Resolved Help please with recovering data from a dead hard drive.

[fishingfromakay]

Hello all and thank you for ANY help. My 2012 MBPro died today. I got the question mark with the file folder at startup. Spent lots of time on the phone with Apple. We tried many things and none worked. What ever corrupted my hard drive also corrupted the time capsule backup as well the Apple tech said. So what I am going to try as a last ditch effort is take out the hard drive and see if I can access it as an external drive. I ordered an external case today to try this. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas of any way to get the information off the hard drive ? Thank you.

 

[Rich B22]

I think you're on the right track with the external case, as I've had a positive result by doing that in the past. If it works, don't worry that it may seem to take forever to boot up.
Also, make sure you have a new drive installed to install macOS onto (which should be done either from an external drive (USB stick) or Recovery Mode, before you crank up the faulty drive. Sometimes the heat of an overworked drive will make it crash. From that point on, you should just be able to use Migration Assistant. (fingers crossed!!)
Years ago, freezing the bad drive in certain cases would make it temporarily work again and so long as you keep the moisture out of it from condensation, couldn't hurt. see https://dtidatarecovery.com/failing-hard-drives-and-the-freezer-technique-revisited/

In a worst case scenario, if it doesn't work and you really need the data, there are recovery services, although pricey.

You should add an external drive backup/cloning solution with a program like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper and/or a cloud backup like iCloud or Backblaze to your current procedures. They only back up the data you tell them too, and at least CCC that I know of, checks that the data is not corrupted.
Good luck

 

[fishingfromakay]

I think you're on the right track with the external case, as I've had a positive result by doing that in the past. If it works, don't worry that it may seem to take forever to boot up.
Also, make sure you have a new drive installed to install macOS onto (which should be done either from an external drive (USB stick) or Recovery Mode, before you crank up the faulty drive. Sometimes the heat of an overworked drive will make it crash. From that point on, you should just be able to use Migration Assistant. (fingers crossed!!)
Years ago, freezing the bad drive in certain cases would make it temporarily work again and so long as you keep the moisture out of it from condensation, couldn't hurt. see https://dtidatarecovery.com/failing-hard-drives-and-the-freezer-technique-revisited/

In a worst case scenario, if it doesn't work and you really need the data, there are recovery services, although pricey.

You should add an external drive backup/cloning solution with a program like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper and/or a cloud backup like iCloud or Backblaze to your current procedures. They only back up the data you tell them too, and at least CCC that I know of, checks that the data is not corrupted.
Good luck

Rich B22 thank you for the help, Interesting article about the freezing, thnx about the heads up in regards to over heating, I will watch for that.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

I work with Apple support a lot and find that the quality of support varies drastically. The situation you’re describing doesn’t really make sense.

1. Does your Mac have a DVD drive? If so, hard drive cable failures are extremely common on those models, particularly the 13”, and the symptoms are the same as a failed hard drive. I quite frankly don’t expect everyone at Apple support to be versed in this issue. That being said, popping the drive into a case is a great first step - just connect it to the mac in the case and hold option while booting-hopefully you see Macintosh HD!
2. Corrupting the Time Capsule backup is making alarm bells go off. What’s going on with your Time Capsule? Why did the tech tell you this? Like the unibody Pro, assuming that’s what you have, Apple hasn’t sold that product line in years, and they may not understand how to work with one.

For reference I’ve replaced HD cables on dozens of unibody Macs and would say that with your symptoms, the failure is the cable 90% of the time, and the hard drive itself the other ten.

 

[Fishrrman]

The "?" at boot doesn't necessarily mean the drive has suffered a hardware failure.

It means that the computer could not find a bootable OS from which to boot.

That could be due to software corruption. Again, the drive itself may be ok (hardware-wise). It could also mean a hardware failure, but we don't know that yet.

Over many years here at the macrumors forums, I have stressed over and over about the importance of having an EXTERNAL drive that was "bootable to the finder".

What this means is... if something goes wrong with the internal drive and the Mac won't boot... you can connect the EXTERNAL drive, get booted (again, TO THE FINDER) with that, and start working on the internal drive.

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION:
Do you have ANOTHER MAC to use?

You're going to need that once you put the drive into an external enclosure.
If it has software (or hardware) problems that won't let it boot your Mac as an internal drive, it's almost certainly not going to boot it when in an external enclosure, either.

Is the drive still in the 2012 MBP now?
What happens if you try booting to INTERNET recovery?
This IS NOT THE SAME as "the recovery partition".

Try this:
Command-OPTION-R
at boot.

You'll need your wifi password, too.
The internet utilities take a while to load, so be patient "as the globe spins".

Once the utilities are loaded, open disk utility.
If there's a "view" menu, go to it and choose "show all devices".

Can you see the internal drive?
What happens if you click on it and then click "first aid"?
(DON'T CLICK the erase button !!!)

 

[fishingfromakay]

I work with Apple support a lot and find that the quality of support varies drastically. The situation you’re describing doesn’t really make sense.

1. Does your Mac have a DVD drive? If so, hard drive cable failures are extremely common on those models, particularly the 13”, and the symptoms are the same as a failed hard drive. I quite frankly don’t expect everyone at Apple support to be versed in this issue. That being said, popping the drive into a case is a great first step - just connect it to the mac in the case and hold option while booting-hopefully you see Macintosh HD!
2. Corrupting the Time Capsule backup is making alarm bells go off. What’s going on with your Time Capsule? Why did the tech tell you this? Like the unibody Pro, assuming that’s what you have, Apple hasn’t sold that product line in years, and they may not understand how to work with one.

