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High Definition Video for Independent Filmmakers
A How To Guide for Digital Filmmakers
Welcome all! This is my blog to share my latest research,
thoughts, etc. on utilizing HD for independent filmmaking.
YES, I am available for consulting
Contact me at mike@hdforindies.com
All content copyright 2004-2007 Mike Curtis.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Case Study - Mike's laptop drive dies, what to do
UPDATED TUESDAY - see bottom
OK, I don't want to be too alarmist, and I DO NOT have a definitive reason why this is going on, but here's the deal:
1.) I ran Software Update on my MacBook (original Core Duo 2.0 GHz model w/2GB RAM and upgraded hard drive)
2.) Shortly thereafter, it locked up - clicked on an email, and the machine beachballed...then the clock stopped updating (I always have it display the seconds so I can ALWAYS tell if something is stalling the processor - if the seconds aren't advancing).
3.) hard reboot - I got a bizarre, Windows looking black screen with big fat white letters and a few random red squares saying press ctrl-alt-delete...EEK, not good!
4.) rebooted, held down option - made sure was set to OS X not Windows via Boot Camp (I have a Windows partition on the box)
5.) rebooted again, saw for the first time ever the grey Apple screen with a darker grey circle and slash - egads, I don't know exactly what that means but it CAN'T be good.
6.) rebooted holding down shift key for Safe Boot Mode - it got to grey screen, showed circle/slash, then grey Apple logo as expected....then cycled back and forth between those interminably. This was on hard line power.
7.) Shut down, prepping to to do FireWire Target Disc Mode to do a remote Disk Utility run at it.
So I have ZERO proof that Software Update has anything to do with this, and I don't know whether it was or wasn't on 10.4.10, but the new QT, iTunes, and Security Update were just installed (at least, shoulda been, assuming it worked).
It could just be something went ker-flooey with the unit by chance today after having done Software Update and has nothing to do with it.
But JUST IN CASE, maybe holding off for a day or two and see if there are any other similar reports. As of this moment, my primary machine, my MacBook, is out of operation (and gee, I'm down to 4 Macs! Oh, the horror....but I'll struggle through...but all my email and access to it is on that box...grrr...)
I'll update as I learn more, just thought it'd be good to put a cautious warning out there.
-mike
3PM update - crap, when _I_ have to call somebody for Mac help, it is BAD - I've been everybody's Go To guy for decades on Mac stuff. So I call who I think might know more - Torrey Loomis of Silverado Systems, whom I buy all my own Mac stuff from now. I describe symptoms, he says it is rare, he's seen it once in connection with a Windows/Boot Camp partition setup. He says it is probably hard disk related. "Logical or physical problem?" I ask, he says not sure, recommends Disk Warrior.
Buy Disk Warrior 4 (required for Intel Macs) online, takes maybe 7 minutes from Google search to installing - NICE. Can buy online and download and they'll mail a disk, and they IMMEDIATELY (none of this multi-hour wait crap) email a serial # - VERY good for oh-god-I-need-it-now scenarios. Kudos.
Unfortunately, it isn't helping at the moment - even after booting laptop in FireWire Target Disk Mode, THEN connecting FW cable, THEN booting host Mac, and writing all this while I wait for it to boot and maybe mount....doesn't mount, and DiskWarrior can't see it so can't do beans.
Reset the PMU at this point on this list of "things to try just in case they help" - I don't even know if these Macs have PRAM to reset with the Vulcan Nerve Pinch key command (option-command-P-R - takes a large handspan....)
After that I try a normal boot and get something new - a grey blinking folder with a "?" in the middle - guessing it can't find a bootable drive. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.
Held down VNP as described above, after a minute or so it rebooted, so I'll interpret that as Parameter RAM (PRAM) was reset...but after that, couldn't even get it to Target Disk Mode...
Drat and damnation - next step - I'll pull the drive and use my SATA to USB 2.0 converter cable kit to see if that helps it be visible...
Did that - pulled the drive out, connected my USB 2.0 to SATA adaptor, and...it didn't show up, and DiskWarrior didn't see it. Touching it, can feel it spinning up, then spinning down after a brief run. Not good.
Next step - recovery services. Anybody have a data recovery service for Mac laptop drives that has a better success/price ratio than DriveSavers? Egads, this is, I believe, the 3rd laptop drive I've had go bad over the last 3-4 years. Sigh. Long hard day, many other unpleasantnesses going on also.
