Keys not responding on MBP after hard drive format

I formatted the hard drive on my Late 2011 17" Unibody MBP so I could give it to someone. When I turned it back on and booted it from the recovery partition to reinstall Lion, many keys are not working. For example, the a, b, t, 1, 2, ~, Tab, Backspace, and other keys are not working. Sometime, if I repeatedly press a single key a random string of characters will appear. The string is neither consistent in length, nor in the characters that appear, for example, pressing "t" several times may result in "IOUY" one time and "asfgh" another time.
No liquids have been spilled on the laptop, and until I formated the regular partition it was working properly. Any ideas?

I'm having the same exact problem (ironically, also due to a Toshiba) and I would love it if anyone with any information would post something. Even if it's just about how to actually contact tech support or something. I would appreciate anything at this point.
I have a 20gb iPod with click wheel and the latest version of iTunes if that helps at all...

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How to restore playlists and ratings after hard drive format

Several people have reported problems restoring paylists and ratings after reformating a hard drive. Here is what worked for me and what did not.
I had to reformat my hard drive. Before doing that I exported my playlists from itunes to another hard drive as an xml file. I also copied the folder with all my songs to another drive. (Also of course had it backed up on DVDs.)Then I copied the itunes library files (see url http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93732) to anoher drive.
After reformating my hard drive and installing the lastest verion of ITunes, I copied the actual songs back into a subfolder in my music folder. I then told iTunes to import the subfolder with the actual music. That resulted in a restored library that lacked playlists and ratings.
Don't do this
I purchased Anapod ($30.00) because its web page said (http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/):
"Anapod CopyGear is an easy-to-use, compact utility for copying music tracks, playlists, podcasts, photos, and videos from your iPod back to your PC."
Well, I did transfer 104 playlists back to my iTunes library through the Anapod backup function. However, the transfer also put more than 20 gigs of duplicate songs into the library. All of the songs listed in the playlists were duplicated in iTunes. I could find no way in Anapod to simply copy the ratings and the playlists. Anapod documentation was outdated. For example the online help pages said that playlists could not be backed up. This was confusing because I had just done that.
"In a future release we will be adding the ability to backup your iPod playlists. This will allow you to generate backup files of your iPod playlists on the computer. These files will not be usable on your computer though. They can only be used to restore playlists at a later time on your iPod (assuming it still carries all the audio files referred to in that playlist)." This text is from url http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/support/tome/tx2pc.php#5.1.2
I sent requests to Anapod for help today, but they have not been answered yet. Docs truly did not seem to help. Would have been good if there was a pdf file rather than just an online help html file that seemed outdated.
This worked for me:
I ended up having iTunes wipe out the entire library because of all the dups Anapod made. (Made sure that iTunes only wiped out library and did not delete actual songs from hard drive. Then I had iTunes import my subfolder with songs again. That brought me back to where I was before wasting money and much time on Anapod.
After I had my iTunes library up (without ratings and playlists and after finding Anapod did not meet my needs.
1. I imported the xml file to which I had exported playlists before reformating hard drive. That gave me the playlists back although an error message said some items not copied because the music tracks listed in playlists were not in my iTunes library. --Possibly I deleted songs after playlists were downloaded some time ago to iPod. Importing the xml file is probably not necessary because of what I did below.
2. Quit iTunes
3. Because my song ratings were still missing, I then moved the iTunes library files made by the new version of iTunes into a different folder.
4. Then I put my old version 4 library files into the place where the library files should be.
5. Then I crossed my fingers and restarted iTunes. It took awhile to start and said it was updating my library files. Now I have back most or all of my playlists and ratings.
If problems develop, I will probably wipe out iTunes library and use Anapod to move everything from my iPod into a folder and tell iTunes to import that folder. That approach might avoid the dups that Anapod makes when restoring playlists to iTunes.
So my message is keep your actual songs backed up somewhere (such as DVD's and anotehr hard drive) and keep a duplicate copy of your library files somewhere not on your hard drive. With these items you should be able to restore iTunes library to its former status.
Sorry for the length of this message. Hope it helps someone.

The simple version of above:
iTunes Files to Backup (anytime you make additions or changes to the Music or Library that you want to retain)
1) All music files in their current folder structure (usually located in and under the ‘iTunes Music’ folder)
2) The Library database file: ‘iTunes Library.itl’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
3) The Library XML file: ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
4) Any XML playlist files created for Playlist retention
5) The two iTunes.pref files (optional)
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes.pref
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer Inc\iTunes.pref
6) The XML file of Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes saved from the main Library and created by Otto’s SaveRatings script (also optional, but recommended):
“Download this: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/SaveRatings.zip . It's a program, just run it like any other program. Run it on the machine where you're copying the info from BEFORE you move the files to the new machine. Click the "Save Ratings" button and it'll create a ratings.xml file. Now when you move the files, move the program and this file as well. Then after you make your new iTunes library, run it again and click the "Restore Ratings" button. Voila, all your information is back in the Library. Well, most of it anyway, it's not perfect. It'll tell you what songs it couldn't figure out though, and there's usually not very many.”

