Non bootable Mac Book Pro - What directories to salvage

My wife's 2012 13 in macbook pro stopped working after an update. I tried everything I found in the forums to reinstall the OS, repair the drive, and to get it working again all with no luck. As a last resort I ordered a Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable and was able to get the HD to show up in Target disk mode. I copied the users directory and was able to save that to an external drive.
My question is if I want to rebuild this mac after we get it working again, what other directories do I need to salvage while I can?

All User-specific files (including System Settings) are in The Users directory.
The only other things NOT re-Installed with Mac OS X are any special Applications you installed, but you are better off installing those from their original sources than working hard to copy possibly damaged ones from a questionable drive.

Similar Messages

I am looking to get a new 13 inch mac book pro, what is the max RAM that I can install. I know configured from Apple is 8 GB, but can I put 16 GB after?

i am looking to get a new 13 inch mac book pro, what is the max RAM that I can install. I know configured from Apple is 8 GB, but can I put 16 GB after?

Yes, you can install 16GB in your new macbook pro.
Go here (OWC) and here (Crucial) to give you options on how much you want to spend.
Good luck.

My wall charger is showing sign of charge but it's not charging, last three days I charged my iphon to mac book pro, what can do for charge with my wall charger. And I tarted also 3 deferent chargers wich is working with other iPhones but my iphon is not.

My wall charger is showing sign of charge but it's not charging, last three days I charged my iphon to mac book pro, what can do for charge with my wall charger. And I tarted also 3 deferent chargers wich is working with other iPhones but my iphon is not charging it's only showing the sign of charge.

Hi there Zeeshan Saeed Al Barvi,
I would recommend taking a look at the troubleshooting steps found in the article below.
iPhone and iPod touch: Charging the battery
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1476
-Griff W.

I have a Mac Book Pro, What kind of software should i buy to able me to watch movie on the net. Right now it just said " Blocked plug in"

I have a Mac Book Pro, What kind of software should i buy to able me to watch movie on the net. Right now it just said " Blocked plug in"

The Apple Support Communities are an international user to user technical support forum. As a man from Mexico, Spanish is my native tongue. I do not speak English very well, however, I do write in English with the aid of the Mac OS X spelling and grammar checks. I also live in a culture perhaps very very different from your own. When offering advice in the ASC, my comments are not meant to be anything more than helpful and certainly not to be taken as insults.
The type of plugin that you need depends on the type of video file that you wish to view. We would need more details to assist.

How can I play UDF disc on my mac book pro what do i need to download?

How can i play UDF disc on my mac book pro what do I need to download?

Do-It-Yourself Laptop Repair
Research YouTube's 'How To' video tutorials
FixYa

Thunderbolt Display to non Thunderbolt Mac Book Pro?

I am looking at a display for my Mac Book Pro. I would like to go with the thunderbolt because I plan on a new Mac Book next summer. Can I use the Thunderbolt Display with my current Mac Book?

If your computer does not have a Thunderbolt port you can't use a Thunderbolt display.

I need a larger capacity Hard drive for my Mac book pro, what do I do?

I am running out of space on my hard drive, what do I do?

Well in short, there are two ways to solve this:
A) clean up your harddisk
B) buy a bigger harddisk and replace the internal with it
Details:
A) clean up your harddisk:
Empty trash can, delete unused apps (with a tool like AppDelete), Get rid of old data (by using a tool like WhatSize to identify the biggest space suckers) and/or delete unused videos, photos and music...
B) buy a bigger harddisk and replace the internal with it:
First put your new HD in an external enclosure and plug it into your MBP either over USB or Firewire. If not already formated for a Mac: use diskutility to format and partition it with GUID boot and a single or more partitions (volumes) just as you have it on your orginial HD just bigger in size... ;-)
Then you will need a tool like SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner to clone your existing harddisk onto the new one (all volumes if you had more than one).
Once done try to boot from your new external HD by selecting the startvolume in system settings or by holding the "alt" (option) key while powering up, then select the external HD to boot and try it out.
If all works, power of all and open your MBP and swap the hardisks. See http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Unibody-Mid-2010-Hard-Drive-Repl acement/3030/1 on how to do it (that link is actually for a 15" MBP from mid 2010).
Boot normally an check if all is well
Place the original HD in the external enclosure and use it as an externel HD extension or as a partial backup disk (as it is smaller compared to your new HD)
I hope I was clear enough on all steps, if not feel free to ask again.
Regards from Switzerland

HT1338 My FaceTime isn't working on my mac book pro, what do i do

I am going to chat with my friend on facetime and it is telling me that the call has failed. But wont let me re call her. She said that when she tried to call me it said i was unavailable, what do i do?

