Laptop Crashed, in deep trouble (MAC user)

[gopz]

No offense meant. But Sam I recommend you to take it to a professional center like Stellar. Someone else may charge less or do it for free but its a big risk if you cannot afford to lose the data. And since its a Mac I think its better you leave it to professionals than some Windows freaks who can further damage it beyond repair and create another disaster in your life and make you disappear from the forum once again. And I ve to start another 'where is the Yeti' thread

[NetfreakBombay]

Sam,

I manage data infrastructure for living. Here is what I would do in this situation:

1. Buy a bigger hard disk ASAP
2. Take current HDD to some data recovery shop with good feedback.
3. Ask them to give you a DD Image of COMPLETE HDD on the new HDD you have bought. -- this is most important -- it will ensure that you will not loose any more data then you already have. And it does NOT matter if it is FAT / NTFS / HFS+ (Mac file system) DD is a blind copy of the whole disk.
4. Ask them to recover data from this DD image.

That will ensure that current HDD will not deteriorate further since data will be read only once.

Its fairly straightforward to mount the DD image in a different PC and extract data from it. DD Image will have HFS+ partitions and data can be recovered from it. In case of photographs, you might loose certain areas but chances of recovering are pretty good as long as images are not stored in ZIP or some other archive.

I can do that for you free of cost if data recovery shop has done step #1 to #3.

Hope that helps.

[anupmathur]

Sam, I fully support what Netfreak has suggested.

[simply_sunny001]

any updates on data recovery Sam ?

[Sam Kapasi]

I called Stellar. They have a 24hr helpline. Stellar asked me a few preliminary questions and determined that my drive is physically perfect.

Given the scenario that there is only a logical error (in this case by some freakish chance, the entire partition has disappeared, leaving no File allocation methos) it can only be done through a software recovery.

Stellar recommended I try the software on my HDD (in an external casing) and first see if there are recoverable files. I was warned that because there may be bad sectors, it may take especially long.

I ran Stellar Phoenix for 4 hours yesterday and was able to see some recoverable files. I promptly purchased it using my cc. (About 5400/-) and am currently recovering my crashed HDD in a casing.

At the current rate of progress I estimate between 30 to 40 hours, lol.

[anupmathur]

Way to go, Your Yetiship!
Indeed your HDD only needs a "Partition Recovery", which, if it were windows, is a breeze! I do not know about Macs.
There are basically two types of software for recovery: ones that simply throw up thousands of files at you, and the better ones that return them WITH directory structure intact (and of course full filenames)!
Which kind is this Phoenix?
And best of luck with your recovery. As I said before, you should get most of your files back!

And yes, 30 or even 60 hours would still be normal.

[gopz]

30 to 40 hours? Well..better late than never!

You did the right thing by purchasing the software, Sam. In case the HDD was handed over so someone, you would have run the risk of someone else invading into your privacy!

Now you have the peace of mind that the data is getting recovered and its in none other than YOUR own hands

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by anupmathur

There are basically two types of software for recovery: ones that simply throw up thousands of files at you, and the better ones that return them WITH directory structure intact (and of course full filenames)!
Which kind is this Phoenix?

The Phoenix is originally the latter kind. But the civilized way is not working, so the former is the way to go.

[anupmathur]

Sam, I just did a Google and found what appears to be another good program that would enable recovery from Macs even in a Windows environment! And this program might just create a new partition table and bring the old drive to life again.

Kernel Macintosh - Data Recovery Software 4.02 Download - Kernel for Macintosh is a robust and quick Mac data recovery

Any of this can be tried out at a later date, IF your files recovery has not been up to expectations!

[simply_sunny001]

Thats gud news that finally recovery has started.

and dont worry abot 30-40 hrs,just have patience

it is worth and good luck

[Sam Kapasi]

Hello, live update:

7 hours later, the software has been through roughly about 15% of the hard drive. It is not possible to judge clearly as to how much time it will take as it moves quickly through some sectors and slowly through some.

I'm going to leave it on tonight at the office.

I've instructed the Sys Admin to call me when it's over, as I will be at the speedrun. Cheers!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Good luck, Sam.

Looking forward to good news...

[mohit]

And please invest in this thing - looks neat!

Apple - Time Capsule - Backup

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

7 hours later, the software has been through roughly about 15% of the hard drive.

Sam, this does not look good.
Obviously this software is doing a sector by sector read and is going to throw up thousands of (possibly nameless and/or extensionless) files at you!
To sift and sort through THAT lot means your job for the remainder of this year is decided.
I would recommend that any further attempts be made from an 'imagefile' of the entire disc, so that the drive does not needlessly suffer wear and tear.
And do look for a Partition Recovery software. The drive appears to be in good physical health; just that the partition table (and possibly the MBR [master boot record]) is lost!

[Sam Kapasi]

Live update:

30 hours later, the software has gone through 40% of the drive. Sigh. I don't have the courage to stop it now.

Meanwhile I have had an IDEA about the munich pictures. They were the last thing I deleted off my SD card.

Now running Stellar Phoenix on another computer with my 2 GB SD card in a card reader. BMW M3 pictures may be rescued. Wish me luck again!!