laptop not booting up[very urgent]

cooldudeca · Apr 23, 2008

Hi i am having issues with my macbook it is not booting up only the circle is comming up and nothing beyond it

I spoke to apple support and they told me to bring it in but the issue is that they told me if they have to recover the data then i have to go to some one else and they are asking for around $2000 to recover the data from the harddrive which is crazy

can someone suggest me how can i recover the data from my harddrive so that if apple store format the harddrive then i will not loose all my data

please help me if someone can

cwa107 · Apr 23, 2008

cooldudeca said:
Hi i am having issues with my macbook it is not booting up only the circle is comming up and nothing beyond it

I spoke to apple support and they told me to bring it in but the issue is that they told me if they have to recover the data then i have to go to some one else and they are asking for around $2000 to recover the data from the harddrive which is crazy

can someone suggest me how can i recover the data from my harddrive so that if apple store format the harddrive then i will not loose all my data

please help me if someone can

I take it you don't have a backup? Sounds like they're thinking your hard drive went bad.

Your best bet might be to try Paragon's Rescue Beta (which is being beta tested on this board). That may allow you to retrieve some of your data.

Another alternative might be to hook your drive up to another Mac using a SATA to USB adapter and see if you can get some data off of it that way.

cooldudeca · Apr 23, 2008

cwa107 said:
I take it you don't have a backup? Sounds like they're thinking your hard drive went bad.

Your best bet might be to try Paragon's Rescue Beta (which is being beta tested on this board). That may allow you to retrieve some of your data.

Another alternative might be to hook your drive up to another Mac using a SATA to USB adapter and see if you can get some data off of it that way.

hey so does that means if to recover the data i have to $2000 to those stupid people who dont even make sense

rman · Apr 23, 2008

Sound like you have the gray screen with the gear. Have you add RAM to your system? I would try running the hardware test disk that came with your system. That might tell you what is wrong. As for getting data off a dead disk 2k is cheap considering what is done. If you go to a place like www.drivesaver.com they will charge you more. That is why Apple developed time machine.

Dysfunction · Apr 23, 2008

cooldudeca said:
hey so does that means if to recover the data i have to $2000 to those stupid people who dont even make sense

I'm not quite sure what that means, but yes data recovery is expensive.

cooldudeca · Apr 24, 2008

rman said:
Sound like you have the gray screen with the gear. Have you add RAM to your system? I would try running the hardware test disk that came with your system. That might tell you what is wrong. As for getting data off a dead disk 2k is cheap considering what is done. If you go to a place like www.drivesaver.com they will charge you more. That is why Apple developed time machine.

hey so what all options do i have now the thing is that i don't even know if the this is caused by the hard drive failure so i just dont want to go ahead and format the hard drive the only imp stuff i have on the hard drive is pictures my vacation and family trips and they are very important to me

any ideas if there is a way i can try to see if i can get those pictures off the drive

cwa107 · Apr 24, 2008

cooldudeca said:
hey so what all options do i have now the thing is that i don't even know if the this is caused by the hard drive failure so i just dont want to go ahead and format the hard drive the only imp stuff i have on the hard drive is pictures my vacation and family trips and they are very important to me

any ideas if there is a way i can try to see if i can get those pictures off the drive

See my reply to you above.

Aptmunich · Apr 24, 2008

Apple is just being cautious - they know it could be a dead harddrive or one of the other system components.

If they just took your Mac and wiped the drive, you'd be really ticked off wouldn't you? That's why they assume it could be the drive and are just informing you of the possibilites.

As cwa107 mentioned, data recovery software is probably your best bet, unless you have another Mac you could try connecting yours to in firewire target mode.

And backups are a good idea if you want to keep your data: it's not a question of "if" the harddrive is going to fail, it's a question of when.

SlickShoes · Apr 24, 2008

rman said:
Sound like you have the gray screen with the gear. Have you add RAM to your system? I would try running the hardware test disk that came with your system. That might tell you what is wrong. As for getting data off a dead disk 2k is cheap considering what is done. If you go to a place like www.drivesaver.com they will charge you more. That is why Apple developed time machine.

Time machine is totally useless unless your backing up your data to an external device. If your HDD is dead time machine isnt going to help you one bit.