Trying to restore system onto MBP after hard drive replaced using time capsule...

The hard drive on my MBP died and was replaced. Everything had been backed up on time machine, on a time capsule.
I've been trying unsuccessfully to do a full system restore from the time capsule. first I opened up the MBP and opted to restore from time machine in the set-up, using wifi network. I got the network and 'disc' 'data' '1 time machine backup' but when I pressed continue I got a dialogue box 'opening XX macbook pro...checking volumes' for about 3 hours, then finally the message 'no volumes detected'.
Tried that a couple of times, then went through the set-up procedure and in to Migration Assistant to try again.
The same thing happens, whether throgh wifi or usb - 3 or 4 hours of 'checking volumes' then 'volumes not found'.
Shouldnt restoring from time capsule be simple and straightforward even for a non-techie like me? (I thought that was the point!)
Any pointers on how I restore my old mac onto this new drive please?
NB old system was running on Lion. Mac Store installed snow leopard onto repaired mac.

How are you starting the system? Are you booting from a DVD or starting from the new hard drive that was installed?
In your OP you never stated the drive was replaced by Apple. You just said you had a New drive.
I'm going to leave this for someone that is more familair with time capsule as I have never worked with one.

Question about activation key for pre-installed software after hard drive failure.

I had a hard drive failure on my MacBook Pro last week and had it replaced by Apple. When I restored my computer with a Time Machine backup, Office 2011 wants an activation key to start up again. Problem is, I had Office pre-installed when I bought my MacBook by Apple. Where do I get the activation key to get it working again?
Thanks
Q

Do you still have the signons.sqlite and key3.db files from the IT setup?
You can find the sync account password and the sync (recovery) key in the password manager on computers where a sync account with a specific e-mail address has been set up.
Look for:
* chrome://weave (Mozilla Services Password)
* chrome://weave (Mozilla Services Encryption Passphrase)

Apple TV does not appear in iTunes after hard drive swap. (original ATV)

I recently upgraded the internal hard drive in my mac book pro. I removed the original drive and and put it into an external casing. With the new, larger capacity drive in place, i reinstalled the operating system and the updates, bringing it up to snow leopard, 10.6.4. I then dragged in the user and other important files to the new drive. For the most part, everything worked, except, Apple TV
Apple TV now longed shows up in itunes. It is visible on my wife computer and when i reboot from the "original" external drive. I assume there is some setting or file that i did not transfer over, but for the life of me, can figure out.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thx

Are you doing it in this order? (#5 below is a good inicator of whether the micro USB cable is compatible)
1. Unplug Apple TV and move it to your computer running latest version of iTunes.
2. Quit iTunes if running.
3. Plug micro USB cable to the back of the Apple TV.
4. Power the Apple TV using the AC cable.
5. iTunes shoud either launch itself (a good indication that the micro USB cable you're using is compatible), or launch iTunes.
6. Click Restore. Software will download and install (big file).

After Hard Drive Format, no backups available

A while back i had to wipe the hard drive on my Toshiba laptop and with it went my ipod library (the library linked to my ipod). Now when i try to add songs, itunes tells me that this ipod is linked to another library and asks if i want to delete all the songs on the ipod and accept the new library. i can't believe that i can't just add new songs, but it seems to need its own library on itunes and you can't add stuff except thru the library. Is there some option? I have about 1000 songs on my iPod and i just want to add. Also, songs I bought from itunes, as opposed to taking off my own cds, no longer play... you can see the title come up but it just skips to the next song.
Toshiba Laptop Windows XP Pro
eMachine Windows XP Pro Toshiba Laptop, Windows XP Pro

I'm having the same exact problem (ironically, also due to a Toshiba) and I would love it if anyone with any information would post something. Even if it's just about how to actually contact tech support or something. I would appreciate anything at this point.
I have a 20gb iPod with click wheel and the latest version of iTunes if that helps at all...

