Hard drive dilemma

[bartelby]

I have a Powerbook with a sick HD. The PB won't start up from the HD and Disk Utility says it cannot be repaired. fsck says the same.
I, stupidly, have non backed up files on there.

Would I still be able to target disk the HD to recover files?

Cheers for any advice


EDIT: I guess I should add the dilemma

Do I:
A) just go a head and do an erase and install and sod the files
B) get a new HD and hope I can access the old HD from and enclosure
C) get a new HD and bin the old one?

 

[JAT]

B.

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, I find the best way to access a failing hard drive is to boot form another system and access it from there. Otherwise you're using the drive to both run the system + access your files, which is far more demanding than simply using the drive to access your files. Good luck.

 

[bartelby]

Cheers guys.

 

[deadpixels]

if you really need your files these guys can help you but i'm sure they're expensive

 

[exoriare]

Do you know for sure that your HD is sick rather than just the software on it? There are software problems that Disk Utility can't fix and I wouldn't abandon the drive (or the files) until I'd tried something like DiskWarrior first.

If you think that the HD really is sick then option A will not do you much good. But if it's a software and not a hardware problem then I'd see if I could find a software solution.

 

[bartelby]

Do you know for sure that your HD is sick rather than just the software on it? There are software problems that Disk Utility can't fix and I wouldn't abandon the drive (or the files) until I'd tried something like DiskWarrior first.

If you think that the HD really is sick then option A will not do you much good. But if it's a software and not a hardware problem then I'd see if I could find a software solution.

The drive was clicking and hanging when launching apps and now it won't start up from the drive.

I think it's a case of knackered blocks where the OS is sited. So Disk Utility can't repair it as is, but an Erase and Install would work around it.