HD data recovery

philstanbridge · 2 Feb 2017 at 17:48

I don't know much about this, and was wondering if anyone has any experience in the process. I've got a friends Macbook which has a faulty HD. I can replace the drive and get the machine restarted at least but she is desperate to know if the photos can be recovered. She hasn't got a backup and she has 7 years worth of photos of her kids on it.

Any advice appreciated.

KIA · 2 Feb 2017 at 18:12

Tell us more about the faulty drive.

Quartz · 3 Feb 2017 at 00:22

Kroll Ontrack will give you a free consultation.

It's over a decade since I used the services of such a company but they did work, recovering a proposal for a multi-million pound contract. Do advise your friend that they can charge a significant fee.

Combat squirrel · 3 Feb 2017 at 00:34

What quartz said - also dont just advise your friend, shout at them loudly for not backing up - silly silly SILLY thing to do - and its going to cost them now.

When / if they moan about having to buy at least another hard drive to at the very least use time machine, don't take no for an answer.

/back up rant

*not backing up is a pet hate of mine*

Akagi · 3 Feb 2017 at 00:42

My backups haven't been working for about a year... 5% of my data has changed since then.

I should fix it.

George Hincapie · 3 Feb 2017 at 09:14

You could try something that will scan the disk looking for the usual image file headers and carve them out.

ChrisD. · 3 Feb 2017 at 11:17

I don't get people with Apple products who don't back up when it's so easy to do.

What is wrong with the drive?

hornetstinger · 3 Feb 2017 at 11:19

How accesable are hard drives that have been inside a apple mac? Can you take out the HD connect to another machine, is the data encrypted?

ChrisD. · 3 Feb 2017 at 11:20

Depends, what year MacBook is it?

philstanbridge · 3 Feb 2017 at 15:30

Thanks for the replies.

It's a white macbook, pretty old now. The drive clicks when it is turned on and it refues to boot to the operating system. I get a disk like icon with a question mark in it.

It's a friends mac, and she hasn't a lot of cash so I'm trying to help her out.

I can get her a new 120GB SSD for £50, I presume that will work okay in the macbook.

ChrisD. · 3 Feb 2017 at 15:32

Take the back cover off and it's fairly obvious how you can remove it. Plug it into an external SATA dock and see if you can get anything from it.

Quartz · 3 Feb 2017 at 19:22

philstanbridge said:
The drive clicks when it is turned on

This is most likely serious.

https://computer-hardware.wonderhowto.com/how-to/fix-click-death-hard-drive-423641/

http://www.deadhardrive-data-recovery.com/hard-drive-clicking/

Sadly the freezer trick is no longer recommended.

It's a friends mac, and she hasn't a lot of cash so I'm trying to help her out.

Really, her - and your - best bet is to get a professional in. Do realise that if your attempts not only fail but make the matter worse, she will likely blame you for the loss.

KIA · 4 Feb 2017 at 13:56

Quartz said:
Really, her - and your - best bet is to get a professional in. Do realise that if your attempts not only fail but make the matter worse, she will likely blame you for the loss.

I agree.