Just talked to DriveSavers, with my vendor's discount, I'd still be paying $1350 to $2160 if they get all the data I want off (which should be doable, it was all working until it went totally kerflooey). OUCH that is not cheap. Last backup? I've found my pre-NAB disc image, I'm looking for a newer one...
So going back to the original topic - I don't have a reason to believe Software Update had anything to do with this. Appears to be a drive gone bad.
-mike
TUESDAY UPDATE - ...so I ordered a new drive and it arrived over the weekend. I had planned to try a board swap to see if that helped. I'd noticed my older laptop drive hadn't mounted when I plugged it into my little USB 2.0 to SATA adaptor, so I tried again just to make sure I hadn't missed an opportunity to fix the apparently bad newer drive. Turns out for a laptop drive to show up, you need to cold boot or reboot. So I got the old drive to show up fine. So then I repeated procedure for the failed drive. During that process, I heard it make a little noise (I had most of the machines in the room off, not common). So I replugged it and leaned in close - uh oh, whirrrrr-click, whirrrrr-click, whirrrrr-click...sounds like Click Of Death to me. It made that sound several times and then spun down. Didn't show up on reboot in any utility as there being any drive there at all.
So I don't think a board swap is going to help.
So I hooked up the just-purchased drive and did a low level format (mapping out bad blocks by using the Zero Write option in Disk Utility, which DOES take hours) and headed out for the evening. When I got back, I mounted my most recent disk image backup (not nearly as recent as I'd like) and used SuperDuper to copy it to the just purchased laptop drive. That worked overnight.
Now I'm debating whether to even try the board swap, Just To Be Sure, or whether to just put the working drive into the laptop, having it download all the mail it can to try to get sync'd back up, updating all the software, etc. Right now, my most recent and correct address book, contacts, and email or on my iPhone - I hope when I reconnect it won't lose or do anything funny to those.
In any case, the next step will be to analyze what I've lost, what I have backups or pseudo-backups of (for instance, my NAB pics are all online at lower res), and decide what if anything I REALLY need and find a cost effective data restoration facility in that case. Thanks VERY much to everyone that has sent in suggestions, I'm going through those today as well online (not checking Comments mail on the iPhone, too much!).
Thanks to all for their helpful suggestions, I'm getting ready to start sifting for recovery service options. I swapped out the logic board between old/busted drive and new drive of same model, no joy. Durn.
Now I'm going to rebuild my laptop with the new drive that has the older backup/restored image on it. But it isn't as new as I'd like.
-mike
OK, I don't want to be too alarmist, and I DO NOT have a definitive reason why this is going on, but here's the deal:
1.) I ran Software Update on my MacBook (original Core Duo 2.0 GHz model w/2GB RAM and upgraded hard drive)
2.) Shortly thereafter, it locked up - clicked on an email, and the machine beachballed...then the clock stopped updating (I always have it display the seconds so I can ALWAYS tell if something is stalling the processor - if the seconds aren't advancing).
3.) hard reboot - I got a bizarre, Windows looking black screen with big fat white letters and a few random red squares saying press ctrl-alt-delete...EEK, not good!
4.) rebooted, held down option - made sure was set to OS X not Windows via Boot Camp (I have a Windows partition on the box)
5.) rebooted again, saw for the first time ever the grey Apple screen with a darker grey circle and slash - egads, I don't know exactly what that means but it CAN'T be good.
6.) rebooted holding down shift key for Safe Boot Mode - it got to grey screen, showed circle/slash, then grey Apple logo as expected....then cycled back and forth between those interminably. This was on hard line power.
7.) Shut down, prepping to to do FireWire Target Disc Mode to do a remote Disk Utility run at it.
So I have ZERO proof that Software Update has anything to do with this, and I don't know whether it was or wasn't on 10.4.10, but the new QT, iTunes, and Security Update were just installed (at least, shoulda been, assuming it worked).
It could just be something went ker-flooey with the unit by chance today after having done Software Update and has nothing to do with it.
But JUST IN CASE, maybe holding off for a day or two and see if there are any other similar reports. As of this moment, my primary machine, my MacBook, is out of operation (and gee, I'm down to 4 Macs! Oh, the horror....but I'll struggle through...but all my email and access to it is on that box...grrr...)
