Old internal Macbook Pro hard drive (now in enclosure) is partially read in Disc Utility, but not in Finder or Diskwarrior - I need those files!

Recently I totalled my old Macbook Pro with a glass of red wine. Fortunately, whilst the guys at the mac store said that almost every component was totally screwed - the HD seemed okay. On their advice I purchased an enclosure, carefully removed and installed the old HD, booted up my new Macbook Pro...
Upon plugging in the drive (via USB) I receive the following message - "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" and the options "Initialize, Ignore, Eject". The drive is, obviously, not read by Finder but upon clicking initialize I get this from Disk Utility.
All options are 'greyed out' - there doesn't seem to be anything that I can do to retrieve the information at this juncture - so I downloaded Diskwarrior but to no avail. It doesn't seem to recognise the existance of the drive at all.
A few things I will try today: Powering the enclosure externally (it's currently running off the USB), Purchasing a different enclosure.
Another issue is that I'm not made of money and I've already forked out £100 for enclosure/Diskwarrior. I am not madly keen on blowing the same amount again to get an engineer to come and shrug at it. Or worse, pay £1 per GB for data retrieval!
Does anyone have any ideas/advice about this at all?

File recovery software: Try using an application such as Data Rescue 3 - http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php or FileSalvage - http://subrosasoft.com, or one of the ones listed in the link below. Some have free trial versions that let you see if the software will help before you decide to buy. You will also need a second hard drive equal to or larger in size than your first drive as a destination drive for recovered files.
http://data-recovery-software-review.toptenreviews.com/mac-recovery-software

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I can not store all my Music on my internal Macbook pro hard drive so I am storing it on a large external drive connected to my airport extrem. How do I get Itunes to search for the music here with out trying to copy it to my laptops hard drive??

I can not store all my Music on my internal Macbook pro hard drive so I am storing it on a large external drive connected to my airport extreme (2 TB drive plugged into the USB port). I see the drive on my laptop and I can add and delete files no problem. How do I get Itunes to search for the music here with out trying to copy it to my laptop's hard drive? I don't have enough space to do that.

How did you move the music to the external drive? What exactly is on the drive? The entire iTunes folder or only music? If it is the entire iTunes folder you can do the option+start suggestion earlier. If you copied only music and did so by dragging it there then you need to delete it again and consolidate/organize it there instead so iTunes tracks the move. iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH19507

Hard Drive Reads in Disk Utility but not in Finder

I have a Seagate FreeAgent hard drive that is configured to NTFS. I use software to read and write to this on my macbook pro. I have plugged my hard drive into my macbook this morning and it will only read in Disk Utility, and not show up at all in Finder. I have plugged it into another macbook and have the same thing. Tried to do disk repair and it said it was repaired and operating normally, but still not opening in Finder. I also tried it on a Dell running XP and same thing, doesn't open as a folder but shows as operating normally in the XP's disk utility equivalent. I have tried finding an answer elsewhere but can't come up with anything. Besides taking it for data recovery, is there anything else I can do or try to fix without compromising the data?
Message was edited by: jazmyn96

You might get more help were you to post in something like the MacBook or OS X forum. This forum is for OS 9, an archived Apple Macintosh operating system.
That said, it sounds like your drive might be dead. When you say that you can see it in Disk Utility, you mean that it shows up in the column on the left? When you repair it, can you hear the drive spinning up?
Can you try making an image of the drive to see what happens?

Dealing with Small internal macbook pro hard drive

I'm a bit behind on the newest technology. I'm looking at getting a new macbook pro retina and will prob have either the 128 or 256 gig internal drive. Seems like not a lot of space. So my question is, is it feasible to put entire programs on an external drive?
Can I say, put photoshop or final cut pro x completely on an external USB 3.0 drive, or will these programs run too slow? Do programs like these need to be installed on the internal drive, with the large files on an external drive?
Or is this possible with maybe a thunderbolt external drive? Thanks.

i'm running into the same predicament myself. i got the 256gb retina and it's already almost full (only 6gb available). my iphoto library alone is 200gb. i've spent almost 2 days consolidating photos into what stays on the retina and what goes on the external. i'm thinking i should have just got the 512gb and called it a day.
2 days to save $600, and i'm still done consolidating. as for your original question, i don't think you can put a program on the external, it must reside where the OS is.
which brings up a question, how big is the actual program anyway? it can't be THAT big, compared to the files it loads. why not just put the program on the internal, and the large files on the external?

