Dan, I've had very good luck with a program called "Data Rescue" which is available through this site --> http://www.prosofteng.com
I was using OS9 at the time, so don't have experience with the OSX version. Here is the approach that I, personally, would take if the machine can accommodate a second hard drive. Get another drive - cheap. I've been seeing 100 gig drives for around $100 dollars. If the machine can't accommodate anther internal drive, get a firewire drive and ignore the master/slave stuff below. If a firewire drive can be used as a startup, all the better. If it can't, you'll have to start up from the CD. Assuming internal installation is practical, configure the new drive as the master (default) and the old drive as the slave (usually by moving the jumper to the third position - it should be printed on the drive). Install the system on the new drive and see if the utility will recognize the old drive in the slave position. Might happen, might not. If it doesn't work that easily, I'd get and install "Data Rescue" on the new drive and go from there. Unless you have a physical failure of the old drive, that's very likely to be successful. The program cost $89, but I've known it to work in situations where the only other choice was to send the drive to a data recovery outfit and pay a lot of money. Than, after getting your files, reformat the old drive and designate it (or the firewire drive) as your backup so you don't get in this position again. There's some possibility that you'll still have to have the files recovered professionally. Good luck. Bill Holt > From: Dan Crutcher <dcrutcher at loumag.com> > Reply-To: macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu > Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 13:32:48 -0400 > To: macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu > Subject: MacGroup: Help! Data Recovery > > I can no longer access the hard drive on an eMac, with 10.3.3 > installed. It will not boot by itself (gives the blinking > folder/question mark). > > I can and will reinstall the system on this machine, but it has some > critical data that is not backed up that I would very much like to > recover if there is any way to do so -- and I'm willing to try just > about anything. > > Here is the current state of the machine: > > It will boot from the Restore and Install CD, but the neither the > Install program nor Disk Utility can find a volume on the internal hard > drive. Disk Utility does find the physical hard drive. > > Apple Hardware Test gives an "Error Detected" message when testing Mass > Storage. The error code is "2STF/2/3: MAC-10 ata-4 ? Master" > > Disk Warrior (3.0.2) also finds the hard drive, but not a volume. > Running its test gives the message "This hard drive does not have > built-in S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics." It can go no further because it does > not find any directories to rebuild. > > I have called Alsoft tech support, who confirms that D.W. can't do > anything unless it can find a volume. Their best guess is that the > partition map is munged. > > I have called Apple tech support, who says all I can do is reinstall > the system. They gave me the name of a data recovery company. > > I seem to recall that under similar circumstances on machines running > OS 9 I was able to recover some data files using Norton's recovery > utilities. I could, for instance, specify certain filetypes, and tell > Norton to find all files of that type. Usually, some of them were > recoverable. I do not have Norton's for OS X, nor do I know if it has > that capability. > > I am also wondering if there is any way to boot into Terminal or some > kind of command line that would let me type in some magical Unix > gobbledygook that would cure everything -- or at least let me recover a > few data files? > > I eagerly, and anxiously, await any and all responses. > > Dan > > > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > | be May 25. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> > | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup> > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be May 25. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>
