Go Back   IceInSpace > General Astronomy > General Chat

Reply
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread
  #1  
Old 16-02-2015, 08:48 AM
graham.hobart's Avatar
graham.hobart (Graham stevens)
DeepSkySlacker

graham.hobart is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: hobart, tasmania
Posts: 2,214
hard drive died

My MacBook pro- two years old has died with no response at all when trying to turn it on. Apart from losing last 100 days of data- (since last back up) am miffed as was expensive. Going back to apple but apologies to anyone who emails me on home account and I don't reply.
Bloody puters.
Graham
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 16-02-2015, 09:25 AM
jenchris's Avatar
jenchris (Jennifer)
Registered User

jenchris is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Ormeau Gold Coast
Posts: 2,067
That's an unusual occurrence.
I am amazed how well hdds last in general.
I have one I've been using in my old tower that's about 6 years old.
And I didn't turn it off at all for two years of that time.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 16-02-2015, 09:45 AM
graham.hobart's Avatar
graham.hobart (Graham stevens)
DeepSkySlacker

graham.hobart is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: hobart, tasmania
Posts: 2,214
Hdd rip

I'm hoping it can be repaired but am not banking on it.
We'll see what the Apple shop says.
Lots of family photos and astro photos. Baah!
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 16-02-2015, 02:24 PM
PCH's Avatar
PCH (Paul)
Registered User

PCH is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Perth WA
Posts: 2,296
Hi Graham,

I know it's a bit late now, but for stuff as important as your family and holiday pics, as well as other important stuff, you really should have a backup plan.

After reading about someone else's similar incident on here quite some time back, I decided my data was too good to just 'lose'.

So I bought an actual proper fully functional backup program called 'Shadow Protect' for about $100. It does auto backups once intitially, and then every half hour or whatever you decide while the PC is on.

I have it backing up to a QNAP (that's the brand) NAS (that's a network address server - I think!), that's like a central storage unit that you can configure in a number of ways. Mine has just two 2GB drives that are configured as mirror images. If one of the NAS drives fails, I just put another in and the system rebuilds itself.

So my data is backed up, and then mirrored. So hopefully there'll never come a time when I can't recover my data.

The cost of the NAS was about $600, so that all up cost wasn't cheap. But how much do you value your data?

Just my 2c
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 16-02-2015, 02:44 PM
04Stefan07 (Stefan)
Make it so! - Capt.Picard

04Stefan07 is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 1,982
Apple probably won't do much.

A few questions:
- Does the hard drive spin at all?
- If so does it make any noise?
- If you really need the data on there you may need to take it to a professional place that can recover the data (very expensive though!)

Go for an SSD mate. Fast, reliable and very cheap these days!

Any help or questions just PM me.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 16-02-2015, 07:59 PM
OICURMT's Avatar
OICURMT
Oh, I See You Are Empty!

OICURMT is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Laramie, WY - United States of America
Posts: 1,543
Quote:
Originally Posted by PCH View Post
I have it backing up to a QNAP (that's the brand) NAS (that's a network address server - I think!), that's like a central storage unit that you can configure in a number of ways. Mine has just two 2GB drives that are configured as mirror images. If one of the NAS drives fails, I just put another in and the system rebuilds itself.
Network Attached Storage

I have an RN10400 running two volumes of RAID1.

1st volume is for media (3Tb)
2nd volume for persinal data (1.5Tb)

Having a full redundancy is essential. Also, I backup quarterly and store the backup HDD's in a fireproof safe.

OIC!
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 16-02-2015, 08:59 PM
Renato1 (Renato)
Registered User

Renato1 is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Frankston South
Posts: 1,262
Sounds more like your motherboard or power switch or power supply died, all of which should be fixable.

If not, there are plenty of cheap utility devices on Ebay for getting stuff off working hard drives after the computer has stuffed up and can't be repaired.