Macbook pro hard drive apple claimed 'failed', has changed it's tune. BUT....

This is a very looooong story, but here's the short version of it (I swear). I can add more details as needed. And there is definitely a question at the end.
And I should preface this by saying I am a novice computer user, and really don't understand how hard drives, or permissions, or any of that stuff works.
1. Two weeks ago my mid 2011 17" top-of-the-line macbook pro wouldn't wake from sleep upon opening from clamshell mode (familiar story to many)
2. Did a hard shut down using power button
3. Powered back up and got spinny rainbow no matter what I clicked. Took 10 minutes for any single action to respond, even opening text edit.
4. Could not force quit, could not restart, system eventually froze
5. Did another hard shut down
6. System would then NOT boot normally
7. Booting in safe mode showed invalid node errors
8. Was able to get the OS to work, was preparing to do a backup, and in a "smack my head later" move, I closed the lid not thinking, when I went to the other room to get something to drink (had I know what was to come, that drink would have been a double gin & tonic). MBP not wake up again. Again- hard shut down.
9. This time would not boot at all- even in safe mode, even running repair disk permissions on screen while booting. Would get to the end of booting and just die- not start, not finish, nothing.
10. Brought to apple genius bar. They confirmed the hard drive had failed. They replaced hard drive for free (with the exact same model and make of drive!! TOSHIBA MK7559GSFX. Thanks for instilling more confidence apple!!)
11. I brought my failed drive home and swapped it out with the drive in my 2008 15" macbook pro, which is where it has been living since then.
12. Fired it up in target disk mode with my iMac, and the drive never appeared as an external drive/device. Tried this multiple times after multiple restarts
13. Booted the 15" mbp to Lion's 'over the air' recovery, and was able to get disk utility open that way
14. Will NOT boot from the drive (get the apple logo, the spinny circle and the bar that never progresses, no matter how many hours/days I leave it for)
In the past week I have:
used DiskWarrior (says drive is damaged and can't be repaired)
used Data Rescue 3 (which I was getting error messages with too but now is telling me it can't do anything because the drive is the bootable drive, and not an external (presumably because it's in the machine?)
In Disk Utility I have verified permissions, repaired permissions, verified disk and repaired disk. They all report errors, including repair disk, which tells me the drive is damaged and can't be repaired. (I get it, I have a bad hardware problem)
booted from Lion-installed external travel drive, to try and have the drive be recognized
attempted to run Drive Genuis 3 with no success
attempted to create a new image using both disk utility and one of my software programs (don't remember which) with no success
attempted to restore disk image using disk utiltity with no success
am now running Stellar Phoenix 'recover lost volumes' with what appears to be success- it has found 5 lost volumes, but appears to be only 1/15th of the way done after about 24 hours. I'll let it run intil it's done- however long that may be. I have no idea what happens when it ends.
Now, here is where the story gets interesting.
For 5 days the drive would not only not boot, but it wouldn't mount either. It just didn't exist. There was no information on the drive in disk utility, and I couldn't access it no matter what mode I chose.
BUT THEN, sometime shortly after hitting 'repair disk' about 12 times (getting failure messages each time), it mounted. Wahoo!
Not only did it mount, but it has been mounting reliablibly each time after many restarts, using an external drive loaded with Lion as the boot drive.
AND, now the drive's S.M.A.R.T. status says it's verified- both on the main Toshiba drive and the volume that contains my user account. It also shows the correct GB of data on the volume: 316.73 GB.
I can also run verfiy permissions, which completed successfully.
AND, I was able to click on the volume name (Louise. My iMac's name is Thelma. They work great together, LOL), and see the contents on the drive!