I'll update as I learn more, just thought it'd be good to put a cautious warning out there.
-mike
3PM update - crap, when _I_ have to call somebody for Mac help, it is BAD - I've been everybody's Go To guy for decades on Mac stuff. So I call who I think might know more - Torrey Loomis of Silverado Systems, whom I buy all my own Mac stuff from now. I describe symptoms, he says it is rare, he's seen it once in connection with a Windows/Boot Camp partition setup. He says it is probably hard disk related. "Logical or physical problem?" I ask, he says not sure, recommends Disk Warrior.
Buy Disk Warrior 4 (required for Intel Macs) online, takes maybe 7 minutes from Google search to installing - NICE. Can buy online and download and they'll mail a disk, and they IMMEDIATELY (none of this multi-hour wait crap) email a serial # - VERY good for oh-god-I-need-it-now scenarios. Kudos.
Unfortunately, it isn't helping at the moment - even after booting laptop in FireWire Target Disk Mode, THEN connecting FW cable, THEN booting host Mac, and writing all this while I wait for it to boot and maybe mount....doesn't mount, and DiskWarrior can't see it so can't do beans.
Reset the PMU at this point on this list of "things to try just in case they help" - I don't even know if these Macs have PRAM to reset with the Vulcan Nerve Pinch key command (option-command-P-R - takes a large handspan....)
After that I try a normal boot and get something new - a grey blinking folder with a "?" in the middle - guessing it can't find a bootable drive. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.
Held down VNP as described above, after a minute or so it rebooted, so I'll interpret that as Parameter RAM (PRAM) was reset...but after that, couldn't even get it to Target Disk Mode...
Drat and damnation - next step - I'll pull the drive and use my SATA to USB 2.0 converter cable kit to see if that helps it be visible...
Did that - pulled the drive out, connected my USB 2.0 to SATA adaptor, and...it didn't show up, and DiskWarrior didn't see it. Touching it, can feel it spinning up, then spinning down after a brief run. Not good.
Next step - recovery services. Anybody have a data recovery service for Mac laptop drives that has a better success/price ratio than DriveSavers? Egads, this is, I believe, the 3rd laptop drive I've had go bad over the last 3-4 years. Sigh. Long hard day, many other unpleasantnesses going on also.
Just talked to DriveSavers, with my vendor's discount, I'd still be paying $1350 to $2160 if they get all the data I want off (which should be doable, it was all working until it went totally kerflooey). OUCH that is not cheap. Last backup? I've found my pre-NAB disc image, I'm looking for a newer one...
So going back to the original topic - I don't have a reason to believe Software Update had anything to do with this. Appears to be a drive gone bad.
-mike
TUESDAY UPDATE - ...so I ordered a new drive and it arrived over the weekend. I had planned to try a board swap to see if that helped. I'd noticed my older laptop drive hadn't mounted when I plugged it into my little USB 2.0 to SATA adaptor, so I tried again just to make sure I hadn't missed an opportunity to fix the apparently bad newer drive. Turns out for a laptop drive to show up, you need to cold boot or reboot. So I got the old drive to show up fine. So then I repeated procedure for the failed drive. During that process, I heard it make a little noise (I had most of the machines in the room off, not common). So I replugged it and leaned in close - uh oh, whirrrrr-click, whirrrrr-click, whirrrrr-click...sounds like Click Of Death to me. It made that sound several times and then spun down. Didn't show up on reboot in any utility as there being any drive there at all.
So I don't think a board swap is going to help.
So I hooked up the just-purchased drive and did a low level format (mapping out bad blocks by using the Zero Write option in Disk Utility, which DOES take hours) and headed out for the evening. When I got back, I mounted my most recent disk image backup (not nearly as recent as I'd like) and used SuperDuper to copy it to the just purchased laptop drive. That worked overnight.
Now I'm debating whether to even try the board swap, Just To Be Sure, or whether to just put the working drive into the laptop, having it download all the mail it can to try to get sync'd back up, updating all the software, etc. Right now, my most recent and correct address book, contacts, and email or on my iPhone - I hope when I reconnect it won't lose or do anything funny to those.
