MacBook died - data recovery chances?

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macquestions2

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My MacBook screen froze while it was trying to do two tasks at once (overheating???). After 10 min, I shut it down with the power button. When I restarted it, I got a screen with a blinking folder & question mark. I shut it down with the power button, restarted it again, same result. I can't remember for sure (since I didn't know to listen for it), but I think there was a clicking sound.

It's in the Mac repair shop over the weekend. :(

What kind of hard drive failure is this? What are the chances they can recover the data off the hard drive?

Right now I feel sick, thinking of all the pictures that I DIDN'T back up (about a third of them are backed up). I really don't want to spend the weekend worrying they can't get those for me. Thanks!

ETA: If they say they can't recover the data, should I ask for the HD back so I can take it somewhere else?
 
macquestions2 said:
My MacBook screen froze while it was trying to do two tasks at once (overheating???). After 10 min, I shut it down with the power button. When I restarted it, I got a screen with a blinking folder & question mark. I shut it down with the power button, restarted it again, same result. I can't remember for sure (since I didn't know to listen for it), but I think there was a clicking sound.

It's in the Mac repair shop over the weekend. :(

What kind of hard drive failure is this? What are the chances they can recover the data off the hard drive?
Click to expand...
Sounds like a mechanical failure of either the read/write arm mechanism, or perhaps a spindle problem. Probably nothing that can be fixed at home.

You have between a 0% and 100% chance that the data can be recovered. No one but the person recovering the data off of the drive can say for sure.

Data recovery is typically very expensive. DriveSavers (drivesavers.com) are great at it, although you should expect to spend anywhere from $500 to $5,000 to recover the data from the hard drive.

Right now I feel sick, thinking of all the pictures that I DIDN'T back up (about a third of them are backed up). I really don't want to spend the weekend worrying they can't get those for me. Thanks!
Click to expand...
I had a similar thing happen to me back in the day -- lost a lot of photos that I'll never get back... but hey, I'll bet you'll be backing up your stuff starting today! It only takes once, right?

ETA: If they say they can't recover the data, should I ask for the HD back so I can take it somewhere else?
Click to expand...
Yes, most definitely. Actually, I would ask for the whole computer back -- if only the hard drive failed, then there's no reason to give the repair shop a perfectly good computer for free.
 
The guy can't fix it. It just keeps clicking. They're sending it to DriveSavers. :( It's only the photos that I care about... $850 for photos only (including a referral discount from the Apple guy). That means I lose everything else that I had on there, but I can't afford $2500 for the excel sheet and a couple word documents. Ugh.

I will back up my files on a daily basis after this.
 
In the off chance that anyone will read jimmyrayjit's post (Post #4), please don't follow his advice. This is SPAM by a non-English speaker. Your data may be recovered from the hard drive of a damaged MacBook or from any other computer for that matter. However, reformatting your hard drive will make it harder not easier to recover your data.
 
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