Recovery from Hard Drive Failure

We lost a hard drive on an editing station this week. All of our files, including raws and catalog, are backed up on a netowrk storage drive. I've recovered the files and transferred them back to the local PC's new hard drive. The way our NAS works is that is saves new versions of the same file if changes have been made, Accordingly, there are many versions of the lightroom catalog file (each suffixed with a date like Lightroom 5 Catalog (2014_10_09 13_24_17 UTC)).
My first thought was to open the latest version of the catalog, and then make sure the raws are located where the catalog is looking for them. I ran into a problem though. Lightroom can't open the catalog:
"Lightoom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom 5 Catalog (2014_10_09 13_24_17 UTC)" it is not a writable and cannot be opened. This could be ca used by incorrect permissions or because another lightroom application is using the catalog. You may try to correct the problem or you may select a different catalog."
What can I do to resolve this? I'm confident that if I can get the catalog open, I can get things back on track. We just wrapped up our busiest wedding season ever, and having one of our editing stations down is a really bad thing!
Thanks so much for your help!
Devin

Yeah: what dj_paige said, or try copying catalog to a writable storage location, like your local hard drive.

Similar Messages

Data Recovery After Hard Drive Failure!

Ok, basically, I've got a 2 1/2 year old iBook G4 with a bombed hard drive, and unfortunately, the last time I backed up was around 3 months ago. Here's what happened right before the crash: some applications like Widgets and Safari were acting fluky, and it wouldn't let me open Word documents, so I restarted, because I thought it might have something to do with the fact that i had downloaded the new version of itunes not that long ago and hadn't restarted since. well, when i restarted, the gray screen with the wheel and the apple symbol went on for a really long time, and then the blue screen came up with the cursor, but nothing else happened, and the blue screen just stayed there. as far as i know, the hard drive wasn't making any unusual noises, just the usual occasional soft sounds that my hard drive has always made (there are usual sounds, right?) a piece of information that might be useful is that the hard drive was almost full (it only had about 5 GB left, which i understand is how much you should leave) could this have caused the failure maybe? anyway, i tried using the hard drive as a target and tried getting another computer to recognize it and pull the files off, but that didn't work. so, i brought it into the apple store, and they got it to boot up but using some external hard drive, i think. they tried disk utility, but that didn't see my hard drive. then the tried disk warrior, and that saw it and repaired it or something, but then it couldn't get the drive to mount. so, i'm assuming that because disk warrior didn't work and couldn't get it to mount, then other software like data rescue, etc... won't either. like all computer users, i've got some REALLY REALLY important data on there, and all the data recovery places i've gotten quotes from are pretty pricey. if the drive doesn't require physical data recovery, only non-physical, as i hope, the cheapest is still $350. even so, the person on the phone there didn't seem to know nearly as much as the people at the more pricier places. so, are there any other options besides expensive data recovery? i read something about using dd - a unix thing, but i don't know the first thing about it (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050302225659382) so i'm not sure i want to risk messing it up even more. and, if worse comes to worst, then i'll use a data recovery place... but can anyone tell me if they've used any of the data recovery companies below, and which ones are good?
(first three do evaluation for free, and then you decide if you want to continue based on more accurate price idea)
MacintoshDataRecovery.com
$500 non physical
$1100-1600 physical
Heroic Efforts
http://www.heroicdata.com/data_recovery
$350 non physical
ships to another (very expensive) place if physical
ACS Data Recovery
http://www.acsdata.com/index.htm
$600-700 non physical
DriveSavers.com
(recommended by Apple, probably the best, but the most steep, too)
could cost anywhere from $500-$2700 and $200 evaluation fee even if data is unrecoverable
Since this is our fourth hard drive failure in four different iBooks in 2 1/2 years, i am starting to become seriously disillusioned about the quality of the hardware Apple uses...not that i would ever get a dell or anything, but still....
THANK YOU in advance for any tips you might be able to offer, and also for reading this extremely long post!
katie
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I have read good reports concerning Data Rescue although I have not used it myself.
Once you get your data back, focus on a regular (even daily) backup routine, because as you know only so well, the question is not if a drive will fail, it's when.
My condolences, by the way.

Recovery after hard drive failure?

Hi everyone,
Simple question regarding what to do if my hard drive fails. Please bare in mind that my knowledge of computers is less than to be desired!
I currently use Carbon Copy Cloner (time machine gives me too many issues) to make an identical bootable copy of my hard drive. I assume that if my current hard drive fails, I could just boot from my cloned external drive and then clone my external drive to a new internal HHD.
Seems easy. So what's the pupose of the recovery partition? Would most of you guys approach the task of hard drive failure in the same way as me?
Cheers
Tom

The recovery partition is instead of having installer discs. It allows you to restore the last installed operating system to factory state. At times it may tap into the Apple App Store Server, and need a contact to support to get the right installer to show up. Mind you, no Mac can install an older operating system than shipped with, except for this tip:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6841
Apple discontinued providing installer discs with Mac OS X 10.7 installed Macs.