In any case, the next step will be to analyze what I've lost, what I have backups or pseudo-backups of (for instance, my NAB pics are all online at lower res), and decide what if anything I REALLY need and find a cost effective data restoration facility in that case. Thanks VERY much to everyone that has sent in suggestions, I'm going through those today as well online (not checking Comments mail on the iPhone, too much!).
Thanks to all for their helpful suggestions, I'm getting ready to start sifting for recovery service options. I swapped out the logic board between old/busted drive and new drive of same model, no joy. Durn.
Now I'm going to rebuild my laptop with the new drive that has the older backup/restored image on it. But it isn't as new as I'd like.
-mike
Labels: case study, hardware, iTunes
Comments:
sounds like boot sector went bad...
happened to me too, but that was april 06, when no harddrive tool was guid capable... meant i had to start from scratch!!!
no you can use disk warrior or an app like that, they have guid built in now...
good luck!!!!
happened to me too, but that was april 06, when no harddrive tool was guid capable... meant i had to start from scratch!!!
no you can use disk warrior or an app like that, they have guid built in now...
good luck!!!!
I make a rule to ALWAYS wait a week or two
and let others be the beta guinea pigs for updates...that's what teenage boys are for.
thanks for the heads-up
and let others be the beta guinea pigs for updates...that's what teenage boys are for.
thanks for the heads-up
i've read some stuff about machines not restarting all the way after 10.4.10 update - but that can be fixed by booting to safemode, then rebooting normally. had that happen myself.
also is generally a good call to download the Combo Update from Apple, rather than the one through Software Update.
good luck!
-chris
also is generally a good call to download the Combo Update from Apple, rather than the one through Software Update.
good luck!
-chris
The guys at Unsanity wrote an article on how apple automatic updates could make a drive unbootable:
http://www.unsanity.org/archives/mac_os_x/shock_and_awe.php
http://www.unsanity.org/archives/mac_os_x/shock_and_awe.php
i've read some stuff about machines not restarting all the way after 10.4.10 update - but that can be fixed by booting to safemode, then rebooting normally. had that happen myself.
That would mean it's a cache thing as many of the newer updates delete system or user caches as needed (this is what usually requires a double-restart from the spinning gear portion of booting). Sometimes the caches doesn't get flushed nicely - usually after a power outtage or something and the safe-boot, then reboot works every time.
I'll also add that Disc Warrior is the only utility that I would recommend everyone be aware of or have on hand.
In addition to Disc Warrior a memory tester like Rember is good to have - In my experience Rember will catch bad memory other programs like Apple's Hardware diagnosis won't.
Mike, I had some oddities with my PPC Quad after the new patches, I suspect Quicktime but I also have a few third-party codecs going so I was thinking it might be one of those (Perian?). It's hard to say as my machine boots and runs fine, but suddenly a few apps like the Finder and Adobe Lightroom have been crashing a lot. Hmm.
That would mean it's a cache thing as many of the newer updates delete system or user caches as needed (this is what usually requires a double-restart from the spinning gear portion of booting). Sometimes the caches doesn't get flushed nicely - usually after a power outtage or something and the safe-boot, then reboot works every time.
I'll also add that Disc Warrior is the only utility that I would recommend everyone be aware of or have on hand.
In addition to Disc Warrior a memory tester like Rember is good to have - In my experience Rember will catch bad memory other programs like Apple's Hardware diagnosis won't.
Mike, I had some oddities with my PPC Quad after the new patches, I suspect Quicktime but I also have a few third-party codecs going so I was thinking it might be one of those (Perian?). It's hard to say as my machine boots and runs fine, but suddenly a few apps like the Finder and Adobe Lightroom have been crashing a lot. Hmm.
Can you pull the drive and hook it up to another Mac to see if it's toast?
If it's a boot sector/boot camp thing the drive will be OK.
If it's a boot sector/boot camp thing the drive will be OK.
PenGun - pulled and didn't show up with any tool I've got to see it, neither as a formatted volume nor as a simple drive for formatting, etc. Not Good.
All of the data recovery places that I have seen always want 1st born to do their magic. You *might* try this:
Buy the same drive new - pop the logic board from the new drive onto your old drive. If that does not fix it then you have a mechanical issue (head positioning voicecoil fried or something else) and you will HAVE to go the data recov route.
Might want to edit the title on this post too since I am betting this issue has nothing to do with the software update - just an ugly co-inkydink.
