My early 2009 macmini's harddrive died last nite and wondering what to do.Is there any way at all to get info off of drive? Is there a way to get mountain lion back on a new hard drive using restore cd with lion on it. Would it maybe be better to get a whole New Mac of some kind.Thanks in advance Sean.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Dead hard drive now what?
- Thread starter seanrichard
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Did you have a backup? When you say "died" in what way is it dead? Was it making strange sounds before becoming non-functional? Did it fail to power up one day.
New system or replace HD? That is a question only you can make. You can disassemble the mini and put a new drive in and that tends to be a LOT cheaper than a new system.
Retrieve data? That depends on how bad of death the mini suffered and how much you want to spend. There are companies who sole purpose is to recover data from dead drives but that cost a lot of $$$.
Good luck and take care,
My machine was getting slow the last few days and it froze last nite. When I restarted it all I get is power on light. When I put ear up to it I here what sounds like a small engine trying to start but puttering. If new harddrive all I have is access to restore cd with leopard on it mot shore where my snow leopard cd is. Is there a way to download mountain lion from leopard I do not believe leopard supports Mac App Store where I can access punches history for lion mountain lion and pages
Hard drive replacement is easy. My late 2009 mini has had four hard drives in it. Finally one of the plastic prongs is partially broken which makes no difference at all.
You can get the finest mechanical hard drive available for a mini, a Western Digital 750GB Scorpio Black, from Newegg for about one hundred dollars. Use OWC's instructions for replacment. The WD is a little more expensive at OWC.
If you haven't had a 7200 RPM HD in your mini you will find that it does make noticeable performance difference, not a much as with an SSD but 750GB for $100 is pretty nice.
Sounds good but how do I go about getting mountain lion back on a machine that came with leopard?
it all depends on what is wrong with the inside drive and if you have access to a second computer. i have opened a lot of 2009 machines pulled the drive and cloned it to another drive. what state are you in? i am in nj if you are close by i may be able to repair it and save all your data.
No wears near. Newbrunswick Canada. About a days drive at least
Can't find restore cd and have only one machine. "When it rains it pours"
Can't find restore cd and have only one machine. "When it rains it pours"
