Retrieve data from failed HD?

[toolbox]

My old MacBook just died pretty suddenly. (Died=will not start up at all.) I wasn't too too concerned, since we've been good about backing up. But when we recently had a problem with the external hard drive, and I had to redo my backup, it turns out I forgot to back up ALL our video of my little one-year-old baby.

I've tried to mount it to my new MacBook Pro using target mode, but although the Y-icon does show up and eventually begins its normal dance around the MacBook screen, my Pro can't find it.

In my case, there *is* a weird clicking noise coming from the drive; though the one time I was extra-patient and let it run for almost an hour in target mode, the clicking did stop eventually. When I tried a subsequent time, the clicking at startup returned.

Toolbox, I'm intrigued by your suggestions. Should I try tapping? Is the point to get the clicking to stop?

And what about the freezing? I understand you bring the temp way down, and then return completely to room temp IN the sealed bag before trying the target again?

And do I need to be more patient? Could it potentially take some hours before the Pro can read the target disk?

Thanks so much for any help you're able to offer. Would also be interested to hear how things turned out for futurevibe.

peace-
A

You can try the tapping, you just have to be extremely careful that you do not hit the drive to hard it can pretty much render it useless if it already hasn't failed mechanically.

Worst case is if there is data on there that is not replaceable like most data i would suggest professional recovery, were they are able to strip the hdd completely and potentially getting it working that way.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Although i'd like to recover the data, i really don't think it's worth €300. I've tried tapping the drive and that was no good. I think i might have to try the freezer trick. Anyone have any other idea's before i try this?"

Did you _thoroughly_ read everything I posted to you in reply #16 ??

 

[futurevibe]

Did you _thoroughly_ read everything I posted to you in reply #16 ??

Yes i did and in reply#17 i ask how would i re-initialize the drive if i can't mount it?

 

[Fishrrman]

"i ask how would i re-initialize the drive if i can't mount it?"

You currently have the "unmountable" drive in an external enclosure, is that correct?

Have you eliminated the possibility that the drive won't mount because it may be:
1. In a defective enclosure, or,
2. Incompatible with the enclosure (even if the enclosure itself is not defective)?

I suggest that you try the drive in _another_ enclosure, or, better yet, in one of the USB/SATA docks that I mentioned in post 16. You will not appreciate how useful a USB/SATA dock can be until you have one on your desk...

More things to try (you might even try these _before_ the USB/SATA dock suggestion above:

- Is there a _different_ Mac you can try the drive on? If Disk Utility "sees" it, then do a simple initialization (again, DO NOT "zero out" the drive), and take it back to your own Mac with the file recovery software, and have a go at it)

- If _no_ Mac can see the drive, as an absolute last resort, do you know someone with a PC that you could connect the drive to? I would again do a "simple initialization" on the PC, and immediately take the drive back to the Mac, re-connect it, and see what comes up.

It's _possible_ that if you can replace what seems to be a totally corrupted directory with a "fresh one" -- even a PC directory -- you can again get the drive to mount on the Mac side, re-initialize it on the Mac side, and then use something like DataRescue3 to scavenge the drive's sectors to find and then re-assemble the data.

Remember that in order to use DR3 (or other recovery apps), you WILL need a "scratch drive" to serve as a repository for the recovered/reconstructed data.

All of the above suggestions are offered "at your own risk". But again, re-initializing a drive with corrupted directory worked for me, when nothing else would....

 

[futurevibe]

You currently have the "unmountable" drive in an external enclosure, is that correct?

Have you eliminated the possibility that the drive won't mount because it may be:
1. In a defective enclosure, or,
2. Incompatible with the enclosure (even if the enclosure itself is not defective)?

Yes, it's in an external inclosure.
1. The inclosure is fine. I tried another HD in it and that mounted.
2. The unmountable drive is compatible with the inclosure because i used both together before.

I might se if i can get it to mount on a PC. Almost everyone i know uses Macs so i'll have to ask around. Thanks for your help.