Should I bring an external hard drive to Genius Bar when taking in my Macbook?

Hi,
I have an appointment with the Genius Bar at my Apple store today after my Macbook refused to boot up last night.  Though I have heard several helpful hints, I'm too skeptical of my own abilities to repair the computer myself!  It's an 07 Macbook, so it's time is almost up, anyway - all I want is to successfully transfer what data I haven't backed up off of that hard drive to my external hard drive before I buy a new Mac.
Should I bring my external hard drive with me to my appointment?  Is that something that would happen at that time?  If they are able to access it, would they be able to help  me transfer the data? 
I don't know what to expect, and all I care about is backing up those last few files that are trapped on my potentially done-for computer!
Thanks for any suggestions.
-J

Definitely bring the hard drive. This could be your last chance to save that data.
As a side note, please please please take this lesson to heart - any data that you do not want to lose must be kept in at least two places. By preference, in different physical locations. Get a backup plan for your new computer and use it. You'll be glad you did.
Best of luck.

Similar Messages

  • What format i should use for my external hard drive that can be used interchangeably between mac and pc?

    What format i should use for my external hard drive that can be used interchangeably between mac and pc?

    Usually Fat32/MS-DOS as mentioned, but that has several limitatiuns, like 4GB filesize limit.
    One option is MacDrive for you PCs... allows them to Read/Write HFS+...
    http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/
    More options...
    NTFS-3G Stable Read/Write Driver...
    http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
    MacFUSE: Full Read-Write NTFS for Mac OS X, Among Others...
    http://www.osnews.com/story/16930

  • ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive.  Not deleted...just missing?

    I store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there.  It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location.  I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro.  In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive.  When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began.  I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process.  Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there.  Is there a way to make it re-appear?  I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
    Thank you.
    Best,
    Matt

    When you change the location in preferences it tells iTunes to start, from this point on, storing new media files in the new location.  It then presents you with the option to move any old files in their current locations to the new location.  It doesn't move the library files which are not media files.  Read the links below to understand how iTunes works because you are the one with the computer in front of you and are in the better position to understand how it stands as regards to iTunes files.
    What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
    More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
    What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
    Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
    Now, did you keep the whole library on the external drive, or did you keep just media?  From your description of the situation it sounds as if you kept the whole library there and when the external was not attached it returned to default location on the internal drive.  What you should have done then was plug in the external drive, hold down the option key, and guide iTunes to the library file on the external.  At this stage you could have dealt with the mislocated new files on an individual basis. 
    I guess the key question is, did your trying to move the couple of new media files to the external drive overwrite the iTunes folder there, which because you then canceled may have also just resulted in it being deleted.  I am not going to test the theory on my system.
    How big was your library on the external?  If it was 40GB do you now suddenly have 40 GB free?
    Look for any iTunes folders on the external drive.  In view options turn on "calculate all folders sizes" and see if there are any big ones.

  • I have an external hard drive but it is read only on my macbook.

    I have an external hard drive but it is read only on my macbook. I have tried my friends which works on his macbook but this is also read only on mine. Do I need to change any settings?

    Here's my lo-tech solution (if you have Parallels) to this frustrating problem:
    Eject your hard drive.
    Unplug (USB) your hard drive from the MAC .
    Start Parallels.
    When Windows has started, plug your drive back into the MAC.
    You should get a little screen asking if you want the drive to be utilized by MAC or Windows. Select Windows.
    Use Windows to copy your files over to the hard drive.
    This is less than ideal and not a long-term solution, but I was afraid of attempting any reformatting since I have many files on my hard drive. 
    Just remember that Windows has to be running first, before you plug in your hard drive.

  • My WD external hard drive will no longer show up on my Macbook pro.

    My WD external hard drive will not longer show up on my macbook pro.  The light turns on and you can hear it running but it won't show up either in finder or in the disk utility.  This happened a while ago but I really want to get all my photos off the hard drive.  Is there anything I can do to get my computer to read it again or get my data off of it?
    I don't have access to another Mac to test it. 
    Thank you

    dead sata bridge card. very common problem.
    see all about it here:
    Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD
    verify HD on another Mac however, if same, dead SATA card most likely

  • My Toshiba external hard drive is no longer being recognised by my Macbook Air - solution?

