Disaster has struck :(

[xcalibur]

Well i was just using my 20" iMac G5 normally today when while I was half-way attaching a file in Yahoo Mail, I encountered my first kernel crash in my 3 years experience of using a Mac. And to top it off, my hard disk is gone and Apple was kind enough to send a replacement out ASAP. I'm still shocked as to why this happened as my Mac is only around 4 months old. Goes to show that even if your hard disk is new it is vital to backup your data.

The problem now is that I want to try to recover my data on the hard disk using Data Rescue but the thing I don't get is how am I going to do it when I can't even boot into Mac OS X. Also, since the iMac G5 uses a SATA hard disk, I can't use a external enclosure since there are basically none! (If anyone has any links for this item it will be greatly appreciated!) Any suggestions guys?

 

[iGary]

Well i was just using my 20" iMac G5 normally today when while I was half-way attaching a file in Yahoo Mail, I encountered my first kernel crash in my 3 years experience of using a Mac. And to top it off, my hard disk is gone and Apple was kind enough to send a replacement out ASAP. I'm still shocked as to why this happened as my Mac is only around 4 months old. Goes to show that even if your hard disk is new it is vital to backup your data.

The problem now is that I want to try to recover my data on the hard disk using Data Rescue but the thing I don't get is how am I going to do it when I can't even boot into Mac OS X. Also, since the iMac G5 uses a SATA hard disk, I can't use a external enclosure since there are basically none! (If anyone has any links for this item it will be greatly appreciated!) Any suggestions guys?

Is your backup a BOOTABLE backup?

If it is press COMMAND - OPTION - SHIFT - DELETE when you turn it on.

 

[rainman::|:|]

Is your backup a BOOTABLE backup?

If it is press COMMAND - OPTION - SHIFT - DELETE when you turn it on.

Once again, a MR reader offers help without reading the whole post. How is he supposed to get two drives hooked up at once, that's his question.

xcalibur, how do you know your HD is dead? (I assume that's what you mean by 'gone'). What happens when you try to boot off of the old drive? If Apple is sending you a new one, they must be satisfied that it's dead, but still, gotta ask.

Not sure about SATA enclosures... you may be stuck trying to find a cheap one...

 

[PlaceofDis]

have you tried booting from the hardware test cd to see what that finds?

have you tried booting from the software restore cd to see what you can find out through Disk Utility?

good luck and i dont know of any enclosures right now.....

 

[Rod Rod]

http://www.provantage.com/buy-7addo...irewire-ilink-addonics-ae5sacsuf-shopping.htm

There you go.

 

[xcalibur]

Is your backup a BOOTABLE backup?

Nope, unfortunately it's not. I would consider myself very fortunate in the sense that I just got my backup 1 day before this happened! If not for the backup I might have lost all my data!

xcalibur, how do you know your HD is dead? (I assume that's what you mean by 'gone'). What happens when you try to boot off of the old drive? If Apple is sending you a new one, they must be satisfied that it's dead, but still, gotta ask.

Using "fsck" yields a "Disk IO error" which can only mean one thing and booting using the restore disc doesn't allow an archive and install plus disk utility's repair disk doesn't work, can't remember what the error was...

http://www.provantage.com/buy-7addo...uf-shopping.htm

Thanks, but anyone know where I can get it over here in the UK?

 

[CanadaRAM]

Once again, a MR reader offers help without reading the whole post. How is he supposed to get two drives hooked up at once, that's his question.

Yer criticism is unwarranted. As far as I can see, xc didn't specify what type of "Backup" device they are using. IF the backup device was a Firewire hard drive, then xc may be able to boot from e OSX install disk, install an OS on the Firewire, boot from the external FW drive, and run DataRescue. iGary was right on the money with that.

So xc... help us out here, what form is your backup -- DVD's, CD's or external drive?

Your other option is to borrow or rent a Firewire hard drive (doesn't have to be SATA) to do the above procedure.

 

[iGary]

Once again, a MR reader offers help without reading the whole post. How is he supposed to get two drives hooked up at once, that's his question.

My bad, but get a grip.

 

[xcalibur]

So xc... help us out here, what form is your backup -- DVD's, CD's or external drive?

It is a Lacie external drive but I didn't clone it so it isn't bootable and I wouldn't want to install Mac OS X onto it since my data is on it. One thing I read about is Data Rescue has a bootable version. Anyone have any experience of that? But I guess I wouldn't even be able to use that since I don't have access to a Mac now so I wouldn't be able to create the bootable disc. Bah, windows is really bad..using XP for a day even takes its toll on me!

 

[CanadaRAM]

It is a Lacie external drive but I didn't clone it so it isn't bootable and I wouldn't want to install Mac OS X onto it since my data is on it.

Whyever not? You're not going to reformat the drive, so your data should be fine, as long as you formatted it initally with HFS+ (Mac Extended format).

As long as you have 3 GB free on the LaCie for the OSX install (less, if you do a custom install and forego the extra languages and fonts), just put all of your existing folders into a folder called Backup Data, which will avoid the possibility of accidentally overwriting a data or Documents folder duting install.

Then boot from your OSX CD/DVD and install a fresh OSX onto the Lacie. Then boot from that , run DataRescue, TechTool, whatever you have and do the recovery on your internal drive.

 

[xcalibur]

Whyever not? You're not going to reformat the drive, so your data should be fine, as long as you formatted it initally with HFS+ (Mac Extended format).

As long as you have 3 GB free on the LaCie for the OSX install (less, if you do a custom install and forego the extra languages and fonts), just put all of your existing folders into a folder called Backup Data, which will avoid the possibility of accidentally overwriting a data or Documents folder duting install.

Then boot from your OSX CD/DVD and install a fresh OSX onto the Lacie. Then boot from that , run DataRescue, TechTool, whatever you have and do the recovery on your internal drive.

Hey, thanks for the tip. I get what you mean. However, how will I be able to move my stuff to a folder without being able to boot into Mac OS X? I think I did put my stuff into a backup folder but I'm not 100% sure. Is there a way to check where it is? The problem is that I don't have another Mac to plug the Lacie disk into to check it.

 

[BillHarrison]

Hey, thanks for the tip. I get what you mean. However, how will I be able to move my stuff to a folder without being able to boot into Mac OS X? I think I did put my stuff into a backup folder but I'm not 100% sure. Is there a way to check where it is? The problem is that I don't have another Mac to plug the Lacie disk into to check it.

Basically, you will do as follows:

Boot to your OS X install disk, and select to install on the current disk. OS X will install, but not modify your existing folders / information. Then, upon boot to that disk, you can navigate to your information, and do what you need with it.

Of course, you could always wait to just access it once your new drive arrives if you can, that would be the easiest method, and you won't be installing OS X for nothing.

In the future, do a clone of your drive. This is one of the things I love about OS X. This VERY rarely works well on a PC, doing a "straight" copy and booting off of it. All the registry / setup / etc makes things really ugly. OS X is much cleaner in this fashion.