Recovery from hard drive

I was instructed to reset my notebook to repair fingerprint device.
Thought I had backup of data on external hard drive, but not.
Computer illiterate, but wanted to know if it is possible to recover data from hard drive?
Thanks

Hi,
Please check professional services in your area, normally they charge few hundred dollars depending on recovery rates but never get 100%. There are few tools such as:
http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/recover-formatted-partition.htm
You may want to try yourself.
Good luck.
BH
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Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.

Envy Ultrabook 6 Problem with recovery after hard drive failure (out of warranty)

Hi
Please can someone tell me if it is true that to use HP factory recovery discs, the computer hardware has to be the exact same as when bought.
After wasted hours of trying to get recovery discs to work, I end up with the same 'Recovery failed@ screen and some unhelpful lines of code.
From reading various posts it appears that I have to have an HP replacment HDD of the same type as came with the computer. If this is the case, then the links on the support pages should say this before I shell out £39 for a set of discs.
To me a hard drive is a hard drive. I replaced a fried hard drive (1 month outside of warranty end) with a good brand replacement, but larger size. The discs will not load.
However I was able to load W7 form an iso file and get that to work. I need the recovery because I do not know how to set up the raid that allows quick boot on this laptop, and I don't have the time or any furhter inclination to get it to work.
Partly a rant, sorry, but am I right and is there any solution?
Regards
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi !
From what I have read here, YES you can recover with a different(non-HP) harddrive. It just has to be the SAME size or bigger.
I would make sure that the laptop BIOS sees the new drive and set boot options to DVD in BIOS.
I don't have access to detailed instructions, but you can foun them here in this forum.
Regards,
Louis

Data recovery from Hard Drive using external USB adaptor

Hi all,
Satellite L655D-S5066BN laptop.
My moderboard or processor failed the other day. (Computer power is on, but it would not boot at all, only the fan seems to run at full speed. Other than that, it is totally dead, not even the Toshiba BIOS logo, no hard drive activity at all).
I removed the hard drive and pluged it in an external adaptor and tried to read it from my desktop.
It seems to work fine, as I was able to access it and copy all the pictures and music files.
They were under c:\Pictures and respectively c:\Music directories.
However, when I try to access My Documents forlder I get an error telling me that I don't have credentials to access that directory.
The computer did not have any passoword protecting the User Account, and didn't use any encription software.
Only my daughter was the only user.
Questions:
Is any way to access those folders that seem to be protected?
Would it be worth trying to replace the motherboard / processor ? If so where would I find such a motherboard?
Thank you for your feedback.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Apparently, I found the solution.
Doing the below procedure I was able to access the files and copy all the content of My Documents.
To resolve this issue, you must turn off Simple File Sharing, and then take ownership of the folder:
Turn off Simple File Sharing:
Click Start, and then click My Computer.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box, and then click OK.
Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if one appears.
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.
If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
Click OK.
You may receive the following error message, where Folderis the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of:You do not have permission to read the contents of directory Folder. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control? All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
Click Yes.
Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and the folder contents.
Disclaimer: Not my idea, but I learned from this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881/en-us

Compaq presario cq61 312sa wont perform a system recovery from hard drive

When i turn on my Compaq Presario CQ61 312SA it looks like it is going to start ok then flicks to a white page with page cannot be found???
i have tried and would like to completely restore to it's original settings but when i turn it on and repeatedly press F11 it just beeps constantly and has a blank screen for ages.
any clues or quick fixes?
from searching online i gather i can't get hold of any recovery discs?
thanks, hope somebody can help

Hi:
If you can still read the windows 7 product key on the bottom of your notebook you can make your own W7 installation disk.
Here's how:
If you can read the 25 character Microsoft windows 7 product key, you can download plain Windows 7 ISO files to burn to a DVD for the version of windows that came installed on your PC, and that is listed on the Microsoft COA sticker on your PC's case.
Burn the ISO using the Burn ISO option on your DVD burning program and burn at the slowest possible speed your program will allow. This will create a bootable DVD.
Or use the Windows 7 USB/DVD installation tool to compile the ISO file you download from Digital River. Link and instructions below. You need a 4 GB flash drive to use the USB method of compilation.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool
Use the 25 character product key on the PC to activate the installation.
The key will activate either a 32 or 64 bit installation.
Then go to the PC's support and driver page to install the drivers you need.
Link to the W7 ISO file downloads is below.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
Paul

