MacBook Crashed.... onto the floor.

[Tarnisher]

My Mac Book decided to pull a Humpty Dumpty, and landed on its spine (see below for details).

I tried recovering files, but was unsuccessful, as described here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...4#post14386344

So I used the OSX DVD to open Disk Utility and erase the drive. Then I started reinstalling OSX.

It took several hours, but seemed to be making progress. Then it went black, made the startup chime, and displayed the Apple logo. Ten minutes later, it did that again. Then it did it again. After the 8th repetition of this, I turned it off.

What now? Should I go buy a new HD and install it? Or is there something else to try first?

Thanks!

Background Info:

My MacBook crashed- literally- onto the floor.

I picked it up and opened it and it made a lot of bad sounding mechanical noises.

I was able to drag windows around and minimize them, but it was very sluggish. When I clicked on an image on the desktop it opened up, but only after several minutes.

I restarted, but it just showed a logo and a spinning wheel for an hour.

I took it to the Genius Bar, and they said I should try using FireWire Target Mode to save files and then do a full erase of the hard drive, and reinstall everything. I have a Time Machine backup, but it's not recent, and I'd like to save pictures that aren't on it.

[ifallalot]

Someone said DiskWarrior in that thread you posted; we've had great luck with that at work

[w3stie]

Either take it to a shop, or do it yourself, but I think you're wasting your time re-installing things until you open it up and find out/fix what is broken. It may not be worth repairing.

[Chud]

+1 to finding out if there is any physical damage inside the case whether that be to the HD, optical, motherboard, etc... If you can get the computer to boot up in target mode and pull everything off the internal drive that way then that's definitely a lucky break considering the only two pieces with moving parts that would make those ugly noises are the HD and the optical. Maybe the disc will have just enough spin left to get it done. Good luck!

[getbent]

you are in luck! you have been using time machine on a regular basis.. take it to your local apple store, have them service it and restore from last night's time machine back up.

[Tarnisher]

I've given up on recovering data- I do have a Time Machine Backup, but there were some pics I imported that aren't on it. Not worth the money to recover, though.

My problem now is that reinstalling OSX didn't work.

Oh, and when I took it to the Genius Bar, they did open it up and couldn't find anything visibly wrong. They successfully booted it up with an external HD, so they think the HD is probably the problem.

I'm thinking I will have to buy and install a new HD, but before I do that, I thought I'd see if any of you Geniuses had any other ideas.

[caferacer]

bad noise is a sign of a damaged hard drive
I would replace the drive and go from there

[Duncas]

take it to a pro. usually the genius guys are really good. apple support isnt toooo bad aswel.

[esetter]

Do you have Apple Care coverage?

[Buckocaster51]

Originally Posted by Tarnisher

My Mac Book decided to pull a Humpty Dumpty, and landed on its spine (see below for details).

I tried recovering files, but was unsuccessful, as described here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...4#post14386344

So I used the OSX DVD to open Disk Utility and erase the drive. Then I started reinstalling OSX.

It took several hours, but seemed to be making progress. Then it went black, made the startup chime, and displayed the Apple logo. Ten minutes later, it did that again. Then it did it again. After the 8th repetition of this, I turned it off.

What now? Should I go buy a new HD and install it? Or is there something else to try first?

Thanks!

Background Info:

My MacBook crashed- literally- onto the floor.

I picked it up and opened it and it made a lot of bad sounding mechanical noises.

I was able to drag windows around and minimize them, but it was very sluggish. When I clicked on an image on the desktop it opened up, but only after several minutes.

I restarted, but it just showed a logo and a spinning wheel for an hour.

I took it to the Genius Bar, and they said I should try using FireWire Target Mode to save files and then do a full erase of the hard drive, and reinstall everything. I have a Time Machine backup, but it's not recent, and I'd like to save pictures that aren't on it.

Didn't erasing the HD toast any chance of file recovery?

[getbent]

nope. you are done... get a hard drive and install..

[mattdean4130]

Originally Posted by ifallalot

Someone said DiskWarrior in that thread you posted; we've had great luck with that at work

Diskwarrior will do nothing for a physically damaged drive. It only repairs filesystem errors.

