[SOLVED] Mac hdd replacement

@glennd
The better software based tool is ddrescue. Hopefully, the drive has very light damage. Though typically they don't as the ventilation in MAC's poor, causing overheating, heads deteriorate and spark a series of bad sectors errors, thrashing SMART. Careful how aggressive the imaging parameters are as the drive will crash causing platter damage and then it is game over.
It is best to use a hardware based imaging solution (expensive, I know) to maximize chances of recovery.

By the way, what is the drive model?

@computerbeing
What is a "raw data recovery tool?"
 
I agree with @labtech, be very careful not to push the drive too hard. MacBook drives tend to get abused more than Windows based laptop drives from being bumped around while powered on. They can quickly go from a few bad sectors to a fatal head crash in a very short period of time.

As was said, a hardware imager would be best for this task. Got a RapidSpar?
 
labtech said:
Though typically they don't as the ventilation in MAC's poor, causing overheating, heads deteriorate and spark a series of bad sectors errors, thrashing SMART.
Click to expand...
She mentioned something about cooking her breakfast...

I'll find out more today when the machine is delivered.

Markverhyden said:
No Time Machine backups?
Click to expand...

Is Time Machine an offline backup? I'll ask the customer when she arrives.

lcoughey said:
As was said, a hardware imager would be best for this task. Got a RapidSpar?
Click to expand...
I would so love to get one of these devices but the treasurer says we can't do it. I tried to argue about return on investment and new market opportunities and better outcomes for customers etc...
 
glennd said:
Is Time Machine an offline backup? I'll ask the customer when she arrives.
Click to expand...

Time Machine is Apple's built in backup software. You can get a full drive image or just recover files. But, just like any other backup app, it's dependent on the source. So backing up problem drives creates problem backups. But you have no way of knowing without trying. If they had TM running they would most likely have a local store such as a USB HD or Time Capsule. And you can boot into recovery mode to do a full image restore.
 
Markverhyden said:
Time Machine is Apple's built in backup software. You can get a full drive image or just recover files. But, just like any other backup app, it's dependent on the source. So backing up problem drives creates problem backups. But you have no way of knowing without trying. If they had TM running they would most likely have a local store such as a USB HD or Time Capsule. And you can boot into recovery mode to do a full image restore.
Click to expand...
ok, thanks. A little voice in the back of my head tells me they won't have any kind of a backup. I'll ask.
 
glennd said:
ok, thanks. A little voice in the back of my head tells me they won't have any kind of a backup. I'll ask.
Click to expand...

Yep. No different than than M$ users. Those that have it usually know about it and those that don't usually learn the hard way about how important backups are.
 
Slaters Kustum Machines said:
LOL, and some of us that do know better still take the risk, because I'll get to it later.........oh sh*t I just dropped my laptop.
Click to expand...

LOL!!! Ain't that the truth and it's not just computers. I had to replace my two week old iPhone today. Had never done a backup. Did one backup, and only one, just prior to the swap. Of course I stupidly reset the old iPhone before loading the backup to the new one. All kinds of problems with the restore, almost like starting from scratch.
 
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The Macbook arrived on my bench late yesterday. The customer gave me the full story which goes something like this: was running really hot and badly so she decided to reinstall via OS X utilities. She either selected by choice or was forced to use (can't remember) the option to erase the disk first. Then when she tried to reinstall OS X she was presented with the above SMART error screen and no way to get OS X on. She knows she erased everything and there's nothing to recover so now we just have the job of putting in a new hdd and getting OS X running.

So tell me if I have this right: the hdd has a recovery partition which will boot up, connect to Apple, download OS X and install it, then everything will be factory new. Is there a procedure for bringing the OS up to date or is it just something it does on it's own or will the download be the most up-to-date?

I plugged the old hdd into GSmartControl and there's lots of reallocated and pending sectors so the screen above wasn't lying. So right now I'm attempting an image with ddrescue which will go on the new hdd and then just boot to OS X utilities etc.
 
Beginning with 10.7 they created a recovery utility, much like the F11 on old HP's etc. At some point shortly after that I believe they implemented firmware option in the machines. So you could boot into recovery with a naked drive. Machines upgraded to 10.7 will only have the partition on the drive. If you can successfully image the old drive then recovery partition should be present and you can do a clean install of the OS.

By the way. You still might be able recover data. Initializing the drive does not erase the entire drive. Just writes a new MBR so the rest of the drive is untouched. A scan with R-Studio should tell you.
 
Markverhyden said:
Beginning with 10.7 they created a recovery utility, much like the F11 on old HP's etc. At some point shortly after that I believe they implemented firmware option in the machines. So you could boot into recovery with a naked drive. Machines upgraded to 10.7 will only have the partition on the drive. If you can successfully image the old drive then recovery partition should be present and you can do a clean install of the OS.

By the way. You still might be able recover data. Initializing the drive does not erase the entire drive. Just writes a new MBR so the rest of the drive is untouched. A scan with R-Studio should tell you.
Click to expand...
Nice! I just booted it without a hdd and it went straight into "internet recovery". It downloaded and ran the OS X Utilities program which now presents me with the option to Reinstall A New Copy Of OS X. So I can just throw in a new hdd and let it do it's thing.
 
If it starts giving you fits about "seeing" the drive, or errors out, check out the hard drive cable. Pulled my hair out on one of these once, until an easy fix of replacing it. Plus an SSD will make it seem like a new machine.
 
HFultzjr said:
Plus an SSD will make it seem like a new machine.
Click to expand...
I say this to clients almost everyday and it is bringing me a lot of work. I have been especially busy replacing drives on Mac Minis for business customers. Huge improvement for a little bit of work at a good price for me.
The thing that seals the deal is telling the customer that he gets the original drive in an external case as an instant backup. The cases cost me about $7.
 
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