Buy the same drive new - pop the logic board from the new drive onto your old drive. If that does not fix it then you have a mechanical issue (head positioning voicecoil fried or something else) and you will HAVE to go the data recov route.
Might want to edit the title on this post too since I am betting this issue has nothing to do with the software update - just an ugly co-inkydink.
You can try the freezer trick but it does sound bad.
Stick it in the freezer for a couple of hours, in a ziplock or the like.
Sometimes a cold one will allow you to get your data back.
Stick it in the freezer for a couple of hours, in a ziplock or the like.
Sometimes a cold one will allow you to get your data back.
I've used these local folks on 3 separate occasions (for "dead" laptop drives), and always got my data back. Your mileage may vary, but their prices are very reasonable compared to Drive Savers. I think I spent less than $500 and that included the cost of the new drive they installed, and cloned all my old data over to it. Talk to the owner, with whom my partner goes back like 20 years. I believe it was Judy, I'm looking into it again for you now.
They're Apple Authorized, and 5 minutes from me if you want me to look in on it for you -
http://www.tbicomputer.com/
203.222.1878
They're Apple Authorized, and 5 minutes from me if you want me to look in on it for you -
http://www.tbicomputer.com/
203.222.1878
Mike,
If you have another Intel machine from which to run it - try GRC.com and SpinRite. You'll need to move the dead drive to the other machine.
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm
- patrick Inhofer
If you have another Intel machine from which to run it - try GRC.com and SpinRite. You'll need to move the dead drive to the other machine.
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm
- patrick Inhofer
How are you unix skills? Cause you may be able to do some low level hackery dacker to recover data yourself. There'll be tutorials around.
A hackery but it's a reach.
Put your laptop drive in the machine you tried to read it from and have another partition or drive with enough room to take what might be there. It will get overwritten.
Not sure what OS X uses for device names but try something like this in a terminal:
dd if=/dev/laptopdrive of=/dev/recieverdrive
It will write the "if" to the "of" block for block ignoring file systems.
You may be able to read the reciever drive but as I said it's a reach.
Put your laptop drive in the machine you tried to read it from and have another partition or drive with enough room to take what might be there. It will get overwritten.
Not sure what OS X uses for device names but try something like this in a terminal:
dd if=/dev/laptopdrive of=/dev/recieverdrive
It will write the "if" to the "of" block for block ignoring file systems.
You may be able to read the reciever drive but as I said it's a reach.
dd is almost an hardware hack.
Data duplicate is an ancient unix tool. It copies block for block ignoring any file systems.
I'm not sure what 'target disc mode' is but often dd will get data from drives invisible to normal GUI tools.
Data duplicate is an ancient unix tool. It copies block for block ignoring any file systems.
I'm not sure what 'target disc mode' is but often dd will get data from drives invisible to normal GUI tools.
If the logic board is fried, and by the description of how the mac responded when Mike tried to boot it, no software will help.
Hi Mike,
Weird that nobody posted about Data Rescue II from Prosoft.
My GF's iBook HD went bad and I was able to recover all her important info, about 12GB worth. It might take a day or more to recover everything if the drive is really badly damaged but it has worked for me and is worth a try.
I was able to recover most files from a personal Raid 0 (in hardware) FW800 drive.
Well I hope this helps and that you get your files back.
JJ
Weird that nobody posted about Data Rescue II from Prosoft.
My GF's iBook HD went bad and I was able to recover all her important info, about 12GB worth. It might take a day or more to recover everything if the drive is really badly damaged but it has worked for me and is worth a try.
I was able to recover most files from a personal Raid 0 (in hardware) FW800 drive.
Well I hope this helps and that you get your files back.
JJ
Like JJ,
I've also used Data Rescue II. Had a lot of luck with it. (Unfortunately not for 10bit uncompressed quicktimes...)
Good luck!
Kurt A.
I've also used Data Rescue II. Had a lot of luck with it. (Unfortunately not for 10bit uncompressed quicktimes...)
Good luck!
Kurt A.
Mike, I had the same trouble about 4 months ago. My machine froze up so I restarted it and I guess it was reading / writing to the hard disk at the time, even though it had the symptoms of a freeze.
