Need to get files off of a hard drive.

I had a powerbook 17' and it crashed due to a faulty power supply. I now have a Macbook and the Powerbook is deemed useless, however I want to recovery files from the hard drive. It won't turn on at all...I plan on opening it up and taking the hard drive out, but what are my options from there? will i be able to recover files from it through another computer or do I need to leave it in? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Welcome to the Apple discussions.
Since your Powerbook is dead, you can remove the hard drive and put it into an external case. For example, one like http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MOTGFWU2/ would do it for you. Any case that accepts a 2.5" IDE/ATA hard drive will work. Assuming the hard drive itself is good, you can plug it into the Macbook via USB or firewire and recover your files.

Similar Messages

What is the exact name of the cable I need to connect my old hard drive from my macbook pro (it has been taken out of the computer) to my new macbook pro? I need to transfer files from the old hard drive to the new computer.

What is the exact name of the cable I need to connect my old hard drive from my macbook pro, which has been removed from the computer, to my new macbook pro? I need to transfere files from the old hard drive to the new computer.

No eSATA to USB. Just a SATA/IDE to USB adapter. Google SATA/IDE to USB adapter and you will get tons of links to buy them. Most likely your local computer electronics store has them, although they might be more expensive buying locally than online.
I have several. You can get either USB 2, which what I recommend, or USB 3. USB is backward compatible so a USB 3 adapter will work on a USB 2 port and a USB 2 adapter will work on a USB 3 port. Backward compatible in both directions.
I suggest a USB 2 type because there have been some problems with certain USB 3 devices, the USB 3 interface used isn't all that good in those certain devices. USB 3 is still fairly new where as USB 2 has been around for over 10 years.
synghem wrote:
Thank you LowLuster,
At the apple store they said I needed an esata to usb wire. But looking at wires on line has been confusing. Is sata the same as esata? How do I know if I need a usb 3 or usb 2?

Detected ipod in "recovery mode" - Need to get files off it

I plugged my ipod nano 2g 4gb into computer and it says it needs to be restored, but I need to get files of it as I used it mainly as a memory stick. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks

Have you had a chance to look at this troubleshooting page? Have a look at the bottom section that suggests changing the drive letter assigned to the iPod in Windows Explorer. That may solve the problem without restoring: iTunes has detected an iPod in recovery mode - Use iTunes to restore

How can I transfer files off an external hard drive formatted for windows?

I just bought my first mac (yay!) and am trying to transfer my files off of my old pc. The problem is that I stored all my personal files on an external hard drive, which is of course formatted for windows. My mac will open it, but it is "read only." I tried plugging it back into my pc and using the Migration Assistant to transfer my files over, but it was not detected (rest of the pc was).
However, the second time I tried plugging it in to my pc, it told me it would need to be formatted first. Obviously my mac has changed something on it, and now all my personal files are on a hard drive that is unusable by either my old pc or my new mac!
Any suggestions would be appreciated! Heads up though, I am not especially computer literate, and my pc needs to stay intact as the husband needs it and some of the programs on it for school. Also, I have a second external hard drive that is brand new with nothing on it, if that will come in handy.
Thanks!

Format the extra HDD to EXFAT as previously indicated. There are two ways that can use to transferr the data.
1. Connect both drives to the PC and the copy the files to the newly formatted (EXFAT) drive from the HDD with the data . Then connect the EXFAT drive to the MBP and transfer the data to same.
2. Connect both drives to the MBP and open DISK UTILITY>RESTORE. Drag the drive with the data on it to the 'Source' field. Drag the EXFAT drive to the 'Destination' field. Click on the 'Restore' butt is on. After the transfer has been completed, close DISK UTILITY and place the data on the MBP where you want it.
Ciao.

Getting files out of the Hard Drive

My laptop's motherboard fried out a couple of days ago, and the repairist said that it's beyond repair. I was wondering if there was a way to get some of the files out of the hard drive, if it's possible, with an adapter designed for hard drives of something?
Laptop: TOSHIBA Satellite A205-S5831
Graphics Engine: Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium [32-bit]
Memory: 1GB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz SDRAM
Hard Drive Model
HDD Model: TOSHIBA MK1637GSX [160GB]
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Satellite A205-S5831
If the hard disk is still good, sure. Just place it in an enclosure and plug that into the USB port of another computer.
To remove the hard drive, see the first two steps here.
-Jerry

Getting a new Mac: need to transfer files/applications, have external hard drive, and wipe clean old Mac to give to family member

Getting a new Mac this Christmas. I have several questions:
1. How do I transfer files/applications from old to new?
2. I have an external hard drive, do I need to save iTunes account to it?
3. How do I wipe the old Mac clean to give to family member?

