How to hook an hard drive ( external) to a MacBook

[arjfca]

Hello

First post on the forum. I'm not at all familiar with Mac, but I need to help my son to recuperate a file on a failed mac drive.

Once I will have recuperate the drive, how do I hook up this one to a working MacBook?

What tool (software) can I use to try to recuperate a file on the drive

Any help appreciated

Martin

 

[ZipZap]

That's going to require a lengthy and hard to describe response considering your likely technical expertise. Not meant as an insult.

Do you have an Apple store, Microcenter or Best Buy near?

Apple may help for free, the others will charge a fee.

 

[arjfca]

That's going to require a lengthy and hard to describe response considering your likely technical expertise. Not meant as an insult.

Do you have an Apple store, Microcenter or Best Buy near?

Apple may help for free, the others will charge a fee.

No expertise in Apple product does'nt mean no expertise with computer
I use to work in PC and still maintained and repair to the chip level my own PC.

By asking, i wanted to lower the time to help my son
1- I don't have the Mac and the drive yet
2- My son really nead the file asap

The main question is How to hook up the drive to an external port. What cable?, Do i need an adaptor to power it or the USB plug on the Mac is sufficient to drive it

I know how to open up the Mac to remove the drive. I had done it before

Martin

 

[BrettApple]

Easiest way is a simple USB to SATA cable. Pop the drive out, attach the cable via USB, browse the drive for the file and you're done.

You could probably even find one locally at a PC repair shop or Best Buy or something. Should be under $20.

If you are using a PC you'll need something like HFS Explorer to read the partition, if you're on a mac it will mount right up assuming the drive is healthy.

The USB port will power a 2.5" drive (laptops/mini) and most adapters will have a power adapter for 3.5" drives.

iFixit guides are great if you have any trouble getting the drive in or out. MacBooks are simple but when it comes to the iMac they help a lot.

 

[Dwayne82]

No expertise in Apple product does'nt mean no expertise with computer
I use to work in PC and still maintained and repair to the chip level my own PC.

By asking, i wanted to lower the time to help my son
1- I don't have the Mac and the drive yet
2- My son really nead the file asap

The main question is How to hook up the drive to an external port. What cable?, Do i need an adaptor to power it or the USB plug on the Mac is sufficient to drive it

I know how to open up the Mac to remove the drive. I had done it before

Martin

Some Questions:
- Which Mac-Model are we talking about?
- Is the defected Mac rudimental working (Mac-Logo on boot/Any living-signs at all)?
- Is the defected drive the system-drive of that specific Mac?

Some out-of-the-box solutions:
1.
- Try to boot the defected Mac on the Recovery-drive (press and hold the "option" key while booting up and chose the recovery-drive)
- Try to boot the defected Mac in Recovery-mode (press and hold the "r" key while booting up)
- Try to set the defected mac to Target-mode (press and hold the "t" key while booting up). Then connect it to an other Mac (via Thunderbolt or USB, depending on the mac-device).
- try to boot the defected mac with a bootable osx-install-medium (DVD-ROM/USB-Disk)
- Depending on the drive, remove it from the defected mac, , buy a SATA/IDE to USB cable (like this one), and connect it to another mac.
2.
If one of the proposals works, open the Disk Utility (Finder -> "Go To" -> "Utilities" -> "Disk Utility") and try to repair the Disk and permissions.

Just some standard procedures. Really would appreciate some more Informations for further troubleshooting

 

[arjfca]

Some Questions:
- Which Mac-Model are we talking about?
- Is the defected Mac rudimental working (Mac-Logo on boot/Any living-signs at all)?
- Is the defected drive the system-drive of that specific Mac?

Some out-of-the-box solutions:
1.
- Try to boot the defected Mac on the Recovery-drive (press and hold the "option" key while booting up and chose the recovery-drive)
- Try to boot the defected Mac in Recovery-mode (press and hold the "r" key while booting up)
- Try to set the defected mac to Target-mode (press and hold the "t" key while booting up). Then connect it to an other Mac (via Thunderbolt or USB, depending on the mac-device).
- try to boot the defected mac with a bootable osx-install-medium (DVD-ROM/USB-Disk)
- Depending on the drive, remove it from the defected mac, , buy a SATA/IDE to USB cable (like this one), and connect it to another mac.
2.
If one of the proposals works, open the Disk Utility (Finder -> "Go To" -> "Utilities" -> "Disk Utility") and try to repair the Disk and permissions.

Just some standard procedures. Really would appreciate some more Informations for further troubleshooting

Hello
I don't have the info yet. My son is in Italy and the Mac in Montreal, Canada. I may have the drive/ MacBook tonight. I gather info to be more effective when I will get it.

I got a USB to Sata cable. It is a double cable like this one
http://screenpresso.com/=M92Jf

Don't know if the Mac as two USB port, if not I will seek for the suggested one

Martin

 

[Dwayne82]

Don't know if the Mac as two USB port, if not I will seek for the suggested one

Martin

If your device has only one usb-port, just try this cable anyway (only with the blue USB-connector), if this doesn't work, try to connect the second USB-port to an USB-charger (eg. from an iPhone-charger) or search for an active usb-hub (external powered) the second connector is intended for power-support only.