For reference I’ve replaced HD cables on dozens of unibody Macs and would say that with your symptoms, the failure is the cable 90% of the time, and the hard drive itself the other ten.

Hi Mr_Brightside_@: the support people at Apple were very nice and I believe tried very hard to help me I thought. To 1) yes it does have a DVD drive and a Uni Body, 2012 13"
2) With the time capsule I am not able to open the backup file. When we ( apple tech and I ) went into time capsule the backup files would not open. The Apple tech did try a few things but there was no success. The tech had told me that what ever corrupted the MacBook may have also corrupted the Time capsle. A few months ago I did use Time Machine and did see the files there so I am puzzled about this.

Thank you very much for letting me know about the cable, I am not familiar with doing this but may give it a try if I can find a replacement for it.
Thank you very much for taking the time to help me.

 

[fishingfromakay]

The "?" at boot doesn't necessarily mean the drive has suffered a hardware failure.

It means that the computer could not find a bootable OS from which to boot.

That could be due to software corruption. Again, the drive itself may be ok (hardware-wise). It could also mean a hardware failure, but we don't know that yet.

Over many years here at the macrumors forums, I have stressed over and over about the importance of having an EXTERNAL drive that was "bootable to the finder".

What this means is... if something goes wrong with the internal drive and the Mac won't boot... you can connect the EXTERNAL drive, get booted (again, TO THE FINDER) with that, and start working on the internal drive.

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION:
Do you have ANOTHER MAC to use?

You're going to need that once you put the drive into an external enclosure.
If it has software (or hardware) problems that won't let it boot your Mac as an internal drive, it's almost certainly not going to boot it when in an external enclosure, either.

Is the drive still in the 2012 MBP now?
What happens if you try booting to INTERNET recovery?
This IS NOT THE SAME as "the recovery partition".

Try this:
Command-OPTION-R
at boot.

You'll need your wifi password, too.
The internet utilities take a while to load, so be patient "as the globe spins".

Once the utilities are loaded, open disk utility.
If there's a "view" menu, go to it and choose "show all devices".

Can you see the internal drive?
What happens if you click on it and then click "first aid"?
(DON'T CLICK the erase button !!!)

Fishrrman Thank you for the response,
- I am not familiar with "bootable to the finder" so I will have to learn about that but it sounds like a very good idea.
- Yes I have a 2020 MBP and a 2020 Mini, I got them recently to replace My 2012 MBP 13" ( the problem computer) and my 2009 iMac.
- Yes the drive is still in the 2012 MBP
- When I try internet recovery I get to a point were it can not find the Hard drive.
- In regards to try the "Command-Option-R" I can not see the hard drive in the disk utility, it shows the super drive and a disc labeled disc0
Thank you very much for taking the time and effort t to help me.I am going to look into these ideas and see what I can do.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Hi Mr_Brightside_@: the support people at Apple were very nice and I believe tried very hard to help me I thought. To 1) yes it does have a DVD drive and a Uni Body, 2012 13"
2) With the time capsule I am not able to open the backup file. When we ( apple tech and I ) went into time capsule the backup files would not open. The Apple tech did try a few things but there was no success. The tech had told me that what ever corrupted the MacBook may have also corrupted the Time capsle. A few months ago I did use Time Machine and did see the files there so I am puzzled about this.

Thank you very much for letting me know about the cable, I am not familiar with doing this but may give it a try if I can find a replacement for it.
Thank you very much for taking the time to help me.

Accessing Time Machine backups and not using the time machine or migration assistant apps never works well for me. I’d be willing to bet the Time Capsule and its backup are fine.
your part is linked here

Mid 2012 MacBook Pro Hard Drive Cable Failure (821-1480-A, 821-2049-A, 821-2480-A) | BeetsBlog

The Mid 2012 A1278 MBP Unibody is notorious for hard drive cables that stopped working. Find out what causes it and how to prevent it. APN: 923-0104 and 923-0741

beetstech.com

 

[kpluck]

Years ago, freezing the bad drive in certain cases would make it temporarily work again and so long as you keep the moisture out of it from condensation, couldn't hurt.

I have tried freezing a handful of times and it has worked twice, including one drive that DriveSavers wanted over $2K to recover data. It is worth trying as a last resort.

However, if you have access to a Windows box, you might try picking up Spinrite. It works well but can take quite a long time depending on the condition of the drive.

-kp

 

[fishingfromakay]

@Rich B22 @Mr_Brightside_@ @Fishrrman @kpluck Thank you SOOOOO much for all your help, WE did it. the old MBP is up and running again thnx to all your help. I ended up replacing the hard drive cable and it started right up. I am backing up to a WD drive as I type this. I am going to have to rethink my backing up system. Thank you all once again I could not have done it without your help.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Ha! I knew it

 

[justashooter]

Now, put a 500gb SSD in that 13" MBP and you will be amazed how much faster it is. 8gb of ram for general use is great too. I troll ebay and can always find 2 4gb chips pretty cheap.

I have two of the 2012 MBP 13's - great computer, use them for photo editing and some short videos. Love them.