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Question About Time Machine Backups

b06tmm

b06tmm

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 23, 2009
242
25
South Louisiana
So, I spilled a drink on my Macbook Pro and the only other computer I have access to is running Windows 7.

Is there a way to read the data on one of my backup drives? I also have a few disks that were not time machine backups, the data was copied directly to the disks. Is there a utility I can install on the PC to be able to read "mac" formatted disks? I'm pretty sure they were formatted as non case sensitive - journaled?

I'm thinking not, but thought I'd ask.

Thanks!
 
I say yes,
since i have several time machine back ups on 2 separate hard drive for 2 MacBook Airs and always restored and retrieved data from these backups, even on other MacBooks.

how bad is the drink, and MacBook pro?
i have recovered many MacBooks from liquid damage.
 
don't give up!
and
even if the power button is kaput, there is a logic board pin sequence that can start many MacBook Pro, air etc.
 
I think I figured out why I can't read any of my backup drives. I think my Thermaltake BlackX hard drive dock is bad. When I open Device Manager I see garbage characters listed for that drive.

Also, I just plugged in an old drive enclosure I had and I was able to read the HFS+ file system, so all is not lost in recovering my files!
 
gilby101 said:
Try Paragon https://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/ for HFS+ (macOS extended) formatted disks.
If you have any APFS disks (up to Catalina) https://www.paragon-software.com/home/apfs-windows/

There are other (cheaper) options.

Don't let Windows format your disk!!
Click to expand...
Can't thank you enough!

I installed HFS+ and I still couldn't read the drive. I suspected HDD dock was bad and got one at Best Buy this morning. I was now able to (mostly) read the drive, but the folders I need couldn't be accessed.

I then pulled the SSD from my MBP and put it in an enclosure. It was formatted as APFS so I downloaded that, jumped through a couple of hoops for Windows 7, and I now have access to everything!

Kudo's to Paragon!

Thanks Again!
 
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Be extremely careful of Paragon HFS +. You will almost certainly corrupt it over time (google shows a massive ton of horror stories and i myself had issues with it) At the very least, you need to set that driver to read only mode.

Not sure about the APFS driver though
 
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