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.
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I just want to run osx on the SDD .. helpI'm unsure of the proper procedure as I'm not experienced dealing with Fusion Drive setups. If Disk Utility shows you have a 1.5 TB drive, then what do you see when you boot the computer and check disk drive space using Get Info? I know you can revert the volume you have back to standard format if you don't mind using the Terminal in your Utilities folder:
Open the Terminal and paste or enter the following at the prompt:
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You want what you see at the top left - /dev/diskn, where n is the integer number. Then enter or paste at the prompt:
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Press RETURN and enter your admin password when prompted. It will not echo to the screen, so be careful typing. Press RETURN again. Wait until it completes the process which is when the prompt returns.
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<Edited by Moderator> -
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Hi,
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Cheers
Quartz84Hi,
sorry for the delay, but I was on a business trip.
@Bsteely: Sometimes it wakes up immediately because of loosing connection to the keaboard when I send it to sleep. I suppose at the beginning of the sleep mode it into sleep mode, the keaboard connection is closed, then the keyboard "thinks" there is a problem and sends a message to the mini and the mini just wakes up again showing that the connection to the keyboard was lost but established again! This even happened as I had unselected the checkbox "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake up this computer" in Preferences -> Bluetooth -> Advanced.
But there are also times when the mini does not wake up so quickly. It just wakes up after hours. I had a look at Console.app as you suggested. Very weird to me indeed Well there I found something like "Wake reason = OHC2" or "Wake reason = OHC1". Unfortunately I cannot find older logs there.
@Boece: Hi and thanks for helping!
Well, I will try the update as soon as I can. By now I have no external harddisk to first save my data before doing the big update. But I am going to buy one soon.
Well turning off the monitor is OK, but the harddisk can wake up anytime while the mini is turned on as the OS might need to do something from time to time. And I don't want my computer to consume electricity even if it is such a small one like the mini. I'm a kind of green dude (but not from Mars ). And the sleep mode is interesting for me as I have very often many different Internet sites and some applications running, so I don't need to close them before turning off and open all of them again when turning on the mini.
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Hi gang,
I am in a very frustrating position as I try to upgrade my Mac Mini (mid 2010) from OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard to whatever the latest version of Mountain lion is. The reason I am doing this is because the original hard drive died and the Mini sat there for 6 months before we decided to get a new hard drive and revive it.
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Trying to boot using Internet Recovery (doesn't work)
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So I am stuck.
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IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext
IOFireWireAVC.kext
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IOFireWireIP.kext
IOFireWireSBP2.kext
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Hello,
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Your assistance would be much appreciated.If you launch Front Row, its not really designed to read content from your local drives that isn't part of your iTunes library of content like music, TV shows, and movies. If the content you have on your networked drive is non-iTunes Music Store content, chances are it won't be easily included if at all in your iTunes library.
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No external speaker sound with mac-mini running bootcamp win7 64
Hi,
I am unable to get external sound working with mac mini (september 2011) running windows 7 64 on bootcamp 4 (Lion). Drivers appear OK in device manager. Running seperate driver exe from bootcamp library results in a message that the best driver is working. Any suggestions? How do I know which audio driver I need? Where, specifically, can I download the correct driver? I have seen a reference to cirrus logig 4206B driver working but I can find no such driver anywhere. I can't figure out how to search for drivers on cirrus web site. Please help.
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I cannot get the new mac mini to wake from sleep and trigger the displays - this is the second mac mini I have had and both have had the same issues. It worked before on my macbook extremely well...
Using 2 displays, connected via HDMI and thunderbolt
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I actually showed this to Apple geniuses when I took my computer to the apple store, and it's still here. In console it says:
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The best audio interface with Mac Mini using new & existing equipment?
Hi,
I got my existing set-up back in 2003. I'm now about to update it.
I've talked to Apple Technical Support re which computer is best for me.
Some important questions remain in terms of the audio interface or sound bridge I should use.
I've detailed below my existing set-up, my existing configuration, my desired set-up (as recommended by Apple expert) and questions I have.