1. Use the Migration Assistant the first time you turn on the new computer.
2. No, but you should do so as a backup.
3. Click here and follow the instructions. If the computer originally shipped with Mac OS X 10.6.8 or earlier, when you reach step 5, insert its original disk, restart with the C or Option key held down, use the Disk Utility to erase the internal drive, and install a fresh OS.
(118241)

I had to install a new hard drive because my old hard drives boot files became corrupted, and i want to get all of my music files off the old hard drive and regain all my play counts/ratings/playlists

Greetings everyone
as the title says, ive had to install a new hard drive and i want to transfer my old itunes library onto the new drive, maintaining all playlists/play counts/ratings etc, album artwork if possible. The old hard drive is installed as a slave drive and is completely acessible, but due to the boot files being corrupted i cannot use it as the main drive and therefore operate my old itunes. Also, my ipod no longer contains my music library as itunes synced without my permission and wiped it.
The only thing i have tried is copying all of my old music files from the old drive by selecting 'add folder to library' and then the old drive, then replacing the new itunes library.itl file with the one from my old itunes. This restores all my playlists and playcounts but when i try to play any of the songs it says that the files could not be found, and i dont fancy locating 8500 music files individually!
Thankyou for taking the time to read my post, any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ah, my reply was based on the assumption that you had a default installation of iTunes.
i.e you had all your music in the iTunes media folder inside your iTunes folder.
If your iTunes folder is so small compared to the amount of music you have, you must have a different arrangement.
This complicates you situation considerably.
iTunes can cope with moving around as long as all the music is in the iTunes media folder, not not if it isn't.
Your first step should be to get iTunes working on the old drive. This will involve editing the xml library file so that the drive letter is correct and then rebuilding the library from the xml file.
Then you will need to consolidate your library which moves everything into the iTunes media fodler. After that you will be able to use my first suggestion.
Step 1
Find the iTunes folder on the old drive and copy the two library files somewhere else so you can find them again. That's iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Library.xml.
Now open the copy of iTunes Library.xml with WordPad.
Look for lines starting:
Location
These contain the paths to tracks.
You will need to use a find/replace to change the drive letter so that it is correct.
Make sure that you include enough in the "find" so that you only change the right thing.
Maybe /c:/ and replace with /d:/ or whatever.
After that, tell iTunes to use the library on the old drive with a shift key start.
Hold down the shift key and start iTunes, keep holding the shift key until you are prompted to choose a library. Navigate to the iTunes folder on the old drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.
Then use the method in the following article to rebuild your library;
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
Unfortunately the date added will be today for all tracks.
If iTunes works correctly after this, consolidate your library
File>>Library>>Organize>>consolidate
This copies all tracks into to iTunes media folder and could create a problem if you do not have disk space so don't do it if you are unsure about free disk space.
Check that iTunes works OK and then use the first method.
Message was edited by: polydorus

I need to delete files from my iMac hard drive, but not from my other devices (that are sync. to iCloud). How do I do this?? My Mac is a 24-inch Mid 2007 running on Mountain Lion. Thanks for your help.

I have recently recieved messages indicating that my start up disc is almost full. Consequently I need to remove some files from my hard drive. I've backed up my hard drive onto a NAS system & onto an external harddrive. The problem now, is that whenever I try to delete a file, a message comes up saying that if I remove this file from my hard disc it will remove it from all my other devices that are syn. to it. How do I remove a file (movies) from my iMac but not from other devices.
Thanks for your help
Robert

You're right - this question has nothing to do with iSync!
You're best bet would be to buy yourself an external Firewire or USB 2.0 hard-disk. There's no way you'll get 150gb onto an 80gb drive - certainly not in an instantly accessible way.
Your new Mac would've had the Migration Assistant appear during the initial OS install. This allows you to connect your new and old Mac together via a Firewire cable and automatically transfer your important files from old Mac to new.
Once you've all the files off your old Mac, re-format it and re-install the OS that came with it. If you boot up the Mac from the OS install DVD, there is an option to re-format the HD and install the OS.
See this Apple support page:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh1103.html

How to delete files off of my hard drive if my computer won't boot up.

So, my hard drive is filled to capacity on my macbook air and the computer flashes a Message stating "Your startup disk is full." and from there it can't even finish booting up. Is there a way to delete files off the hard drive by using an external startup drive? Terminal? I have an external WD Passport hard drive that I've partitioned with one partition being a startup disk of with OS X 10.6.8. At this point the people at the store I bought it are only offering to wipe the hard drive and reinstall the operating system. I'd hate to lose all my pics and movies. Any suggestions?

