Mac Advice

[Jeffreynya]

So I got a call from someone with a older imac for data recovery. I generally don't do anything with Mac, but since we know the family I figured I would take a look. They are thinking the data is lost anyway. So I figured it was a good way to dig into Macs a bit since I have little to no experience.

Any advice on the best way to try and recover the data from the drive. I don't have another mac here to put it in either. So I will either need to hook it to windows or Linux if I have to.

 

[tstegart]

You can use Mac Drive to view the files easily and do some basic drive maintenance, but I'm not sure how you're going to repair them without a Mac. Maybe someone else has experience with that.

You might also want to check the model and serial number with Apple. They had a bad batch of Seagate drives in iMacs and if its on the list you can get your client a new drive.

 

[Jeffreynya]

ok, cool. will check that out. All I am really interested in is moving the data to a backup drive. After that if the Mac can be recovered cool, if not they are fine with that.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

You might also want to check the model and serial number with Apple. They had a bad batch of Seagate drives in iMacs and if its on the list you can get your client a new drive.

If manufactured between 10/09 and 07/11 is what the OP means as older?

 

[altrenda]

When you say older iMac, what does that mean? iMac covers a lot of ground, from G3's to last years model. Hard to help without knowing. You need to be more specific. Then we could recommend tools you can use.

pulling the hard drive from some of these gets a little complicated before you could use something like Macdrive or HFSExplorer on your windows machine. Unless it really is an older iMac using OS9. Then it's more difficult.

 

[Jeffreynya]

Its a later 2006 I mac. It looks like its file system is shot. The disk utility will not repair. tried to create a new image to see if I could backup that way. No go there either. its Running 10.6 now. There are not any backup utilities on the disk that I can see. It sees the drive fine so I think the disk may be ok.

Now I am just looking for a way to backup the drive without taking it all apart cause that does not look like it will be fun. Can I use a Linux Boot disk to move files to a external? Dis 10.7 Lion startup disk have utilities to backup data to a external drive?

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Its a later 2006 I mac. It looks like its file system is shot. The disk utility will not repair. tried to create a new image to see if I could backup that way. No go there either. its Running 10.6 now. There are not any backup utilities on the disk that I can see. It sees the drive fine so I think the disk may be ok.

Now I am just looking for a way to backup the drive without taking it all apart cause that does not look like it will be fun. Can I use a Linux Boot disk to move files to a external? Dis 10.7 Lion startup disk have utilities to backup data to a external drive?

Aren't sure why you feel like you had to double post this thread in two different columns? Does the machine boot? Do you have a 10.7 lion startup "disk" (reason I quoted disk is because 10.7 is a seperate bootable partition and not usually a disk unless created on usb)?

 

[Jeffreynya]

ya, sorry. Figured it would get more attention if I posted in the Mac section as well. Probably should have just done it there in the first place.

 

[thebige]

You can always try slaving the drive to a Linux box and running fsck from the terminal.

Edit: follow this little walk through for more info. Sorry just don't feel like typing out the steps from my phone

http://abhinay.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/repair-fix-mac-hfs-partition-using-ubuntu-cd/

 

[Jeffreynya]

I was actually able to user parted Magic to get all the data off to a external drive. Just need to let the client take a look and make sure everything is there before trying to get the thing up and running again.

Its getting the invalid catalog peof error. It will not reinstall off the main disks. User has Lion, so I am going to give that a shot and see how it goes.

 

[Jeffreynya]

After getting all the data off I did a drive test and got a read failure using gsmartcontrol. I am sure it would take me probably a couple hours to remove and replace the drive since I have never done it before. Looks like a real pain.

What would someone generally charge for a HD replacement and a reinstall of the OS in this type of Mac. I don't think its fair to charge the client for extra time that I take to research things, so I just want to be fair if that is the way they want to go.

 

[thebige]

I've replaced MANY Mac drives due to drive failures. The easiest thing I just replace the drive and reload the OS. The good news with Mac is that most software was downloaded from the App Store so just download it again. Then it is a simple replace user docs and settings. Now as for pricing I recommend not charging for the time spent on the learning curve. Just chalk that up to on the job training. Be fair and honest but don't under cut yourself. Trust me, whatever you charge is far cheaper than the Genius Bar or the squad.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

After getting all the data off I did a drive test and got a read failure using gsmartcontrol. I am sure it would take me probably a couple hours to remove and replace the drive since I have never done it before. Looks like a real pain.

What would someone generally charge for a HD replacement and a reinstall of the OS in this type of Mac. I don't think its fair to charge the client for extra time that I take to research things, so I just want to be fair if that is the way they want to go.

HD replacement is generally an hour. So whatever your hourly rate. A little late now, but I gathered from your post the machine booted to the 10.7 recovery partition but just not the startup volume. In the recovery partition there are several useful utilities. Disk Utility would have given you the option of creating a disk image of the drive or restoring the volume to another drive. If you are going to work on Macs, do some thorough research on everything disk utility can do.

 

[Jeffreynya]

Thats good advice and I will be taking every opportunity to research as much as I can on the utility and Macs in general. I have replace countless system-boards and drives on laptops and desktops so this should not be a issue here either. The I-mac just seems to be a little more of a PITA that most other PC's.

I still have the option to use the 10.7 disk. I just got the users data on a external so I can go in there and play around and see if I can get a image. I tried to create a new image with the disk utility on the 10.5 disks the user had but it failed. It also would not run a repair. So I look forward to seeing what 10.7 will do for me.