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop Windows-XPsp3 OS - Need Data Recovery Help

Hard Drive Failure on HP DV 6000 Pavilion laptop - Need Data Recovery Help
HP Pavilion DV 6108 NR, RG365UA, purchased in late 2006 at Best Buy, with Windows XP, upgraded to Service Pack 3. It has a Fujitsu hard disk, 60 gigabyte, partitioned into C: and a Recovery D:.
Windows tries to boot up, but goes to blue screen with the message: "Unmountable Boot Volume" for one second, then just keeps recycling until I force a shutdown.
BIOS Phoenix, hard drive test result: " #1-08 Fail "
I ran a disk analysis/recovery program on the Cdrive and it seemed to show the directory structure intact, and it was able to recover some files. I was using the free one from Seagate (which only recovers small files). The second pass didn't run so well, and during the third run the program said I should not proceed further, and I should contact a professional disk recovery company.
However, the D drive seems to be intact, so, I wonder if the disk is corrupted or just some aspect of the logical C drive is bad.
How can I get the D: to run the recovery software on it? The recovery disks, made by Best Buy, only proceed to the R / F / Q option screen, and when I press R, I get a blue screen every time.
Tapping the F10 key during startup gets me nowhere. Ditto the F11 key.
I dont care about the hard disk; it is the data (files, docs, images, etc) that I want.
I contacted HP to order recovery disks but they are no longer available for my computer.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Jon
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Update...
I found a website that offers the following:
http://www.computersurgeons.com/p-13442-recovery-kit-435422-001-for-hp-model-number-dv6108nr.aspx
Recovery Kit 435422-001 For HP Model Number dv6108nr
Price: $27.00
Recovery Kit Set (An Entire Image of the Computer hard drive when the computer was new)
But I wonder how useful it would be. Early XP , no doubt. And if my hard disk problem is a mechanical fault, would any recovery disk even work? The disks made by Best Buy when I bought mine new in 2006 don't do anything more than go to the R /F/ Q screen and then goes to a blue screen when I press R (to recover the OS and apps and data files). And, as I wrote, it is the data that I want, not the disk drive.

MacBook Pro hard drive failure- data recovery possible?

Hi everyone, I have a June 2009 MBP that stopped turning on the other day and it just sits on a gray screen when trying to boot up. I had it taken in to a small little authorized Apple repair shop since I am living out in BFE and they said it has a hard drive failure which is causing the problems. They said there is no way to recover the data. Is that right? I'd imagine there has to be someway to recover it. Is there somewhere I can send it in or something? At this point even if it were to cost a lot I'd like to get the data off of it if there is the possibility.
Inb4: should've backed it up!

You may be able to boot from an external hard drive and repair the disk enough to copy the data from it, even if it will no longer boot. There are a number of hard drive recovery services. Apple even lists a couple of them (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3974) that are authorized to recover data from hard drives without voiding the warranty. The warranty is not an issue with a machine from 2009, but those are high quality, reputable companies.
Most such companies have you send them the hard drive and they will give you an estimate of how much it will cost to recover the data, if possible. Some people have reported that Data Rescue 3 comes with a coupon for free diagnostics and $100 off data recovery from The Data Rescue Center. That was a couple of years ago. I don't know if the same deals are in place now.