    My Toshiba external hard drive is no longer being recognised by my Macbook Air. The light on the hard drive is on, but it won't appear on my computer's desktop or anywhere else. How can I fix this?

    Hi rivraff,
    If you are having issues mounting an external hard drive volume, you may want to see if it shows up and/or can be repaired in Disk Utility; you may find the following article helpful:
    Apple Support: Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1782
    Regards,
    - Brenden

  • I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive.

    I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive. Please help for I am not that computer savy and don't want to mess anything up.
    Thanks! 

    I called Apple Support and they walked me through it. They told me to basically copy and paste my music to the external hard drive. (I think.) Or maybe it was they had me transfer a folder to the EHD. I don't exactally remember it was a few years back. But I tried to plug in the EHD before starting and...nothing. Still says same thing, "locate file."

  • ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive

    The store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there.  It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location.  I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro.  In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive.  When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began.  I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process.  Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there.  Is there a way to make it re-appear?  I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
    Thank you.
    Best,
    Matt

    Any ideas?  Anyone?

  • I created a new itunes, but when i add the music i added it from my external hard drive by accident, so when i disconnect it and wish to play music without having it connected, obviously it asks me to located my songs, i dont want to locate each song help

    i created a new itunes, but when i add the music i added it from my external hard drive by accident, so when i disconnect it and wish to play music without having it connected, obviously it asks me to located my songs, i dont want to locate each song and i dont want to have to add all my music again, is there anyway of changing the location to a new folder all at once? for example, if it is my computer/harddrive/music/.... can i change it to mydocuments/musis/...
    and having the exact same music folder so all the further directions are accurate?
    thanks
    please i need help

    pass the music on your external hard drive to the computer then drag the to Itunes

  • Can you share an external hard drive over a network when your Apple Airport Extreme is in bridge mode?

    Hello, is it possible to share an external hard drive over a network when I have my Airport Extreme in bridge mode?  I can't use my AE as my main router at the moment but still want to be able to use the hard drive on the network, and the router I am using isn't capable of adding an external hard drive.  I use Windows 7 and the other router is a Netgear.  I have searched the communities and have not come across an answer to this question.  I have tried several configurations within windows to try and see the hard drive but none have worked.  I can see the hard drive when I run Airport utlities, but it cannot be seen on the network.  Thanks to anyone who can help!

    I think there is some confusion in this thread..
    If you are sharing on a local LAN port forwarding is not required.
    is it possible to share an external hard drive over a network when I have my Airport Extreme in bridge mode?
    Answer is yes.. no port forwarding, mapping whatever term is used.. is needed. Port mapping is required when you cross over a NAT router.. as long as all the devices are inside a single LAN.. then no port mapping.
    I assign to my Airport Extreme, do I do so with the settings of:
    Service: SMB
    Type: TCP
    Server IP: xx.x.x.x
    Port Start: 445
    Port End: 445
    This would not work even from WAN.. SMB is blocked by all responsible ISP.. there is simply too many unprotected windows machines out there. If they allowed SMB .. the world would be flooded with hijacked bots. And stolen data like bank accounts. SMB is not a secure protocol.
    But this is not necessary on a LAN.
    The problem can be Mavericks which does a terrible job presenting network drives.. The usual recommendations are to use AFP or force the connection to CIFS (ie SMB1 not 2).
    If you use airport,, then use AFP.
    In finder.. Go, Connect to server.
    AFP://AEname or AEIPaddress. (replace with the network name of the AE or its actual IP address).
    When asked for password.. type public if you did not change it or use whatever password you put.
    Store the password in the keychain.

  • My external hard drive does not show when I am trying to open a document in Office Org??

    My external hard drive does not show when I am trying to open a document in Office Org?? When looking in the about IMAC system support it shows as being connected. Any ideas??

    Does the drive show up under 'Devices' in Finder?

  • I have a Firewire 800 external hard drive and need to connect to my new MacBook Air.  Where can I get the correct cable?

