MAC Failed HDD backup

[frase]

I have a mac here, havnt done backups on these before.

Issue is mac is not booting up goes to apple logo then shuts down, the disk utility has reported error which cannot be repaired.

So what is the best method for backing up files?

 

[Ben Bessett]

We see a lot of these types issues on a Mac... 9 times out of 10 you can pull the drive and mount it via USB to another Mac and navigate to the home folder where the data lives and copy it over. As long as the drive is mounting and not failing too bad, this method usually works fine.

 

[frase]

I dont have another Apple system though

 

[Ben Bessett]

Aww well then you need some software on your Windows machine that can translate the HFS format... HFS+ for Windows works good... I think it's like $20.. there might be some other software out there for free but I am not sure.

 

[HFultzjr]

You should be able to mount the drive in Parted Magic or similiar.
If it won't mount try ddrescue to .img then mount the .img
If data is important.....send out!

 

[Markverhyden]

Is this something that the customer is willing to spend some money on? Is the drive giving common signals we see with failing drives - spinning up and down, very hot, clicking, etc, etc? If so then stop and find someone who can handle data recovery on drives with firmware/hardware problems.

If it's a fishing exediton find out if they used File Vault. If they did you will have to have a bootable OS X volume to unlock the volume. What is the date of the original machine? Also, get a clear understanding of the data recovery needs.

Linux is wonderful and reliable. If you are not comfortable with *nix's I'd recommend using R-Studio. You can install a Windoze version in trial mode to scan the disk. It will let you see all filenames and extract a few files less than 64k in size. Once you are comfortable with the results you can buy and plug in a license to recover the data to another destination.

 

[frase]

I dont think the HDD has failed persay - It just wont boot into O/S as is corrupted I think. Has found errors on drive but cant repair. So am basically looking at backing up the users data before restoring via recovery. The system is an older macbook pro around 2011

 

[Markverhyden]

A 2011 MBP should have come with 10.7. So you should be able to boot into recovery mode, command + R, and install a clean copy of OS X on an attached USB drive. That will allow you to access the built in drive to recover files even if it has FV enabled.

 

[Pixelated Tech]

I had a file vault issue recently as @Markverhyden knows. The partitions needed to be rebuilt. I then sourced a cheap MBP with 10.7.5 off ebay and did the recovery with a USB dock. I have now used it 4 times and made my money back 5 times over.

 

[NviGate Systems]

For basic data transfers where no FileVault is enabled HFS Explorer has always served me well. Cross platform and free.

 

[labtech]

To rule out if the drive may show any signs of failure, may check its SMART attributes and perhaps run a short test to see if it scans reliably.

Making a clone/image is always recommended.

 

[lcoughey]

The steps for data recovery is in the resources section.

https://www.technibble.com/forums/resources/data-recovery-process.18/