After Hard Drive Format

I had to reformat my hard drive on my pc...have a backup now of my music on my PC....my question is how do I get the music into I tunes and have I tunes recognize my ipod now when I connect it to my pc so that it syncs automatically
Thanks

I'm having the same exact problem (ironically, also due to a Toshiba) and I would love it if anyone with any information would post something. Even if it's just about how to actually contact tech support or something. I would appreciate anything at this point.
I have a 20gb iPod with click wheel and the latest version of iTunes if that helps at all...

Restore Library after hard drive format

I had to reformat my Windows hard drive and, of course, then I had to restore my Itunes Library. My music files are stored in a different HD so, I didnt have to back them up. I restored my library using the method described in this page article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313.
It worked fine, but now all my play counts are gone. How can I have them back? I have all my playlists, even the song ratings, but no play counts. Did I do something wrong? I haven't sync'ed my iPod yet, som I still have my play counts in it.
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Our hard drive crashed completely and we installed a completely new hard drive. My sister and I both shared the same library for our Videos. She plugged her's into the computer and all the music was erased almost immediately. How can I plug my ipod in with out having the music and other files erased??? Is there any way I can transfer music from my ipod onto her's??

Need Help With Backup To Pc After Hard Drive Format

Hi All,
I reformatted my pc which meant i had to reinstall itunes.
Inserted my iphone after i reinstalled itunes and none of my apps where saved in itunes.
Clicked sync and it did not backup any apps to itunes.
After alot of mucking around it eventually took all my apps off my iphone and then i mhad to use my wifes iphone to get the apps back.
Is there a simple guide to how this is done after reformatting a pc?
Cheers

The simplest way really is to restore your PC from a backup. A fresh install is a fresh install. When you connected your iPhone to the fresh install of iTunes, did it not ask to transfer the apps to your PC?

Restoring my photos and metadata after hard drive format. yep, I'm THAT guy

Hi guys,
Unfortunately my 17,000 photo aperture library (master files stored externally to the aperture library - ie referenced) was accidently deleted (long story) in a drive consolidating effort around my house.
The good news is that I was able to recover the images using a file recovery program.
My problem is that the files once recovered have a new filename different from the original (ie instead of IMG_4345 it is J1928731-1323). The metadata for the photo from EXIF is still present and I am able to sort the photos based on photo date time group once re-imported into aperture. Since the filename is not the same as the original, I am unable to reconnect the files to restore the individual metadata changes to each image made in aperture.
I have been able to 'mirror' my original library ie, for each project there are the correct order and number of images in the recovered project folders.
My question is:
1. Is there a way to force a file re-connect with an image with a different filename?
2. Failing Q1, is there a way to select a group of images all with different metadata and paste it to another group of images where the number of images between the two groups is equal? Lift & stamping each individual photo is VERY painful...
Any help would be fantastic
Message was edited by: matt_hornet to ellaborate the problem

matt_hornet wrote:
Unfortunately my 17,000 photo aperture library (master files stored externally to the aperture library - ie referenced) was accidently deleted (long story) in a drive consolidating effort around my house.
Ouch. You have my sympathies!
My question is:
1. Is there a way to force a file re-connect with an image with a different filename?
As far as I remember, File>Manage Referenced Files... will do this if you Alt/Option-click the Reconnect Now button. It's still going to be a mammoth task, but faster than copying all the metadata to new imports...
Ian

Restore iPod after hard drive format

I just formatted my computer and imported my iTunes library back. However, whenever I connect my iPod Touch 4G to it, iTunes says that it will erase the iPod. I tried restoring it to factory then restoring from iCloud, but it still wants to erase my stuff and replace it with the "authorized" copies on my computer. How do I avoid this? And if I do have to erase everything, will my settings on iCloud be intact so I can just sync them to the new apps?

To the best of my knowledge, iCloud stores the app data but not the apps themselves.
If your library has been wiped out, you're not totally out of luck but it will be a nuisance. Apps, TV shows and movies can be downloaded multiple times without being charged. In the past, music could not be downloaded again without charge but that may have changed.

I need to reinstall lightroom 5 after a hard drive format. I do not have a disc.

I need to reinstall lightroom 5 after a hard drive format. I do not have a disc.

Lightroom - all versions
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http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=113&platform=Windows
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Saving after editing in elements 8 - this is painfully slow, including waiting through the "not responding" message, though after quick editing in organiser saving is very quick - what is the problem?

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None of my pictures that I uploaded into iPhoto are in my Finder under Pictures. Should I copy and paste my folders from iPhoto into here, in case something happens to my iPhoto program (in addition to backing them up onto an external hard drive like I already do)?
No, that's just wasting space. A back up needs to be on a different disk.
Your photos are within the iPhoto Library.