    I have a Firewire 800 external hard drive and need to connect to my new MacBook Air.  Where can I get the correct cable?

    Apple has announced a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter, but not yet given a release date.

  • I have an Acer external hard drive 500GB.  Is it compatible with Apple MacBook Pro laptop?

    I have an Acer external hard drive 500GB.  Is it compatible with Apple MacBook Pro laptop?

    There are only a handful or Hard Drive mechanism manufacturers left. Acer is not one of them, although they may make the enclosure (but probably not that either). So in essence you have a Brand-X enclosure with some sort of Hard Drive inside.
    Most of those work fine once they are re-Initialized for use on the Mac. For me, I prefer to use the Re-purposing of a drive as an opportunity to re-write every block with Zeroes (which can take several hours but can be done in the background), assuring that every block is good.

  • How should I reformat my external hard drive?

    I have just purchased a new 21.5" iMac and I will be moving from PC to iMac. I currently have a 2.5TB external hard drive which I have connected to my PC laptop that I use to store and watch movies. My question is how should I format/partition my external hard drive so that I can use it with my new iMac? The external hard drive will solely be used with my new iMac (it won't be connected/used with my laptop again) and I am ok with losing the data on the external hard drive as I have backed up the data currently on it onto another hard drive. I have tried to research what format to use but I am a little confused as to which one is the best and I am looking for some advice.

    Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    (73546)

  • Should I use an external hard drive to store the files while editing and how should I do this?

    Getting used to FCPX and want help learning how to store my Canon D60 Video files on either my internal Mac book pro or on an external hard drive while editing projects?   Do the files need to be transcoded on the computer drive or can that happen on an external HD?
    Thanks,
    Greg

    Well, in my opinion, it all comes down to speed. There are a lot of editors that swear that working with footage on your system drive will do all sorts of horrible things, cause crashes, etc. Really its a bunch a malarkey. The most it will do is slow you down when your system needs access to the drive. Bandwidth is bandwidth is bandwidth - its all the same. If working with video on your system drive caused crashes, so would doing thousands of other things and we would all have dumped apple long ago for Microsoft or linux.
    Here's what I tend to get for sustained read speed on various drives (ie reading a few large files like video files):
    USB 2.0: 25 - 30 MB/sec. Drive RPM doesn't matter much since USB is limiting factor, unless you're running a system.
    Firewire 400: 28 - 34 MB/sec.  Drive RPM doesn't matter much since FW is limiting factor
    Firewire 800: 55 - 60 MB/sec.  Drive RPM doesn't matter much since FW is limiting factor
    internal drive on SATA II or III connection, or USB 3.0 external drive:
        7200 RPM: ~100 MB/sec
        5400 RPM (most laptop drives): probably ~70-80 MB/sec
    SSD: 250-500 MB/sec if installed internally or over USB 3. USB 2 or firewire connection for an SSD is a waste of SSD speed *except* that they have fantasticly fast random access for reading many small files, so I got a really fast launching system in an experiment installing a system on an SSD and connecting it via FW 800 - but that's not relevant here
    so - to make a short story long - do whatever works for you. avoid using USB 2.0 or firewire 400 drives if you're editing HD - you can't play transcoded ProRes 1080p footage from them reliably. And once you have more than one clip overlapping, like at cross dissolves, you're sunk. You're internal drive is likely much faster, even with the overhead of the system using it too.
    Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the app store is a good HD speed tester. Ignore all the video specific stuff at the bottom - its mostly for uncompressed video, which I doubt you're working with.
    Since i have a recent macbook pro (late 2011) and my edits are usually not more dense than 3 layers of video at a time (mostly concert video rather than narrative film), I actually almost never transcode, or even render - and this is for 1080p HD video - because FCP X is so good at playing the imported original h.264 files. I store my media I'm working with on my internal laptop drive (which i upgraded to a 7200 RPM) or a FW 800 7200 RPM external drive.
    h.264 files from the camera are much smaller than transcoded ProRes files, so they will play back from USB 2 or firewire 400 drives, but I would only do it in a pinch.
    enjoy your editing.

Maybe you are looking for