What is happening to my MacBook

[MacNewbie]

My guess is it'll be exactly like my time in custom photolabs. Unless it's illegal, I doubt anyone will care. If it's illegal (ie kiddie porn) I have little sympathy

its legal but its not just porn its like tons of pictures as well personal stuff too
what exactly was your "Time in custom photolabs" like?

 

[Dysfunction]

I printed (photographically that is, black and white, color negative prints, cibachrome etc) a bunch of things ranging from landscape photography to nudes. Actually, there was even a PI who brought us his stuff. I probably saw more things I didn't want to see to last me a while Other than that, I spent a lot of time in the dark.

FWIW last time I brought my laptop in to the genius bar, I was in and out, fixed in under 5 minutes. Guy didn't spend a lot of time looking at anything really. Just worked on the problem.

 

[Timmeh]

External Drive: Western Digital Passport or Book, depends on how much storage you need.

 

[MacNewbie]

I printed (photographically that is, black and white, color negative prints, cibachrome etc) a bunch of things ranging from landscape photography to nudes. Actually, there was even a PI who brought us his stuff. I probably saw more things I didn't want to see to last me a while Other than that, I spent a lot of time in the dark.

FWIW last time I brought my laptop in to the genius bar, I was in and out, fixed in under 5 minutes. Guy didn't spend a lot of time looking at anything really. Just worked on the problem.

what exactly was the problem with ur computer?

 

[Timmeh]

Buy a cheap external drive, move it all there, bring it to Genius Bar. =)

But as Dysfunction said, they won't really browse your files for fun.

 

[Dysfunction]

what exactly was the problem with ur computer?

I had network problems caused by a corrupted pref. I just didn't know where the prefs were when I brought it in and the phone based support was no use. If you're really uncomfortable with it, move the stuff off when you bring it in.

 

[MacBookPro]

Well, Computer shops really shouldn't be looking on your personal files including your pictures, but most of the time they do, Who cares? You don't know them and they don't know you. They probably won't even care that there's a bunch of stuff on there. One of my local news stations did a study and found that 1 out of the 4 computer shops studied actually opened a private file. The statistic doesn't seem so bad. The best thing to do is just store all of your files on a flash drive or CD. Then you can delete it, then you can restore it once your computer is fixed. That is, if you're really sensitive about your personal files. As long as its not illegal, they probably won't care.

 

[iMac-Knight]

You could always back the "Things" up to an external drive. Delete the ones on the comp, and then no issue.

 

[cwa107]

NOTE: Merged duplicate and related threads into one and moved to appropriate forum.

 

[theonegod]

Boot into target disk mode. Copy off all your files. Do this first. Do this fast.

Your hard drive is dying.

 

[MacNewbie]

Buy a cheap external drive, move it all there, bring it to Genius Bar. =)

But as Dysfunction said, they won't really browse your files for fun.

wha??

??? if i cant move all my files onto another mac using firewire
how would i be able to move it onto a cheap external drive???

 

[MacNewbie]

Boot into target disk mode. Copy off all your files. Do this first. Do this fast.

Your hard drive is dying.

is anybody reading what im typing before they post?????

i DID boot into target disk mode i tried copying the files......
i even made screen caps!

 

[melmation]

For goodness sake

i need to get my data off my old soon to be defunct harddrive

would it be better to transfer all the info onto a new internal replacement drive or an external replacement drive?

what are some reccomendations for both a good internal and external drive?

thakns

No. Do not try to replicate your dying hard drive onto the new one. IT's not worth the risk. Start from scratch. Besides, like I have already said, I doubt your not going to be able to get everything off the dying drive so cloning it isn't even worth trying.

Like I said before, a good internal drive is the seagate Momentus 7200.2 series hard drive.

I don't want to come across as someone who is bossy, but did YOU not read my posts? I was trying to help, I gave you rock solid advice and your still himming and ha-ing about what to do. Sorry, but if your just going to keep on whinging about your laptop and not actually try to do anything or listen to good advice then you can count me out on trying to help you.

Mel

Ps if you read what I wrote, my posts answer all the questions you have. Your old drive BECOMES and external drive through the magic of an external enclosure, so you DONT need an external drive. You put a Seagate hard drive, or which ever one you want into your laptop and then you can use your laptop and work on the damaged drive easily whenever you have time.