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dissdnt

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 3, 2007
1,489
5
So this morning my 15 inch MacBook Pro Retina died. Pinwheel in Safari, locked up. Rebooted and nada. Couldn't find the HD etc. Brought it to Apple and they confirmed the drive was dead. :(

I lost 3 weeks of stuff and it sucks but I'm glad they helped me.

So basically this just a warning. Back up your stuff!

Btw.. totally off the subject, but is the desktop faster in geforce mode or intel graphics mode?

Thanks.
 

kingc0bra

macrumors regular
Nov 27, 2012
136
6
Wow that really sucks, is this a common issue for retina macbook pros or all pros? Not sure if they use different HDs in retina vs nonretina
 

204353

Cancelled
Jul 13, 2008
955
117
Damn, sorry to hear about this. SSDs are cracked up to be super reliable, but there's always a chance of failure for any fancy piece of technology. :(

And the dedicated NVIDIA graphics are a heck of a lot more powerful than the integrated (Intel) graphics.
 

dissdnt

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 3, 2007
1,489
5
Wow that really sucks, is this a common issue for retina macbook pros or all pros? Not sure if they use different HDs in retina vs nonretina

Not sure. It's a solid state drive so who knows. It must have been electrical or something. Not sure how a solid state crashes.

It's actually kinda of scary. At least with traditional drives, as slow as they are, you can sometimes salvage some data.
 

HowEver

macrumors 6502a
May 10, 2005
841
336
Toronto
Who doesn't back up for 3 weeks?

Everybody go backup. Hard drives die. Doesn't matter which laptop you have.
 

dissdnt

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 3, 2007
1,489
5
Who doesn't back up for 3 weeks?

Everybody go backup. Hard drives die. Doesn't matter which laptop you have.

Yah I'm stupid. The only reason I didn't was because I had a full backup of my Macbook Air that I sold and pulled data off that for my new computer. I didn't want to wipe that out just yet to back this one up, since there was limited room. Pure fail. :)
 

kingc0bra

macrumors regular
Nov 27, 2012
136
6
Damn theres gotta be a way to retrieve the data from the ssd, apple doesnt have a way to do it? Man their support is going down the drain...
 

Krazy Bill

macrumors 68030
Dec 21, 2011
2,985
3
Yah I'm stupid. The only reason I didn't was because I had a full backup of my Macbook Air that I sold and pulled data off that for my new computer. I didn't want to wipe that out just yet to back this one up, since there was limited room. Pure fail. :)

You can afford macs but not a cheap-assed USB backup drive? :eek:
 

thekev

macrumors 604
Aug 5, 2010
7,005
3,343
Wow that really sucks, is this a common issue for retina macbook pros or all pros? Not sure if they use different HDs in retina vs nonretina

The cMBP uses an HDD standard or a 2.5" ssd rather than the stick type. All three can die. You can't assume one to be more reliable than the other. In terms of HDDs, it's not like mechanical wear is the only point of failure anyway.

Not sure. It's a solid state drive so who knows. It must have been electrical or something. Not sure how a solid state crashes.

It's actually kinda of scary. At least with traditional drives, as slow as they are, you can sometimes salvage some data.

This is a common point of misunderstanding. SSDs can die just like any other drive. They can experience corruption. NAND can fail just like magnetic HDDs. You have to back up regardless of drive type.
 

Krevnik

macrumors 601
Sep 8, 2003
4,100
1,308
This is a common point of misunderstanding. SSDs can die just like any other drive. They can experience corruption. NAND can fail just like magnetic HDDs. You have to back up regardless of drive type.

Yeah, and the key thing to note is that any drive can fail through different means. Depending on how it fails, you may be able to recover some of the data.

Bad Blocks, filesystem corruption and the like can leave the machine somewhat bootable, and the data recoverable for the most part.

Controller chip failures, which can happen to both types leave the drive unrecognizable, and unrecoverable unless you pay for a data recovery company to inspect it. Other types of failure can also leave the drive unrecognizable, with both types. If you haven't experienced a HDD that just went "blip" and died, you have been lucky.
 

bogatyr

macrumors 65816
Mar 13, 2012
1,127
1
Damn theres gotta be a way to retrieve the data from the ssd, apple doesnt have a way to do it? Man their support is going down the drain...

Sarcasm? Data recovery can cost thousands of dollars. No manufacturer covers this by a warranty.
 

Naimfan

Suspended
Jan 15, 2003
4,669
2,017
Ouch.

Sorry you got a bad one. As long as Apple repairs it, and I'm sure they will, just use it as a lesson to back up more often.
 

Saladinos

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2008
1,845
4
Just use Time Machine.

Buy a 2/3TB USB disk, stick it on your router, switch the switch in settings and forget about it.
 

Pentad

macrumors 6502a
Nov 26, 2003
986
99
Indiana
I lost 3 weeks of stuff and it sucks but I'm glad they helped me.



Sorry to hear about your loss, but who doesn't backup for 3 weeks? I use Time Machine with an external USB3 drive.

Technology can fail at any time regardless of type or manufacturer so a backup is essential for anyone.

-P
 

e12a

macrumors 68000
Oct 28, 2006
1,881
0
Damn theres gotta be a way to retrieve the data from the ssd, apple doesnt have a way to do it? Man their support is going down the drain...

when it comes to data recovery, i think conventional spindle based drives are easier..because they either at least half work or can be in the end opened up and recovered through $$. When a spindle based drive dies, it's usually mechanical while the data remains relatively in tact on the platters.

once an SSD dies it's pretty hard for an end consumer to do anything about it. Apple Stores are not equipped to recover data from those things either, i'll bet. When a SSD dies, it's software/electrical.

And Apple has never really offered true data recovery services, so there's no "standard" going down the drain.

Apple's data recovery policy through 3rd party vendors: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3974
 

MisterKeeks

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2012
1,833
28
Apple never has had hard drive data recovery, and I don't believe any other PC manufacturer has had it. That said, I don't think there is really anything you can do when you lose data off of an SSD. It's just gone. That's why I back up!

(Don't have an SSD though. Yet. ;))
 

Sgtarky

macrumors regular
Dec 24, 2011
200
0
Benton, Arkansas
Who doesn't back up for 3 weeks?

Everybody go backup. Hard drives die. Doesn't matter which laptop you have.

DO IT, I procrastinated, I was waiting on getting a usb3 enclosure for a hd I had laying around. my harddrive failed after 2 months of ownership, it was not SSD tho.

----------

Damn theres gotta be a way to retrieve the data from the ssd, apple doesnt have a way to do it? Man their support is going down the drain...

yes you would think they would beable to. when my harddisk failed. it would actually boot into windows(bootcamp) just not osx, I could see the files on the osx side even, just couldnt pull them over. Since I wasnt confident in repairing mac hardware I let the genius trouble shoot. his testing was to wipe and format then reinstall, of course it wouldnt . I think couldve got the data off if I had another mac.:mad:
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,418
43,304
It's actually kinda of scary. At least with traditional drives, as slow as they are, you can sometimes salvage some data.
No always and sometimes its very expensive. Either way in this day and age, there's really little excuse not to back up.

I feel your pain, but I think some lessons hit home the hardest and losing your data is one of them :(
 
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