How to Recover the Hard Disk on Your Macintosh
- 1). Prepare for the data recovery process by having an external hard drive available. Never trust a hard drive that has crashed without making a safety copy of all of your data. If you are short on space, start by copying your personal files stored in your "Home" folder within the "Users" folder. Next, copy the "Applications" folder and "System" files, if you still have free space on the external hard drive.
- 2). Boot your Mac in FireWire mode by holding down the "T" key after you hear the startup chime. Once the Y-shaped FireWire icon appears on the screen, release the key. Attach your Mac to a second Macintosh computer (either a laptop or desktop model) using a FireWire cable. If your hard drive is somewhat functional, it will mount on the desktop of the second Mac. When it appears, you can copy off any data to the drive on the second Mac or an external hard drive (USB or FireWire) attached to the second Mac.
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Data recovery can be a time-consuming ordeal.Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
Boot your Mac from the original OS installation disc. Once it's booted, click on the "Right Arrow" icon in the lower right corner of the initial window that appears to proceed to the next page. Pull down the "Utilities" menu at the top of the screen and select "DiskUtility." Highlight the internal drive in the left column and click the "First Aid" tab. Click on the "Repair Disk" button to begin the repair process. - 4). Deploy a more robust software solution if DiskUtility isn't able to mount the laptop's disk. Popular repair programs include TechTool, Drive Genius, Norton Utilities and DiskWarrior. You will have to install these programs on the second computer to attempt a repair on the laptop's drive. All of these applications have pros and cons, but any of them will do the job.
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Recovering your data is usually more of a headache than replacing the hard drive.Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
Contact a professional data recovery service if you are unable to recover your data using these methods. This is never an inexpensive option and should only be considered when the data is important enough to warrant spending hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of dollars to recover it.