If target boot mode does not work, you have SERIOUS problems I'm afraid. I sent mine off to a data recovery firm. They were going to charge me about $300 to get the data off, which is a great price. What they normally do is replace the broken parts and get the drive up and running again. However, they said that what had happened was when the power went off, the drive head clunked down onto the disc, damaging it. They said it was unrepairable.
I lost all of my data and from then on, I've been using a free backup service called Mozy that automatically backs up folders you specify. I've also started using Google Docs to store my documents.
Mike, I really HOPE you don't have the same problems I did. I lost a lot of my work but luckily I didn't lose any of my clients' data.
Good luck.
P.S. Restoration software won't work if you can't mount it in target disk mode.
If target boot mode does not work, you have SERIOUS problems I'm afraid. I sent mine off to a data recovery firm. They were going to charge me about $300 to get the data off, which is a great price. What they normally do is replace the broken parts and get the drive up and running again. However, they said that what had happened was when the power went off, the drive head clunked down onto the disc, damaging it. They said it was unrepairable.
I lost all of my data and from then on, I've been using a free backup service called Mozy that automatically backs up folders you specify. I've also started using Google Docs to store my documents.
Mike, I really HOPE you don't have the same problems I did. I lost a lot of my work but luckily I didn't lose any of my clients' data.
Good luck.
P.S. Restoration software won't work if you can't mount it in target disk mode.
I'd also like to add that Apple replaced the drive for free. Of course, they were unable to replace my lost data :(
Quicktime 7.2 twice killed my working OS X. Some have reported success but I would recommend not to touch this version.
Hey, Mike. Move the drive to a friend's PC and run Spinrite from GRC.com It can recover just about any drive problem I've ever had... Tivo drives, too. Just needs to be removed and connected to the PC's HD controller. I've gotten drives completely recovered and usable, other times working long enough to get critical data off. Freezing the drive doesn't work with current drive technology... since they park themselves. Good-luck!!
- Aaron
- Aaron
I am not sure about recovery, but If you need files off of that drive you NEED to find someone with a LINUX system and mount the drive. This is usually a I/O Block/Indexing issue and there are some powerful repair scripts that run in a Linux shell to fix these types of problems. It is worth a shot. If you need the script let me know Mike. Your pre-production advice is going very well for me.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Hey Mike, before you spend another dime on utilities/services that may or may not work you need to try a free Knoppix LiveCD. You can download an English iso (~700 MB) from the mirrors site, burn it to CD (make sure to toggle the 'make bootable' option in your favorite burn utility), pop it into your CD drive and make sure the BIOS is set to boot from CD before the hd.
I'm not a MAC guy, but Knoppix is is the best Linux distro for troubleshooting hardware problems in Windows. Once you boot up, Knoppix should be able to mount your HFS volumes even if the drive is unbootable under OSX because Knoppix isn't booting the drive, it is just reading the journaled volumes.
From here it is very important to back up any data you have not already backed up. Knoppix should provide FW support so you should be able to move any files across a network once you mount those external files as well. Try to minimize the reads because you may only have a few spins left on the drive. At this point you will find out what if anything is corrupted because you will get read errors for the bad sectors. Hopefully, none of the data is corrupted just the system files :)
Once you finish backing up, there should be a Linux utility to fix the HFS partitions. For Windows the command is simply ntfsfix. After running this command, shut down and try booting up.
I recently corrupted on the NTFS volumes when my laptop went into standby with Adobe Premiere Pro up and running. The result was similar to your experience, nothing would come up not even the system recovery console. However, the above method did the trick!
Michael Del Papa
I'm not a MAC guy, but Knoppix is is the best Linux distro for troubleshooting hardware problems in Windows. Once you boot up, Knoppix should be able to mount your HFS volumes even if the drive is unbootable under OSX because Knoppix isn't booting the drive, it is just reading the journaled volumes.
From here it is very important to back up any data you have not already backed up. Knoppix should provide FW support so you should be able to move any files across a network once you mount those external files as well. Try to minimize the reads because you may only have a few spins left on the drive. At this point you will find out what if anything is corrupted because you will get read errors for the bad sectors. Hopefully, none of the data is corrupted just the system files :)
Once you finish backing up, there should be a Linux utility to fix the HFS partitions. For Windows the command is simply ntfsfix. After running this command, shut down and try booting up.
I recently corrupted on the NTFS volumes when my laptop went into standby with Adobe Premiere Pro up and running. The result was similar to your experience, nothing would come up not even the system recovery console. However, the above method did the trick!
