Extracting data from a broken hard disk

Using advanced tools to read movies 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

This chip is was originally part of a external USB disk drive - you might have one around that you can use for this

Running macOS “First Aid” from Disk Utility

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

It doesn’t hurt to be nice to the damaged disk... “pleasssssse little disky... give me the photos!” - But don’t touch the chips!

Crashed iMac on my desk - ready to be opened

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Articles (148)

2024-03-24 Half Marathon
2024-03-05 No, I Won't Build That!
2024-02-16 Vision Pro
2024-01-16 Health and fitness data
2023-12-15 Backup Rotation Scheme
2023-11-10 Apple Watch as Phone
2023-11-01 And... there is light!
2023-10-14 Giving AI Training
2023-10-13 Hello, stranger
2023-08-23 The Same, Differently
2023-05-31 Impact of training
2023-05-08 Tablet as Tool
2023-05-03 Using AI to generate code
2023-05-01 Working Offline First
2023-04-20 Tips for Long-Distance Cycling
2023-04-05 Cutting Cloud Costs
2023-02-08 Back to the University
2022-12-22 Rolex DateJust 36
2022-11-01 Moving to the countryside
2022-10-23 MUSE in Carré
2022-09-15 The Ultimate Freedom Bike
2022-09-11 Computer says no
2022-07-30 CAPTCHA Alternative
2022-07-17 Offline Music
2022-04-18 Snake '97 High Scores
2022-01-14 Wearing WHOOP 4.0
2021-12-09 For the love of mini
2021-11-19 Escaping the flat tires
2021-10-25 Using Google Free Android
2021-09-30 Inspiration from a child
2021-08-31 Protecting VMware ESXi
2021-07-13 The birth of a child
2021-06-30 Migrating to the Cloud
2021-06-05 Wearing Grand Seiko
2021-05-31 Using the reMarkable paper tablet
2021-05-04 Hospitalised with MCADD
2021-04-15 Enter text without keys
2021-04-10 Fixed Gear Gran Fondo
2021-03-26 Art of visualisation
2021-03-25 Three tips to make a content strategy work
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2021-02-22 The value of notifications
2021-02-02 Realtime service uptime monitoring
2021-01-31 Building a product platform
2021-01-14 Abandoning my own tablet OS
2021-01-10 Commuter bike checkup
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2020-12-15 Why Apple Silicon is a big deal
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2020-11-30 Designing my own watch
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2020-10-15 Rescuing photos from a crashed iMac
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2020-07-09 Repairing a Giro AEON bicycle helmet
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2020-06-17 Tudor Black Bay 36 long-term review
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2020-03-09 Making my own tablet OS
2020-03-03 Monolithic vs Microservices software architecture
2020-02-28 Your own addressbook and calendar cloud
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2019-11-26 Supernova E3 Pro 2 dynamo powered headlight
2019-11-22 Building a professional 72TB NAS
2019-10-19 Flying in a C47-A (DC-3) classic plane
2019-10-07 Multi-Window support in your iPad app
2019-09-27 Visiting an international hackers conference
2019-09-10 Fighting backscatter spam at server level
2019-08-28 Riding with a power meter on your bike
2019-08-18 Creating a minimal road bike
2019-07-16 Limitations of sleep tracking using a wearable
2019-07-15 Optical vs chest strap heart rate monitors
2019-06-25 Assembling a cargo bike
2019-06-24 Six months with MCADD
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2019-05-24 Dig for dummies
2019-04-30 The best bike computer app: Cyclemeter
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2019-03-31 WordPress: 10 tips to secure your website
2019-03-20 Servicing a robot vacuum cleaner
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2018-10-16 Rescuing files from a broken harddisk
2018-10-09 Using a budget Android as main smartphone
2018-09-27 Swimming and cycling with Apple Watch
2018-09-26 Optimising images for the web and performance
2018-08-21 Space travelling from El Teide
2018-08-20 Google Analytics vs AWStats
2018-07-20 Helping people with free software
2018-07-10 Enjoy a festival without alcohol
2018-06-09 Removing paint from a bike frame
2018-06-02 Creating a minimal iPhone stand
2018-05-17 Listen to your body
2018-05-09 Lunch by plane
2018-04-30 Off the grid: Working on 100% renewable energy
2018-04-18 Outside the comfort zone: amateur acting
2018-03-10 Cyber security: 5 easy tips to protect your server against hackers
2018-03-07 Tablet as main computer
2018-02-24 Creating the ultimate commuter bike
2018-02-21 Updating Snake '97
2018-01-21 Something the smartwatch will never have: patina
2018-01-08 Lessons from a takeaway plastic bag
2017-12-02 Commuting by bike
2017-11-15 Collecting health data with Biostrap
2017-10-23 From tree to table
2017-09-14 Saving a MacBook Air with exploded battery
2017-09-02 Climbing Mount Etna
2017-08-31 Clouds below my floor
2017-07-31 The day I killed my LAN
2017-06-30 Fietselfstedentocht 2017
2017-05-31 Beast of the Green Hell
2017-04-30 Smartwatches vs Mechanical watches
2017-03-26 Repairing a Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP
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