If you have another Mac, you can plug it into your Mac, boot from that and try to access your internal hard drive from there and start dragging things off/emptying the trash. That is the only thing I can think of. If that does not work, you will have to erase.
Once you get this taken care of, remember: you should never fill your hard drive completely; the OS needs room to function properly and that would be an absolute minimum of 10 - 15 GB (more is much better) and, you should always have a current backup of everything. So, buy an external hard drive so you can make a backup as soon as you get the OS reinstalled.

How can I get information off my old hard drive?

Recently my old mac book died. The genius bar said that it would be 750$ for repairs and since it had been 5 years since I'd gotten the laptop, I opted to buy a new MacBook Pro. The problem is I have stuff on my old hard drive that I want to keep (mostly the pictures from my iphoto), so the genius bar took the hard drive out for me. So now I have the hard drive from my old laptop and I'm not sure how I get the information off of it.
I tried to look it up online and saw something about a hard drive caddy? I have no idea what these are/ how they work. Do you just put the hard drive inside of it and connect it with a usb chord? Are all of these compatible with the macbook hard drives and will it work with my new macbook pro?
Or could/should I just go to best buy or something to see if they could put it on a CD for me?
What are my options/how can I go about getting the information from the old hard drive onto my new laptop?
Thanks!

You want to buy an enclosure that will accept a 2.5" IDE hard drive(I think that is what your computer probably had). Once you put the old hard drive into the enclosure, just connect it to your new computer using USB or Firewire(if the enclosure has Firewire ports) and copy your stuff over.
Now is a GOOD time for you to buy another external hard drive and back up your new computer to it often. This will save you the trouble of recovering your information in the future. It is always recommended that you back up your important files to several places.

How do I get info off my iMac hard drive now that it's out of the computer?

I was in a car accident recently. I'm okay, but I'm afraid my iMac did not survive. Before taking it to the insurance company to drop off the computer for reimbursement, I brought my computer to my local Apple Store to see if they could extract the data from the hard drive. (I've had this thing for years, so one can see that I would like to have what's on it.)
The Apple Store regretfully told me that they did not do this type of work and referred me to a nearby tech store that specialized in extracting data. I went there and they quoted me $80 for the hard drive's physical extraction and then another $30 for the information to be transferred onto a USB drive (or the equivalent). I was called a day later to be told that the mission was impossible, but I could go somewhere else that would charge me $1699 without tax and without a guarantee that they could actually perform the job.
Let's face it - that's a lot of money.
I went home and researched how to get my hard drive out of the computer and did so without much hassle. I've since then turned in the other parts to the insurance company as they were broken and useless.
Now I have a hard drive sitting on my counter without any idea how to get the information off and onto an external storage unit. Is there any way I can get the data myself?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Whether or not you are able to recover the data off the drive yourself will depend on if the drive suffered any impact damage in the crash. You can buy USB SATA or IDE adapters (Intel and almost all G5 use SATA) that will let you connect your hard drive to a computer (like a flash drive) to see if you can recover the data. If the drive has suffered physical damage if may not mount.
If you know someone who has one of these adapters you could try using theirs, otherwise you could buy one but you take the risk of the data on the drive being non recoverable. Regardless, both are much cheaper than $1699!
(Alternatively, if you know of someone with a Mac Pro or PowerMac G5 they may be able to install the drive in their machine and try to boot from or mount it and copy the data off.)

Can't open iMovie files off of external hard drive?

The hard drive is the My Passport for Mac. I've backed up my hard drive on it and that worked and I can open other types of files off of it? I moved the files to it in finder. The hard drive shows up in iMovie as a folder but it is empty. Does anyone know why they aren't working?

For a drive to work with iMovie, it must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). You can format using Disk Utility, but reformatting will erase anything that is currently on the drive.
The My Passport drives are slow and bus powered, if I recall correctly, so the performance will not be great either.
Also, you should move all your projects and events back where they wer, and then do the moves from within iMovie so you do not lose your work.

