Hard drive recovery

[ShadowMind]

Hi. My Macbook has experienced some problems and no longer works. Apparently it is something with the motherboard. I am sending it in to Apple, but I had some files on it I wanted to get off before I sent it in. Is there any way to get these files off of the hard drive? Do I need to remove the hard drive and use an external device to connect it to my desktop computer? Does Apple look at the contents on my hard drive? The only reason I ask is because I have certain files that I wish to remain private.

Thanks.

 

[djinn]

You will need another Mac possibly to get those files off if the Drive was formated HFS+. I don't know if Linux would be able to help you.

Maybe if you have mac store around you could beg them without having to pay. Just say those files were critical or something.

 

[Niko]

Hi. My Macbook has experienced some problems and no longer works. Apparently it is something with the motherboard. I am sending it in to Apple, but I had some files on it I wanted to get off before I sent it in. Is there any way to get these files off of the hard drive? Do I need to remove the hard drive and use an external device to connect it to my desktop computer? Does Apple look at the contents on my hard drive? The only reason I ask is because I have certain files that I wish to remain private.

Thanks.

I think you would need another mac to do that. Also, the other mac must be compatible with your hard drive. I would suggest bringing it to an Apple store before you send it off.

 

[MacDude415]

I don't think I understand exactally what it is that you want. Do you want a copy of those files or do you just want them deleted so Apple won't see them?

 

[cowm007]

To answer your questions, assuming the hard drive isn't damaged, you can access the files in two ways. Easiest method is to hook up your computer to another computer capable of reading HFS+ partitions using a firewire cable. Then you enter "target disk mode" on your MacBook and it'll appear as a drive for you to work on.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

Option 2 is to remove the hard drive from the laptop and use an enclosure (2.5" SATA) to hook it up to another computer. You can find guides online to remove the MacBook drive. It's relatively easy.

Now, if the problem is a motherboard issue, Apple shouldn't need to take a look at your hard-drive really. They'll just run some diagnostics, switch it out, and then make sure it boots. But if you're really worried those methods will work. Just need to have a way to read the HFS+ type partitions.

 

[ShadowMind]

I don't think I understand exactally what it is that you want. Do you want a copy of those files or do you just want them deleted so Apple won't see them?

Basically I have both files I need to access and also files I don't want seen, including account numbers and financial information.