04-17-2010, 04:21 PM

My four year old accidentally whacked the closed top of my 13" MacBook, and now half of the screen is just colorful lines. Even worse, I just discovered that when I open iPhoto, there are NO photos - are they gone for good?!? iTunes shows the same thing, no music. Slowly freaking out here...I know the screen issue can be repaired, but there's no way to replace a year's worth of baby photos.

Can anyone help?

04-17-2010, 04:39 PM

Its hard to say exactly what is going on with your mac. But you surely will need a new screen at a minimum... Bring it in for some repairs

04-17-2010, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by Mamadino

My four year old accidentally whacked the closed top of my 13" MacBook, and now half of the screen is just colorful lines. Even worse, I just discovered that when I open iPhoto, there are NO photos - are they gone for good?!? iTunes shows the same thing, no music. Slowly freaking out here...I know the screen issue can be repaired, but there's no way to replace a year's worth of baby photos. Can anyone help?

Sorry to hear of your dilemma. The LCD screen is more than likely damaged and will have to be replaced. You can even do the work yourself if you're handy and inclined to do so. A replacement screen can be purchased on line.

As for the missing photos and music, unless they were deleted somehow, or the hard drive sustained damage along with the screen, they should still be on your machine. Have you noticed any other files missing? Is the machine operating normally - other than the exceptions noted above?

Regards.

04-17-2010, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

Sorry to hear of your dilemma. The LCD screen is more than likely damaged and will have to be replaced. You can even do the work yourself if you're handy and inclined to do so. A replacement screen can be purchased on line.

As for the missing photos and music, unless they were deleted somehow, or the hard drive sustained damage along with the screen, they should still be on your machine. Have you noticed any other files missing? Is the machine operating normally - other than the exceptions noted above?

Regards.

I haven't noticed any other files missing, although I havnt looked that much yet (hard to navigate with only half the screen). All of the icons on the desktop are gone though. It's operating normally except for the above mentioned problems.

I found a 13.3 screen on Amazon For $75 that I'm going to order; my husband has a techie friend who can install it.

I read something somewhere about a photo recovery scan you can do (I think it was a scan?) and also about using the mac's Time Capsule to fix the missing files - do you think that might work? Or should I not tinker with it at all...

Thanks for answering my post.

04-17-2010, 08:30 PM

If the files are really missing for some reason or another, the Time Capsule backup will restore them. No worry there provided the backups were being made. As to the screen, make sure you buy a good quality one. The price you quoted on Amazon sounds too inexpensive. That doesn't mean it might not be any good, but usually the going price for an exact 13" replacement display is around $150 to $200.

Regards.

04-17-2010, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

If the files are really missing for some reason or another, the Time Capsule backup will restore them. No worry there provided the backups were being made. As to the screen, make sure you buy a good quality one. The price you quoted on Amazon sounds too inexpensive. That doesn't mean it might not be any good, but usually the going price for an exact 13" replacement display is around $150 to $200.

Regards.

Oh boy...I meant to say Time Machine, not Capsule...and I just checked it and i don't think we ever set it up...? When I open it, it says it's "on" but on the right hand side it asks to set up a backup location. I feel like such a moron...I obviously know next to nothing about this stuff. It's really kind of you to help me. Is there a way to look for the photos by scanning the computer?

04-17-2010, 10:48 PM

Yes, time machine is something that you need an external HD to backup onto, so if you haven't been doing that....
You can go to user/pictures and see what you have there.
Also, pictures/iPhoto library, and right click (control + click) to show package contents, and then go through to see what is there inside all those folders, but don't alter anything.
Obviously, also look in your trash!