Can't recover backup files off of external hard drive. HELP!!! :(

Recently I had to restore my laptop to its factory settings. Before doing this I made a backup on my "2TB WD My Book Essential External Hard Drive", using a suggested back up program simply titled "Back Up Files". The file it made on it is called "MINWINPC" and it has 2 folders in it that are titled "backup Files 2011-12-08-042146" and "Backup Files 2011-12-08-051659". The second one is the only one with anything in it an application titled "Backup.1.exe".
here are the details of "Backup.1.exe":
File description: RestoreWiz Application
Type: Application
File version: 8.0.92.0
Product name: RestorWiz
Product version: 8.0.92.0
Copyright: Solft Thinks Copyright (C) 2008
Size: 2.93 MB
Date modified: 12/8/2011 5:17AM
WhenIi click on the "Backup.1" application it opens up recovery manager. It asks me what files I want to restore and where I want to restore my backup.
I choose OS( C: ). It then tells me the location my files will be restored to, C:\System Recovery files.
Then it starts scanning for files to restore. This lasts a minute or 2 before an error message pops up.
"Runtime error! program: G:\MINWINPC\backup.1.exe
This application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual .
Please contact the application's support team for more information."
I click ok to have another message from Microsoft windows pop up that says
"RestoreWiz Application has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this problem? I would really like to get my backed up files back onto my computer
My System Information:
Manufacturer & Model: HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC/NM101UA#ABA
Type of Computer: Laptop
CPU: Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T6400 @ 2.00GHz 73 °C Penryn 45nm Technology
Motherboard: Hewlett-Packard 3624 (CPU) 69 °C
Mem: 4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 398MHz (6-6-6-18)
HDD: 244GB Seagate ST9250320AS ATA Device (SATA) 33 °C 244GB Seagate ST9250320AS ATA Device (SATA) 38 °C Video: Generic PnP Monitor (1600x900@60Hz) 1024MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (HP)
Sound: High Definition Audio Device IDT High Definition Audio CODEC Bluetooth Hands-free Audio Bluetooth St
OS: MS Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor on ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (1600x900 60Hz) ;work res(1600x870 60Hz)
ISP: Suddenlink
My System Information:
Manufacturer & Model: HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC/NM101UA#ABA
Type of Computer: Laptop
CPU: Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T6400 @ 2.00GHz 73 °C Penryn 45nm Technology
Motherboard: Hewlett-Packard 3624 (CPU) 69 °C
Mem: 4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 398MHz (6-6-6-18)
HDD: 244GB Seagate ST9250320AS ATA Device (SATA) 33 °C 244GB Seagate ST9250320AS ATA Device (SATA) 38 °C Video: Generic PnP Monitor (1600x900@60Hz) 1024MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (HP)
Sound: High Definition Audio Device IDT High Definition Audio CODEC Bluetooth Hands-free Audio Bluetooth St
OS: MS Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor on ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (1600x900 60Hz) ;work res(1600x870 60Hz)
ISP: Suddenlink

sooooo no one has any suggestions?
My System Information:
Manufacturer & Model: HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC/NM101UA#ABA
Type of Computer: Laptop
CPU: Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T6400 @ 2.00GHz 73 °C Penryn 45nm Technology
Motherboard: Hewlett-Packard 3624 (CPU) 69 °C
Mem: 4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 398MHz (6-6-6-18)
HDD: 244GB Seagate ST9250320AS ATA Device (SATA) 33 °C 244GB Seagate ST9250320AS ATA Device (SATA) 38 °C Video: Generic PnP Monitor (1600x900@60Hz) 1024MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (HP)
Sound: High Definition Audio Device IDT High Definition Audio CODEC Bluetooth Hands-free Audio Bluetooth St
OS: MS Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor on ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (1600x900 60Hz) ;work res(1600x870 60Hz)
ISP: Suddenlink

Help...How to I get files from my external hard drive into my Library!

I ran out of space on my PC's hard drive, so I bought an external drive, and copied everything over there. I deleted the files on my PC's hard drive, and changed the setting in iTunes to look for files on the external drive. The trouble is, there are no files in my library now. If I search for an individual song and double click on it, it starts to play, and shows up in my iTunes library.
Is there a quick way to get all the songs into my library?
Many thanks,

I advised to uncheck the option to copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library simply because it creates 2 copies of a given file.
If you have your files on the external drive, and you uncheck that option, and then add the files into the library, no copies are going to be made, so you don't want to delete anything.
If you want to see if the files are on your external, I'd suggest looking at it through Windows Explorer. Just open up My Computer and open up the drive icon representing your external. If you see the files on there, and they're on your internal as well, you can go ahead and delete them from whichever volume you don't want them stored on.
If the files are on your local drive and you want to move them to the external, you can do this with iTunes. Click Edit > Preferences, click the Advanced tab, click the General tab beneath it. Set the iTunes Music folder location to your external drive (where you want the files to end up). Make sure that the option to copy files IS CHECKED. Then, click OK. Then, from the Advanced menu, click on Consolidate Library. This will basically create a copy of every file in your library in the destination specified as your iTunes Music folder location.
Sorry if all this adds to the confusion. Sometimes it's a little difficult to know what options affect what actions within iTunes. Post back if you have any other questions and I'll do my best to help you out.
CG

Can't get things off my external hard drive

When I purchased my Macbook, it had OS X 10.4.11. I upgraded to Leopard, and started backing up my files using Time Machine. My hard drive crashed, and when they fixed it, they but OS X back on my computer. I really want to get all of my files and settings from my external hard drive back onto my computer, but I don't know how. Help?

try...
Apple.com > Support > Discussions > Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard > Time Machine
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1227

Need to get files off of a hard drive.

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