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How to retrieve data from MacBook Air (late 2009 model)

M

maavens

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 20, 2005
21
0
Denmark
My sister's MacBook air won't start - it seems like something with the OS.
Of course there is no back-up, and she stands to loose both work and personal documents including all of her photos, etc.

The question is now, how can I retrieve the data from her Mac?
If it were any other model, I would simply start it up in Target Mode, but this is not an option on the Macbook air, which does not have a Firewire port.

There must be some way to connect to it.
At my disposal I have an external USB optical drive, my own Macbook Pro, and we are willing to spend some money on anything that may help us to save all of her data.

(...regarding back-up, I actually did persuade her to get Crashplan to automatically back up all of her data, but apparently she never got it configured, so it hasn't actually backed up anything)
 
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,113
1,353
Silicon Valley
OWC may make an USB SSD enclosure/adapter for your model MBA SSD. You could remove the SSD module from a dead MBA and try reading the data that way.

Or you may be able to make a bootable optical disk with your MBP, and then try booting the MBA from the optical disk drive.
 
M

maavens

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 20, 2005
21
0
Denmark
I think it has a hard drive, not SSD... Is the HD removable, and if so, is it a standard SATA drive which I could put in an external enclosure?

How would I go about making a bootable optical disk from my MBP?
I would prefer not to have to take the MBA apart :)
 
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D

dona83

macrumors 6502
Nov 26, 2004
319
47
Kelowna, BC
Your model has a removable SSD. Get it out and back up that data ASAP.

Why do people not backup their stuff in the first place? THINGS HAPPEN!
 
M

maavens

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 20, 2005
21
0
Denmark
dona83 said:
Why do people not backup their stuff in the first place? THINGS HAPPEN!
Click to expand...

Like I wrote, she had installed Crashplan, but had not set it up to back anything up - she's not very technical. I blame myself for not specifically telling her she actually had to tell crashplan which files/foldes to back up.

But what about the option to boot from an optical disk - or could I install an OS on a USB drive and boot from that?
 
S

Stingray454

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2009
593
115
Use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant to create a bootable USB stick and boot from that. From there you can run Disk Utility (that might fix the disk), or you can pop in another USB and copy files manually through a terminal window perhaps. Let's just hope the disk itself isn't broken.
 
D

dona83

macrumors 6502
Nov 26, 2004
319
47
Kelowna, BC
I prefer Carbon Copy Cloner or just use Time Machine. Why complicate things? It's like an exercise plan, keep it simple and it'll be done daily, make it too vigorous and it'll quickly die off.
 
S

Stetrain

macrumors 68040
Feb 6, 2009
3,550
20
Which model of Macbook Air is it? Does it have the fold-down port door (2008-2009) or does it have the wedge design with ports on both sides (2010-2012)?

Edit: Not sure if it said in the title before or if I just missed it.

From this guide:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook-Air-Models-A1237-and-A1304-Hard-Drive-Replacement/860/5

It looks like the hard drive in that model has an oddball connector. I'm not sure if you can get a cable to connect it to another computer. Maybe an Apple Store would be able to do it?


Stingray454 said:
Use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant to create a bootable USB stick and boot from that. From there you can run Disk Utility (that might fix the disk), or you can pop in another USB and copy files manually through a terminal window perhaps. Let's just hope the disk itself isn't broken.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a pretty good solution to me. It's at least worth a try. On that model Air you may need a USB hub so you can plug in both the bootable thumb drive and another drive to copy files to since there's only one USB port.
 
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