Filed under: Hardware, Features, Troubleshooting
Data recovery: The option of last resort
There is no shortage of stories here on TUAW (and elsewhere) that extol the benefits of backing up your data. Apple even makes it ridiculously easy to do so -- with Mac OS X 10.5, Time Machine, a blank drive, and some spare time, you're set.
Nevertheless, despite your best efforts, there are unforeseen circumstances where you might need to utter those dreaded words: "I need to send this for data recovery." Perhaps your airplane landed in the Hudson river, and your waterlogged laptop was stuck with your luggage. Perhaps an external disk is suffering from a manufacturing defect. Perhaps your backup disk is the disk that failed.
Unfortunately, there is no way to sugar-coat this: Data recovery is a painful, patience-trying, and absurdly expensive process. But if it's the only way to recover mission-critical data, it could be your only option.
It was for me.
I had connected the drive to my AirPort Extreme base station, so I could share its contents between my iMac and my MacBook. I moved most of my movies, music, and client project files onto the drive. And for a few months, it was a perfect solution. (Cue dramatic music.)
Doing this, however, I was unwittingly walking the high-wire without a safety net.
One day, the disk wouldn't mount. Concerned, I shut it down, unplugged it from the base station, and plugged it in via USB to my iMac. It didn't mount there, either. The alarm bells in my mind started to go off. In a blog entry for that day, I wrote: "Poopie. Poopie poopie poopie."
After letting the drive cool off for a while, I attempted to mount the disk again. No dice. Disk Utility recognized that there was a physical disk connected to the computer, but no logical partitions on the disk. Disk Utility was unable to repair the problems on the disk, so I moved to DiskWarrior. DiskWarrior said the drive directory was "too damaged" to be repaired.
I blanched. I had no backup. I had no plan. All I had was a chunk of metal and plastic that I knew had my data on it, but was too damaged for me to get to. I needed professional help. So, I investigated data recovery options.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mentalsticks said 8:33AM on 1-22-2009
and that's a cool THREE page hits for the article! way to boost the ad revenue!
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Dave said 9:38AM on 1-22-2009
Well since mental went mental on us I just want to put this out there, because I feel that it needs to be said.
Robert, you have almost single-handedly restored the lost respect I had for TUAW. Your writing is a fantastic antithesis to the blathers of Bohon and (former) Sadun.
Please keep up the great work!
Cheers,
D.M.P.
mentalsticks said 8:35AM on 1-22-2009
btw let me just give away the ending so you don't need to visit all three pages: it worked, it cost him approx $1560 but he did lose some illegal downloads.
some people need three pages for that.
signing off from tuaw. i mean it this time.
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Michael Rose said 8:40AM on 1-22-2009
Sorry to lose you as a reader over two extra clicks. Best of luck in your future consumption of media, blogs and other information; I hope every other site on the Internet lives up to your high standards for excellence, grammar, decorum and proper conduct.
Jackass.
Luke H. said 8:41AM on 1-22-2009
Thanks! No way I was going to read that whole article :P
Luke H. said 8:44AM on 1-22-2009
(Just for those who couldn't tell... that was sarcasm. What's wrong with explaining it in detail? Many people (myself included) like the details. :P)
mentalsticks said 8:50AM on 1-22-2009
@Michael Rose:
Moron.
Michael Rose said 9:14AM on 1-22-2009
Liar.
You said you were leaving.
Will you please just go?
now4real954 said 10:25PM on 1-22-2009
oh my god...thank you Michael Rose...some people have alot of nerve to continue to be an ass and expect to be rewarded for it
if anyone is the MORON here it is YOU "mentalsticks"
you need to get a grip and move the f**k on...
TUAW has the most real and caring writers and staff...unlike the boring and stale Macworld.com...
Michael you rock...i love the new hires and the new articles coming from those writers...and Robert is a staple that i hope we never lose here on TUAW...
thanks again for being my number ONE RSS feed...and i wait with bells on for my Mail.app to show there is more to see from you guys...LOVE TUAW...and calling him an asshole was the best ever!!!
now4real954 said 10:27PM on 1-22-2009
edit: JACKASS...sorry your word was so much better than mine...peace
Nathan said 8:56AM on 1-22-2009
no backup?!?!
