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 Macbook HDD dead - now what? 
 
 
nez
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Old 26-02-2007, 09:24 AM
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Macbook HDD dead - now what?
My macbook died on Thursday night

Everytime I boot up, instead of hearing the HDD winding up, all I hear is a clicky clack clicky clack. Sounds like a mechanically dead HDD to me.

Now, instead of the Apple Icon on boot up, I get a flashing folder with a question mark - no startup disk.

Tried resetting the pram - no luck.
Tried running the disk utility via my OSX install disk - can't even see the HDD mounted
Tried reinstalling OSX (just to see how far I could get) - couldn't even see the HDD to install it on.

It all points to a dead HDD. I haven't tried booting it in Target mode but it will be a waste of time if the drive is physcially broken.

I'm about to take it into myMac on Flinders st to get it repaired but I'm wondering - will they try to recover any data off it if they can? I don't have backups of my photoes (stupid I know) and that's all I'd like to recover. For a dead HDD, I'm worried they just say "Sorry, HDD is gone..here's a new one" without attempting to retrieve anything.

Can an of the Apple Technicians here shed some light?
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Old 26-02-2007, 09:35 AM
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If the disk is physically dead, ie. a broken motor or damaged platter, then it is very difficult to do data recovery from it. From a cost perspective, they're unlikely to attempt to "repair" the drive since that would cost far more than simply claiming a new drive under warranty.

Also they will probably have to keep the dead disk to return to the manufacturer for their analysis in return for the new disk they gave to you, so you'll be unlikely to be able to keep it (although you could ask!). Physical data recovery whereby the disk is taken apart and mended or read in another manner to restore the data is extremely $$$ and probably not feasible for recovering your photos

The only other thing you could try is booting from a USB or Firewire disk to get OSX up and running on the macbook, and then getting advice about the best disk-recovery software to make sure there's nothing more that can be done? In any case - make sure to explain your case to the myMac store as you never know what they may offer.

Good luck mate
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Old 26-02-2007, 09:38 AM
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Location: Across the Ditch - Christchurch, N.Z.
See my thread here:
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/showthr...663#post262663

It may provide a solution
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