[kenazo]

In some bizarre circumstance my PB 12" just suffered a fall from the armchair. It seems that the hard drive has suffered but everything else seems ok. However, when I go to boot up it does the classic chic chich chachic over and over...I let it sit for an hour and it made it as far as the blue screen and that's it. Disk Utility can't repair it and Disk Warrior keeps crashing when I try to boot off it. I doubt they would help much anyway?

So how do I get my info off? Is the best way to pull the drive out get a convertor and hook it up to a desktop? Is there a guide somewhere that will show me how to pull the hdd out? Can I hook it up to my new generation iMac (use slave/master IDE cable somehow or what?)....

[f1000]

Try running the Hardware Test from your Boot DVD, and then post the results here.

[kenazo]

It gave me error code:

2STF/3/3:HTH-100 ata-6-Master

That might be a 25TF...I can't recognize my own handwriting :/

[f1000]

There's a chance that your IDE cable has simply come loose, but there's also a chance that your hard drive is broken. Either way, you'll have to open up your laptop to fix it.

Do a search in this forum for Target Disk mode, but if any of the above is true you're not going to have any luck with this approach. If the read/write heads are damaged, you might even corrupt your data further by trying to access it.

Opening up a PowerBook is tricky, but not impossible. Is your PB still under warranty? Do you have AppleCare?

[kenazo]

Target disk mode doesn't work, I tried that right away. It works for a few seconds and then it seems to freeze (the icon stops, no disc noise and doesn't mount).

If it was an IDE cable loose it probably wouldn't be able to start up part way and the chic chic sound wouldn't happen I think.

edit: whoops. No I'm not under warranty any longer I'm not worried about opening it up, I guess I'll just have to find a tutorial online. My only Mac is a new rev. iMac so I'm not sure if I'll be able to add the notebook drive (with an ide adaptor) to it? If not all I have otherwise is a Dell desktop.

[Crusoe]

Try the service manual, fairly well written and very well illustrated.

http://fileshare.eshop.bg/downloadsm...Book%20G4.html

or
http://fileshare.eshop.bg/index.php?what=search
and search for Powerbook

[kenazo]

Thanks I also found the pbfixit.com manual. I just need a Philips #0 screwdrive now as my swiss army knife doesn't quite fit those screws

So is it possible to somehow hook up the PB ata 100 drive as a secondary drive on my iMac G5? I know the iMac is an SATA...
What about booting the PB off network or something...how would I do that or is it too much to set up...

edit: oh another thought, can I boot up off my iMac hdd on my PB through firewire or ethernet?

[f1000]

Originally posted by kenazo:
If it was an IDE cable loose it probably wouldn't be able to start up part way and the chic chic sound wouldn't happen I think.

edit: whoops. No I'm not under warranty any longer I'm not worried about opening it up, I guess I'll just have to find a tutorial online. My only Mac is a new rev. iMac so I'm not sure if I'll be able to add the notebook drive (with an ide adaptor) to it? If not all I have otherwise is a Dell desktop.

Before you disassemble your PowerBook, buy a replacement hard drive and have it ready to be installed. You don't want to leave your PowerBook opened up longer than you need to.

When you finally do get around to disassembling your PB, check to see if the IDE cable is loose. If not, then go ahead and open up your new HD and replace the old one with it.

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=238496

I recommend that you stop trying to resurrect the broken drive. If you really want the data on it, you should send it to a drive recovery service. If the read/write heads are broken, they could scratch your data right off the platters.

[kenazo]

I've booted my iMac into TDM and then booted off that on my PB. The PB hdd didn't load up into my finder but it was recognized by DiskWarrior. I started up DW but it has frozen at Stage 4 I think

I guess I have to send the disc off to a data recovery place. Do you think any data recovery centre will be able to handle Mac hard drives? or are they going to be a pain about it

Edit: Out of curiousity f1000 how do the data recovery places get the data off without the same problems of scratching if the heads are bent?

[f1000]

As far as I know, they will open the hard drive in a clean room and reinstall the platters into a new chassis. Needless to say, the service is very expensive.

I assume that you don't have backups.

[kenazo]

Originally posted by f1000:
As far as I know, they will open the hard drive in a clean room and reinstall the platters into a new chassis. Needless to say, the service is very expensive.

I assume that you don't have backups.

Nothing recent enough. I moved over from an iBook a few months ago and I have backups from then. Of course I am working on my dissertation so you know I'd like to have the last month of my life back

[kenazo]

I just ran a few test and it is reporting that the Read Buffer and Write Buffer tests failed.

So is that a pretty dead sure indicator of damaged heads? If so I guess there definitely is nothing else I can do.

[f1000]

Originally posted by kenazo:
I just ran a few test and it is reporting that the Read Buffer and Write Buffer tests failed.

So is that a pretty dead sure indicator of damaged heads?

Sorry, but I can't answer that question due to the Peter Principle.

[kenazo]

Originally posted by f1000:
Sorry, but I can't answer that question due to the Peter Principle.

You mean you've reached your limit of knowledge? Anyone else then? I cancelled the test before the random read/write just in case

[macintologist]

When everything is working again, buy a USB flash drive of high capacity like 256MB+ and regularly back up your important documents such as your dissertation. I do that regularly and it helps me sleep at night

[kenazo]

Originally posted by macintologist:
When everything is working again, buy a USB flash drive of high capacity like 256MB+ and regularly back up your important documents such as your dissertation. I do that regularly and it helps me sleep at night

I used to do that with iDisk but then I let my .mac expire this year Oh well. I got a quote for �440 which seems to be the cheapest so far....I keep thinking I could have upgraded to the new gen PB's and then the hdd would have been saved

[milkmanchris]

Originally posted by kenazo:
I used to do that with iDisk but then I let my .mac expire this year Oh well. I got a quote for �440 which seems to be the cheapest so far....I keep thinking I could have upgraded to the new gen PB's and then the hdd would have been saved

If your at uni which i guess you are have you tried your campus comp services to see what they can do.

Failing that a geek in the comp science dept maybe of some help.

Stab in the dark i know but �440 is a hell of a lot of Stella

[kenazo]

Originally posted by milkmanchris:
If your at uni which i guess you are have you tried your campus comp services to see what they can do.

Failing that a geek in the comp science dept maybe of some help.

Stab in the dark i know but �440 is a hell of a lot of Stella

I know :*( I tryed CICS at the uni but they don't have any facilities or capability to do anything with physically damaged hard drives. They gave me the number of a place down south with a 20% discount but they wanted �630 + VAT. Seriously I've been quoted up to �1000 and I've phoned almost 10 places. The place for �440 with VAT seems the best price by far and it's a fixed rate (but if they can't recover the data they don't charge). http://www.disklabs.com/ for anyone that's interested. They seem really helpful...even when I called last night at 1am and woke the guy out of bed

[romeosc]

I know it not any help now, but when you do get up and running buy a 100 Gb ($60) drive and a $20 firewire case and use carbon cloner once a week to make a backup. I made 3 partitions and rotate backups!

I also have 1GB usb flash (picked up for $40) to keep daily backup of important files, and to be able to use on any computer!

[Andrew Stephens]

Originally posted by kenazo:
They seem really helpful...even when I called last night at 1am and woke the guy out of bed

Wtf

Was that REALLYnecessary? What were they going to do at that time of the morning?

[ryarber]

Do you have an iPod? If so, back up onto it.