MacBook Pro not firing up.

MisterNick

My wife's laptop hangs on the daisy wheel with a bar underneath it.
it is outside warranty, and a bit of a trek to the shop. Also she uses it daily.
The call centre have said that they can repair it over the phone for £35 which I wil pay if I am confident the repair will last. My son thinks it is a hardware problem but I think this is more gut feel from what he has googled (he will probably be proved right)
There is also a small repairer locally who advertises as specialising in Apple products, but I have no feedback on them.

My question is, should I phone Apple or is there more I can do?

Would appreciate any advice. Thanks

scottishblondie

It sounds like a software problem. Do you have the operating system install discs?

MisterNick

Sorry I didn't respond to your reply Scottish Blondie

We took the laptop to the Apple shop and they confirmed it was the hard drive. They have now repaired it but say that they could not recover anything. There were some things on there that weren't backed up.
I have collected the hard drive. Is it worth spending more money to try to get the missing things back.
If so, where should I start looking for a good person/outfit to do the job.

Many thanks

MisterNick

i just wondered whether anybody had any ideas?

Many thanks

scottishblondie

Recovering data from a broken hard drive is expensive. I guess it comes down to how much the lost stuff means to you!

You should be able to find someone reputable online, but I don't have any personal recommendations.

BlueC

If its a hard drive failure you wouldn't normally get as far as the spinning wheel. First thing I would try is resetting the PRAM - from memory press and hold CMD SHIFT P and R all at the same time then swith the power on. It will power on, you'll hear the "pong" sound, keep all the keys pressed until it has rebooted 3 times (i.e. 3 pongs) then release the keys.

BlueC

Whoops it is CMD OPTION P and R. See here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

Lucero_2

BlueC wrote: »

Nobody has said the hard drive has failed so stop peddling your crap in here.

As you and I both know "data recovery" is one of the biggest swindles going. Just this week I recovered the entire contents of a hard drive completely for free that the apple shop had said would "costs thousands to recover" and a "recovery specialist" had quoted £500 minimum for. I've sent drives to recovery specialists before and I'm very aware of the tactics they/you employ to fleece people.

:huh:

I strongly suggest you watch your tone, and learn to read at the same time:

Sorry I didn't respond to your reply Scottish Blondie

We took the laptop to the Apple shop and they confirmed it was the hard drive.

So, no one mentioned the hard drive has failed??

Please, enlighten me to the "tactics" you think I use to fleece people when you know nothing about me or my company. I was going to offer to recover anything from the old drive for just the cost of postage if you must know, but please, continue......

BlueC

Whoops my bad, I clearly didn't read that! :P

Still I have no time for "data recovery" shops and if you're in the business then no doubt you know why just as well as I do. You may be different but I don't see why you'd spend time recovering someones data for free without anything in it for you.

To the OP - I'd first try to ascertain whether it is a physical drive failure or just a filesystem failure/corruption. Also I wouldn't believe too much what the apple shop said, they will just do whatever is quickest for them to get the computer working again... could well be there is nothing wrong with the drive. A cheap USB caddy for the drive would be useful to see if you can actually mount it, and if it is mountable but corrupt then something like Disk Warrior might recover it. If it won't mount or has mechanical failure then there are a few tricks to try but it gets complicated.

MisterNick

Sorry, I didn't mean to cause bad feeling.

I now realise my explanation was poor.

I can't remember Apples response, but the hard drive has been replaced, upon their recommendation. they also said that they could not recover the data, I didn't ask whether it could be recovered.

I am picking up the repaired laptop tomorrow with the old hard drive.

I am a bit out my depth with the terminology, i.e. PRAM and USB Caddy.

blue C - Assuming I can l get the hard disc up and running with the caddy, can I be talked through the process with disk warrior or should I leave it to others.

Lucero - thanks for the offer. If it could be recovered what would be the cost? The important loss was some photos.

I am prepared to pay, but I just feel I could be fleeced through my own naivety

Hope this doesn't sound ungrateful but I am just trying to establish the base line here.

Thanks again for taking the trouble to respond

Lucero_2

Basically, you can buy a 2.5" USB caddy from somewhere like ebuyer
http://www.ebuyer.com/125132-sumvision-usb2-0-black-caddy-for-upto-320gb-2-5-ide-drives-encl-bl-2-5usb

Slide your old MacBook Pro drive in to it and connect it to your now up and running MacBook Pro.

Be careful what drive Apple give you back, it might not be your original

At least confirm the speed and size with what you knew your MBP was, it will be written on the old drive.

Apple uses a different file format to PC so you'll Disk Warrior to set about recovering any lost info. It's a fairly simple task, it just doesn't offer all the ability of some more specialist software. If the drive is physically damaged, the platters can be fixed too but this is more complicated. In all honesty, it's unlikely this is the case.