Using my Mac to Boot a PC with a bad hard drive...

Question

Hello all,
I have a Dell laptop with a blown-out hard drive (big surprise). I want to figure out a way to access it from my Mac, I feel like there should be a way to do this...
Do I have to be running Windows? (because I don't, and won't)

Answer 1

First things first, if your laptop hard drive is blown then do not try booting up the laptop anymore as any further attempts to boot will significantly impact your chances of successfully recovering any data from the hard drive.
Your best bet for recovering any data from the drive is to buy a either of the following;
a) a external IDE or SATA laptop drive enclosure
e.g.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Market-Express-External-Enclosure-Silver/dp/B001IYMC7Q/r ef=sr12?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1227952799&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.co.uk/MY-Link-USB2-0-External-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B000MRJIEA/re f=sr13?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1227952799&sr=8-3
or
b) a device like the Magic Bridge II or similar
http://heisei.manufacturer.globalsources.com/si/6008800559562/pdtl/LAN-card/1003 474567/Magic-Bridge-II-Dual-Interface-Storage-Bridge.htm
Note: I have no affiliation with either amazon or Heisei other then owning a Magic Bridge II myself for precisely the same predicament as the one you find yourself in now.
Both of these options will require that you remove the hard drive from the laptop and hook it up to either the enclosure or the Magic Bridge II.
Once the hard drive is hooked up you will then be able to plug the hard drive into your iMac or another PC and if you're lucky, the hard drive will spin up and be available as a new volume on the computer.
If you have a small amount of data you need to recover then you can pull off whatever data you need onto the host computer.
If you need to recover the majority of the drive then you can use a Windows PC to do the recovery and have something like Paragon Drive Image, Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost then use that to make an image of the whole hard drive. Using an imaging tool will enable you to make a complete backup of the drive in the shortest possible time.
Have just remembered that you said that you don't want to use/won't use a Windows PC, so in this case you can also use CCC or SuperDuper on the Mac to make a backup of the drive in question.
Once the drive becomes available you then need to copy whatever data you need off the drive as quickly as possible. This is because, in my experience at least, once hard drives start to fail they invariably fail quicker and more often once they have reached their normal operating temperature. The hard drive bearings can also wear out and this can lead to read/write failures, another reason why the recovery process needs to be as quick as possible.
Should you fail to recover the data you need at this stage then your only realistic option is to hand the drive to a data recovery company for them to make a best attempt at recovery.
Regards,
JasonB
Message was edited by: jbroomfi