Need computer drive recovery, please advise.

[TheArtist]

Nutshell

Computer (mac) crashed, literally on the floor.  Screen broke but would still light up.  Hooked it up to TV and everything came up so thought I would download to exterior hard drive and get new computer. Required wiping the memory of that hard drive in order to take info from the mac.  Thought that should be ok as I still had another backup drive.  Then realized the charger was not working for that was the corner that got "hit" and the computer died just as it was starting to download to backup drive.  So went and got a case for the computer drive to hook it up to a computer and download from there but did not work.  Checked my secondary back up drive to see if I could download it to a new computer only to discover that "backup was incomplete" and nothing was on it.  

So now have almost all of my photoshop work on a broken drive.  Sent it to one place and they said it would cost around $2,400-3,500 to get the info out.  Looks like it's going to take one of those surgical, clean room, mask wearing techniques to get the info.   I don't have that kind of money at the moment.

Anyone else know of a local place that could do the job for less?

[sgrizzle]

What was the problem accessing your primary hard drive in a new case? That still seems like best option. I can hook it up and give it a whirl.

No place in town does the clean room thing

[TheArtist]

What was the problem accessing your primary hard drive in a new case? That still seems like best option. I can hook it up and give it a whirl.

No place in town does the clean room thing

It wasn't being recognized.  Didn't exist so to speak.  Which seemed odd when it was in the computer and I plugged that up to the TV.  But took it to a place downtown and they said it didn't show up and it wouldn't show up on our computers in the case either.  And the place we mailed it to in Moore said that a couple of connections had fused or something.  So something could have happened while it was hooked up to the TV but just guessing.  Anyway what I am thinking of doing is once I get it shipped back just taking it to Best Buy and having them look at it and send it to their clean room if needed. I am actually going to go ahead and pay for it in a week or so once I get some more funds.  It's easily 30-40 thou worth of current work on it and I am losing money every week not being able to access that image data. 

[swake]

Nutshell

Computer (mac) crashed, literally on the floor.  Screen broke but would still light up.  Hooked it up to TV and everything came up so thought I would download to exterior hard drive and get new computer. Required wiping the memory of that hard drive in order to take info from the mac.  Thought that should be ok as I still had another backup drive.  Then realized the charger was not working for that was the corner that got "hit" and the computer died just as it was starting to download to backup drive.  So went and got a case for the computer drive to hook it up to a computer and download from there but did not work.  Checked my secondary back up drive to see if I could download it to a new computer only to discover that "backup was incomplete" and nothing was on it.  

So now have almost all of my photoshop work on a broken drive.  Sent it to one place and they said it would cost around $2,400-3,500 to get the info out.  Looks like it's going to take one of those surgical, clean room, mask wearing techniques to get the info.   I don't have that kind of money at the moment.

Anyone else know of a local place that could do the job for less?

If all you did was crack the screen and damage the Magsafe there's no reason the drive should be harmed. When you hooked up the drive to another mac does it show up in Finder? Have you tried the Apple store? I wouldn't think that a damaged screen and power supply would even be a reason to replace the entire machine.

[Ed W]

What about attaching a second display to the Mac? I admit knowing little about them, but if everything but the display works, you should be able to do diagnostics.

I'll try to ask some of the Mac guys at work. We no longer have an IT person right in the shop.

[TheArtist]

What about attaching a second display to the Mac? I admit knowing little about them, but if everything but the display works, you should be able to do diagnostics.

I'll try to ask some of the Mac guys at work. We no longer have an IT person right in the shop.

The power doesn't work anymore.

[TheArtist]

If all you did was crack the screen and damage the Magsafe there's no reason the drive should be harmed. When you hooked up the drive to another mac does it show up in Finder? Have you tried the Apple store? I wouldn't think that a damaged screen and power supply would even be a reason to replace the entire machine.

Yes it didn't make sense to me either. But I got a new mac and hooked it up to that and it didn't register and it didn't register with one of my other computers either.  Plus the guy downtown who put it on a diagnostic machine said it didn't register either.  My only guess is that perhaps when the power shut of mid download something must have happened.  Perhaps a short was what made it stop, or perhaps by stopping mid function something happened. I was all relieved when my "computer screen" and everything popped up on the TV when I hooked my mac to it so figured the drive was perfectly fine.  But then after it shut off and we hooked the drive up to the other computers,,,, nada.

[sgrizzle]

I would suggest Apple Store over Best Buy.

[Red Arrow]

I would suggest Apple Store over Best Buy.

That would require a trip to He!! Woodland Hills.  I'm not sure Artist is capable of going there.

[sgrizzle]

That would require a trip to He!! Woodland Hills.  I'm not sure Artist is capable of going there.

It could be a drive to Penn Square, I wouldn't trust Best Buy to take a computer out of the box.

[Red Arrow]

It could be a drive to Penn Square, I wouldn't trust Best Buy to take a computer out of the box.

In OKC?  I am not disagreeing with the evaluation of Best Buy.  Artist, could you be coerced into going to Woodland Hills?

[sgrizzle]

This place gave me a tote bag once.... so that's a recommendation, I guess:

http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/devices-supported/laptop-notebook-data-recovery/

[TheArtist]

Apple Store does seem like it would be the wiser choice.  I will hunt for my passport and make a trip out south.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

[saintnicster]

If all you did was crack the screen and damage the Magsafe there's no reason the drive should be harmed. When you hooked up the drive to another mac does it show up in Finder? Have you tried the Apple store? I wouldn't think that a damaged screen and power supply would even be a reason to replace the entire machine.

If the fall was enough to crack the screen/damage the mag safe, and it wasn't an Solid State/SSD drive, then you might have platter damage on the drive, making it a bit harder to recover.

Apple Store does seem like it would be the wiser choice.  I will hunt for my passport and make a trip out south.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Godspeed!

[Conan71]

If the fall was enough to crack the screen/damage the mag safe, and it wasn't an Solid State/SSD drive, then you might have platter damage on the drive, making it a bit harder to recover.
Godspeed!

Agreed.  Mine took a relatively easy blow a couple of years ago and that's what happened to mine.  Geek Rescue was able to recover my entire hard drive.  I think it was $300-$400.  Took a couple of days, but well worth the time and $$$.

Artist, did you talk to Geek Rescue yet?