This is important data on a drive and there is no backup?
Seriously? Seriously?
I know it takes experiences like this to hit home to a lot of people (myself included), but when it happened to me I wasn't making a living off my data.
Data on a harddrive is not safe, 1 backup is minimum, diverse backups are key.
If you living depends on it, freaking backup. Spend the extra $150 and get a second local drive, THEN use JungleDisk, DropCopy, or your own offisite server and backup the critical stuff.
There are two types of drives in this world.
1) Those that have failed.
and
2) Those that will fail.
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Robert Palmer said 10:14AM on 1-22-2009
You're absolutely right -- it was a bonehead move. Trust me, I've had the last year to chastise myself about not keeping proper backups. Hopefully, by spotlighting my bonehead move, it might not happen to others. I'm happy to make an example out of myself (if not unwittingly).
Mike said 9:19AM on 1-22-2009
I hear that SpinRite can perform some miracles.
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lrtitze said 12:08PM on 1-22-2009
Check the comments attached to part 3 of this article for more comments related to SpinRite
Fountainhead said 6:58AM on 1-23-2009
The lesson here, as have also learned is DON'T BUY IOMEGA DRIVES. They are hopelessly poor and their customer service SUCKS. I had 3 drives fail consecutively, all within 8 months of purchase. If you go on the apple store reviews of Iomega drives, almost all the reviews say DON'T BUY IOMEGA DRIVES.
So, in case you had not clued up, DON'T BUY IOMEGA DRIVES.
PS. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING IOMEGA DRIVES.
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Gedeon said 9:18AM on 1-22-2009
Mental,
If you don't want to bother to read a story on TUAW then don't. Don't sit here and bitch about the format or slap the writer in the face by ruining the effort they put into writing it.
If you don't like the stuff here, then I suggest you start your own Apple blog.
Deal with it.
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KosherSalt said 9:23AM on 1-22-2009
I could help w/ MST3k.
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RobK said 10:20AM on 1-22-2009
DiskWarrior is NOT wonderful for most data recovery on disks with bad sectors. In my experience the BEST data recovery program for the MAC is the FREE gnu ddrescue program. (see http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html ).
Note -- there is another ddresecue program but is NOT nearly as good. You want GNU ddrescue.
You can install it via fink, or macports into Mac OS X. But for best results, you need to boot off another disk and use it from there. e.g And old clone of your system disk that you made via Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. (Or boot off a good Linux LiveCD that has gnu ddrescue such as SystemRescueCD).
ddrescue works at the sector level and does NOT care what filesystem you are using. It copies reads the bad sectors over and over again until it has read them properly and copies it to another disk. (This technique is also used by the more famous and more expensive Spinrite program. Spinrite costs is expensive. GNU ddrescue is free).
Spinrite tries to repair the disk in place; whereas, gnu ddrescue copies the data off to another disk. Personally, I prefer the gnu ddrescue approach.
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AndyR said 10:31AM on 1-22-2009
I can concur with DDrescue, I had moved my iTunes library to an external & just didn't get round to backing it up. Then my drive died & the thought of going through all my CDs and re-ripping them just bred fear in me.
Plus getting back what I'd bought from iTunes & eMusic just seemed a nightmare
So I tried DDrescue, it took about 6 days to recover but I got everything back.
Now I've got everything back I have bought another drive & have everything backed up
Jorn said 10:50AM on 1-22-2009
Thanks for the great article and the moral: Ugh, don't do what I did!
My experience is that any data recovery will be north of $1k plus all the time lost. So, ponder than one folks, when you just don't feel like spending the time and money on some simple backups. Like Robert said, TimeMachine is a decent, if mildly inflexible, option.
I'd also like to give a shout out to CrashPlan (see http://crashplan.com) It's offsite backups for the cheap/lazy. While it still has some quirks and is SORELY lacking in the ability to create sets (c'mon guys!), it's pretty damned effective. You can backup your data to your buddy's house, his to yours. Done. Nice.
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