Zoolook · Apr 24, 2008

Just because it is not booting, doesn't mean the rest of your data is corrupt.

You could buy a case for your internal HDD (to make it an external) for about $30, plug it into another Mac and see if your files etc are in tact. If they are, it's probably just a boot glitch and you could either buy a new HDD then copy over the files if you don't trust the old drive, or do an archive and install on th existing drive.

bryphotoguy · Apr 24, 2008

SlickShoes said:
Time machine is totally useless unless your backing up your data to an external device. If your HDD is dead time machine isnt going to help you one bit.

True but precious vacation photos should be backed because instances like this. If 1 in 11 laptop HDs fail, $100 external drive for Time Machine is... Priceless.

Aptmunich · Apr 24, 2008

SlickShoes said:
Time machine is totally useless unless your backing up your data to an external device. If your HDD is dead time machine isnt going to help you one bit.

That's the only way you can use Time machine.
So your point is that Time Machine is useless, unless you've switched it on?

Then I agree.

bryphotoguy · Apr 24, 2008

You couldn't create a partition of the original HD and 2nd partition would be the Time Machine drive? I know the it's a bad idea but it'd work without using an external HD, no?

Aptmunich · Apr 24, 2008

bryphotoguy said:
You couldn't create a partition of the original HD and 2nd partition would be the Time Machine drive? I know the it's a bad idea but it'd work without using an external HD, no?

Oh I guess you could do that... sorry if I was being snarky

But it would kind of defeat the purpose

cooldudeca · Apr 24, 2008

Aptmunich said:
Apple is just being cautious - they know it could be a dead harddrive or one of the other system components.

If they just took your Mac and wiped the drive, you'd be really ticked off wouldn't you? That's why they assume it could be the drive and are just informing you of the possibilites.

As cwa107 mentioned, data recovery software is probably your best bet, unless you have another Mac you could try connecting yours to in firewire target mode.

And backups are a good idea if you want to keep your data: it's not a question of "if" the harddrive is going to fail, it's a question of when.

Hey i understand i am always cautious about the back up of my systems but my gf was using it and she never cared and now we are in this situtation

yes i do have another mac and where can i can the data recovery software to do that ?

i am very sorry but i am naive when it comes to MAC i have bee using windows for years

rman · Apr 24, 2008

The strange thing here you are assuming you have a bad disk. Apple warned you in case you do. Your problem may be else where. Why not try running your hardware test disk and see if it pen points the problem.

SlickShoes · Apr 24, 2008

bryphotoguy said:
True but precious vacation photos should be backed because instances like this. If 1 in 11 laptop HDs fail, $100 external drive for Time Machine is... Priceless.

Couldnt agree more, i make sure i have nothing important on my laptop currently and if i did have id get an external HDD, or if i had leopard id get a time capsule. I set one of these up for a user at my work and it really is great!

cooldudeca · Apr 24, 2008

bryphotoguy said:
True but precious vacation photos should be backed because instances like this. If 1 in 11 laptop HDs fail, $100 external drive for Time Machine is... Priceless.

hey i completely agree with you but the problem is that my gf uses the laptop and she was being completely careless about it and now we have a issue that needs to be resolved somehow and i m trying to find a solutions without having to shell $2000 or more

cooldudeca · Apr 24, 2008

Update - So today i stopped by at a apple store and one of the tech suggested me to buy a copy of disc warrior software and he will be able to help me extract data to a external harddrive but i have a question i have a 500gb buffalo harddrive with usb2 connection does anyone know it will be plug and play on macbook pro

bryphotoguy · Apr 24, 2008

cooldudeca said:
hey i completely agree with you but the problem is that my gf uses the laptop and she was being completely careless about it and now we have a issue that needs to be resolved somehow and i m trying to find a solutions without having to shell $2000 or more

Yea, my comment was specifically to reply to the comment I quoted and not directed at you.

I would just do what someone else mentioned I think. Have them replace the HD and if you have to, buy the old one back. Put it in an external case (costs like $15) and see if it works like a normal external HD so you can pull all of the photos off it. If that doesn't work, try the rescue software mentioned along with the method I just mentioned. Doing any rescue work will be easier if the HD is an external you're not also using as a boot disk.