Dead Hard Drive-Could Use Some Help!

[Enterprise8875]

Ok so last night I downloaded iTunes 7 and was all excited playing around with that and then my 12" Powerbook(just over a year old) crashes. I was flipping through coverflow really fast so I though I just I had just overdone my CPU. So I do control-option-escape but nothing so i hold down the power button.

Now this is where things so bad. It restarts and i get the apple dong but then I hear clicking coming from the hard drive! And then the screen is just grey, I dont even get to the Apple logo. I had never heard the clicking before but it seems like the hard drive is dead.

So like most of us I have never backed up anything and I have some pretty important stuff on that laptop(i am a college student). Other then using the $1000 data recovery services(i dont have the money for that) is there any way to save my data?

Thanks

 

[sushi]

Ok so last night I downloaded iTunes 7 and was all excited playing around with that and then my 12" Powerbook(just over a year old) crashes. I was flipping through coverflow really fast so I though I just I had just overdone my CPU. So I do control-option-escape but nothing so i hold down the power button.

Now this is where things so bad. It restarts and i get the apple dong but then I hear clicking coming from the hard drive! And then the screen is just grey, I dont even get to the Apple logo. I had never heard the clicking before but it seems like the hard drive is dead.

So like most of us I have never backed up anything and I have some pretty important stuff on that laptop(i am a college student). Other then using the $1000 data recovery services(i dont have the money for that) is there any way to save my data?

Thanks

Sounds like your HD is a goner.

I had a similar situation and was able to salvage a large amount of data.

I had another Mac which I had installed Tech Tool Pro.

I connected the two via FW cable.

Booted my other Mac. Then booted my laptop in FW/External Disk mode.

Using Tech Tool Pro I was able to recover data from my PB15 HD to my other Mac.

Suggestions. Let your PB cool down for a day or so. That way the HD is cold. Have your other Mac ready to go. Then start your PB and start recovering data. In my case I had to attempt this over a 4 day period as the HD would get to a point were it went crazy and data recovery stopped.

Recommend that you do not try to boot your PB at all until you have another Mac set up. Each time you boot, your HD can get more corrupted, or worse freeze up on you. Once this happens, the game is over. While the HD makes clicking sounds there is still some life in it -- very little mind you.

Remember, patience is key.

 

[Enterprise8875]

Thanks a lot! I will give that a try(although i now need to find another mac but that shouldnt be to hard).

I heard that putting the hard drive in a freeze sometimes helps. Does anyone thing I should give that a try?