Is there a computer guru here?

[Heabow]

Hey,

My 2006 white Macbook is dead. Well, it's actually the HDD that's dead. The sad and very raging thing is that I bought a backup drive just a couple of days ago and I did not save my data (I wanted to do it tonight). Very important data of course, as usual!

When I wanted to use it again after one hour, I entered my password and the search reel appeared. So I turn it off and reboot it. But it freezed when the apple appeared. After a reboot, I got the file with the "?". I did all the recovery stuff (NVRAM, rebooting with Alt, etc.) but all I got now is white screen just like it was about to boot but nothing. I hear a little regular clicky sound so I think it's the HDD.

My question is quite simple: is there a way to recover my data? I don't know, something like linking two macbook and boot on the "good" one and grab my stuff on the dead one? Or find somewhere a OSX 10.6 on a CD and launching recovery protocole or something? Sounds stupid, nah? The truth is that I'm feeling very bad now :/

 

[JeffTD]

Open the laptop, take the harddrive out, put it in an external enclosure. If it's physically crashed, this won't work and you'll know + you'll be shit out of luck, but if it runs you'll be able to get the data off it no problem.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Core+Duo+Hard+Drive+Replacement/282

 

[Heabow]

Thanks Jeff. I hear this little noise and I'm afraid it's physically fucked up. Anyway, I'll try.

 

[BearOnGuitar]

If the harddrive is clicking it might have a physical defect and trying to keep using it might actually cause more damage to the data stored on the disc making it unrecoverable. I second trying to use the harddrive in an external enclosure to see if it works, but don't mess around with it too much.

Similar thing happened to me last year ago. At the time I was working a lot, often into early mornings multitasking a lot between different projects and I wanted to back up my external harddrive data as just received a new harddrive. I ended up dreaming about backing up my data while sleeping that day, later thinking that I did back up my files... About a month later the harddrive started clicking without any reason when I came back from taking a walk one day unable to be read or mounted, leaving me with the only other backup which was about two years old. The only option really is to send it in to a professional data rescue company at that point which has a good record of restoring failed drives or data.

You learn the lesson from it, which is taking backups more seriously and scheduling the time to perform them. Also having a second backup drive is advisable in case the first backup drive fails.

 

[ForHerDeadEyes]

http://lifehacker.com/5515337/save-a-failed-hard-drive-in-your-freezer-redux
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/279218-32-crash-freezer-works
http://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport...his_if_your_hd_is_clicking_the_freezer_trick/

If won't start at all when you've put it in an external casing, then you are SOL and JWF..

 

[varobinson]

There are 3rd party businesses that can try and fix it for you. $$. I knew a guy who had exact same scenario (not MAC) who did that successfully.

There are generally speaking micro-Linux installs that will run on a flashdrive which have data recovery options. I've used them in a Windows PC context unsuccessfully. If you're heading the mechanical noise doub that would work anyways.

Even if people have backups, I'd recommend another backup be offsite to get aroun a fire/theft/flood threat. I have a data copy at my work for example.

 

[LeSedna]

This is exactly why I'm paying 4 dollar a month for this ! https://secure.backblaze.com/r/010rlw Off-site automatic data save in the background whenever your computer is connected to internet. Also they accept 100% of your external HDD, no matter how big they are. Its virtually impossible to loose any data this way. I personally have 3 copies at all times, without thinking about it :
1 - the original one, the computer, the one i'm using
2 - time machine (any carbon copy would do) on-site for quick recovery if needed
3 - back blaze off-site, if anything goes wrong on-site, or if I want to download it anywhere from the internet. Also, it has an advantage over time machine : it actually saves 100% of all your peripherals, including any USB key, and any external HDD, even if you have 1000 To of them. Basically they store all your data. Also you don't need to actually be hooked up to anything but an internet connection so this works on-the-go, in hotels, on tour, etc.

As for your current problem, like people mentioned, you can actually pay some companies to get your data if it's really worth the pain. It's expensive, but in case you actually horribly need it, it exists. I had the same problem with an external HDD, it was not worth it in my case. That's when I researched and decided I would pay 50 bucks a year for tranquility.

It actually happened to me last week again : one of my HDD is not broken, but makes my computer freeze. I can return it, and I don't need to buy another HDD in the meantime, or to worry about the fact they are gonna erase it or send me a new one. I'll just download all my saved data again whenever I have another HDD again. In the meantime, if I really need something that was stored there, i can download this folder only from back blaze (you can download whatever you saved as a .zip file)

In addition to this, I have all my papers, and important docs, in a dropbox folder.

 

[DanLights]

I do the same as LeSedna but I use Crashplan for online backup and backup on a separate external hard drive. No way I will ever lose data.

 

[Plendakor]

No limit ??
I have 4 TB to backup and you'Re telling me that for 60$ a year it'd all be backed up ?
Dropbox costs more for less; does it work the same ?

 

[DanLights]

No limit ??
I have 4 TB to backup and you'Re telling me that for 60$ a year it'd all be backed up ?
Dropbox costs more for less; does it work the same ?

It's not the same system as dropbox, at least the one I use isn't (Crashplan). Dropbox syncronizes your files, a backup program just backs up. Which means, you really only use it in case you lose your date for some reason (hard drive failure for example), it's not for sharing files or folders among people. Although Crashplan also has a free phone app with which you can access all your backed up files on your phone, it's pretty damn useful.

 

[LeSedna]

Yes, I believe Backblaze and crash plan are similar, I don't know the second one, but this is correct, they don't put any limit on the amount of data you can save. They only discard NAS servers as far as I know, and backup files like TimeMachine backups.

DropBox is different, it's a synchronization and sharing service. You can't do that from back blaze, although you can access files if you need them.

They are not a storage service either like amazon S3. You can't send them a file to free space locally.

 

[Plendakor]

"They are not a storage service either like amazon S3. You can't send them a file to free space locally. "

No ??

 

[kaomao]

Click = dead
Sorry for ya! The click sound it's the head that can't align to read data, it's knocking against other stuff, usually the inside of the hd

 

[DanLights]

"They are not a storage service either like amazon S3. You can't send them a file to free space locally. "

No ??

No. It's backup, not storage. It's in case your data gets lost, not so you can free up space in your hard drive.

 

[Drummerrrrr?]

If you can't afford to pay someone to recover it for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Y7BniaRXg

 

[Heabow]

Thanks to you all for your help. Verdict: the disk is fucked up. So now, I will try to fix it. I've never done this kind of work tho... finger crossed!
The final word is backup... backup... backup... backup...