2010 MBP 13" hard drive never spins down... ever.

Hi Folks,
I have searched - and even found others with a similar problem - but the threads died out without a solution, so....
I have a pretty new 2010 MBP 13" 2.4ghz with stock 250gb HDD (I think it's a Toshiba, IIRC). I noticed that the palm rests were vibrating constantly and there was noise that never went away, so I investigated. It is the hard drive under the right palm rest, which is constantly spinning. My hands feel like I just came in from mowing the lawn!
Now, I just came from ownership of a 2008 MB which also had the Core2Duo processor and which I used about the same. No new programs or new usage to speak of. Yet that hard drive was not spinning all the time; in fact, it was usually spun down and only spun up from time to time.
I do have the preference checked for "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" on both battery and AC. I downloaded iStat and I can't see any reason for it not to spin down. i.e. light use (or even with all programs closed), cool CPU, CPU 90% un-used, very few page outs (not sure which of this would affect HD though).
Still, it NEVER spins down.
It's not clicking or making any of the "I'm a hard drive about to die" type noises. It's just a constant spinning hum.
Can anyone help me with this? It's making me dislike what should be a nice upgrade from my MB and iBook. Of course I am still under warranty, but I'm 4 hours from the Apple store, and plus I just like to try to figure things out on my own if possible. Gaining understanding of how things work is a plus too
Thank you in advance for any help
Stixer
Message was edited by: Stixer

I don't know if anyone will click on this since I already marked it solved, but I will try it and then if not I'll start a new thread. Just don't want to clutter up the forum if I don't need to.
So anyway, it was stated earlier in this thread that it is not possible for the internal hard drive to spin down while the computer is turned on, and that the system pref for "put hard disk to sleep (i.e. spin down) when possible" check box could only really apply to external drives.
I'm no expert, so although I sure thought the drives in my previous Apple laptops were spun down most of the time (I'm a light user), I figured that okay, they must have just seemed like they were spinning down, and my new one must just be really noisy (even though the "noise" sounds just like my older drives did when they "spun up," but I guess they were just doing something else).
But okay, so this morning I was reading Anandtech's really great and thorough review of the new MBP's and in the maximum battery life test they did this:
+Light Web Browsing+
+Here we're simply listing to MP3s in iTunes on repeat while browsing through a series of webpages with no flash on them. Each page forwards on to the next in the series after 20 seconds.+
+The display is kept at 50% brightness, all screen savers are disabled, but *the hard drive is allowed to go to sleep if there's no disk activity*. The wireless connection is enabled and connected to a local access point less than 20 feet away. *This test represents the longest battery life you can achieve on the platform while doing minimal work. The results here are comparable to what you'd see typing a document in TextEdit or reading documents.*+
Doesn't this seem to indicate that my original understanding was correct, and that internal hard drives do have the ability to spin down under light use? It sounds like it to me. My typical usage is exactly what they are talking about above, and apparently their hard drive spins down during such use, unless I'm completely mis-understanding them. Mine also seemed to in my previous Apple laptops.
So now I'm feeling frustrated, as I hate having an issue that I can't get to the bottom of. Whether or how I can fix it or not is secondary, but I want to understand how it is supposed to work!
Thank you very much to anyone who reads through, and even more if you reply
Stixer

Your firmware can not be updated because the hard drive...SMC 1.3

Hi all !
I have a problem. I'm have a macbook pro Santa Rosa =
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.27f1
This morning I saw the update for the SMC firmware (1.3).
Before restarting, I have this error :
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/6606/26048579.jpg
Your firmware can not be updated because the hard drive partition scheme may not be supported. You must be booted from a GUID partiton or RAID scheme.
When I went into Disk Utility in order to check, here is what I have =
Name : FUJITSU MHY2200BH Media
Type : Disk
Partition Map Scheme : GUID Partition Table
Disk Identifier : disk0
Media Name : FUJITSU MHY2200BH Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : Serial ATA 2
Device Tree : /PCI0/SATA@1F,2/PRT0@0/PMP@0/@0:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : No
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : No
Location : Internal
Total Capacity : 186.3 GB (200,049,647,616 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Verified
Disk Number : 0
Partition Number : 0
I thought Boot Camp could be involved becauseI know it's the only thing related to the EFI.
I searched on internet, and Ifound nothing. There was a solution in order to reset the partition table, but the tool is no longer available. The link on on the application explains that I have to reformat my macbook pro. I find a bit weird to make this , I can't spend hours for backup / restore just because the SMC update does not work. have you any lead for me ?
Thanks ,
Razique

Have you tried this:
Repairing 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 and 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. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) 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.

Keys not responding on MBP after hard drive format

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