08-18-2008, 11:01 AM

I did a bit of searching before posting this but still don't have an exact answer.

Some back story, my 9 month old macbook took a long fall(thanks to my toddler who pushed a chair up to where I had the macbook and threw it off) about a month ago. It completely destroyed the screen, I could still see a little bit and computer was still fine it looked like. So we bought an OEM screen off of ebay and replaced it.

It worked fine for about 2-3 weeks. Last night I was on firefox and it locked up. Force quit wouldn't work and I had to hold down the power button to shut it down. When I started it back up, the dreaded folder and question mark appeared.

I've done the booting from the disk thing and it doesn't show my hard drive listed.

Now, I understand this is really bad news for my unbacked up photos(I got some of them backed up but never finished). Of course this had to be soon after we had a new baby, with lots and lots of photos. I'm heartbroken.

What I want to know now is, what's my next step? There is obvious damage to the outside of the macbook to where APPLE would know it was dropped and I assume completely void the warranty. I've given up hope on that.

My main question is: If I can't see my HD listed, does that mean 100% there is no hope for recovery of my photos? Is it even worth it to buy one of those disk recovery things, like diskwarrier? I hate to spend the money if it will do nothing.

If there's no hope for that, what would happen if I continue with the reinstall of the MAC OS? Will it work? or will it not work b/c my HD is not listed?

And if the above doesn't work, should I buy a new hd? And how do I know which kind to get?

Sigh... I am SO upset of the loss of these pictures. It makes me sick and yes I'm an idiot.

08-18-2008, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by hsmomof5

What I want to know now is, what's my next step? There is obvious damage to the outside of the macbook to where APPLE would know it was dropped and I assume completely void the warranty. I've given up hope on that.

My main question is: If I can't see my HD listed, does that mean 100% there is no hope for recovery of my photos? Is it even worth it to buy one of those disk recovery things, like diskwarrier? I hate to spend the money if it will do nothing.

If the drive is not recognized on the bus, no amount of software is going to fix it. You may want to see if you can reseat the drive to the connector and then see if it's recognized. Otherwise, your only alternative would be to use a drive recovery service, like DriveSavers. Note that they will not repair the damaged hard drive, but they usually can recover a significant percentage of the data. It is *not* inexpensive. Expect to pay upwards of $1000.

If there's no hope for that, what would happen if I continue with the reinstall of the MAC OS? Will it work? or will it not work b/c my HD is not listed?

You're definitely going to need a new hard drive if reseating it doesn't work.

And if the above doesn't work, should I buy a new hd? And how do I know which kind to get?

Sigh... I am SO upset of the loss of these pictures. It makes me sick and yes I'm an idiot.

You'll need a 2.5" SATA hard drive. This should run between $75-150, depending on the capacity and speed you choose. I'd recommend a Seagate drive as they have 5 year warranties. Also, you need to purchase a backup drive if you intend to store any kind of priceless data like family photos.