HD catastrophic failure(macbook)

[Rxke]

Won't be posting much, main laptop broke down unexpectedly yesterday evening (and of course I was going to backup today, sigh so lots of stuff lost....)

Verbose mode sez: "can't load mach kernel " Drive cliks a bit miserably, then spins down....

Was looking for a Linux rescue cd that can mount hfs+ and found this free beta thing: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-mac/

anyone familiar with it? Is it any good or should I look further?


Not able to burn CDs with this spare G3 laptop (the olden clamshell)
So have to wait for after the weekend to burn the ISO @ work, aaaaargh the frustration

[Kaks]

Afaik any fairly recent ubuntu cd can also read hfs+ partitions, and can be run as a live cd too.

[Cmdr James]

Or you can use firewire to connect another mac and use it as a remote disk (maybe that will work).

[Rxke]

I had problems reading hfs+ on the first few ubuntus, might try a new one.

Target disk: my spare G3 is not a x86 (duh) so I'm afraid it won't work. I think.

thanks for the ideas, going to burn the disk @ a friend's place, keep you posted

[Svengali]

Won't be posting much, main laptop broke down unexpectedly yesterday evening (and of course I was going to backup today, sigh so lots of stuff lost....)

Hope you'll get it working again.

btw: Doesn't it always come unexpected? ):

[Rxke]

btw: Doesn't it always come unexpected? ):

Weird, it does!

Update: completely FUBAR

[goran]

Target disk: my spare G3 is not a x86 (duh) so I'm afraid it won't work. I think.

firewire target disk mode works since first g3 imacs and it's not platform dependent. You can connect and (try to) repair any 2 macs.

[Rxke]

Ah, that's new to me. Thought that was impossible.
Anyways, the HD just won't mount, serious hardware failure.

[DaddyHoggy]

Ah, that's new to me. Thought that was impossible.
Anyways, the HD just won't mount, serious hardware failure.

The traditional approach to such catastrophic failures is to take HD out - put it in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer over night - take out - quickly connect back up - and see if it works - if it does it'll work until it warms up again - you can repeat the process 2 or 3 times before even this doesn't work - we've saved the data from a couple of laptop drives and server drives this way over the years.

Alternatively to this - find an exact replica drive model (ebay?) and swap the electronics and platters over - as it is often one and not the other that's gone - I've seen my old IT dept recover the data from a never-backed-up HD this way (it had to be done in-house as it was a secret HD)

Good luck.

[Rxke]

Ah, I heard deep-freezing was a semi-myth, that it just doesn't work in real life. Hmmm. Might try that one.

The other solution: doesn't that require a clean room?

Anyways, I spent my new-years bonus on a new laptop, Ain't that decadent?

Girlfriend said it was just a poor excuse to buy new gear, am I that transparent?

will leisurely try to revive the other one. (If I can get it open, will have to hunt for a servicemanual, because those macbooks are quite hard to open, I bet)

[Thargoid]

Ah, I heard deep-freezing was a semi-myth, that it just doesn't work in real life. Hmmm. Might try that one.

I can personally vouch that it does work, having recovered a failed laptop HD that way (just don't forget to put the thing in a sealed bag before freezing it, as you want it cold and not iced up).