Help!! mac os x 10.6.6 crashed! drive possibly damaged (i really hope not)

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boardcore00


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Ok i have a macbook pro os x 10.6.6 and last night it failed to start. it shows the apple logo and spinning wheel upon start up but 15 seconds later it just shuts down. i admit, before it failed to start, i force shut down the mac by holding down the power button after it froze while trying to open logic express. ive tried resetting the PRAM, doing a hardware test (it says nothings wrong) and then finally i started up the mac with the installation disk preparing to archive and install. but i just so happen to have only 3 gb free on my macintosh hd so it wont let me archive and install. now, i then tried to clone my hd onto an external hd using the disk utility but half way through, it says i cant and i have to repair the disk. repairing the disk was futile as well as about a quarter way through it says the disk cant be repaired. So it really looks like reinstalling my mac os x is my only option left, and i really dont want to lose all my files. i have really important university work and composed music on there that i cant get back EVER again!
have i missed anything?
is my drive really doomed?
is there anything else i can do?

HELP!!
 
RavingMac

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boardcore00 said:
Ok i have a macbook pro os x 10.6.6 and last night it failed to start. it shows the apple logo and spinning wheel upon start up but 15 seconds later it just shuts down. i admit, before it failed to start, i force shut down the mac by holding down the power button after it froze while trying to open logic express. ive tried resetting the PRAM, doing a hardware test (it says nothings wrong) and then finally i started up the mac with the installation disk preparing to archive and install. but i just so happen to have only 3 gb free on my macintosh hd so it wont let me archive and install. now, i then tried to clone my hd onto an external hd using the disk utility but half way through, it says i cant and i have to repair the disk. repairing the disk was futile as well as about a quarter way through it says the disk cant be repaired. So it really looks like reinstalling my mac os x is my only option left, and i really dont want to lose all my files. i have really important university work and composed music on there that i cant get back EVER again!
have i missed anything?
is my drive really doomed?
is there anything else i can do?

HELP!!
Click to expand...
I'm not the guru for this but your best option to me looks to be:
1) Pull the drive and stick it in an external enclosure
2) Replace the HD (OWC is a good source)
3) Install the OS on your new HD
4) Run Data Recovery on the old drive and hopefully recover your files
5) Develop a Backup strategy and use it

BTW: FWIW 3gb free space remaining isn't really sufficient for your system to work at it's peak.
 
Kevriano

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Your Mac's Specs
20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
Your problem lies in the lack of available space. 3GB left is way too little.
Do you have access to another Mac at all? Your only option may be to use Target Disk mode and hope to be able to recover things from there, or maybe Disk Warrior can repair the drive, but it's around $100.
 
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indychris


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DON'T reinstall X.6.6 yet! Once you do that, everything is gone and recovering files likely won't be possible at all.

I would START with Disk Warrior. It has repaired volumes for me that Disk Utility could not. Might be the best $100 you've ever spent if school work is on the drive and not backed up.

If Disk Warrior can't get your drive back up and running, then I'd move onto something like Data Rescue to begin the process of data retrieval.

These are the very reasons that people preach incessantly on backup...backup...backup...

Once you get this resolved, please do yourself a favor and buy a pocket drive and use time machine. Drives aren't that much money, and at times like these they become invaluable!

I hope you're able to get it all back.
icon_smile_thumbup.gif
 

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