View Full Version : MacBook- Broken Hard Drive

Jan 12, 2009, 12:32 PM
Hey everyone. I started up My MacBook and after awhile of it just sitting there, I noticed a faint clicking, which I knew to be the sound of a dead or dying hard drive, so I turned it off. Is there any way I can get my files off without resorting to spending hundreds of dollars on professional recovery? I'm a student and I just can't afford it.

Unfortunately, my backup hard drive was recently stolen with almost all of my files backed up, so I can't rely on that. And these files were pictures from when I was younger, music that I had been making, my art portfolio. In other words, priceless stuff that I was going to back up again when I could afford to buy and new external drive.

I've read that freezing a hard drive is very helpful to get it to start up for a few minutes, but since this is a laptop, freezing the hard drive alone isn't going to be possible. Would it be a bad idea to freeze the computer?

Will it damage the hard drive more if I try to start it up and see if I can copy the files off? I know different failures have different sounds... this one is a faint clicking sound that happens every few seconds.

Thanks everyone :o.

Jan 12, 2009, 12:41 PM
If the hard drive is dead, then the only way is through a professional recovery company.

Yes, freezing the computer would be a bad idea, more so because of condensation than the actual temperature.

Unless the drive physically crashed (the read head broke and is no laying on the platters) no physical harm can come from trying to read it.