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Zaurus · Feb 3, 2005, 09:38 AM

well
i left it turn on for 2 hrs , then after i came back from school
it freezes
so i restart
and i heard some weird sounds coming from lower left
so i think that's where the hard drive located
so i turn back on
nothing shows up
i can't even get into login screen
so i guess it dies

but all my data (university stuff) are in inside this hard drive
i can't afford to lose it

so i didn't format or do anything with it

is there anyway i can fix it?
i call Apple
they don't do on-site service
what can i do?
i need my assignment done by this week

i'm f**ked now

jedi2187 · Feb 3, 2005, 09:51 AM

What city are you located in? Is there a third-party Apple dealer you can take it to?

Zaurus · Feb 3, 2005, 10:34 AM

i'm living in Guelph, Ontario

the closest one is like 40km away
and i dun have a car
i'm only a student

i just want to get my data back so i can work on my assignment

brickcam · Feb 3, 2005, 01:19 PM

It may not be music to your ears, but EVERYONE suffers data loss.

Next time back up your data onto an external drive or a cd.

Phiber · Feb 3, 2005, 01:40 PM

Originally posted by brickcam:
It may not be music to your ears, but EVERYONE suffers data loss.

Next time back up your data onto an external drive or a cd.

I'm gonna have to second that.

nbn22385 · Feb 3, 2005, 02:32 PM

If you can get as far as the Apple boot screen, try using the Apple Hardware Test to repair your drive. Do this by putting in the disk, booting up while holding "c". Hope that helps.

polendo · Feb 3, 2005, 03:24 PM

I sincerely hope you have your work backed up.

polendo · Feb 3, 2005, 03:33 PM

sorry, double post (why I can't erase this message?)

Phiber · Feb 3, 2005, 03:42 PM

I don't know if this is true for the macs, but I had a PC laptop once that 'crashed' (read: Hit the floor and shattered) and I had to pull the hard-drive and use an adapter cable to hook it up to a tower and extract the data off the drive.

Maybe you could do something similar.

ghporter · Feb 3, 2005, 04:06 PM

Laptop hard drives are laptop hard drives. The only difference is what they're installed in and what's on 'em. You can indeed pull a drive from a failed iBook and install it in a USB or firewire external enclosure. But make sure the laptop really HAS failed before you go to all that trouble!

historylme · Feb 3, 2005, 04:12 PM

I feel for you... but its a priority rule, BACK UP, always.

It only happened to me once, but that was enough, I now back up everything. I love the mac for it's reliability but it's still a machine.

Zaurus · Feb 3, 2005, 04:30 PM

thanks for all the advices

my PC/Windows friends start making fun of iBook and my Mac now

they said i'm stupid
i should get a PC the first place

but anyhow
i dun care

does anyone knows a Linux Live CD runs on iBook?
so i can grab one and finish my assignment with gcc/make/python first
thanks

polendo · Feb 3, 2005, 04:31 PM

That is true.. you can pull the HD off from the iBook.. but the problem is indeed the iBook, which is really difficult to take out the hard disk. If you go that road, you might as well change it for something better.

Zaurus · Feb 3, 2005, 04:52 PM

the thing is i still have warranty

i bought it less than 9 months
and it dies

Apple really disappointed me this time

btw, anyone knows a Linux Live CD-ROM which runs on iBook G4 and able to mount HFS+ filesystem?

polendo · Feb 3, 2005, 05:14 PM

If you have warranty then its a piece of cake.. I guess your first and only worry would be to recover your data!

You might want to research something called Target Mode.. something like connecting your ibook to another working Mac and from that Mac seeing your ibook's hard disk and just drag the info to this other Mac.

Zaurus · Feb 4, 2005, 08:46 AM

Originally posted by polendo:
If you have warranty then its a piece of cake.. I guess your first and only worry would be to recover your data!

You might want to research something called Target Mode.. something like connecting your ibook to another working Mac and from that Mac seeing your ibook's hard disk and just drag the info to this other Mac.

yeah
i tried that
didn't work

man... i just want my data back

B Gallagher · Feb 5, 2005, 04:04 PM

Do you know anyone who's got a car, and could drive you to the nearest Apple tech shop? It may seem like a big ask, but if it's for assignments etc, it's worth doing.
Can't really suggest anything other than that, sorry.

I hope you get it sorted.

darcybaston · Feb 5, 2005, 05:01 PM

Apple may not do on-site calls in Ontario (I'm from Ontario), but you can send it in to them saying the hard drive failed and you need warranty work. They have no obligation to salvage your data though.

If the drive is dead, Apple can't salvage the data anyway, and neither could you using external enclosers, Linux boot CDs or whatever.