First, when I opened the applications folder, it showed it as empty. But then I left it alone for about 5-10 minutes, and suddenly all of my apps appeared in the folder. Awesome!! There were a few in there I didn't have on my iMac, and didn't purchase through the app store, so I backed those up right away to another external hard drive I had plugged in.
This was surprising and encouraging until I got to my user folder- 'jamie'.
I opened it and it too shows as being empty. Zero kb. Left it alone for a long time, but sadly no files appeared. This was a few days ago- still no files appearing.
To make this clear- my main user folder- called 'jamie'- says 'zero kb', 0 items. This is the folder that houses all of my documents and image files.
BUT, disk utility, and Stellar Phoenix, and Drive Genuis 3 all are reading 'Louise' and telling me the data is there- 316.73 GB worth. I just can't see it.
So I realized this may be a problem with permissions because I am using a new- different- user account. I was also thinking that if I could show hidden files, I might be able to see something in the folder that might help. So I downloaded TinkerTool and selected 'show hidden and system files'. No dice, still empty. Then I right-clicked on my user folder to get info and under 'sharing and permissions', the users, and the settings at the bottom are greyed out and I can't change anything.
In system preferences, the user for the failed drive does not show at all, and when I try to add it by using the same name and password, it tells me the user already exists.
Now I'm stumped. I feel like I've made progress and am getting close to getting the contents, but not sure what to do next, or if I'm fighting a losing battle.
Here is what I am doing now:
I am going to let Stellar Phoenix finish finding lost volumes, because it's the only app that seems to be doing anything.
I purchased an external drive enclosure from amazon (this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00655YT9C/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00), which I will be receiving on Monday.
I'll pull the drive out of the 15" mbp and put it in the new external enclosure and will then try to run Data Recovery 3 on the drive
If that's unsuccessful, I'll try DiskWarrior again, and/or maybe one of the other software programs
And then if those don't work I guess I'm done.
Based on the information I provided, do I indeed have a failed hard drive, and will NOT be able to recover the contents of my drive, and am SOL and am just wasting my own time?
Or is there a way I can get the files in my user account to show?
I wanted to provide all of the backstory on this first, instead of just saying "user folder empty" in case the backstory helps someone know what's going on.
Anyone want a crack at this? I can upload screen grabs if that helps. Insight? Suggestions? Ideas? Thank you in advance!!
================================================================================ ================
BTW: about backing up. I am diligent about backing up and always have redundant backups of everything (I'm a professional photographer). I DID have my mbp fully backed up via Time Machine to an external drive, but due to my iMac ALSO failing recently and needing repair work, I had to wipe the drive clean and do a full backup of my iMac, which filled the last drive I had left, because I also recently purchased a Canon 5D Mark III, which produces insanely huge RAW files which helped completely fill a single drive I had used to back up both the iMac and mbp. Couple that with writing a book under deadline for a major publisher and not having time to research or purchase another drive, and a failing macbook pro drive a short time later and it was the perfect storm- a total cluster.
(Also, tried Data Rescue 3 on the external drive that DID have the mbp backup on it and was unsuccessful).
The good news is, since the hard drive was less than a year old when it failed (again, thanks Apple!), and it was all mirrored content to my iMac to begin with, (most of which I would pass over to the iMac whenever I had the chance), only about 15% of the data on this failed drive is data I don't have on my iMac. Unfortunately it's all documents- word docs, pages docs, text docs, excel docs, that can't be recreated, including, what I think is the funniest blog post I've ever written. Sigh...... No client work or images thank god, But still. I really want it back.

