HDD crash, need help recovering data!

[BobC]

I am not an apple person. Is there a way to start your computer in what microsoft calls safe mode. If you can do it then copy the files you need to your external hard drive. The after you get a new hard drive installed you can copy your files back to the new drive.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by BobC

I am not an apple person. Is there a way to start your computer in what microsoft calls safe mode. If you can do it then copy the files you need to your external hard drive. The after you get a new hard drive installed you can copy your files back to the new drive.

If it's not seeing it, I doubt that safe mode would do it. (But, since you asked, you hold down the Shift key right after the startup chord.)

One solution that appears to work long enough to get the data off: freeze your hard drive. http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread9069.html

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Billfred

One solution that appears to work long enough to get the data off: freeze your hard drive. http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread9069.html

I used to work for the technology department for the local school district, and as a last resort, we'd do the same thing. But yeah, I'd only try it as a last resort.

[whytheheckme]

Have you tried Drive Genius or Data Rescue II? (kyle beat me to it)

I've used both and they work beautifully.

EDIT: I've also tried disk warrior. Works fine. I've been through several mac crashes..... (I'm not very nice to my HDs)

Jacob

[Kyle Fenton]

Originally Posted by BobC

I am not an apple person. Is there a way to start your computer in what microsoft calls safe mode. If you can do it then copy the files you need to your external hard drive. The after you get a new hard drive installed you can copy your files back to the new drive.

Somewhat, Mac OS X has a single user mode (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106388) like Linux does. However you would need to know some Unix commands to perform some disk checking functions like fsck.

But when you can't mount a disk, that solution wouldn't work anyways.

But before you send you HD, always check a couple of things.

1. Take out your HD and mount it using an external solutions. You would be surprised to see how many times cables and connectors burn out. This is especially true of notebook cables, but they typically use very thin ribbon cables.

2. Check to see if the disk has directory damage, using a product like Disk Warrior


I would stay away from freezing your HD. Typically that doesn't work (well at least for me).