If the hard drive has actually failed, it can still be recovered, but it is a lot more expensive as one has to get some lab do it.
Regards,
Renato
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 16-02-2015, 10:56 PM
Steffen's Avatar
Steffen
Ebotec Alpeht Sicamb

Steffen is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Toongabbie, NSW
Posts: 1,965
If the MacBook is not turning on without any response at all it's not the HDD/SSD that has failed. I'm sure Apple can fix whatever is wrong with it. The solution may be as simple as resetting the system management controller (SMC). If that should be the case, you can try it yourself:
  1. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
  2. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
  3. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
  4. Press the power button to turn on the computer.
A scare like that should be all it takes to set up a TimeMachine backup

Cheers
Steffen.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 17-02-2015, 08:01 AM
graham.hobart's Avatar
graham.hobart (Graham stevens)
DeepSkySlacker

graham.hobart is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: hobart, tasmania
Posts: 2,214
HDd

Hi Steffen- tried that. Didn't work.
It makes a very brief < 0.3sec whine then nothing. The white light light at the front flashes once briefly then goes out. So back to the shop.I did a time machine back up but not a recent one- hoping that has my copies of pixinsight and PS 5 on it!!
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 17-02-2015, 09:50 AM
julianh72 (Julian)
Registered User

julianh72 is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Kelvin Grove
Posts: 1,300
One thing that always worries me when people talk about backing up onto an external hard drive which sits at home (usually on the desk next to the computer):

What happens if the back-up drive is lost in the same event that takes out the main computer? (E.g. both are destroyed in a fire, or stolen in a break-in.)

I'll let you decide for yourself whether you trust the various free / low-cost Cloud storage services, but my strategy is that I use Google Drive and DropBox as my "working" folders for any important data, including family photographs, legal documents, etc. I then back up my main computer's hard drive (including my Google Drive / DropBox folders) onto a portable back-up drive.

Advantages for me:
  • Both my Google and DropBox accounts are free. I have access to other free Cloud storage services as well (e.g. Microsoft, Norton, etc), but two is enough for my daily needs. Having two "live" Cloud accounts gives me redundancy, and would makes it easy for me to drop one and migrate fully to the other if either is compromised, or wants to change the Ts & Cs to something that I consider to be unreasonable, or start charging me a monthly fee.
  • All of my data is available on all of my devices, whenever / wherever I want to access it. I can even access it from a colleague's or friend's computer, or a public computer (such as an internet cafe or public library).
  • If my back-up drive is damaged or lost, all my data is in "the Cloud".
  • Even if my Google / DropBox accounts ever got hacked, I have my own back-up drive.

I'm not too worried about hackers getting access to copies of my family photos etc, but you obviously need to be careful about how and where you store any information that could be used for "identity theft", access to credit card accounts, etc.
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 17-02-2015, 10:07 AM
BPO's Avatar
BPO
Registered User

BPO is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 386
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renato1 View Post
If the hard drive has actually failed, it can still be recovered, but it is a lot more expensive as one has to get some lab do it.
Or there's the freezer method, which works as often as it doesn't with mechanical drives, and is therefore worth trying. (Unless the OP no longer has the drive.)

For those who aren't familiar with this ancient trick, you first seal the HDD in a plastic bag and place both in a freezer for a while (overnight is good). Once frozen, connect to a PC and boot from CD/DVD/USB into a disc imaging application, such as Acronis True Image or similar... You may get lucky and the drive will live again just long enough to get a complete image of the contents. If so, you can throw away the drive. If not, you can throw away the drive...

Over the years, my success rate would be around 50% with this method.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 17-02-2015, 10:35 AM
Exfso's Avatar
Exfso (Peter)
Registered User

Exfso is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 1,699
I thought Macs were a total sealed unit so people cannot muck around with them. This being the case not a real good idea to pop the whole computer in the freezer I have tried doing just the hard drive as mentioned, but for me at least it did not work unfortunately.
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 17-02-2015, 10:53 AM
Renato1 (Renato)
Registered User

Renato1 is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Frankston South
Posts: 1,262
Quote:
Originally Posted by BPO View Post
Or there's the freezer method, which works as often as it doesn't with mechanical drives, and is therefore worth trying. (Unless the OP no longer has the drive.)

For those who aren't familiar with this ancient trick, you first seal the HDD in a plastic bag and place both in a freezer for a while (overnight is good). Once frozen, connect to a PC and boot from CD/DVD/USB into a disc imaging application, such as Acronis True Image or similar... You may get lucky and the drive will live again just long enough to get a complete image of the contents. If so, you can throw away the drive. If not, you can throw away the drive...

Over the years, my success rate would be around 50% with this method.
That's interesting thanks, I hadn't heard of that.

