Hard Drive Troubleshooting

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers. This week readers wrote in asking questions about the options for OS X 10.7 Lion recovery discs, CDs and DVDs automatically ejecting when inserted into the drive, and options for playing Flash media files in Keynote presentations. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present a few answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Information on OS X 10.7 Lion's recovery disk options Could you please give more information on the upcoming Lion OS? For instance, will DVDs be available at all, is Lion simply an add-on to Snow Leopard , what to do if the internal hard drive malfunctions and the computer needs to be started from a DVD or other source? I am concerned that not having a Mac OSX Lion DVD is not a good idea - perhaps you can reassure those of us who feel the same. From what Apple has mentioned so far, OS X Lion will not be available on DVD, and will only be a download through the Mac App Store. It is not merely an add-on to Snow Leopard, but is a full upgrade with new features and options for running your Mac.

Your concern about drives malfunctioning has been echoed by numerous people, and Apple so far has not made the solutions too clear. OS X Lion will create a "Recovery" partition that will be bootable and will allow you to format and reinstall the OS. However, if there is a problem with the drive that requires you fully repartition it, or if you install a new drive and want to set up from scratch, then the recovery partition will not be available, and the options Apple offers are unclear. For now we know that you can always use an older Snow Leopard boot disc to format the drive, install Snow Leopard, and then upgrade through the Mac App Store again; however, not all users will have older Snow Leopard discs.

While it is possible that Apple will include an option to create a boot/recovery disc or partition, there is little information about the options for this. New Macs that ship with Lion ought to come with some sort of external boot/recovery drive like the current gray restore DVDs, but if not then it is very likely you will be able to create one, even if it's a matter of cloning the recovery partition to another drive. At the very worst you can clone the full Lion installation to another hard drive, boot off of that, and then format and repair the main boot drive if needed.

Computer Training : How to Repair a Laptop Hard Drive Laptop Repair |

@TheGypsykilla buy a portable drive, take out the screws of the portable drive, take out the drive inside the portable hard disk. Now take out the hard drive from your laptop and put it into the portable hard drive. try if your portable hard drive can be used on another computer if it can get your data out of the drive, if it cannot be detected download testdisk and try to fix it.

@tanman1234543 You need UBCD (Ultimate boot CD) on which there is a program for the manufacturer of the hard drive, use that, or UBCD’s own Checkdisk. Scan for bad sectors or do a more through check, it will take one or two hours depending on the size and then, after fixing, reboot. Try booting again and use “Last known good configuration” from the menu.

Repairing and upgrading your PC

PC User's Troubleshooting Guide

Upgrading and repairing PCs

PC Technician's Troubleshooting Pocket Reference

Troubleshooting Your PC for Dummies