u can give try to using external enclosre and backup ur files. I hope u will get files back. or using external enclosre with ur hdd boot into Linux and try to mount ur harddisk.
there are multiple no of tutorial to mount apple partion in Linux.

My macbook pro hard drive went bad and i bought a new one and installed it. Now i have the old corrupted hard drive in my hand and i am looking to recover my files from it, any suggestions please? too bad i never backed them up.

My macbook pro hard drive went bad and i bought a new one and installed it. Now i have the old corrupted hard drive in my hand and i am looking to recover my files from it, any suggestions please? too bad i never backed them up.

After you have installed the OSX on the new HDD in your MBP, install the old HDD in an enclosure and connect it to your MBP via USB. Then try to drag and drop your data to the new HDD.
If this proves unsuccessful, you may look for data recovery software on the Internet. There will be free trails to see if it will work or not. If the trial suggests that it will work, then you will have to purchase the software.
The last resort is a professional data recovery service that will offer NO guarantees and charge a lot of money.
As you now can appreciate, backups eliminate such predicaments.
Ciao.

My macbook pro hard drive died. I only have a windows hard drive and an old powerbook G4 which of course you can't use to create a boot disk for my macbook. How can I solve this?

I can't get app store on my old power book to download OS X, My macbook pro hard drive died and all I have is a windows hard drive, still has windows os on it, a 500 Gb USB drive and this power book. How can I get my macbook back up without spending money? Thanks

And what happens if the OPs Mac is of a newer version that came with a version of Snow Leopard above the 10.6.3 version that is on that Retail, meant for Upgrade, disc? Like if it came with 10.6.4/.5/.6/.7? That disc you linked to would not work.
He needs to contact Apple and get a replacement set of Original System Reinstall Discs. That is the only way he can be assured it will work and he would also get the iLife apps which he wouldn't buying that DVD disc you linked to.
dwb wrote:
The Snow Leopard DVD is $20 from Apple. You'll just have to wait a few days. BTW this is a full installer that works with any model computer that can run SL. Apple used to ship recovery/installation disks that were tied to specific computer models so that a 15" MBP installer disk coudn't be used on a 13" MBP computer. So you need either full installer or the recovery disks for your specific model.
And BTW, I have a 2009 13" MBP w/8GB RAM that is running Mavericks. With a 5400 RPM drive I used to experience a bit of beach balling (think hour glassing) but an SSD has given it new life. It feels now slower than the newest MBPs - it obviously benchmarks considerably slower but in everyday use it doesn't feel like a 4 1/2 year old computer at all.

New aperture library to ensure no space used on MacBook Pro hard drive

Hi
My laptop MacBook Pro hard drive is getting full (again). I mainly have photos on my laptop and iTunes. Using referenced files and having the raw photos stored on an external drive still eats up lots of GBs. If I create a new Aperture library on a portable external drive (that I can back up on Time Machine) is this the best way to ensure my photos are available to edit, but that no GBs of my hard drive are used up as I import to the NEW library on the 1TB portable external drive.
Are there any disadvantages or other ways to prevent any more hard drive GBs being used?
And should the new library NOT be referenced since the photos will be on the external portable until it fills up.
Many thanks
BW

Hi Kirkby
Appreciate your help and useful link. I think I have been doing exactly as you recommend to date, using my laptop internal drive to store the library etc. and a portable external drive FW800 for my referenced originals, together with iMovie clips for the same events/years. But my external is now full. And my internal drive is OK but I don't want to add more GBs to it.
It is the next step I am pondering. The main problem being to avoid any extra laptop internal GBs being used up.
I usually need access to originals and iMovie clips for the same event on one drive. My iMovie projects include both.
I could buy a 2TB portable drive and move all my originals to it, and even also the library but really I would prefer to have two externals and choose which one to connect, as required for Aperture and iMovie. And I would like maximum growing room on any new drive I buy.
(I back up my lap top and each external drive to time machine, and put my photos from memory card onto a DVD as unedited originals. I have usb2 and FW800 and FW400 only)
It's the best storage of new original photos and clips, and not eating up my last 50gb of my laptop drive, while enabling easy access to my most recent pics to enable more convenient editing, that are my issues. I don't want to have to sit at my desktop with a large external drive while editing.
Is anything daft or disadvantageous about creating a new aperture library on a new external portable drive to store and enable access to all my new photos from 2014 onwards? I realise I would have to switch to the old library and connect another external drive for pre 2014 access. And would this mean NOT eating up any more laptop internal drive GBs?
Thank you again
BW

My MacBook Pro Hard Drive recently gave me the gray folder with the question mark of death. Even as

