How do I get my Mac back to OSX?

S

Spiral Girl

Registered
Hi,

My sister was using my computer and wanted to use Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 in VMWare so booted a CD of Windows on my machine. There was a part that said you could put XP on the partition available so when she hit Enter it said that it couldn't be done but that she could go back and delete that partition and then reinstall it there. So she did that and then installed Windows on there.

Now everytime I turn my Mac on I get Windows XP. How do I get back to my Mac system?

I tried turning the Mac on and then holding down the option key as it started up but the only thing I get is an icon with the hard drive and the word Windows below it and an up arrow which I push and then it takes me right back to WindowsXP.

Right now I'm thinking my only option is to reboot from my original OSX install disk and don't think Keep User Preserved Setting will work because it's all been erased by Windows right? I know if you unplug and plug your Mac back in you get a file in the trash that says Recovered files and I haven't unplugged it at all.

Is this fixable to get it back to the way it was or have I lost everything? If so if I brought it in to a Mac technician could they bring my files back?

S.
 
IT sounds like your sister reformatted you drive when she installed Windows and you have lost everything. There is no getting anything back at this point since it has not only been deleted but has had Windows written over the top of it.

Next time when you wan tot use vmware or parallels you should start that program up first and then install to a disk image. That will let you run both windows and Mac OS.
 
You might be able to salvage some data with an app like Data Rescue. The important thing is not to use the disk any more than absolutely necessary before you make your attempts.
 
Mikuro,

Okay so if I used Data recovery would I first have to do a clean install to get it back to Mac then use Data Recovery to see what I can get? I'm not using that XP disk at all. It just starts up in PC mode every time it goes on. I'm afraid to do anything. Should I do a clean install first.

I tried to do it and I was hoping to get the user Preserve setting but instead got my hard drive symbol wit a caution saying there wasn't enough space and I had to hit Option to reformat and then there was an Erase (which said all my files would be lost), and Cancel and I hit Cancel and ejected disk as I wasn't sure what to do.

If you were in my boat, how would you proceed?

S.
 
I would not install OS X on it. You want to touch the disk as little as possible.

Do you have access to a second Mac? The best way to do it would be to get the Data Rescue demo on the second Mac, and hook the two up using FireWire Target Disk Mode, which will let you access your Mac's internal disk from the second Mac as though it were an external FireWire disk. Then you could load up the Data Rescue demo and see if it works. If it does, you can buy the full version.

For more info on Data Rescue, check out the web site: http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

There's no way you'll be able to recover everything, but if you're lucky you'll be able to recover your personal data. Do you have any backups?
 
Mikuro,

Thanks, I don't care about apps or that stuff just the personal files that's all. I don't have a recent backup (I did a very partial backup over a year ago on a disk for some of my hard drive files but it's something). Some things are on my sister's machine which I'm living on now.

I just downloaded the demo of Data Recovery on her machine and will do the Firewire and then transfer onto my machine that way.

It's worth a shot. I know how to start in target mode. Do I restart my machine and hit T and keep my sister's open or restart her machine using T?

S.
 
Restart yours using T. You'll actually be running Data Rescue from your sister's machine; you won't copy it to yours first, because your disk won't be usable (even if it technically is, it's a good idea NOT to use it).

So, if it works, you'll have Data Rescue copy the files from your machine and save them onto your sisters. Then when you're all done you can reformat your machine, reinstall OS X, and copy the rescued files from your sister's.
 
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