MacBook dead drive.

S

smiffy07

Registered
Hi all

Has anyone out there experienced a dead drive after iTunes 8/software update?

I have a mid 2007 MacBook running Leopard, ran software update over the weekend....updates crashed so restarted then all I got was a grey screen!

Drive utility could see the drive but was unable to mount/repair. Tech Tool Pro took forever to scan the drive after which I tried Disk Warrior 4....that didn't even see the drive! Now booted from an external Disk Utility will no longer see it.

I'm assuming the drive is dead, has anyone managed any data retrieval from this problem?

Nick
 
Well the update could have found a bad sector that froze the platter up. Now i have tried a simple but crazy plan that works SOMETIMES on dead/dying hard drives. For this trick you will need several things:

1. Speed in putting a drive back into the Mac!!!!

2. Freezer (this does involve a freezer).

3. Air proof Freezer bag that will hold the drive!

4. A backup external disk that you from now on will backup to.

Now take the drive out. Put it into the freezer bag so no liquid gets into that space with the hard drive. Plus the drive (in the liquid proof bag) in the freezer for a couple of hours. After a couple of hours (now you need to be FAST) take the drive out of the freezer & bag and put it into the Mac and see immediately if it will boot. You might have the time before the drive warms up to get data off it.

I know this sounds crazy but it does work on SOME dead drives. The freezing frees up some bulging rubber lines (that might have stretched out, which does happen) that drive the platters in the drive.

If this doesn't work you will have to pay money to firms like Drive Savers to get the data back.

The moral of this whole story is with a viable backup you could have not panicked and a dead drive emergency.
 
Thanks for getting back to me. I will give it a go as a last ditch attempt to get some data off. I have a new drive on order but if I can just get some user data off then that would be ideal!
I think a time capsule is definitely getting ordered this week!
 
I have been informed that Time Capsule does not make the External HD "bootable." Someone can correct me if I am wrong on that point. I use SuperDuper!.

--J.D.
 
If the drive is alive.. you can access your files via another Mac..get a Firewire cable... connect two Macs... boot the bad one holding down the "T" ket and wait for the firewire symbol.. then boot the other Mac.. the HD will appear on the desktop if it is still useable.. this way you can get some files off.
 
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