Hard drive failure - options for data recovery and AppleCare coverage

I have been handed a relative's 12 month old MacBook Pro with a factory-installed 500GB hard drive which appears to have failed. When attempting to boot the MacBook I am met with the classic clicking and grating noise which I know is a tell-tale sign of hard drive failure. The drive will not boot and I am shown the question mark folder icon, indicating that the operating system cannot be found. Have booted into internet recovery mode, Disk Utility appears to have found no sign of the hard drive's existence and shows none of its partitions. I have attempted putting the MacBook into FW target-mode and mounting the disk from another laptop, but to no avail; while it will go into target mode the drive simply isn't visible. The SATA connection to the drive is definitely OK - I have tested with another 2.5 inch hard drive which showed up fine in Disk Utility and was bootable. Have run Apple Hardware Test/Diagnostics but this returned no errors. It seems like a pretty clear cut case of drive failure.
I put this all to the relative whose laptop this is and asked them whether the MacBook had been dropped recently, explaining to them that this is one of the likeliest causes for such sudden failure. Sheepishly they admitted that they had indeed dropped it, although not from too great a distance and onto a carpeted floor. Apparently in the days immediately after the shock the hard drive continued to boot but the system was very slow and beset by spinning beech ball hangups. It is only in the last few days that the hard drive has become completely unbootable, and seemingly unreachable.
I have two questions that I would be grateful for some help with.
Firstly, is there any possibility of recovering data from this drive without going to a data recovery specialist? The user did have backups of most important data, but some recently imported photos were not backed up. Is it any use me trying any third-party data recovery software utilities, bearing in mind that I can't even mount the drive in target mode?
Second, the MacBook is still covered by the extended AppleCare warranty for the next two years. Is it worth my relative's while making a Genius Bar appointment to see whether Apple would replace this drive for free, given that the damage was most likely user-inflicted? Is there any chance that this sudden failure could be unrelated to the drop the MacBook suffered the other day - perhaps just a result of the 'normal' failure rate? I am more than happy to exchange the drive for a new one myself and my relative is happy to pay for the new part (I was amazed at how cheap hard drives are now), but would we be better off trying an Apple Store? My prediction would be that while we might get lucky and have an obliging genius who agrees to swap the drive without asking too many questions, we could also have one who concludes the damage is not covered by the warranty and insists on charging for the new hard drive (at a mark-up I assume) and labour.
Any thoughts about these two issues or the hard drive failure more generally are very welcome. Thanks.

1, Data recovery software is your only alternative if there is no backup. It may or may not be able to revoker anything from that hard drive. If it does then the only other choice is to go to a data recovery service. If have to go that route expect to pay for it, like $$$$.
2, Yes. They will at least tell him what the problem is and the cost if any to fix. There is a good chance they will fix it for nothing and only charge for data recovery if they can do it.

Hard Drive Failure, so I've lost ITunes Library. Ipod more up-to-date how do I transfer music from IPod to library?

Hi,
I had a hard drive failure on my old PC and I couldn't retrieve anything. I have purchased a new PC and downloaded itunes (Version I'm not use to which isn't helping) and signed in however it only has my purchased songs on the cloud which I need to download into my library from cloud. However I have thousands of songs that I imported into my old library from CD's etc which is no lost apart from all the data held on my ipod.
So my Ipod is more up-to-date then my library now. When I look to sync my ipod it says everything will be removed and will be replaced with content from the library. I've had a look around and I can't see a way to get my music from my ipod to my library.
Is there anything I can do, please help?
Thanks

See:
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities
or
Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device: Apple Support Communities

Following hard drive failure on iMac running Maverick I have recovered from TimeMachine backup but now app store does not connect. All other internet connections normal. Does anyone know of a fix?

following hard drive failure on iMac running Maverick I have recovered from TimeMachine backup but now app store does not connect. All other internet connections normal. Does anyone know of a fix?
Also mail not loading. The error report suggests that I look for updates from the app store?

http://www.apple.com/support/mac/app-store/contact/

I had a hard drive failure on my iMac. I can restore my music, tv shows, and apps from the iTunes store. How do I restore my movies?

We came back from vacation to find our iMac not working. Turns out I had a hard drive failure due to an invalid node structure? They could not recover anything. I can restore our music, apps, and tv shows from iTunes. Anyone know how to restore the movies we purchased from iTunes?

It has always been very basic to always maintain a backup copy of your computer for just such an occasion. Use your backup copy to put everything back.
If for some reaosn you have failed to backup, then you can transfer itunes purchases from an ipod. File>Transfer Purchases

Can I pull iWeb files back from MobileMe after hard drive failure?

I suffered a recent hard drive failure and while I had my pictures backed up I didn't have my iWeb files back up and don't want to start the website from scratch if at all possible. Is there any way to save the files I uploaded to MobileMe back to my computer so I can continue my website?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Chapter 2.3 of the iWeb FAQ.org site has tips on using some of the existing image, audio and/or video files in the published site in the reconstruction of the site.
OT

Unable to install Dreamweaver CS6 Upgrade ! from Hard Drive DUMP - Error : Adobe Genuine Software Verification Failure

Hello,
I am Unable to install Dreamweaver CS6 Upgrade from CS4 from Hard Drive DUMP -
Error :Installation Failed
Adobe Genuine Software Verification Failure
The product you are trying to install is not an adobe Genuine Software and appears to be counterfeit.
Can any one help me with this issue. I earlier installed it from DVD but, i am unable to find DVD. I have a copy of full DVD Dump in network.
Can someone help me fix the issue.
Note: I have installed Dreamweaver CS4 with serial number.and am trying to install upgrade over cs4.
Please help.
Thank you,
Sin

It was because i was installing directly from network dump.
I've managed to install and register software.
Thanks and my problem is resolved.

Recovery from Hard Drive Failure

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