Our first article for this blog is a discussion of data recovery. Actually, not just data recovery but Mac file recovery. Mac computers present a particular challenge when one needs to recover lost data from them. As with all data recovery issues we must first make certain that our problem is related to software and not hardware. If the hardware is at fault, i.e. a hard disk that has stopped spinning then obviously no technique or software program will remedy the situation. Here are a few tips to aid you in deciding your system status.
First if you are seeing a fatal error message or any Mac OS X messages chances are your hard disk is functional and just inaccessible.
If you hear endless repetitive clicks from your drive it is actually a sign that the drive still works but cannot find the partition.
Obviously if smoke comes out of your computer and the drive is not working the problem is hardware. If no sound whatsoever comes from the drive it can go either way, as a dead drive motor makes no noise. The best way to check this is to attempt Mac data recovery.