recovering data

[kbmr]

not exactly new to mac/apple but not too tech savvy either - i have a macbook purchased in april 08. in 09 (after 14 months ownership) it had it's hard drive replaced and we've just had to replace it again this last week. backed up we thought everything to an external drive but lots of photo and video missing - had our first kid in the meantime and would like to recover all the files. someone recommended using a SATA to read the old drive but it's unreadable. right before the hard drive quit the second time, iPhoto was also giving us trouble - the issue with the exclamation point coming up after clicking on the thumbnail size photo. seems from reading some of this forum and others there are a couple hopefully easy fixes. problem is, not even sure if we can recover data corrupted on HD. could see all the thumbnails clearly in iPhoto but what got backed up wasn't everything. if we can recover data, would we be able to restore library also or is that gone? could iPhoto have overwritten some of the files? we only have from about the last year. please advise!

 

[chas_m]

When we are talking about recovering crucial data, don't mess about.

1. Stop using the drive IMMEDIATELY.
2. Call a company such as DriveSavers
3. Be prepared for the sticker shock. This will likely run you a grand or two.
4. Once the data is recovered, develop a backup strategy and learn from this experience. It's the same with PC as with Mac -- if you don't have backups, you WILL lose data. It's all a question of when.