Fubared Macbook HDD.. likely..

Shazkar Shadowstorm

So I guess last night, just after putting my laptop to sleep, it fell about a bit less than a foot onto hard floor. Then the next morning I can't open any programs.. and restarting, can't boot up the OS. I hear clicking, but no HDD whir. So I know this is all my fault.... I'm a stupid face. So what am I to do? I have Apple Care, but it's not an Apple HDD, it's Seagate... will they fix it and CAN they? Would it at least be possible to recover the data and I go buy a new HDD and they would let me x-fer it over somehow? I am king of morons.

supabeast

If there aren’t any big scratches or dents on the machine they won’t know that you dropped it unless you tell them. Hard disks are what technicians refer to as “Field Replaceable Units” which means that they’re not worth screwing around with, so just tell them that it stopped working when you put it to sleep and they’ll probably just replace the whole thing.

Shazkar Shadowstorm

Hm.. but my data is gonezores? And there's a 120 GB HDD in there, but the Macbook came with a 60GB one or something... what happens there?

wunderbar

Shazkar Shadowstorm wrote: »

Hm.. but my data is gonezores? And there's a 120 GB HDD in there, but the Macbook came with a 60GB one or something... what happens there?

if you upgraded it yourself you could be screwed.

RyakStorm

Apple care won't cover your upgraded 120Gb drive.

If you have access to a PC I would pull the 120Gb drive, connect it up to a PC, run some recovery software - I usually use r-studio, see if you can pull the data off. There is probably software on OSX to do this too, but in any event you will need an additional computer of some kind to hook the damaged hard drive to.

If you can recover your data, put a new HD in your Mac, copy the files back over.

A professional data recovery company will be able to get your data back, or most of it - how much is your data worth to you, prices for physical recovery cost from $500 to $bazzilionity.

Welcome to The Back Up Club, data loss happens to every computer user eventually, hard lesson to learn.

Shazkar Shadowstorm

Oh well, good thing Seagate has a 5 year warranty. Lost all my data, but at least I only loose the cost of shipping the old HDD to them.

Should I even bother trying to hook it up to a PC? My hard drive doesn't even make spinning noises, it just clicks. And how would I do that?

Well, for now I took out the bad one and put in the puny original one temporarily...

Fristle

Good to know that Macbook "sudden motion" sensor doesn't do crap. (EDIT: not sure if it operates in sleep mode anyway, but I would've figured the disk heads would be parked in that case)

RyakStorm wrote: »

If you have access to a PC I would pull the 120Gb drive, connect it up to a PC, run some recovery software - I usually use r-studio, see if you can pull the data off. There is probably software on OSX to do this too, but in any event you will need an additional computer of some kind to hook the damaged hard drive to.

You will also need a special connector/adapter to be able to attach a laptop disk (2.5" form factor) to a desktop (has 3.5" form factor).

Lost all my data, but at least I only loose the cost of shipping the old HDD to them.

Lose. L-o-s-e.

polarblue

My dad gave me his old laptop bag. anyways... the thing came apart while walking to class and my MBP fell 2.50-3 feet onto the ground in sleep mode. still works. however ive got a stupid protrusion of metal strip right above where the monitor unlocking button is . hdd still works so the motion sensor must do something, or i was really lucky.


edit: also onetime i checked in my bag at a store and the lady sort of tossed my bag into a cubby hole. *thud* i was piss'd. however it keeps on truckin

Premier kakos

This is a long shot, but it sometimes works. Take the drive out of the computer and put it in the freezer for a few hours. After that, take it out, let it warm back up to room temperature and then put it in your computer. This sometimes will allow some fucked up HDDs to work again for a short period of time. If it works, pull off all the important data. Do this as quickly as possible because there is no guarantee on how long the drive will last if it works.

Fristle

Premier kakos wrote: »

This is a long shot, but it sometimes works. Take the drive out of the computer and put it in the freezer for a few hours. After that, take it out, let it warm back up to room temperature and then put it in your computer. This sometimes will allow some fucked up HDDs to work again for a short period of time. If it works, pull off all the important data. Do this as quickly as possible because there is no guarantee on how long the drive will last if it works.

Yea, it's unclear what that actually does to fix it, but there's some anecdotal evidence that it has helped some people at some point.

The change in temperature will likely introduce condensation though, which is potentially able to ruin the device (but what do you have to lose?). Leave the "cold hard disk" treatment for when you're ready to give up. Also, here are 200 other superstitious things you can try.

freek

If it is a MacBook, the hard drive is a user installable part. So you won't be in trouble for pulling and replacing it, as far as the warranty goes. If there is no damage to the outside, put the old drive in, take it to the Apple Store and tell them it won't turn on and you don't know why, if that's the case.