Extracting data from a broken hard disk

Using advanced tools to read documents from a faulty disk

Oct. 15, 2020 - Willem L. Middelkoop

This week I received a message from someone with a iMac that crashed. It contained more than 50.000 photos, covering two decades of personal history. As there was no backup, it was up to me to attempt to safe as much as I could. Could I possibly recover the personal photos?

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The iMac’s innards are visible after removing the display

Some iMacs require a special cutting blade to cut through the adhesive tape holding the glass on to the Aluminium frame

Connecting the salvaged disk to another Mac

The hard disk inside the iMac - containing the personal photos

Running macOS “First Aid” from Disk Utility

Reading files from the salvaged disk - if you understand Dutch you’ll understand the personal nature of these photos (‘bevalling’ means birth)

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Articles (148)

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