Need assistance? I'm here to help!
Need assistance? I'm here to help!
Uncertain about the number of Mac users present, this might be a guess. A colleague asked me to fix his MacBook Pro (2011, 15") after its hard drive failed. Since his most recent backup is from several months ago, I decided to see what could be salvaged. I booted the machine using a DiskWarrior USB stick and went through the setup. It completed steps 1-4 smoothly, but on step 5 (finding directory data) it reported a speed reduction due to disk issues, accompanied by a specific error code. Not using DiskWarrior in over ten years, I had to check its details... apparently it logged errors around 1 million occurrences. I could hear the drive making loud noises recently, suggesting it was nearing the end. Given the drive’s condition, should I let DW continue running or replace it with a new HDD and install a fresh copy of Sierra? Also, remember to remind the owner to back up his machine more often. On another note, before starting DW, I attempted to create an image with dd in Terminal, but it didn’t work—just kept logging I/O errors, which led me to try DiskWarrior instead.
I usually rely on ddresuce, though it serves a similar purpose. It might take a week since it gradually attempts to retrieve the information. If you value the data, avoid making changes, or better yet, purchase a new drive.
He mentioned he might lose just a few pictures, but nothing major. I'll check the situation tomorrow. It's hard to tell if the drive is working because it isn't responding. Since he really wants his machine back, I think I'll fix it this morning—swap the drive, use another tower for a DD image, and save what I can, because diskutil doesn't understand the drive anymore.
ddrescue is designed for this purpose and displays progress updates.