and cheapest fix since I am a college student. Also are any of these options possible?
1) Install OS X as a clean system and use my external HD to load my system.
2) Buy another external HD and boot up from that?
3) Buy another internal HD and have someone install it (not sure how much this would cost though)
If anyone can help me out I would really appreciate it.

All 3 of those are possible however #1 and 2 are not favorable. I would suggest to first run a few tests to make sure that your hard drive is actually bad.
1) The first test like Larry suggested is to boot up to your Mac OS install disk, but do not go through the installation process. Instead go to the Utilities Menu at the top and open Disk Utility. If your drive does not show up in the left hand column then the drive is likely bad.
2) Insert the original iMac install disk like in step 1 but this time when you startup hold down the "d" key. This will load up the Apple Hardware Test. Run the Extended test. If it passes everything then this means your computer is ok just the hard drive is bad.
3) However if in step 1 Disk Utility does see the hard drive first try Repairing the Disk. If this fails you might try reformatting the drive and reinstalling Mac OS X as the problem could be an issue with the system software.
4) Which should actually be step 1 is to disconnect all of your external devices like hard drives and see if you still cannot boot. Keep everything disconnected during testing.
The problem is hard drive failures can be intermittent. One minute it works the next minute it doesn't even see a hard drive. Good luck though and let us know how it goes.
George

I'm an avid Mac enthusiast who works in a creative field. However, I simply cannot afford a new Mac after my old one's internal hard drive failed. Can anyone recommend an affordable Mac option? I don't want to consider a non-Apple product.

I'm an avid Mac enthusiast who works in a creative field. However, I simply cannot afford a new Mac after my old one's internal hard drive failed. Can anyone recommend an affordable Mac option? I don't want to consider a non-Apple product.

Macs with a FireWire port will also boot happily from an External drive. You don't even need to open the MacBook.
Some users buy a drive they would like to have as a future Internal drive, and also buy an external enclosure. They get the External set up the way they want it, then swap with the Internal drive.

Hard drive failed, help moving old files

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