Dead HD, is it worth getting data recovery software and a new HD?

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The answer depends on just how broken your HDD is. The HDD could be unbootable because of some bad sectors or because the partition table is screwed up. In that case you might be able to recover some or all of your data using data recovery software.

If that doesn't work, you could try to mount your HDD in an external drive enclosure, plug it into another computer and see if the HDD can be read by the other computer. If so, you're in luck. Just copy your data over to the other computer.

If the drive is physically damaged, say from a head crash or a bearing failure, then no software in the world will be able to retrieve the data from that disk. There are companies that specialize in recovering bytes from disks that are physically damaged (but not completely destroyed). Their services are not cheap -- it could cost you over $1K without any guarantee it'll work. I doubt that your data is worth that much, because otherwise you would have backed it up before the HDD failed, right? ;D
 
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Yeah thanks for the advice. I did try hooking it up via firewire to another mac (MacBook Pro i think) The HDD doesnt even show up on another machine but it shows up when i boot from the OSX disc. I repaired it once and it wont let me do it again. I cant reinstall Leopard because i dont have 10.4 installed apparently. (Thats the message that comes up when i boot from the disc)
Im not incredibly desperate for the lost data but if it is possible to get it back i would like to. I'm really just needing someone to tell me what HD to get and how to put it in etc.
Thanks again.
 
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Dead HD

Can someone help me out at all.

I recently had a problem with my macbook with a tiger operating system where the laptop wouldn't boot past the grey screen with the apple and the spinning gear. Brought it to an apple expert. They ran something or other but sai dthey couldn;t get any files. They told me to go to a data recovery agency. I brought the harddrive to an agency who sent me back a quote saying that they could get my files but it will cost 1800.00 canadian.

How can they get my files back, but no one at apple can help me???

Is there any option available to me besides paying 1800 to the agency?

If there is software out there for recovery, how do I even get this software to work when my mac won't boot past the initial grey spinning gear screen?

Anyone have any help? I have many class notes from school on the harddrive and exams coming up soon.
 

bobtomay

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Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
See Juan Largo's post above.
 
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This is what the data recovery agency has said to me about the problems with my hardrive if it helps anyone out there answer my question.

I am very pleased to inform you that, as a result of our engineering investigation and
examination, our recovery specialists have determined the problems associated with your media
and developed a strategy which will potentially retrieve data stored on your media.
Problems / Failures:
Physical damage to the read/write head assembly.
Severe media damage located throughout the platter surface.
File structure damage.

I don't know what a readwrite head is or a platter surface or file structure damage.....I am not to up on computer lingo or computers for that matter so I am not sure about anything at this point.
 

bobtomay

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15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
It means you'll not be getting much, if any data, off of that drive with a $100 piece of software. You'll need the services of a company that specializes in data retrieval. Now it's time to decide whether that data is worth the price of attempting it or not. And with severe damage to the platter surface, there are no guarantees as to what data is retreivable.
 

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