Party + Beer = Dead Hard Drive

My buddy fried his MacBook Pro by getting it soaked with beer at a party. It's dead. I tried connecting it to my MacBook Pro to see if I could retrieve data - but nothing works. It's really dead.
There's important info on there that we need. Is there any solution out there that would assist besides spending $15 grand at a special recovery lab?

I have noted links to a great video and product that should assist you. Check out the hard drive dock solution by NexStar. It seems to be the cheapest way to recover data.
http://chris.pirillo.com/hard-drive-fail/
http://www.vantecusa.com/front/product/search?sk=NexStarHard+DriveDock

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Dead hard drive after one 1/2 years

My ibook G4 stopped reading discs about 4 months ago, when the computer was about 9 months old. I was unable to bring in for help until recently, thinking it was not a huge deal. Now the computer at 1 1/2 years old, has a dead hard drive. Because I couldn't back up, I have to get data retrieval and a new hard drive. Because the lame warranty is up, I have to pay $600 dollars to essentially fix a brand new computer. Upset is not the word. It seems quite neglible that a company can make a $2000 item that starts dying essentially after 6 months of use.
The computer was used to write papers and do bookkeeping, this was not an abusive over use.
Any opinions out there? Is this "normal?"
I couldn't bring the computer in, due to a loss in my family, and school, etc...had I known it was much more than a virus, surely I would have! The lesson of a back up is also lost...because I was unable to back up, that is why I brought the computer in.....the day before I went for maintanence, ironically the computer wouldn't start.....

I am sorry to hear that you've had such a bad experience. We all have life situations that make it difficult for us to make things happen sometimes. It's all about your priorities. Obviously the problems on your computer were not important enough at the time to pay attention to. AppleCare was available to you within your first year which would have extended your warranty.
All electronic products generally come with a one year warranty. If your TV goes buggy within it's first year you would probably bring it in for repair. Afterwards it's your responsibility to repair or replace.
Again sorry to hear you've had such a bad experience but I don't know that their's much you can do aside from making sure you let Apple know. It seems to be a common occurance on these boards and if there is a growing trend to failing HD maybe Apple will do something.

Dead Hard Drive on Black MacBook

Can any one give any pointers as to how to replace a dead hard drive in a (approximately) two year old Black MacBook? Service guy trying to charge me £250+ to do it.
Any help would be most appreciated.

It's super easy.
Go here and buy this HHD (I have bought 3 of them for my Mac laptops)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314
Go here for simple instruction on installing it.
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbook13_memhd/
One thing to remember is to re-format the HHD once installed using your install Disk #1. Reformat using GUID. Very simple to do. Can be installed in less than 10 minutes with the right tools (highly recommend buying the from OWC), and another few hours to reinstall everything.
Right tools from here.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/TOOLKIT11/
Message was edited by: D/FW

How do I recover data from my dead hard drive?

How do I recover data from my dead hard drive?

Is it dead or corrupt? There are recovery programs out there, however if your HD is head, paying pros to do data recovery is VERY costly. Some have removed the platters and installed them in likewise drives that dont have head crashes, but torque tolerances are tight, and doing it right is a bit advanced and tricky for most. Ive done HD disk swaps 4 times and had success 3 of the 4 times. It requires cannibalizing another working HD. In the future remember the golden rule, 2 copies is 1, and one is NONE.
Its likely you could find a local computer repair station that can do it for you cheaply. HD dont really "die", they have fried SATA bus, or crashed HEADS........the platters DO demagnatize over long time due to heat and degauss of the data (poor storage, etc).........but in specific, a HARD DRIVE DOESNT DIE ,.........only the flying head mechanisms that read and write the data, and SATA / bus that feeds the data DIES,.......but the data (unless corrupt or magnetically corrupted) is THERE

Can't install OS X after replacing dead hard drive

Hello-
Today I replaced the dead hard drive (Genius bar-confirmed) on my MacBook.
The replacement itself was uneventful.
When I tried to load OS X, I reached the page that asks me which language I want, but that was as far as I could go. I received a warning: "ALERT--this software can't be installed on this computer". I backed out and went into Disk Utility, and YES--it recognized the new hard drive (although there was a line somewhere about "unformatted"). The new drive is a SATA 2.5" Fujitsu 7200 rpm drive. The Genius Bar guy said to definitely get a SATA 2.5".
Any suggestions, please?
Much appreciated.
THANK YOU.

Well. I've checked out all the Fujitsu drive reports here and see no problems...
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/action.lasso?-search
On the off chance, have you tried a PRAM Reset or whatever passes for a PMU Reset these days?