Though Acronis takes a while to make an image and I'd be worried that the drive would fail during the process. I'd be tempted to use my Ebay drive gadgets and another computer to try copy My Documents, my downloads and Outlook PST file quickly from the dud drive in the first instance, before trying for a complete image in the manner you suggested. Then if the image didn't get made in time, I could always reinstall an old image on a new drive, and transfer the My Documents, downloads and PST file across to the new drive.
Cheers,
Renato
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 17-02-2015, 10:59 AM
BPO's Avatar
BPO
Registered User

BPO is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 386
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renato1 View Post
Though Acronis takes a while to make an image and I'd be worried that the drive would fail during the process.
Yes, that can happen. Very irritating, but the drive is toast anyway.



Quote:
I'd be tempted to use my Ebay drive gadgets and another computer to try copy My Documents, my downloads and Outlook PST file quickly from the dud drive in the first instance, before trying for a complete image in the manner you suggested. Then if the image didn't get made in time, I could always reinstall an old image on a new drive, and transfer the My Documents, downloads and PST file across to the new drive.
It's usually a one-shot deal when it works at all, so if you don't need all the data and know exactly where to find the stuff you need then I'd do it your way, skip imaging and just copy and paste as fast as you can.

It doesn't always work -- I know guys who have tried it with multiple failed drives and never had any success at all -- so don't go getting your hopes up, but it can and does work often enough to be worth the small amount of effort: As always, the question is "How much is the data worth to you?"
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 17-02-2015, 01:21 PM
Camelopardalis's Avatar
Camelopardalis (Dunk)
Drifting from the pole

Camelopardalis is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 5,425
I don't work for Apple, but doesn't sound like HDD. If the HDD was dead, you'd still get the White screen at startup and it asking you to select a boot volume (or a folder with a question mark if it can't find any). Sounds more power/logic board related. Hope you bought Apple care with it...
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Old 02-03-2015, 11:38 PM
malau (David)
Registered User

malau is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Sydney
Posts: 206
Lets assume is the motherboard (non harddisk issue), if you can manage to open your macbook (there are some video tutorial on youtube) , you can take the harddisk out, get a external USB connector , plug it to other mac and you can retrieve the data like normal external harddisk.

Did you speak to apple which part is faulty?
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 03-03-2015, 07:59 AM
graham.hobart's Avatar
graham.hobart (Graham stevens)
DeepSkySlacker

graham.hobart is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: hobart, tasmania
Posts: 2,214
hard drive

Havent had a chance to take it into apple yet- works keeping away from the CBD till next week at the earliest..
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 03-03-2015, 02:49 PM
Wavytone
Registered User

Wavytone is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Killara, Sydney
Posts: 4,147
Graham, as a fellow Mac user... you really should be using a backup - Time Machine works perfectly well and when you consider what a lifetime of photos is worth to you... it's a trivial price to pay for peace of mind.

You will need a Time Capsule or external USB HDD, with capacity rather larger than the drive your MacBook.

Good luck with the repair. From your description it may not be the HDD that has failed. While you are at it... take a look at the current crop running on SSD or fusion drives ... Yosemite is seriously quick. Even if your MBP is a few years old upgrading to an SSD will make it fly like its on steroids.

FWIW my 2010 iMac is a joy to use compared to Windows on anything.
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 04-03-2015, 12:06 PM
graham.hobart's Avatar
graham.hobart (Graham stevens)
DeepSkySlacker

graham.hobart is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: hobart, tasmania
Posts: 2,214
hard drive died

Hi Wavy tone
Was using Time Machine and had backed up 100 days ago but not recent!
As a matter of detail, apparently trying to access the time machine old back ups from another machine will basically wipe the stuff old the old machine and replace it with the new data. I asked at the Mac shop as I have an old iMac but this has got me concerned about losing that data as well ..and so it goes..
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 04-03-2015, 01:02 PM
tlgerdes's Avatar
tlgerdes (Trevor)
Love the moonless nights!

tlgerdes is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Sydney
Posts: 2,284
Quote:
Originally Posted by julianh72 View Post
One thing that always worries me when people talk about backing up onto an external hard drive which sits at home (usually on the desk next to the computer):

What happens if the back-up drive is lost in the same event that takes out the main computer? (E.g. both are destroyed in a fire, or stolen in a break-in.
That's why my backup is in a building (shed) separate to my house across 10m of open ground. Not perfect, but suitable to the risk level.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +10. The time is now 04:06 AM.

Powered by vBulletin Version 3.8.7 | Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Advertisement
Testar
Advertisement
Bintel
Advertisement