Broken HDD, Need Files

[gamedismantler]

Long story, short. I was supposed to be selling my MacBook Pro 17" today for $1k. I booted it up to get what remaining files I needed to get. It wouldn't boot and the HDD was making clicking noises.

I am disappoint.

I have the system booted up through the start up disc. The HDD is showing up but is pale. It can't be repaired or anything. I apparantly could attempt to partition it but it warns me that everything would be deleted.

I have four years of work on that HDD that I would like to retrieve. I have a Ext. HDD hooked up and it's recognizing it just fine. I could use a hand here if there is something I can do to just move all the info from one drive to another.

 

[axu539]

Long story, short. I was supposed to be selling my MacBook Pro 17" today for $1k. I booted it up to get what remaining files I needed to get. It wouldn't boot and the HDD was making clicking noises.

I am disappoint.

I have the system booted up through the start up disc. The HDD is showing up but is pale. It can't be repaired or anything. I apparantly could attempt to partition it but it warns me that everything would be deleted.

I have four years of work on that HDD that I would like to retrieve. I have a Ext. HDD hooked up and it's recognizing it just fine. I could use a hand here if there is something I can do to just move all the info from one drive to another.

you won't be able to do anything through disk utility. Your best option would be to hook up the drive to another computer (through target disk mode, by pulling out the drive and using a dock/enclosure, any of those work). Either way, you won't be able to sell the machine until you get a new hard drive in there, so I'd go ahead and cancel the meetup.

 

[snaky69]

Long story, short. I was supposed to be selling my MacBook Pro 17" today for $1k. I booted it up to get what remaining files I needed to get. It wouldn't boot and the HDD was making clicking noises.

I am disappoint.

I have the system booted up through the start up disc. The HDD is showing up but is pale. It can't be repaired or anything. I apparantly could attempt to partition it but it warns me that everything would be deleted.

I have four years of work on that HDD that I would like to retrieve. I have a Ext. HDD hooked up and it's recognizing it just fine. I could use a hand here if there is something I can do to just move all the info from one drive to another.

Your best bet would be to pull out your HD and plug into either another OSX machine or a linux box and try to retrieve your data manually, if it is mountable, you'll most likely succeed this way.

If that doesn't work, I've heard good things about DiskWarrior, but I can't advise for or against it as I have no experience with it.

Else there is probably a local data recovery agency in your city that specializes in such things.

 

[axu539]

I'd like to add that if it doesn't connect to the other computer, and diskwarrior or some other software utility isn't able to recover your data, you will basically be faced with a choice. Either accept the loss of your data, or pay hundreds of dollars for a professional service to recover your data. I can't stress this enough, but next time, remember to back up!

 

[gamedismantler]

Unfortunately this is what I feared. I have already gotten ahold of who it was going to be sold to and canceled the deal. I'll probably shop around for someone to attempt to retrieve the data. But I may just give up on the data as well if it's not affordable.

Thanks for the replies and advice.

 

[jbrenn]

Unfortunately this is what I feared. I have already gotten ahold of who it was going to be sold to and canceled the deal. I'll probably shop around for someone to attempt to retrieve the data. But I may just give up on the data as well if it's not affordable.

Thanks for the replies and advice.

get and external enclosure and place the drive in it. Then put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Sometimes you will be able to pull data off the drive that way. It should cost about $20.

 

[snaky69]

get and external enclosure and place the drive in it. Then put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Sometimes you will be able to pull data off the drive that way. It should cost about $20.

This, use another computer and try it, it's a lot less expensive than a data recovery and should work if your hard drive is not too damaged.