If you dropped it while it was running, chances are the platter has brushed the disk surface (making it almost impossible to recover the data)
The more you do to it the less chance you have.
Being that you've erased and re-installed your chances for recovery are pretty slim, but you should have it checked out by a shop.

There are a lot of other mechanical parts in a macbook, the most important being fans. If you've dislodged something and a fan is not working efficiently you can destroy your processor (which means logic board replacement) pretty quickly.

Hopefully, you'll get lucky and just have to replace the hard disk - but i'd say it's slim chances of getting your data too. I would really recommend getting it checked out though, because Apple hardware is pretty compact, and can have lower tolerances than other brands - meaning something moving a couple of milimetres can cause big problems.

How do i know this, i was an Apple Certified tech for about 5 years

[mattdean4130]

Well i just read up on the thread a little more, and if it boots from an external hard drive then you have your answer.
But you already had it after seeing the genius bar, i'm not sure why you would seek a second opinion from a guitar forum?

[dragonfly66]

Originally Posted by Tarnisher

I've given up on recovering data- I do have a Time Machine Backup, but there were some pics I imported that aren't on it. Not worth the money to recover, though.

My problem now is that reinstalling OSX didn't work.

Oh, and when I took it to the Genius Bar, they did open it up and couldn't find anything visibly wrong. They successfully booted it up with an external HD, so they think the HD is probably the problem.

I'm thinking I will have to buy and install a new HD, but before I do that, I thought I'd see if any of you Geniuses had any other ideas.

If the genius bar told you it is the hard drive it is probably the hard drive. Hard drives are cheap and easy to install. Usually the genius bar staff will run a diagnostic in addition to checking out the physical hardware. Get a harddrive and an external harddrive the same size and SuperDuper back up software.

[imwjl]

A physically damaged drive is never good but neither are the MacDummies who don't know to take a Mac drive and put it in a system to run SpinRite. I've found an occasional "Genius" who knows of SpinRite and looking at a drive below the OS but most don't. If you're in a situation with high penalty for failure you want to do that before running Disk Warrior or similar.

It can be a bummer but SpinRite can also confirm why another utility may not get you anywhere if it cant do enough with the drive.

Time Machine should get you there but I've had a few times when it didn't and being able to use the transfer utility was nice.

I hope it works out regardless. Good luck!

[getbent]

Originally Posted by Buckocaster51

Didn't erasing the HD toast any chance of file recovery?

not if you really really want the files... it is pretty remarkable what can be recovered after a new format...

[younkint]

Originally Posted by esetter

Do you have Apple Care coverage?

This is damage, not a manufacturers defect. Not covered. Kind of like flushing your iPhone down the toilet ...they just aren't going to cover that.




.

[Tarnisher]

Thanks, everyone. Guess I'll go ahead and order a new HD.

Originally Posted by mattdean4130

Well i just read up on the thread a little more, and if it boots from an external hard drive then you have your answer.
But you already had it after seeing the genius bar, i'm not sure why you would seek a second opinion from a guitar forum?

Because you guys always have so much fun writing replies like these!


And because TDPRI is just the best forum on the web of any kind, and I've received excellent computer advice here before. In this case, I didn't expect much, but my ignorance is vast, so I thought I would just see if there was something I didn't know about.

[simonc]

Originally Posted by mattdean4130

Diskwarrior will do nothing for a physically damaged drive. It only repairs filesystem errors.

If you dropped it while it was running, chances are the platter has brushed the disk surface (making it almost impossible to recover the data)
The more you do to it the less chance you have.
Being that you've erased and re-installed your chances for recovery are pretty slim, but you should have it checked out by a shop.

There are a lot of other mechanical parts in a macbook, the most important being fans. If you've dislodged something and a fan is not working efficiently you can destroy your processor (which means logic board replacement) pretty quickly.

Hopefully, you'll get lucky and just have to replace the hard disk - but i'd say it's slim chances of getting your data too. I would really recommend getting it checked out though, because Apple hardware is pretty compact, and can have lower tolerances than other brands - meaning something moving a couple of milimetres can cause big problems.

How do i know this, i was an Apple Certified tech for about 5 years

platter brushed the disk surface? do you mean read / write head?