My MacBook Pro Hard Drive recently gave me the gray folder with the question mark of death. Even as a Mac Newbie/Novice, I successfully installed a new hard drive and the OS (10.6.8) software from my installation discs. I have, however, lost the ability to play video using the spacebar and I have no idea on the steps necessary to correct this seemingly simple technical blip. .Here's my system overview:Model Name: MacBook Pro Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2 Processor Name: Intel Core i5 Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz Number Of Processors: 1 Total Number Of Cores: 2 L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB L3 Cache: 3 MB Memory: 4 GB Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s.
I am using the Premiere Pro CS5 NLE (with the 5.0.4 updates), and I have tried to reinstall the software (which is actually the Production Premium package) several times, but I still cannot use the spacebar (or any method) to play any of my imported videos.
PLEASE HELP in any way you can!
Prior to having to replace my hard drive, my software was working just fine. No problems at all. But now, it seems that I can't get it to play whatever type of file I import.
Again, I am a newbie to the Mac, so any and all correctional/repair assistance needs to be expalined as if I were a child : )
I would hate to try to revert to considering the sophmoric Final Cut Pro X editing software package, but I've got to do something to be able to get back to my editing activities.
zionhall
[email protected]

Jorge242 wrote:
@FatMac the internet recovery doesnt work. It goes into recovery mode and then when i try to reinstall it cant find a disk to install it to. So what would be a good choice to take now?
Recovery Mode presents you with, among other things, Disk Utility. When you open that, if the internal shows up at all, first try to "Repair DIsk." If that doesn't work but if the "Media" line is present, try to format and partition it with a GUID partition table (understand that you will be erasing the contents of your internal). Then try to reinstall the OS. If that doesn't work, and since your Retina MBP didn't come with a DVD drive or DVDs, you'll need to try a hardware test using these instructions from Apple (short version: shut down, press the power button and hold down the "D" key). If none of those things work, let's hope you either have AppleCare or your warranty has some life left because the SSD in your rMBP is proprietary and expensive. You'll need to bring it to an Apple Genius for evaluation.

Early 2008 MacBook Pro hard drive was killed; how to sync stuff

My early 2008 MacBook Pro hard drive was reimaged (not by me) and they lost everything on there, and have now put in a new hard drive, saying nothing was salvageable on the original HD. I have an iPhone, iPod, iPad. When i get the MBP back, how will I be able to get those devices synced so that everything I've bought/have goes back onto the HD?
The original HD was being reimaged because my work requires use of Windows, and I was using Windows via Boot Camp. Windows got a terrible rogue virus (from my clicking on a link), which shut everything down on that side. Work tech folks said they needed to reimage the Windows part of the drive, but said in the process, the reimaging took everything, Mac stuff included. That's why I'm in this situation. They are going to put in a new hard drive, but it is a blank slate.
Long story short: last time I backed up was 2 years ago, and it wasn't using Time Machine, but an external hard drive. That was also before I got my current iPhone, the iPad and made some additions to iTunes. (For those who say shame on me, for not doing a backup sooner, you're right: But we have gone through 3 moves in 18 months, so it has been kinda nuts.)
I expect the MBP to get sent back to me in the next day. I have no idea how to put these pieces back together. I'm not even sure about data recovery, but am most concerned about iTunes/iPhone/iPod/iPad.
Thanks for your help!

suzannemacuser wrote:
Long story short: last time I backed up was 2 years ago, and it wasn't using Time Machine, but an external hard drive. That was also before I got my current iPhone, the iPad and made some additions to iTunes.
Two years ago??? Shame on you!!!
I found this the other day. It's old but still applies. This should be more than enough to help you get back on track. See the comments by Zevoneer
https://discussions.apple.com/message/7217190#7217190
You will have to check on each of these. Some of the links are outdated but there is more than enough to get you started. See this article about transferring purchases. The link is in the other thread as well.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848?viewlocale=en_US
Backup! Backup! Backup!
Message was edited by: Demo