Can I use imac 2007 which have dead hard drive as a Mac mini display

Can I use imac 2007 which have dead hard drive as a Mac mini display

If just the hard drive is defective you could mke a bootable USB thumb drive or bootable Firewire HD. Not sure of the connecting cables for the monitor functions. This could provide the functions though.
http://www.screenrecycler.com/ScreenRecycler.html

T43 - Recovery from dead hard drive

I have a T43 (2686-DJU) with hard drive failure (noticed for the first time with an error message on start-up saying "media test failure, check cable ... operating system not found". After discussion with the Lenovo support folks they confirmed the hard drive needed replacement, and I have ordered a new one (part 13N6917) - I am wondering how I go about getting the new one up and running as well as rescue and recovery since I was not smart enough to make a rescue CD. Should I order one? Is there some way to pull recovery info off of my mostly dead hard drive?
I apoligize for what I presume are pretty basic questions - maybe someone can just point me to a resource that I have simply not found yet.
Many thanks.
mjeastman

My hard drive failed completely and the Apple Store offered to "try" to recover it for $2000+. I went to a company called ProSoft http://www.prosofteng.com/ and they were very helpful. They sold me some software for around $100 to recover all of the data. It took over a week for the software to run correctly, but I got EVERYTHING back and ProSoft was so helpful with all of my questions.
Good Luck

How to have my iphone stop registered as being a hard drive

I have iPhone 4S and I wanted to sync my phone to my Windows 8 PC and everytime I plug it in with USB, the computer automatically loads it up as if it was a external hard drive. I can't have the phone be accessable with iTunes and the only thing the computer will let me access is my photos/videos. Can someone help me figure out how to stop this so I can have it where I can actually put my music on it?

yeah everything is up to date and no, when I plug it in, all it does is open up as if I plugged in a USB stick or external hard drive. I've looked at the settings on my phone and nothing is different, I've "uninstalled" the phone from the device manager but as soon as I replug in the phone, it goes to being external hard drive again.

HT1386 My hard drive died and I need to resync my iPad. Will just following the initial instructions resync my iPad and restore all my information or do I need to try to recover the iPad file from the dead hard drive?

My hard drive died and I need to resync my Ipad. Will following the initial instructions for syncing work or do I need to restore my original files from the dead hard drive.

If the hard drive that crashed is the one that stored the itunes library, be sure to restore the library from Time Machine (mac) or whatever backup you use on windows. That will get back your music. I suspect that the replacement drive has an empty itunes library and thus, perhaps, the itunes match used that to sync to its servers.
Try posting in the iTunes Match forum, you'll probably find more knowledgeable folks there.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/itunes/itunes_match

Replaced dead hard drive reinstalled my mac 08 software will not restart for update

replaced dead hard drive reinstalled my mac 08 software will not restart for update

idk im not a computer tech im running on 08 software mac osx 10.5.2 ok now i replaced my hard drive ok now im trying to up date it goes to the agreement I agree and it tells me it has to shut down to download but instead of restarting it goes to download and and download stops half way can u help
what my prob is

How do recover license of CS6 suite from dead hard drive??

Dear Gang
Does anyone know how do recover license (aka deactivate) of CS6 suite from dead hard drive??

You'll have to contact web chat to get it deactivated. Link at the bottom of this page:
Adobe ID, sign in, and account help

Extended Hardware Test - can this miss a dead hard drive?

Hello,
I am having all kinds of problems with my computer since installing a recommended update last week. I cannot fully restart it, cannot make repairs with disk utility, and cannot reinstall OS X to the harddrive volume because it doesn't list any available volumes. My hardware profile, as listed in the Hardware Test utitily, is as follows:
Product: MacBook
Mac Model: MacBook 2, 1
CPU type: Intel Core 2 Duo
Number of cores: 2
CPU Speed: 2 GHz
L2 CPU Cache (shared): 4mb
Boot Rom version: MB21.882.00A5.B07.0706270922
System Serial #: xxxxxxxxxxx
SMC version: 1.1780
Memory:
Overview: 1024 MB
(details about RAM)
I ran the hardware test, choosing to perform extended testing (took ~40 minutes), and the result was "No trouble found." I noticed there is no mention of hard drive space - should there be? This information doesn't show up anywhere in the disc utility diagnostics/profile - leading me to the thing the harddrive is busted - but the hardware test found no problems. Is it possible for the hard drive to be busted but the hardware test to not recognize this? Any suggestions? [I posted a more detailed, general inquiry over here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7873412&tstart=0 without much luck.]
Thank you!

Ok so I haven't received any helpful information on the question of whether or not Apple Hardware Test can fail to recognize a dead hard drive... can anyone recommend a replacement hard drive? I believe I need a 2.5" internal SATA, can anyone confirm this for me? Thank you!!!

