Macbook Pro failure, how get files out of hard disk?

[Zotaccian]

So, Macbook Pro 2007 failed. How can I get files out of the hard disk without a Mac? I tried hooking the HD to my PC and booting Ubuntu from USB. It can read the disk but cannot access my folders because I'm not the owner of the files.

Any tips? I could also try with Windows PC, as far as I know Windows cannot read Mac OS X filesystem but maybe there is app which can?

 

[justperry]

You can do it on a windows machine with MacDrive, an Application which mounts HFS+(Mac) disks.

 

[Zotaccian]

You can do it on a windows machine with MacDrive, an Application which mounts HFS+(Mac) disks.

Can that application bypass that ownership thing? I have password on my account of course so I guess this is what is supposed to happen.

One thing which forgot to mention is that the Macbook Pro still boots and appears to function but there is nothing on the screen. Keyboard lights up and pressing volume buttons yeild that typical noise. I know it is the Nvidia defect since I bought this as defective and I was able to "fix" it, no I'm tired of this whole machine and I plan to sell it for parts, maybe. I do have PowerMac G4 and I was also thinking that maybe I could hook them up and use PM to browse MBP, or is it possible to do it between Intel and PPC Macs? Never tried. Thing is that I don't have any FireWire cables.

 

[Macman45]

Can that application bypass that ownership thing? I have password on my account of course so I guess this is what is supposed to happen.

One thing which forgot to mention is that the Macbook Pro still boots and appears to function but there is nothing on the screen. Keyboard lights up and pressing volume buttons yeild that typical noise. I know it is the Nvidia defect since I bought this as defective and I was able to "fix" it, no I'm tired of this whole machine and I plan to sell it for parts, maybe. I do have PowerMac G4 and I was also thinking that maybe I could hook them up and use PM to browse MBP, or is it possible to do it between Intel and PPC Macs? Never tried. Thing is that I don't have any FireWire cables.

Do you have access to a monitor you can connect to the ailing Mac? Borrow one if you can and see if it will display...Worth a shot.

 

[Zotaccian]

Do you have access to a monitor you can connect to the ailing Mac? Borrow one if you can and see if it will display...Worth a shot.

Yes I do but nothing comes up on the monitor. It was in this same condition when I received it so I know it is the Nvidia chip itself.

 

[justperry]

Yes I do but nothing comes up on the monitor. It was in this same condition when I received it so I know it is the Nvidia chip itself.

Isn't that the problem with the way it was "soldered' to the Logic board, and if so you can bake it in an oven, could solve the problem.

 

[Zotaccian]

Isn't that the problem with the way it was "soldered' to the Logic board, and if so you can bake it in an oven, could solve the problem.

Or use a heat gun like I did, I also have infrared thermometer which helps a lot since I can get some kind of estimation about the temps. I know that this prodecure can be repeated over and over again until something actually breaks or the chip moves and creates unwanted joints.... but I'm just thinking of buying a Thinkpad or something with an Intel GPU

One option would of course be just do the same fix again and copy those files

 

[Fishrrman]

"I do have PowerMac G4 and I was also thinking that maybe I could hook them up and use PM to browse MBP, or is it possible to do it between Intel and PPC Macs?"

You could spend $20 and get one of these gadgets:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)

... and then take the drive out of the laptop and put it into the dock.

This will solve your "physical access" issues. The docked drive can be connected to either the g4 or the PC via USB.

HOWEVER...
If you connect to the PowerMac g4, you may have issues due to the formatting of the drive ("GUID" for Intel) vis-a-vis the formatting of the drive for the g4 (Apple Partition map, I believe).

If you connect the docked drive to the g4 and get the alert that the drive is unreadable and can't be mounted, perhaps you should take it to the PC instead, and use the software that other posters have mentioned above to access it...

 

[DewGuy1999]

If your PowerMac G4 is running 10.4 or later, you could use a Firewire cable to connect the 2 Macs and then boot the MBP into Target Disk Mode and the G4 should be able to use but not boot from it's drive.

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode