Recovering hard drive data

[blainehof]

My niece has a Macbook that the hard drive has gone bad. She is replacing it but she wants to try and recover some photos and other data off the failed drive. I've heard of some software that allows this to be done but will there be a problem with trying to recover her data to my computer which is Windows7 OS based rather than Apple based?

[arsalan]

Data recovery from hard drive u should use disk doctor software.

[jaydeee]

Windows has couple applications to do recovery however it is mac so, I do not really know.

[profJim]

A web search using: macbook data recovery might help.
The safest way to work with a failing drive is to perform a full disk copy to a good drive, using a sector by sector copy method. Then you work on the good drive to try and recover as much as you can. You should use the bad disk as little as possible to minimize possibly killing the disk.

With the right software, you should be able to use your windows machine to copy the bad disk by booting to a bootable cd, dvd, or usb with disk copying software installed. There are professional data recovery experts, but this can cost several hundred dollars or much more. Catastrophic drive failures are rare, but if you have a solid data backup routine, you can help prevent losing irreplaceable data. There are many excellent data backup tutorials on the web that can teach the basics of how to properly backup your data using removable media and storing the backups so that you won't lose everything in the event of fire, theft or any other problem.

Good luck.

[Justin Rennex]

Another way is get yourself a linux boot disk and is a live disk, set the the bios to boot from optical drive, boot the image (depending on how old the machine is different linux distos may be required as ram is used as a suspended hard drive so you need to note how many gigs of ram you have or megabytes) once booted don't install to hdd. Look on desk top and entre the drive look for windows set up and find docs, pictures ect. Copy to externel drive. Try that if all else fails.

[petersmart]

My niece has a Macbook that the hard drive has gone bad. She is replacing it but she wants to try and recover some photos and other data off the failed drive. I've heard of some software that allows this to be done but will there be a problem with trying to recover her data to my computer which is Windows7 OS based rather than Apple based?

It may sound crazy but I have recovered all the data off a failed drive in the past by putting it in the FREEZER overnight!

Wrap the HDD in plastic, sealing it really well so that the only bits showing are the connectors and put in freezer overnight.

Next day quickly connect it up to your machine with another HDD ready to take the data.

Turn on the PC (or Mac) and pray!

But I can say that this method does work and has saved my data in the past - learning from my past mistakes I now multiply save all my important data!

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