Dead hard drive only place songs exist is on ipod

hello
my kids imac hard drive abruptly died. i took it to an apple cert repair center, the data could not be recovered.
silly me for not getting them a back up drive too, thier data matters to them just like mine does to me. my 11 year old cried when she realized all her allowance purchased songs and flip cam vids were gone (and photos, etc etc etc). my other kid, age 9, less sad being all she had to do was get a new passwerd for club penguin and she was up and running again, jeesh! (she cares really)
anyway, the only place their songs exist at this point is on their ipod classics, they have 1 each, total of two, they share the imac, now with a new very EMPTY hard drive
is there a way to transfer the songs from the ipods back to the imac?
thanks

Hello Nut Case,
There are several ways you can pull the music off your iPod and onto iTunes. The first link after the Apple support document below provides step-by-step instructions for the direct method if you have a PC as well as a few third party applications (for both the Mac and PC) if you choose to go that route instead. You can also do a simple Google search for "copy music from iPod to computer" and you should receive a number of sites that can help you out.
Just make sure that when you have your iPod plugged into your computer, that you don't hit "Erase and Sync" before completing the task of copying your music over.
Also, if you have any purchased music, you will probably have to re-authorize your computer by heading to the Store drop down menu and choosing "Authorize computer."
[5 Ways to Copy Music OFF your iPod and onto iTunes|http://www.metaphoriclabs.com/articles/5-ways-to-copy-music-off-your-ipo d-windows-mac-os-x>
Here are a few more helpful sites.
[Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide|http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipo d-to-computer]
Or
[How to copy songs your iPod to your PC|http://lifehacker.com/software/ipod/how-to-copy-songs-from-your-ipod-to-your -pc-105256.php]
Hope this helps.
B-rock

Dead hard drive dilemma

Earlier today I dropped my macbook by accident. Afterwards it was working just fine up until a few hours later when it randomly decided to freeze. I turned my Macbook off and on again and now it stays on the grey Apple boot-up screen with the spinny thing going for ages and just won't boot up. I've tried using the safe mode method, the cmd+alt+p+r method, two cmd+s methods and such but it won't boot up.
I know it's a hard drive issue because I am able to boot of my external drive. A couple of months ago I replaced my 160GB hard drive with a 500GB one (one being internal and one external, i basically switched the two hard drives into eachothers cases) and there hasn't been a single problem with it until I dropped it today.
I would/should have backed up the hard drive, but there was too much data on my 500GB HDD to fit on my 160GB one. I also can't afford a Time Capsule. I've opened the macbook and the HDD looks fine, no loose connections or dints or anything. I'm also wondering if there's a way I can recover the data from it as the HDD that is playing up is visible when I boot from my external, however, the files are not the same as they were when it was usable, they're really old ones.
If it helps I have a MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008) 13.3"/D2.0G/2x1GB/160/SD-DL

Try this:
Reinstall Snow Leopard without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard 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 Utilities menu. 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.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro 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.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.
OR:
Reinstalling Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.

Dead hard drive? replace myself?

Hi folks,
My hard drive was making a funny clicking/vibrating noise while spinning for the past 2 months. I have backed up everything, fortunately, to an external HD. Today, the HD seems to have died. When it spins, it makes a worse clicking/grinding sound, and the iBook freezes and becomes unresponsive (except to reboot, and the boot sequence freezes when the HD starts to spin). Currently, I have my backup external firewire HD attached and I'm actually loading OSX.3 onto it now so that perhaps I can boot from it and get access to files.
Now for the hard stuff. I've been quoted by local Apple Store and another Apple local shop $350-$450 for replacement HD and recovery of files. For another few hundred, I could buy a used PBook or iBook on eBay, which is tempting, but my current iBook is fine except for the HD, so it seems. And I see plenty of quite inexpensive replacement 40-80 GB HD's on eBay for less than $100. Questions are two:
- is it reasonable to assume HD is dead, and if so,
- should I buy a replacement and install it myself?
My technical skills: I have installed memory cards into my Lombard PBook, memory into my Dell subnotebook, and on occasion I can use hammer, nails, and drill. I am a doctor, but not a surgeon.
Yes, no, maybe?? Tell me if I'm getting in way over my head.
-- Josh

Hi Joshua,
Does wen you said it freezes, does it actually freeze or do you get the spinning wheel? Can you move the mouse? I would wait a couple of days before thinking about installing a new hard drive. The reason being, we might find that it isn't necessarily a failing hard drive; it could be something else. You might want to look at Mac OS X v10.3 Tutorials - Troubleshooting a Mac that Won't Start and Knowledge Base Document #106464 on Your Mac won't start up in Mac OS X (Mac OS X 10.3.9 or earlier).
You may also want to try reseting the PMU (Knowledge Base Document #14449, which covers Resetting Powerbook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU)). What does it say next to S.M.A.R.T. status (Checking the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard disk (Disk Utility 10.5))?
Jon
PS The iFixit guide is a great guide as long as your patient and read it over a couple of times before you begin. Remember it's not a race; if you find yourself getting frustrated, stop, walk away, and come back when you have relaxed.
Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All), Airport (Graphite & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook, G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more... Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

Party + Beer = Dead Hard Drive

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