Existing set-up:
Hardware...
1. ViewSonic HDMI 1080p Full HD LED monitor
2. PowerMac G4 (PowerPC processor) computer
3. PCI-424 soundcard within computer (works in conjunction with MOTU 2408 mk3 unit)
4. MOTU 2408 mk3
5. Quested monitors
6. Focusrite Session Pack ff ISA220 compressor
7. MOTU micro lite (midi-usb interface)
8. Keyboard (yet to choose - I'll explain later)
9. ADK Tube Condenser Commemorative Edition microphone
10. ADK Tube Condenser Commemorative Edition microphone power box (supplies both power and phantom power)
Software...
11. Tiger 10.4.11 operating system
12. Logic Studio 8 music program
Desired set-up:
1. ViewSonic HDMI 1080p Full HD LED monitor
2. Mac Mini full spec = £999.00
3. _______________________________________
4. _______________________________________
5. Quested monitors
6. _______________________________________
7. _______________________________________
8. _______________________________________
9. ADK Tube Condenser Commemorative Edition microphone
10. ADK Tube Condenser Commemorative Edition microphone power box (supplies both power and phantom power)
Software...
11. Top-end operating system = Comes with Mac Mini
12. Logic Pro X music program = £139.99
Existing configuration:
ViewSonic HDMI 1080p Full HD LED monitor goes into PowerMac G4 (PowerPC processor) computer
PCI-424 soundcard within computer (works in conjunction with MOTU 2408 mk3 unit)
MOTU 2408 mk3 used as my audio interface for sound in and sound out. This means that the sound comes out of computer via the MOTU 2408 and out of my Quested monitors (they are active so self-powered) which are attached to the MOTU's outputs.
When I record vocals I sing into my ADK microphone (this microphone sources its own power from its own box which also feeds it Phantom Power) which is connected by a mic to jack cable to the Focusrite compressor which is connected by jack to jack cable to the MOTU 2408 which then goes into my computer via a firewire cable.
When I play keyboards or use my keyboard as a midi controller it connects to my computer via the MOTU micro lite (midi-usb interface).
I don't currently have a keyboard. I used to use my basic Yamaha PSR-540 keyboard as a midi controller but as it's not weighted and faulty I needed to get a new one. We got a new one via Thomann which was the M-Audio Pro Keys 88 keyboard but this quickly became faulty. We returned it and have since been considering other weighted keyboards. I am simply wanting a keyboard with Aftertouch, either 76 or 88 keys, weighted keys and very importantly, hammer action where the action is fast. I don't care for other controllers on the keyboard, on-board sounds, iPad compatibility or whatever.
My Questions:
Q1) Can you recommend any keyboards meeting my specifications?
Q2) I can't imagine any of the Blue or other USB mics competing with my ADK and I'm quite happy with it. For vocals and when I've wanted to play the keyboard in as audio (not as a midi controller) I've used the Focusrite compressor to boost the sound. I'm not using many functions/presets on the compressor as I know it's best to record the sound of vocals mostly raw, is this correct, and if so is it worth me continuing to use this compressor or sell it?
Q3) Do I need to have the MOTU micro lite (midi to usb) unit? Don't most keyboards these days connect direct usb to usb on the computer?
Q4) I'm happy and used to the sound out from my Quested monitors. I'm happy and used to the sound in using my ADK microphone. What do I need for these to work best with the Mac Mini? Is my MOTU 2408 good for this, or is another MOTU product needed, or another product altogether?
Q5) Depending on (Q4) do I need a soundcard installed in the Mac Mini as I read on a forum that these days the audio interface acts like the soundcard?
Q6) I have such a bad connection to the internet it's like I have Dial-up!!! I use Airport Wireless which is connected to a router downstairs, which is 02 Broadband. Internet's not an issue downstairs on my girlfriend's intel PC which also uses a wireless connection but not Airport. Is this a problem because of my Airport, or do I need to get a router for upstairs, or should I connect it directy to the router downstairs by ethernet cable?
Many thanks!Is there a reason you don't want to use your current Tascam?
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