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yanki01

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 28, 2009
3,712
1,987
in July of this year, my HD stopped working for whatever reason. i got the folder icon when i started my Mac mini that day and did lots of troubleshooting with no luck. i ended up putting a new one in and all is fine now. EXCEPT all my pics and whatnot is on my old HD. is there any way possible to recover the data? what are the possibilities of getting the data over since the old HD stopped working? ive seen alot of those HD to USB data recovery connections to transfer info but dont know if it will work? thanks for the help!!
 
There is no way of knowing without trying and if that doesnt work, which is likely, then sending it off to a specialist data recovery firm. Odds are good with those but you may be looking at anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
 
possible to recover data from dead HD?

Mac data recovery software helps you to get back the lost or deleted data from hard disk. If the device could recognized by the system, you can recover the lost or deleted data. However, you should ensure that you didn’t use the hard drive further to store or create new data. The software is capable of recovering the lost data from corrupted or lost partitions.
 
You can try the freezer method. (WARNING: This is only to be attempted by people that know what they are doing. Failure to do so can cause you to break much more then a hard drive.) What you do it put the hard drive in a double sealed ziplock bag and freeze it. After about a day of being chilled you may be able to get some data off if, until it warms up again and dies. You can usually repeat the process a few times before the drive is completely gone. Also keep and eye out for condensation on the drive. You don't want to short anything out.
 
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