Hard drive failing will not back up

My hard drive is failing and time machine is failing to back up everything that I have to an external hard drive. Is there any sort of recovery software available, I have pictures of my daughter that I do not want to lose. Please help.

If the drive is physically failing (ie, the mechanism is wearing out or damaged), not just corrupt, then it's entirely possible that very little will be recoverable. Unfortunately, waiting to back it up until after it starts to fail is a very dangerous thing to do.
Disk Warrior will help if the drive is just corrupt. Depending on how severe the corruption, you may recover everything or some files may already be lost. If Disk Warrior can't help, you could try a file recovery tool, like Data Rescue, File Salvage or Stellar Phoenix. However, if the drive dies completely, which it could at any time, the only option left will be to send it off to a data recovery service, where they will take the drive apart and use special equipment to recover whatever they can. That will be expensive, but may be worth the cost to you. I can't recommend any services, as I've never used one.
In the future, make sure to maintain a good set of backups - a minimum of two separate backups of everything, on separate media - and you'll never need a data recovery service again.

Similar Messages

When I updated my MAC I lost all my movies from iTunes. They are still on my hard drive but will not reappear after I reset my preference in advance section. How do I fix it?

When I updated my MAC I lost all my movies from iTunes. They are still on my hard drive but will not reappear after I reset my preference in advance section. How do I fix it?

If they are still on your Mac's drive then you should be able to add them back into iTunes via File > Add To Library

Hard drive crashed, will not reinstall

The hard drive on my Mac computer crashed and I backed up all my programs onto an external drive. (I have the Creative Suite 6 Design Standard) When I try to reinstall the programs back onto my new hard drive, it will not work. I did not originally install the Creative Suite with a CD. I assume it was just with a code that I no longer have. When I do transfer the program's files onto my new hard drive and click on any program from the suite, an error pops up saying "Configuration error.. Error:1". Please help, I have been trying to contact support for the last two months.

you must properly install your programs, not copy the installed files. you will need your serial number to install and the intallation files (below):
Downloads available:
Suites and Programs: CC 2014 | CC | CS6 | CS5.5 | CS5 | CS4 | CS3
Acrobat: XI, X | 9,8 | 9 standard
Premiere Elements: 13 | 12 | 11, 10 | 9, 8, 7
Photoshop Elements: 13 |12 | 11, 10 | 9,8,7
Lightroom: 5.7.1| 5 | 4 | 3
Captivate: 8 | 7 | 6 | 5
Contribute: CS5 | CS4, CS3
Download and installation help for Adobe links
Download and installation help for Prodesigntools links are listed on most linked pages. They are critical; especially steps 1, 2 and 3. If you click a link that does not have those steps listed, open a second window using the Lightroom 3 link to see those 'Important Instructions'.

How do you erase an external hard drive which will not show up on your computer?

I bought a LaCie porsche design 2TB external hard drive from the Apple Store to use with time machine on my MAC 2 months ago. It will no longer show up on my desktopn. After speaking with LaCie, they sent me a replacement. However, I have to send the brooken one back to them and since we could not erase it or anything on my Mac is there anyway to erase the hard drive before sending it back to them with all my information on there?
Message was edited by: carolsh

I know. But after Yahoo, Target , Neimans and others. But I agree. They even sent me a more expensive replacement as they did not have my model in stock and is backordered. So, a win win situation. I was impressed that the tech person spent about an hour on the phone with me trying a variety of options. At first, they were going to charge me shipping- but then she changed her mind and shipped the replacement 1 day fed ex. I guess that is why I always buy LaCie vs others. My older LaCie which I still had but was smaller- I plugged in and did a back-up and I had just enough room on it so I have that for safe keepings now as well.
Thanks again for your pleasant response. I guess I need to limit my profile to "registered members" only. I hope Apple monitors these discussions and people's responses periodically.

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.)

Premier Pro Project: Created on one External Hard Drive, Transferred to Different External Hard Drive, Project Will Not Open

Here is my problem listed in simple steps:
I created a project in Premier a couple years ago on a G-Raid mini external hard drive.
I backed up my project folder on a LaCie external hard drive.
The G-Raid mini hard drive died.
I cannot open my project from the LaCie drive.
When I attempt to open my project, I get 2 error messages:
First: "The scratch disks are write protected or unavailable. To open this project, the scratch disks will be set to your documents folder. Would you like to continue?"
I say "Yes"
Second: "This project contained a sequence that could not be opened. No sequence preview preset file or codec could be associated with this sequence type."
I say "OK", and that's the end.
My understanding is that the problem has to do with the fact that my original scratch disks were created on the G-Raid mini hard drive, and that Premier will not open my project because the code for my .prproj file directs Premier to a hard drive that is not connected. I have tried to edit the code in TextEdit, replacing the name of the old hard drive with the new one where the code reads:
<project.settings.lastknowngoodprojectpath>
This did not work. I also tried changing the name of my new hard drive to match what the "lastknowngoodprojectpath" reads as in the code, but that did not work either. I have searched high and low on the internet for someone who approaches the types of error messages I receive from the perspective of trying to open the project from a different hard drive, but I cannot find anyone who is specifically giving advice about this. Any suggestions?

I doubt that the error concerning the sequence preview preset file or codec has anything to do with the scratch disc location.
Here are two posts specific to the second error message:
FAQ: Why are some codecs and sequence presets missing from my installation of Premiere Pro?
What to do when you get a preview preset codec error in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 | Val Gameiro, Writer, Director, Filmmake…

Hard Drive Tray will not fit after attaching hard drive

(From Davin Oishi)
Issue: After installing the hard drive onto the hard drive tray, the tray will not longer fit into the Smart Storage hard disk drive slot.
Using hard drive tray screws from the legacy NSS2000, NSS3000, NSS4000, or NSS6000 may encounter this issue.
Resolution: Be sure to use the hard drive screws that are supplied with your Smart Storage device. Smart Storage ships with screws for both 3.5" SATA drives and 2.5" SATA drives.

If they are still on your Mac's drive then you should be able to add them back into iTunes via File > Add To Library

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...

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.

Hard drive failing - Will AppleCare replace?

Hello all,
I have a hard drive that occasionally starts to make the dreaded TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC sound. Once it is done with that, I hear a high frequency beep (from the hard drive) and then I hear the normal clatter that the drive makes when it first spins up. While all this is going on, the computer is frozen. I have experienced this countless times in the past on various computers. It basically means that failure is eminent. This started in December. Since then, it has happened with a frequency of about once a week.
I called AppleCare today. The person basically said to take my Mac to an Apple Store to verify that service is necessary. Only problem is that this issue is not repeatable. Am I suppose to sit at the Genius Bar all day until it happens?
My question is has anyone successfully had a hard drive replaced under the AppleCare program? Ideally I would like Apple to send me a new drive so that I can take my original drive and place it in an external case so I can transfer the data onto the new drive. Will they do this? Or do I have to take my iMac in? The problem is that all software tests of the hardware indicate that there is no issue. I ran TechTools Deluxe and the Apple Hardware Test, both indicate no issue.
Any thoughts?
Rev A 20" iMac G5, 1GB RAM, 250GB Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you all. My hard drive died and was without an internet connection. Just finished loading 10.3.6 onto my iMac. I still have my old drive, Apple has not replaced it yet. The short story is that my mac got to the point where I would boot it up and I would immediately receive a gray screen with instructions to power down the computer in several languages. I inserted my Tiger disc in hopes of reinstalling the OS, but it could not find a target disc to install to. I took the mac in to the Genius Bar. The tech did about the same thing I did, but he went to a disk utilities menu and found a corrupted directory structure. He ran a repair on the disk. After that, the drive was able to be mounted. Without pressing to get the drive replaced, I brought it back home because I did not like the idea of giving Apple my hard drive with 12 years of income tax forms on the drive. Wouldn't you know, as soon as I powered it up, it started clicking; it only last about 30 seconds. I have formatted the drive and installed 10.3.6 on it. I will be taking it back the Genius Bar hopefully tomorrow. I have a feeling though that these guys won't do anything unless there is some report or feedback indicating a hardware problem. I will let you all know how it pans out.

Hello my name is Tyesha Woods,and I have a problem with my dvd hard drive, it will not eject my cd no matter what i do can you please help me?

Hello, my name is Tyesha Woods I onw a Macbook and my dvd hard drive will not ejected my cd ,I have tryed everthing I could would you please help me?

Hi Tyesha,
Your DVD won't eject?
Restart the MacBook - as it is restarting, hold the trackpad button down. This will force it to eject. The disk should eject before you get to the login screen or desktop.

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!

How do I use my second hard drive for storage, not back up?

Hi, I bought a second hard drive to store files (not back-up for my system), but when I moved some files over to drive two and then deleted the same files from drive one, they also deleted from the 2nd drive! Fortunately I could reverse the process and there was no loss, but what now? How do I disconnect the two so I can use the second as storage?
Thanks and happy Easter for those of you who celebrate it. Kate (Porter)

Whilst I normally drag files around, a copy and paste still should have created a replica on the destination drive.
That the second is mounted internally makes my describing it as an external drive inaccurate, but wouldn't cause the problem.
So that still leaves the scant possibility that the original source is itself an alias.
Was the copy and paste done in a Finder window or was it done via some other application's window?
I look forward to an update on this unusual event.

edited by host HARD DRIVE ICON WILL NOT OPEN ON DESKTOP WHEN CLICK

my HD will not open on desktop when i click on it. For 4 years i had no problem on this every.
why does this happen now?
what is wrong with the icon?
could my HD start becoming bad?
what are some signs that i should be "aware of" is this one?

You might try booting from DVD or another drive and running Disk Utility and Disk Warrior.
Or Single Users Mode (command s on startup) and follow on-screen instruction command
/sbin/fsck -fy
to repair your boot drive
... or a Safe Boot with shift key held down.
Corrupt prefs, directory, could be a number of small or major things.
But, in any case, make sure you have backups, and a bootable backup clone, maybe an emergency boot drive as well (install OS X on another drive if you don't have one now).

3000 C100 Cloned Hard Drive Upgrade will not boot

Hi,
I have recently bought a western digital 320 MB hard drive to replace my C100 hard drive which is now full.
I cloned the old hard drive and when I installed it the laptop wouldn't boot, it just said " no bootable CD in drive". It didn't appear to " see" my new hard drive at all, when I pressed the lenovo tools button and then used F12 to choose my boot option, the laptop just went to a black screen.
Any ideas?
Derek
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I used Spotmau Powersuite 2009.
I thought that there may be issues with the size of the new hard drive ( 320 GB).
I shall now go to the WD website and try the software that you suggest.
Derek

Hard drive failing will not back up

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for