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

You'll get better performance if you use a Firewire hard drive (especially if you buy a 7200 RPM drive). Firewire's IO speed is significantly faster than USB 2. USB 2 has a theoretical max speed of 480 Mbps except that it has extremely high over-head. The fastest speeds you can typically get are about 300 Mbps. Firewire, on the other hand, has very little overhead. The fastest speeds you can get are very nearly 800 Mbps. You will typically be constrained by the maximum read/write speed of the drive, not the speed of the I/O on the Firewire bus. Now if you had one of those nice shiny new Macs with the Thunderbolt I/O and a Thunderbolt drive (Light Peak) ... I think they alter space and time so that your data arrives before you know you want it.
Also... unless you want to buy a solid state drive (very expensive), try to keep your hard drives from becoming much more than about 60% full if you want great performance. A nearly "full" hard drive is, on average, only about half as fast as the same hard drive when nearly empty.
USB 2 will work perfectly fine... just not as fast.
Also... it's much safer to move the entire Aperture library than to "relocate masters". Your images must be managed. You can Aperture manage them, or you can manage them. But someone has to manage them. If you "relocate" them so that they are no longer stored inside the Aperture library then you'll need to work out a system of how you decide to organize things and it's critically important that you don't start moving files around or deleting things without Aperture's knowledge. If you do, you'll break the links to your masters and start having problems with missing masters. If you have Aperture manage the library then you don't need to worry about any of that stuff.... it's safer.
Do make backups (use the Aperture Vault or use some other backup program, but make sure you back up your work if you care about it.) There are only two kinds of hard drives in the world: (1) those that have failed and (2) those that are going to fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hard drives are cheap. Backup software is built into Aperture and into your Mac.

New 15" Macbook Pro hard drive failure

It is common for a 15" Macbook Pro hard drive to crash after 3 months? How does Apple Support generally fix? Genuis bar seemed overwhelmed by holiday crowds and recommended an $8k 3rd party vendor.

"Any disk can fail at any time."
Over a large sample, the drives used are extremely reliable. You did not have a large sample, you had ONE drive.
Now you are much smarter than you were before this disaster. Apple will not pay for your data recovery. You (and everyone) need a backup solution.
Apple provides an excelent backup solution called Time Machine, that can do hourly backups to an external drive without disturbing your current work. Buy yourself an external drive at least twice as large as the built-in. Turn on Time machine, make sure it is working, plug it in at least daily, and then don't worry about it any more.

My Macbook Pro hard drive got locked. How can I unlock it?

My Macbook Pro hard drive got locked. I have replaced the drive with a new drive. I put the old drive in an external case. How can I unlock the old drive to get my pictures off and put on the new drive. I can see the drive but I cannot get to the iPhoto files because it is locked. Is there an easy fix?

How did the drive get locked? That doesn't JUST happen for no reason. The only way to unlock it is to put it back in to the Mac it came out of and UN-LOCK it.

Lost iPhoto when Apple replaced damaged MacBook Pro hard drive

My son and daughter-in-law recently had to replace their MacBook Pro hard drive. Apple did the replacement, but they got it back without iPhoto. Isn't that standard software when you purchase a MacBook Pro? Shouldn't it be part of the replacement, too?

If your computer shipped with Lion, follow the directions here to redownload the iLife apps:
Restoring iLife applications after Internet Restore of OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion
If you erase install OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion on a new Mac that shipped with OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion installed, you can download iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand from the Mac App Store.
After installation, start (up) from OS X.
Double-click the App Store icon in the dock.
Enter your Apple ID and password.
Click Purchases.
If you haven't previously accepted your bundled iLife applications within the Mac App Store, you should see your iLife applications appear in the Accept portion of the screen. Click Accept.
You may be asked for your Apple ID and password once again. Your iLife applications now move to the Purchased section. These applications are part of the software that came with your Lion based computer. Your account will not be charged for them. Click Install to complete installation of your applications.

My 2008 Macbook Pro logic board failed...am I still able to copy that hard drive onto my 2011 Macbook Pro hard drive?

My 2008 Macbook Pro logic board failed...am I still able to copy that hard drive onto my 2011 Macbook Pro hard drive?

What you can do is to extract the hard drive from your old computer, put it in an enclosure and connect it to your newer computer, so you can restore your data.
It's not too difficult to do it yourself, but if you think you will do something wrong, take it to a store where you can get your data restored

Old internal Macbook Pro hard drive (now in enclosure) is partially read in Disc Utility, but not in Finder or Diskwarrior - I need those files!

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