Troubleshooting FaceTime
Mac http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4185

Super slow usb transfers on non-unibody mac book pro after sl upgrade

Anyone other experienced the slow usb transfer speeds on thier non unibody macbook pro (late 2008) after updating to snow leopard.
I have done some testing using a sandisk cruzer 16gb on my non unibody macbook pro and there are transfer speeds super slow on the other hand with the exactly the same usb drive on my unibody I get the transfer speeds I expect.
Is there anything to do? I've tried SMC & PRAM resets without any difference.
Best,
Max

Start up in Safe Mode. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18760
Reset SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Choose the method for:
"Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".
Repair Disk
Steps 1 through 7
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Upgrading RAM to 8GB will help.
Best.

My (non Unibody) Mac book pro late 2007/08 does not want to turn on.

Hello folks..
Last night I was working on my laptop and it started to run hot.. However, today I'm trying to boot up the computer and it will not turn on. I see the little LED light undereith the bottom part of the laptop light up and I hear something initiating, but it wont turn on.... Also, I did a upgrade to a larger hard drive (750gigs) early this year, it's been working great, but now I have this happening.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance.

Hi Jose, try a SMC/PRAM reset. This issue may fall under the failed nvidia 8600M GT graphics card issue which requires a logic board replacement. When did you buy the macbook pro? The nvidia replacement program includes a free repair fofr MBP's purchased 4 years from the purchase date.

Stolen Mac Book Pro - what to do

Stolen last week. They have logged on and changed the user name. I haven't remotely wiped or locked it yet, because I want to be able to track it. Can they disable the tracking? Should I simply remotely lock it or wipe it? Can I still track it? What can I do to make using it very miserable for them?

Notify the police that it was stolen.
Change all your passwords to things you accessed online such as email and bank accounts. They logged on and changed the username on what, the computer, your email, your bank account?
There is nothing you can do to find and retrieve the computer.

HT5655 i cannot get flash player 12 to work on my mac book pro. Help??

I cannot get the Flas Player 12 to download to my mac book pro, what am I doing incorrectly?

Adobe Flash Player download, install and allow it.
    Allow Plug-ins
    Safari > Preferences > Security
    Internet Plug-ins > "Allow plug-ins"
    Enable it.
    Press " Manage Website Settings" button for more options.

My Mac book pro displays black screen says no bootable device insert boot disk. I have no boot disk to insert. What should i do.no bootable device"

My Mac book pro immediately displays black screen when I start up and says no bootable device insert boot disk. My question I don't have boot disk nor recovery disk to restore the system. Urgently needs your support and help. Thanks in advance. Michael l. Lluch

Hello
any chance you have try a bootcamp / win install into your Mac ??
if so
try this to boot into mac os
restart your mac , just after start up sound hold on "ALT" key to sart on drive manager
if that work select mac os volume using arrows key and validate by enter
HTH
Pierre

HT4356 Mavric doesn't support my 5 years old Big Screen Display, OR? Tried to connect my Mac Book Pro after installing Mavric, The Screen didn't work as before. I could only see the Desktop but not the movies for example. What can I do?

Mavric doesn't support my 5 years old Big Screen Display, OR? Tried to connect my Mac Book Pro after installing Mavric, The Screen didn't work as before. I could only see the Desktop but not the movies for example.
<E-mail Edited by Host>

It appears what happened is the installer though it was looking at a empty drive and just went ahead and installed.
I of course am assuming here you didn't use Disk Utility to format the drive first before installing, that would wipe out your files and programs for sure.
So what to do, what to do.
Well there is hope for you as long as the drive wasn't Filevaulted.
I'll explain. When a hard drive writes data for the first time to a drive, it starts at the very top and works it's way down.
When OS X was installed the first time, it was at the top of the drive, unless you upgraded then the upgraded OS X could have been written elsewhere.
Now when you just reinstalled OS X, the new OS went on the top of the drive, overwriting any data that was there previously, so what was there you have lost forever which is about 8GB or so. If it was the previous OS there, then your more in luck because only the old OS X was overwritten.
The remaining space on the drive still can have a copy of your files, provided it's not overwritten yet.
It's because when a hard drive deletes data or reformats, it doesn't remove the data off the drive or overwrites it immediately, it's just made so it's SPACE is available for new files to be written there.
So technically one can recover the deleted data off a non-encrypted/scrubbed hard drive with special software.
The way it does this is it reads the 1's and 0's of the files themselves, and through a lot of figuring out, can tell what that file is and what it belongs too.
So what you will have to do is this:
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
or if you don't have the skills, then take it to a local PC/Mac tech and they can do a direct image of the drive and then you can run Data Rescue on it to rebuild your files.

I have been taking screenshots on my mac book pro and they have been saving to my desktop. However when i try to move them into a folder, they don't move at all! I have changed my setting in view options to 'none' but they still don't move?

I have been taking screenshots on my mac book pro and they have been saving to my desktop. However when i try to move them into a folder, they don't move at all! I have changed my setting in view options to 'none' but they still don't move?

Got to your Desktop folder in the Finder sidebar, command i will open the info pane.
What are your permissions here? Unlock the pad lock and Change to read write.
Are you experiencing other problems?
Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs
http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/

Non bootable Mac Book Pro - What directories to salvage

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for