Michael Del Papa
Just wanted to add that the HD did not mount in target disk mode but was accessible. If the partition is not mounted it does not mean the drive is not accessible by Data Rescue.
JJ
JJ
Michael Del Pappa OS X is really FreeBSD 5.x or so plus a Mach interpreter and Darwin window management.
It is a *nix and has most of the tools that go with that.
dd is the tool most data recovery services start with and that can end with electron microscopes.
Booting a Linux CD will give him very little he has not already or I would have suggested it.
Still input is good. How goes the battle Mike?
It is a *nix and has most of the tools that go with that.
dd is the tool most data recovery services start with and that can end with electron microscopes.
Booting a Linux CD will give him very little he has not already or I would have suggested it.
Still input is good. How goes the battle Mike?
hey
what about your regular backups?
carbon copy cloner or
superduper!
your regular use macbook hard drive cloned
to your external fire wire drive...
just pop a replacement hard drive into the macbook, and clone your system back to the new drive...
...
hate to sound like a school marm, but...
you do clone/back up your whole kit and kaboodle regularly, don't you?
i've had trashed drives, and it only takes one to make you into a believer in cloning....
what about your regular backups?
carbon copy cloner or
superduper!
your regular use macbook hard drive cloned
to your external fire wire drive...
just pop a replacement hard drive into the macbook, and clone your system back to the new drive...
...
hate to sound like a school marm, but...
you do clone/back up your whole kit and kaboodle regularly, don't you?
i've had trashed drives, and it only takes one to make you into a believer in cloning....
I recently had hard disk problems. The disk wouldn't mount, Disk Warrior couldn't do anything. In the end I managed to find a program that could 1. see the disk and 2. recover the data on it with the same file structure as the original... only 2 corrupted files in a 500 GB recovery. The program is Data Rescue by Prosoft Engineering be careful with recovery settings (one gives you garbage and the other gives you your files in the original file structure). Good luck
Thanks to all for all comments, advice duly appreciated.
Regrettably, neither Target Disk Mode nor direct attachment of drive allowed it to be seen by any utility under any circumstances, neither as a volume nor as a drive to be formatted - so no software of ANY sort can see it under any circumstances to fix it. It seems like a mechanical failure.
Regrettably, neither Target Disk Mode nor direct attachment of drive allowed it to be seen by any utility under any circumstances, neither as a volume nor as a drive to be formatted - so no software of ANY sort can see it under any circumstances to fix it. It seems like a mechanical failure.
b- honestly, as the Devil would have it, I was right smack in the middle of instituting a new backup regime - I'd bought a couple of 500GB drives to go in a server to hold disc images, I was partway through burning all my photos to DVD, etc. when this happened.
Dammit.
If it had held out another week or two, I'dve been perfectly up to date. But nooooOOOOOooo....
-mike
Dammit.
If it had held out another week or two, I'dve been perfectly up to date. But nooooOOOOOooo....
-mike
Sounds like a bad drive and nothing more - I get these with pretty new drives every now and then mostly on the cheaper business-class Dells I buy for my company. Based on rumors it wouldn't surprise me if Dell is selling B-stock drives or something.
In my experience it seems that if a drive is defective it will fail early on, otherwise it runs for a few years trouble-free before real wear-and-tear starts to creep in. I usually replace my drives after a few years to keep things fresh - the "used" drives become backup drives for the new and so on.
Laptop drives get cooked more too, so that might lead to a higher failure rate.
Years ago I lost a lot of crucial work while in the midst of backing it up - really. After that I've always been really careful to run nightly clones of all drives using Super Duper.
In my experience it seems that if a drive is defective it will fail early on, otherwise it runs for a few years trouble-free before real wear-and-tear starts to creep in. I usually replace my drives after a few years to keep things fresh - the "used" drives become backup drives for the new and so on.
Laptop drives get cooked more too, so that might lead to a higher failure rate.
Years ago I lost a lot of crucial work while in the midst of backing it up - really. After that I've always been really careful to run nightly clones of all drives using Super Duper.
Eric - yeah, I agree - there is what is known as the "bathtub" failure rate curve - a bunch fail early on, then there is a steady low rate of failure, then it picks up again - the beginning and end are the edge of the tub in that curve.
-mike
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-mike
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